Thursday, April 24, 2008

Habitable zone for Gliese 5632 AB and arguments against ‘life from space’ scenarios

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 - What is the habitable zone for the nearby star Gliese 5632 AB?
g Abodes - Scientists have shown that biological productivity may have been responsible for super greenhouse episodes during the Cretaceous and Eocene. The finding provides important insights into the links between the biosphere and our planet's climate. See article.
g Life - Mike Russell thinks life began in iron sulfide deposits at ocean vents. In this interview, he expands on his theory of how life originated, and explains why “life from space” scenarios are dead wrong. See article.
g Intelligence - The completion of the Allen Institute for Brain Science's inaugural project signals a remarkable leap forward in one of the last frontiers of medical science - the brain. The Institute today announced the completion of the groundbreaking Allen Brain Atlas, a Web- based, three-dimensional map of gene expression in the mouse brain. Detailing more than 21,000 genes at the cellular level, the Atlas provides scientists with a level of data previously not available. See article.
g Message - How might we detect an extraterrestrial messenger probe already in the solar system? See article. Note: This article is from 1983.
g Cosmicus - NASA will launch two probes into the radiation belts in order to study how violent space weather can affect astronauts and space equipment. The knowledge gained will be essential in designing safe future space missions. See article.