Sunday, March 16, 2008

Planetary evolution and mock-up of Orion crew vehicle

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 - Three-billion-year-old microcrystals are teaching scientists about planetary evolution and the processes that formed the continents of Earth. The crystals are incredibly resistant to change, and contain geological 'records' of their movements through and around the planet. See article.
g Life - Using new techniques for resurrecting ancient genes, scientists have for the first time reconstructed the Darwinian evolution of an apparently "irreducibly complex" molecular system. See article.
g Intelligence - Greek archaeologists said Tuesday they have unearthed evidence of what they believe was brain surgery performed nearly 1,800 years ago on a young woman — who died during or shortly after the operation. See article.
g Message - You don't have to leave Earth to find intelligent life on other worlds. All you have to do is tune in ... at the right time ... on the right frequency ... in the right direction ... with the right spectrometer ... using the most powerful supercomputer on this planet. Note: this article is from 2004. See article.
g Cosmicus - The aluminum and steel cone-shaped object with a pair of white fuzzy dice hanging from an interior beam is the same size and shape of a spacecraft being designed to take astronauts to the international space station and then to the moon. But this mock-up of the Orion crew vehicle is headed for the New Mexico desert. See article.

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