Thursday, December 13, 2007

Relationship between interstellar gas and dark matter, turning off the lights in Antarctica and first map of imprinted genes throughout the human gen

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 Stars - Researchers using supercomputer simulations have exposed a very violent and critical relationship between interstellar gas and dark matter when galaxies are born -
one that has been largely ignored by the current model of how the universe evolved. See article.
g Life - So what happens when you turn off the lights in Antarctica? John Priscu and his team of polar scientists plan to stay until April to find out. See article. For related story, see “Eighty below and loving it: Montana State University scientists to get new cold lab.”
g Intelligence - Scientists at Duke University have created the first map of imprinted genes throughout the human genome, and they say a modern-day Rosetta stone - a form of artificial intelligence called machine learning - was the key to their success. The study revealed four times as many imprinted genes as had been previously identified. See article.

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