Swirling disks of dust, communicating with extraterrestrial intelligence and how to impress an alien civilization

Welcome! “Alien Life” tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here’s today’s news:
g Abodes - Astronomers have determined how far away from its hot stellar neighbors a star must be if a swirling disk of dust around it is to stand a chance of forming planets. See article.
g Intelligence - Several genes with strong associations to schizophrenia have evolved rapidly due to selection during human evolution, according to new research. See article.
g Cosmicus - Quote of the Day: We shall not cease from exploration /And the end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot, 1942
g Learning - Here’s a neat set of online activities, primarily for older teens or young adults, about communicating with extraterrestrial intelligence. It helps students learn about SETI while they send one another messages then decode them, as if they were alien civilizations on distant worlds. See article.
g Imagining - Many science fiction story lines involve alien life forms. From a literary prospective, aliens often serve as metaphors for something more familiar. From a practical prospective, they make stories more interesting and TV more eye-catching. But what of scientific accuracy? A professor offers his advice about “How to Build an Alien”.
g Aftermath - One of our natural tendencies when we make contact with strangers is to try to impress them. Sloppy dressers might polish their shoes for a job interview, hopeful suitors will wash their cars for a first date and prospective children-in-law will be on their best behavior in the presence of the parents of their intended. Wouldn’t we want to do the same in our first contact with ET? Lewis Thomas, in his book “Lives of a Cell,” suggests that if we want to impress an alien civilization, we should send "Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again." See article.