Saturday, July 05, 2008

Phoenix Lander tests Martian soil and new astrobiology degree program

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 1?
g Abodes -The Phoenix Lander has performed its first wet chemistry test on Martian soil. Scientists hope to understand the chemistry of wet soil on Mars, and determine if aspects of the soil might support life. See article.
g Message - How scientifically accurate was the ultimate astrobiology film, “Contact”? See article.
g Learning -An academic degree program to help scientists be more versatile in order to tackle an array of emerging challenges to science and humanity is launching at the University of Arizona. See article.
g Aftermath - Visitors from other worlds – should any appear – would be enormously ahead of us from a technological viewpoint. The same is true for any aliens we might tune in with our SETI experiments. See article. Note: This article is a couple of years old.

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