One of the Western World’s first astrobiologists and nanotechnology’s role in space exploration

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 - The search for life beyond the Earth is closely linked with hunting for habitable worlds. Astronomers have always hoped to find planets in the so-called “Goldilocks zone” around their parent stars, where the temperature is just right. See article.
g Intelligence - When astronomers announce the discovery of a new planetary system, the greatest dangers they face are the ones that come with fame in the Information Age: calls from the press, Web pages to edit and speeches to deliver. Nowadays, discovering planets is a tiring business, but relatively safe as jobs go. Four hundred years ago the search for life among the stars was considerably riskier. Consider, for example, the strange case of Giordano Bruno, who could be considered one of the Western World’s first astrobiologists. See article.
g Message - Which is better – SETI or METI? See article.
g Cosmicus - It is clear that humanity needs to expand outward into space. Currently, with the financial and technological limits on transportation to Low Earth Orbit, humanity has no physical frontier. Nanotechnology can make significant contributions to the expansion into space. See article.
g Aftermath - What affect would the discovery of alien life have on the story-telling genre that inspires the search for it — science fiction? See article.