Earth-like planet forming, Atlantis rolls to launch pad and majority of Americans believe in ET

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 - An Earth-like planet is likely forming 424 light-years away in a star system called HD 113766, say astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. See article.
g Life - Progress in the evolution of life on Earth is measured by an increase in biological diversity (biodiversity), by an increase in morphological disparity, and by progress towards increasing complexity. This are presumably general principals which apply to any living system and so studies of the processes that result in these advances should have universal application. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA moved space shuttle Atlantis to its seaside launch pad on Saturday ahead of a planned early December mission to get Europe's first permanent space laboratory into orbit. See article.
g Aftermath - While most depictions of extraterrestrials are confined to science fiction, nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that some form of alien life exists somewhere in the universe, according to a new survey. See article. Note: This article is from 2005.