‘Intelligent Life in the Universe’ and technological manifestations that would make an advanced extraterrestrial civilization detectable

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 Intelligence - Book alert: “Intelligent Life in the Universe”, by Peter Ulmschneider, addresses all scientists and others interested in the origins, development and fate of intelligent species in the observable part of our universe. In particular, the author scrutinizes what kind of information about extraterrestrial intelligent life can be inferred from our own biological, cultural and scientific evolution and the likely future of mankind. The first part of the book provides the necessary background information from space and life sciences, thus making the book also accessible to students and the scientifically educated public.
g Message - What technological manifestations would make an advanced extraterrestrial civilization detectable? See article. Note: This paper was written in 1992.
g Cosmicus - Long-term thinking is always a tough sell, particularly in an age as frenetic as ours, but missions like EPOXI fit into the gradual accretion of exoplanetary knowledge that will build the foundation for far more remarkable discoveries. See article. Note: This article is from May 2008.
g Learning - To be sure, researchers have long studied the origins of life on Earth and searched for signs of it on other planets. But until recently those enterprising scientists lurked at the fringes of their fields. No longer. See article. Note: This article is from 2004.

Cosmic ancestry and using the social sciences to decipher our thoughts on alien life

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 habitable planets like Earth around other stars fulfils an ancient imperative to understand our origins and place in the cosmos. The past decade has seen the discovery of hundreds of planets, but nearly all are gas giants. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Life - "Cosmic ancestry" is a new theory pertaining to evolution and the origin of life on Earth. It holds that life on Earth was seeded from space, and that life's evolution to higher forms depends on genetic programs that come from space. It accepts the Darwinian account of evolution that does not require new genetic programs. It is a wholly scientific, testable theory for which evidence is accumulating. See article.
g Message - We’ve all heard of SETI, bit what about METI — “Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” or sending both scientific and artistic messages to the stars? See article. Note: This article is from 2005.
g Aftermath - How is SETI using the social sciences to decipher our thoughts on alien life? See article. Note: This article is from 2002.

Optical SETI and extremophiles in Yellowstone

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 Life - When bacteriologist Thomas Brock started probing the hot springs in Yellowstone National Park in the 1960s, he was not looking to overthrow a ground rule of biology. See article. Note: This article is from 1999.
g Intelligence - Do you sometimes have memories of a mysterious past life? Recall odd experiences such as being abducted by aliens? Wonder where these memories come from and if, in fact, you were really once whisked off in a flying saucer by ETs? Seems the answer may be simpler than you think—or remember. A new study shows that people with memories of past lives are more likely than others to misremember the source of any given piece of information. See article.
g Message - After 20 years of listening for signs of life elsewhere in the universe, The Planetary Society is watching the skies. On April 11, 2006, the society dedicated a brand new optical telescope at an observatory in Harvard, Massachusetts, designed solely to search for light signals from alien civilizations - a search known as Optical SETI. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Aftermath - The next big discovery in science will be the proof that alien life exists — and it could come any day now. See article. Note: This article is from 2004.

Earth microbe surviving on Mars and alien physiology

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 Life - How would a hardy Earth microbe survive today on Mars? See article. Note: This article is from 2004.
g Message - What happens if the next signal turns out to be the real thing? What happens if the sender wants to talk? Will we know what to say? The answers are in this astrobiology primer.
g Imagining - Since no extraterrestrial life forms have been conclusively discovered, alien physiology lies in the realm of our imagination. See article.
g Aftermath - Understanding the public’s current thoughts on what will happen once humanity discovers extraterrestrial intelligence is a vital part of any objective discussion in which we attempt to predict and prepare for the aftermath. Here’s one person’s view. Note the mix of popular mythology (UFOs) and an almost spiritual notion that the aliens will help us or make our lives better in some ways, as if they were angels descended from the sky. A thought: Is this an indication that if the aliens are technologically superior, we’ll readily accept their ways and let it supplant our own culture?

Searching for Earth-like planets in alien solar systems and how life went from bac­te­ria to blue whales

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 - In this podcast, Tim Livengood and Vikki Meadows discuss the EPOXI mission and how it will be used to search for Earth-like planets in alien solar systems. See article.
g Life - Earth’s crea­tures come in all sizes, yet sci­en­tists be­lieve they all de­scend from the same single-celled or­gan­isms that first pop­u­lated the plan­et. So how did life go from bac­te­ria to the blue whale? See article.
g Message - A recent study suggests it is more energy efficient to communicate across interstellar space by sending physical material — a sort of message in a bottle — than beams of electromagnetic radiation. Solid matter can hold more information and journey farther than radio waves, which disperse as they travel. See article.
g Imagining - Book alert: "Extraterrestrials, Where Are They?" by Ben Zuckerman and Michael H. Hart (ed.) offers a critical analysis by leading experts in a range of sciences, of the plausibility that other intelligent life forms do exists. Exploration of the solar system, and observations with telescopes that probe deep space, have come up empty-handed in searches for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Many experts in the fields of astronomy, biology, chemistry and physics now argue that the evidence points to the conclusion that technological civilizations are rare. After 10 billion years and among hundreds of billions of stars, we may well possess the most advanced brains in the Milky Way. This second edition elucidates many new aspects of research on extraterrestrial intelligence life, specifically biological considerations of the question. See review.
g Aftermath - Within the scientific community, the question is no longer whether extraterrestrial life exists, but if ET is smart enough to do long division — and the U.S. and other world governments already have detailed secret plans for first contact. My apologies in advanced for Popular Mechanic’s lurid title, but the reporting is sound. Note: This article is from 2004.

The New Year’s star and a sign of alien intelligence

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 - Every year I celebrate New Year’s Eve and New Year’s week with something I have long called "the New Year’s star" because it is the brightest star we can see with the naked eye and every year it reaches its highest position at midnight during New Year’s week. See article.
g Abodes - California's Sierra Nevada, an impressive mountain range that includes the popular Yosemite National Park, has done a great job of keeping its age a secret. But now a new study provides evidence that it's at least 40 million years old. See article.
g Message - What would be a sign of alien intelligence? Forget mathematics — try a simple, pure-tone radio signal. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.
g Cosmicus - Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. As part of that, it seeks to understand the origin of the building blocks of life, how these building blocks combine to create life, how life affects and is affected by the environment from which it arose, and finally, whether and how life expands beyond its planet of origin. It requires studying fundamental concepts of life and habitable environments that will help us to recognize biospheres that might be quite different from our own. This includes studying the limits of life, life's phylogeny and effects of the space environment on living systems. Such fundamental questions require long term stable funding for the science community. This means keeping the NASA Astrobiology Institute and the grants programs funded at healthy levels. See article.
g Aftermath - What would an intelligent signal from another planet change about human destiny? This large question is the topic of the book "The SETI Factor," by Frank White, who also analyzes how to announce such an historic finding and whether it would unite or divide nations. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.

Fifth planet found orbiting 55 Cancri and the star of Bethlehem

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 - Astronomers have discovered a fifth planet circling the star 55 Cancri – a record number of confirmed planets for a star beyond our Solar System. The new planet is probably similar to Saturn, except that it rests within the 'habitable zone' of its parent star. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Life - If there is life on Jupiter’s moon Europa, what would it be like? The answer partly depends on the type of ocean water that is under the moon's icy outer shell. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Message - Here’s an article in which Dave DeBoer, project engineer for the Allen Telescope Array, discusses what the unique telescope will offer. The development of the Allen Telescope Array is marked by many innovations crafted with the express purpose of building a world-class state-of-the-art astronomical facility at a fraction of the price of existing radio telescopes. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.
g Learning - Although the beginning of the Christian Era is long believed to have been marked by the appearance of the Star of Bethlehem, debate has raged for centuries about what caused the landmark to appear in the skies. See article.

Christmas Eve meteor and interview with SETI’s Jill Tarter

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 - Astronomers have found that moons like ours are likely to be uncommon in the universe, and arise in only 5 to 10 percent of planetary systems. The study could have implications in the search for habitable planets beyond our Solar System. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Life - For the first time, scientists have observed the role that water lubricants play in the functioning of proteins. The research sheds light on how proteins perform functions to support life, and may yield clues about the inner workings of early life on our planet. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Message - Here’s an interesting interview of Jill Tarter, the director of the SETI Institute, by The Montreal Mirror from 2002.
g Cosmicus - Humans have been going into space ever since the Russian Aviation and Space Agency launched Yuri Gagarin into a single orbit about Earth on April 21, 1961 aboard Vostok 1. In the intervening 47 years, there have been 292 manned space flights; 182 by NASA, 105 by Russia, two by China, and three by private company Scaled Composites. Out of all of those missions, the majority—in fact a full 283—never really did anything more than go around the block, so to speak. Only nine manned missions have ever truly left Earth and entered the gravitational influence of any other celestial body. See article.
g Learning - Early on Christmas Eve 1858, “people who in the streets, on pathways and in the fields saw a magnificent ball of fire appear, which shone with a brilliant, blinding light and all the colors of the rainbow, obscured the light of the moon and descended majestically from the sky”. See article.

Carbonate minerals on Mars and Expedition 18 spacewalk

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 - Researchers using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have identified carbonate minerals on the Martian surface, indicating that the planet had different types of watery environments in its past. The discovery has important implications in determining if Mars was once habitable. See article.
g Life - What is the history of life on Earth? Here’s a primer.
g Message - Visiting another civilization on a distant world would be fascinating, but at present such a trip is beyond our capabilities. However, it is perfectly within our capabilities to develop a communications system using a powerful transmitter and a sensitive receiver, and using it to search the sky for alien worlds whose citizens have a similar inclination. See article.
g Cosmicus - Oh, those balky connectors! Just like working at home, the Expedition 18 spacewalking team had some "huff and puff" moments with balky connectors as they attached, removed, and toted elements on the International Space Station hull. See article.

Mars’ early watery environments and if an extraterrestrial civilization contacts Earth

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 - Now a research team led by Brown University has found evidence of carbonates, a long-sought mineral that shows Mars was home to a variety of watery environments — some benign, others harsh — and that the acidic bath the planet endured left at least some regional pockets unscathed. See article.
g Life - Molecular evolutionist Mitch Sogin argues that if we want to learn how to look for life on other worlds in our solar system, we should study cold-loving organisms on Earth. See article. Note: This article is from 2005.
g Intelligence - New research in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science has found that the physical notion of cleanliness significantly reduces the severity of moral judgments, showing that intuition, rather than deliberate reasoning can influence our perception of what is right and wrong. See article.
g Message - On an episode of “The Space Show” last year, Scot Stride, a senior engineer at NASA JPL in Pasadena, Calif., was the guest for this Space Show program. Stride discussed SETI programs with us and highlighted his discussion with the SETI alternatives, SETV (Search for ET Visitation) and S3ETI (Solar System SETI). Stride provided listeners with a superb background and history on SETI, how it started and how it became what it is today. He also discussed the Allen Telescope Array and what it will mean for future SETI efforts. Hear a copy of the show.
g Imagining - Long after we are gone, science fiction movies about our impending extinction will instruct whoever comes next that we were a strange, neurotic species indeed. We could not - cannot - get enough of fantasies of destruction, meant at once to inflame and soothe our fear of vanishing altogether, whether through war, ecological catastrophe, disease or alien invasion. See article.
g Aftermath - What if, one day, Earth was contacted by an extraterrestrial civilization? How, as a planet, would we respond to their offer to interact? What if they asked, “Do you have a method in place, or even a policy that outlines how Earth will proceed now that contact has happened?” Here’s an organization that we believes we need in place legal protocol and has proposed the “Extraterrestrial Contact Act.” See article.

Enceladus’ tectonic activity and science books as Christmas gifts

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 - Red dwarfs, the cool, low mass stars that make up more than 75 percent of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy might be more hospitable to life than was previously thought, according to a new study by a Pennsylvania research team. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Abodes - Cassini's most recent flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus has provided more evidence that the moon is an active world. Jets of water vapor and ice have been seen erupting from Enceladus, and new data shows the moon may have Earth-like tectonics. See article.
g Life - Scientists may have characterized the common ancestor of all life on Earth, LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor). This 3.8-billion-year-old organism was not the creature usually imagined, and may change ideas about early life on Earth. See article.
g Message - And after all those years, as the saying goes, UFOs remain a riddle inside a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Why so? For one, the field is fraught with hucksterism. It's also replete with blurry photos and awful video. But then there are also well-intentioned and puzzled witnesses. Scientifically speaking, are UFOs worth keeping an eye on? See article.
g Learning - The London Times last year recommended a number of science books as Christmas gifts, including one about astrobiology. See article.

Super-earths with life and ropes of life

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 - Astronomers are expanding the search for extraterrestrial life to include some very unearthly places. Their theory is that ice-covered super-Earths, which are plentiful in the Universe, could support some kinds of life. See article.
g Life - Deep inside the Frasassi cave system in Italy and more than 1,600 feet below the Earth's surface, divers found filamentous ropes of microbes growing in the cold water, according to a team of Penn State researchers. See article.
g Message - The SETI Institute predicts that we'll detect an extraterrestrial transmission within twenty years. If that turns out to be true, it'll probably be the folks at UC Berkeley's Hat Creek radio observatory who will have heard the call. See article. Note: This article is from 2004.
g Cosmicus - Within the framework of general relativity and without the introduction of wormholes, is it is possible to modify a space-time in a way that allows a spaceship to travel with an arbitrarily large speed, such as faster than light? One physicist thinks so. See article.
g Imagining - Here’s an impressive list of “Star Trek” aliens. Of course, most “Star Trek” aliens either are just humanoid (an unlikely scenario, though the series did explain it away by saying a previous humanoid race “seeded” worlds with their DNA) are incorporeal. Still, the series did offer some intriguing species — most notably the horta, tribble and Species 8472 — merit attention.

Viking mission’s ambiguous results and the history of the search for extraterrestrial life

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 - Mars is often suggested as a good location to search for alien life. Despite many missions to the red planet, it's still a mystery whether life existed there in the distant past or if it is thriving there today. Attempting to answer this question was an aim of the Viking missions of 1976, but the results of those experiments were frustratingly ambiguous. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Message - Book alert: “Worlds Without End: the Historic Search for Extraterrestrial Life” by R.A.S. Hennessey offers the first complete history of Pluralism - from Plato to NATO. Is there life, intelligent or otherwise, on other worlds - or are we unique and alone in the Universe? This question, now assuming a leading role in science and contemporary culture, is of great antiquity. Its long history has embraced a vast range of interests - from the philosophers of classical Greece, medieval theologians and intellectuals of the Enlightenment down to today's cosmologists, UFO enthusiasts and fans of TV space-operas. Among the important contributors to this 2500-yearold debate are Plato, Aquinas, Newton, Kant, Tom Paine, H.G. Wells, Sir Fred Hoyle and Francis Crick. Worlds Without End is, however, the first full-length chronicle of the whole, long saga. As a result of this long perspective R.A.S. Hennessey is able to identify the major trends and developments in pluralist theories over the centuries. Surprisingly his study reveals that much of what is considered to be new turns out to be old and well-worn - showing how little is truly 'new under the Sun'. This well-illustrated and accessibly written work thus provides an invaluable background to one of the major debates of our time. It will be welcomed not only by those engaged in this debate - scientists, historians, theologians and science fiction readers - but anyone who has looked up at the night sky and wondered, as have others down the ages, "Is there anyone out there?"
g Imagining - Psychologist Frederick Malmstrom, currently a visiting scholar at the U.S. Air Force Academy, believes that “visions” of space aliens are actually the image of the prototypical female face that is hardwired into every baby human's brain. When Malmstrom altered a picture of a woman in a way consistent with the characteristics of a newborn's vision (astigmatism and a shallow focal plane), the result looked very much like a big-eyed alien. See article.

Which exoworlds will be studied first and moonwater

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 -A new idea proposes that worlds with the potential to host organisms can be split into four categories, each with their own likelihood of being inhabited. With extrasolar planet detection methods becoming ever-more advanced, these ideas could influence which worlds are studied first. See article.
g Life - Has the world's oldest spider web been found? Strands 140 million years old were found inside a piece of amber on a UK beach and look similar to those made by modern orb spiders, says Martin Brasier of the University of Oxford. The fossil web beats the previous record-holder found in Lebanon by around 10 million years. See article.
g Message - The spectral approach is a universal tool of both astronomical observations and SETI. Furthermore, it has a clear physical meaning – a spectrometer finds the energy distribution of photons, in human sensing it is color and pitch. Under the hypothesis on identity of physical laws in our part of universe, it may be proposed that spectrometry also is being used by those aliens, who know radio and lead their own SETI, too. See article.
g Cosmicus - The darkest reaches of the moon could be holding the means to a manned space base there, scientists have said. See article.
g Learning - Ken Bain knows a lot about teaching. He learned some of it from 41 years in the classroom, some from the research of fellow scholars - and some from an 18-month-old grandson who was savvy about cell phones. See article.
g Imagining - Alien design bibliography: When science fiction writers set out to design a world, they usually take care that their physics and astronomy conforms to known science by reading a few physics and astronomy books. But when designing aliens, anything goes, it seems! The problem appears to be that the literature of biology is simply unknown in the SF world. Mention Freeman Dyson or Robert Forward, and most hard SF readers and writers will know whom you are talking about. But mention Steven Vogel or Colin Pennycuick, and you are likely to be rewarded with polite bafflement. Here’s a list of books that’ll give you a solid grounding in biology.
g Aftermath - If we hear from ET, not only can we expect his civilization to be an old one with a great time lag in correspondence, a SETI astronomer says. Could this limit the impact of extraterrestrial contact upon humanity? See article. Note: This article is from 2001.

Europa’s ocean waves and teacher resources on space biology

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 -For the first time, astronomers have clearly seen the effects of "dark energy" on the most massive collapsed objects in the universe using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. See article.
g Abodes - New studies indicate that Europa may harbor a more dynamic ocean than previously believed beneath its icy exterior. The gravitational pull of Jupiter could be producing powerful waves in the ocean, which in turn could have implications on the habitability of the unique moon. See article.
g Intelligence - Neuroscientists from Duke University Medical Center have discovered that older people use their brains differently than younger people when it comes to storing memories, particularly those associated with negative emotions. See article.
g Cosmicus - For humanity to truly become a spacefaring race, we will need to construct permanent space habitats, a space station intended as a permanent settlement rather than as a simple waystation or other specialized facility. It would be a "city" in space, where people would live, work and raise families. See article.
g Learning - Here are some great teacher resources on space biology. The modules cover such topics as “Life in the Universe,” “Radiation Biology” and “Life in Space Environments.” Each module includes an introduction, readings and references, teaching resources and research and applications.
g Imagining - Hollywood and the scientific community have always had an uneasy relationship. Scientists want the details right, and don't like to be stereotyped as a bunch of pasty, lab-coated, socially stunted dweebs. Hollywood wants to tell good stories and sell tickets. Now, both sides are realizing those aren't mutually exclusive goals. See article.
g Aftermath - Humans live and die by approximations. We are seldom as perfect or as accurate as we would like to be. And as we contemplate what we might say to an advanced extraterrestrial civilization, maybe that's a point we should emphasize. See article.

Turbulence in protoplanetary disks and Updike on Mars

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 - New research shows that turbulence in protoplanetary disks plays a key role in the birth of planet. The finding may alter theories on how planets form from dust and debris around distant stars. See article.
g Abodes - Data and images from Mars Express suggest that several Light Toned Deposits, some of the least understood features on Mars, were formed when large amounts of groundwater burst on to the surface. Scientists propose that groundwater had a greater role in shaping the Martian surface than previously believed, and may have sheltered primitive life forms as the planet started drying up. See article.
g Message - When talk turns to SETI, there’s one question that’s as common as catfish: "We’re not broadcasting to the aliens; so what makes you think they’ll be broadcasting to us?" See article.
g Learning - We've seen so many Mars images in recent years, our nearest neighbor might be starting to seem a tad familiar. Science fiction author John Updike aims to fix that, with some help from National Geographic.See article.
g Imagining - The 2008 remake of Robert Wise’s 1951 “The Day the Earth Stood Still ,” which depicted an alien visit to our planet in an attempt to draw attention to the destructive nature of human actions, especially that of wars, opened Friday in the U.S. to rather poor reviews. See article.
g Aftermath - Here’s another “old” piece worth reading: “Consequences of Success in SETI: Lessons from the History of Science”, given during a Bioastronomy Symposium in 1993.

Detecting habitable moons around distant, extrasolar planets and a career in SETI

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 - New research may make it easier to detect habitable moons around distant, extrasolar planets. The new method not only identifies moons, but also allows scientists to determine their size and their distance from the host planet. See article.
g Abodes - We may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but hopefully we can judge a moon by its surface. A scientist who worked on the Galileo mission has written a new book about the scratched and splotchy surface of Europa. See article.
g Message - Many common ideas about SETI just aren’t true, but that doesn't prevent them from popping up in popular articles, blogs, books, and even movies. Here are three common fallacies about SETI.
g Learning - Are you thinking of a career in SETI? Get the low-down here. Note: This article is from 1998.
g Imagining - The students of Prof. Joan Slonczewski, who taught “Biology 103: Biology in Science Fiction” at Kenyon College in 2003, using astrobiological principles, attempted to create a number of plausible alien civilizations and worlds as a class project. Here’s another one, about the life in the ecosystem of planet Ralinius. See article.

Carbon dioxide in extrasolar planet’s atmosphere and a giant ball invades Earth

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 - A stellar prodigy has been spotted about 450 light-years away in a system called UX Tau A by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers suspect this system’s central sun-like star, which is just one million years old, may already be surrounded by young planets. Scientists hope the finding will provide insight into when planets began to form in our own solar system. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Abodes -The Hubble Space Telescope has identified carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet. The discovery is an important step toward identifying habitable planets beyond our solar system. See article.
g Message - The Harvard SETI Group have conducted several searches for extraterrestrial life since 1978. Read this history of those searches.
g Learning - Here’s a neat lesson for middle school students about extraterrestrials, courtesy of the Discovery channel.
g Imagining - Plenty of movies have been created where aliens visit Earth. Some have been cute and cuddly (“E.T.”), and others have blown up our national landmarks (“Independence Day”). Now, brace yourselves for the scariest alien of all when our planet is invaded by... Keanu Reeves and giant balls? See article.

All distribution of chemicals affects life’s evolution and a compelling picture of futuristic alien civilizations

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 - Life needs more than liquid water to survive. Organisms also need important chemical elements. Researchers are now studying the distribution of these elements on Earth to determine how they affect the distribution and evolution of life. See article.
g Message -What are the chances that an alien signal has been sent our way just at the right moment to splash upon our antennas during that brief interval? If the extraterrestrials beam their broadcasts to the whole galaxy (or at least a big chunk of it), the chances are 100 percent. See article.
g Learning -Here’s a good introduction to learning about the characteristics of living things is to get the kids brainstorming as to what makes a living thing living: “Glue Critters”.
g Imagining - Forget about whether the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still is true to the original. It isn't. But it does give us a compelling picture of futuristic alien civilizations. See article.
g Aftermath - Here’s an interesting book for some astrobiological reading: “After Contact: The Human Response to Extraterrestrial Life” by Albert A. Harrison. See reviews.

Comet impacts transforming life and Klatuu’s alien civilization

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 - Comet impacts have likely transformed life on Earth, but it is still a mystery how these icy bodies are put on a collision course with our planet. New research says that nearby stars and the galaxy as a whole are to blame. See article.
g Message -Book alert: The father-son team of David E. Fisher and Marshall Jon Fisher brings the study of extraterrestrial life down to earth in “Strangers in the Night: Brief History of Life on Other Worlds,” an informative and entertaining book. In the anecdotal style that is their hallmark, the Fishers trace humankind’s attempts to discover life on other worlds. This informative and entertaining book tells the story of humankind’s attempts throughout history to discover extraterrestrial life. See reviews.
g Learning - Here’s a neat introduction to astronomy: If you could approach the Milky Way from afar and then soar to its center, what would you find? See article.
g Imagining - Hollywood and extraterrestrials have long enjoyed a love affair, from Plan 9 From Outer Space to E.T.: The Extraterrestrial to Contact. The unrequited part of that romance, between movie-making and science, gets a little attention in the just released remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. And the encounter of alien cultures may be a sign of things to come. See article.
g Aftermath - For some provocative reading, pick up “Sharing the Universe,” by Seth Shostak, at your local bookstore. SETI scientist Shostak almost single-handedly is outlining social and political issues that will arise once we make contact with extraterrestrials. See reviews.

Overlords of the Earth and analyzing a signal from space

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 -In Northern Chile, a pick-up truck bumps along dusty old mining roads toward the Atacama Desert. A team of scientists is driving from the coastal town of Antofagasta, and they occasionally pass other vehicles on the road -mostly prospectors searching for metals and minerals. After an hour, they arrive at a lonely meteorological station situated in the driest part of a very dry desert. See article. Note: This article is from 2002.
g Life - We humans think we're pretty tough, pretty smart, and pretty much the Overlords of the Earth. Well, we are sorta smart, and we've used those smarts to make us much tougher than we are naturally. In some sense, we have, indeed, become the Overlords of the Earth. Technological wonders notwithstanding, the range of conditions that we can endure is still very limited. Of course, we view the rest of the cosmos from our own perspective. As such, we define places that we find personally uncomfortable as "extreme environments", but does this term have any real meaning for biology on Earth and for exobiology on other planets? See article. Note: This article is from 1999.
g Message -The search for extraterrestrial intelligence could be taking the wrong approach. Instead of listening for alien radio broadcasts, a better strategy may be to look for giant structures placed in orbit around nearby stars by alien civilizations. See article.
g Learning -Here’s a neat interactive Web game where you analyze a signal from space, just as would a SETI astronomer.

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Ancient climate change on Mars and why we don’t hear aliens on the radio

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 -New research shows evidence of ancient climate change on Mars caused by variations in the planet's tilt relative to the sun. The findings may help scientists understand if Mars was habitable for life at some point in the planet's past. See article.
g Life - Is there life in the universe beyond our planet Earth? This is a question that has been pondered for literally thousand of years. Though scientists have yet to find proof of extraterrestrial life, they have discovered enough about biology and chemistry, along with the makeup of stars and other worlds, to formulate some comprehensive ideas about what kind of life and where such organisms might exist elsewhere in the cosmos. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Message -For more than 80 years, we’ve been sending radio (and eventually television) transmissions into space, allowing anyone in space to hear war reports from London, “I Love Lucy” reruns and our latest election results. So wouldn’t hearing aliens be as simple as turning on the radio? Here’s why not.
g Learning -Although exobiology is of widespread interest to high school science students, it is not generally dealt with comprehensively in most textbooks. In addition, teachers often have inadequate resources available to prepare classroom presentations on how life may have begun on Earth and whether these processes might take place elsewhere in the solar system and the universe. Here’s a classroom teaching module suitable for use in both general and advanced high school biology courses.

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Follow the water and how life originated

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 -In the search for life beyond Earth, scientists 'follow the water' to find places that might be hospitable. However, every home gardener knows that plants need more than water, or even sunshine. They also need fertilizer – a mixture of chemical elements that are the building blocks of the molecules of life. Scientists at Arizona State University are studying how the distribution of these elements on Earth – or beyond – shapes the distribution of life, the state of the environment and the course of evolution. See article.
g Life - scientists understand pretty well how life evolves, by mechanisms based on Darwin’s theory of natural selection for survival of the fittest. However, Darwin’s 1859 classic, On the Origin of Species, somewhat ironically doesn’t answer that very question – how species actually originated. And to this day, how that first tiny pool of chemicals twitched to life remains a puzzle. See article.
g Message -Here’s something neat albeit technical: A slide show presentation of "Spectrum Environment of the Allen Telescope Array".
g Cosmicus -A robot that can jump like a grasshopper and roll like a ball could play a key role in future space exploration. The robot can traverse complicated terrain and could be useful in studying planets like Mars. See article.
g Learning -U.S. students are doing no better on an international science exam than they were a decade ago, a plateau in performance that leaves educators and policymakers worried about how schools are preparing students to compete in an increasingly global economy. See article.
g Imagining - We normally think of life developing on a planet. But could it evolve on a star? Robert L. Forward took this idea to an extreme in “Dragon's Egg”, a novel about life on the surface of a neutron star, composed of very dense "degenerate" matter. Surface gravity is in the millions, and the inhabitants live and think proportionally faster.

Exploring Europa on Earth and What legal rights would an extraterrestrial have

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 - An ocean lies beneath the icy crust of Jupiter’s giant moon Europa. At the bottom of that ocean, there could be hydrothermal vents that provide all of the ingredients needed to support life. Exploring those vents won’t be easy, which is why engineers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution plan to practice here on Earth first. See article.
g Message - In the search for life on other worlds, scientists can listen for radio transmissions from stellar neighborhoods where intelligent civilizations might lurk or they can try to actually spot planets like our own in habitable zones around nearby stars. Either approach is tricky and relies on choosing the right targets for scrutiny out of the many thousands of nearby stars in our galactic neighborhood. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Imagining - While science fiction has come a long way from the days of bug-eyed monsters, the genre still hasn't gone far enough in presenting well-conceived alien beings. As a derivative genre, role-playing games have an even poorer record. See article.
g Aftermath - When an alien lands on the White House lawn, who should greet him (her? it?): Someone from the Immigration and Naturalization Service or someone from the Fish and Wildlife Commission? What legal rights would an extraterrestrial have? See article. Note: This article is from 1977, but the issue has been thought about very little.

Two hundred highly developed civilizations and Endeavour returning to Florida

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 - Most of the stars in the Milky Way are born alone and live out their lives without partners, a new analysis suggests. If true, the work overturns standard theories that stars are born in broods and also suggests planets – and potentially life – may be more common in the galaxy than thought. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Life - Scientists have developed a simulation of Mars, which indicates that some form of life could exist below the surface of the Red Planet. See article.
g Message -The founder of the scientific search for extraterrestrial civilizations Frank Drake believed that a minimum of 200 highly developed civilizations were hiding somewhere in our galaxy. See article.
g Cosmicus - The Space Shuttle Endeavour's piggy-back ride from California to Florida on a modified Boeing 747 could occur Monday, NASA announced this weekend. The flight had been tentatively slated for today. See article.
g Learning - In a 2007 essay on Space.com, SETI’s Edna DeVore smartly writes: “In the era of "Leave No Child Behind," I wonder when children find the time for their imaginations to spark and grow. In the classroom, often it's all about basics and test preparation. During out-of-school time, video games, television and earplug media leave little quiet time for mental exploration and development. When I consider gifts for children, I look for something that is both entertaining and mind expanding. I look for a good book; batteries not required.” Ah, words for the wise …

Why we don’t find planets around binaries and next Mars mission delayed

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 - More than half of the stars in our galaxy have a stellar companion. And yet, of the 130 or so currently known exoplanets (none of which are Earth-like), only about 20 of them are around so-called binaries. The percentage may grow higher. The current ratio is affected by an observational bias: planet hunters tend to avoid binaries because the star-star interactions can hide the planet signatures. See article. Note: This article is from 2005.
g Abodes -Scientists have discovered CO2 in the atmosphere of extrasolar planet HD 189733b. See article.
g Life - A single-celled organism has been found leaving tracks on the ocean floor that look like those from larger, multicellular organisms. The finding is causing scientists to re-think the fossil record - and the timing of when complex, bilateral organisms developed. See article.
g Intelligence - Is SETI—the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence—a religion? See article.
g Message -Australian scientists also are conducting a search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Here’s an overview of their effort and facilities.
g Cosmicus - NASA has pushed back the launching of its next ambitious Mars mission by two years because of lengthening delays and lingering technical issues, agency officials announced Thursday. See article.
g Learning - Have you grown weary of reading the same favorite dinosaur or bug book over and over again to the youngsters in your life? Are you ready to shake up the regular line-up of bedtime stories? In time for holiday shopping, AAAS has announced 19 finalists in the annual science book awards, which include science books for young children up to young adults. See article.

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Life below Mars’ surface and turning over Earth’s desert rocks to find it

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 -By simulating conditions at and below the surface of Mars, experiments now suggest that bacterial life could exist below its sterile surface layer of soil. See article.
g Life - Kimberley Warren-Rhodes has spent countless hours in some of the world’s driest deserts, turning over rocks. Tens of thousands of rocks. What is she hoping to find? The pattern of life. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Message -Since SETI first became a subject for serious scientific research, scientists have come up with many possible ways to detect the presence of other civilizations by searching our part of the galaxy for signs of artificially created signals. Using many different kinds of detection equipment and novel concepts, investigators labored away in their electronics laboratories and observatories dreaming, that one day, the signs they had been searching for would be found. See article.
g Cosmicus - Researchers are carefully observing asteroids in order to determine their composition - and the best way to protect the Earth from any that might be headed our way in the future. See article.
g Aftermath - What are the societal implications of astrobiology? A NASA workshop in 1999 set out to determine what they might be. Here’s their report. See article. Note: This article is from 1999.

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Dust around Sun-like stars and life on chlorine worlds

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 - It seems we got off lightly in the cosmic lottery. Deadly comet impacts may be much rarer in our solar system than in others nearby. Jane Greaves of the University of St Andrews, UK, analysed observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope and found that the vast majority of sun-like stars near us have more dust than our solar system does and therefore have had more collisions in their vicinity. See article.
g Life - The basic molecules of life have a predetermined 'handedness', or chiraliy, that scientists have been unable to explain. New research shows that chirality may have been induced by irradiation as the molecules traveled through space before arriving on Earth. See article.
g Message -Here’s a neat National Geographic interview of Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, about the search for extraterrestrial intelligences. Note: The interview is from 2003.
g Learning - Here’s a neat Web site that allows you to make a star map of any patch of sky at any time.
g Imagining - Could life exist on “chlorine worlds”? Here’s a science fiction examination of its possibility. See article.

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Hadean era re-envisioned and why we’ll discover alien plants before alien animals

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 - A vast reservoir of comets that is too far away to see might be detectable in maps of radiation left over from the big bang, a new study suggests. Comets that take longer than 200 years to orbit the Sun come from all directions in the sky. That has long led scientists to believe that they were nudged out of a bubble-like halo of icy objects that surrounds the solar system – the Oort Cloud. See article.
g Abodes - Tiny crystals found in an Australian rock formation may be the key to understanding what earth looked like in its very earliest days, researchers say; a new study of 4-billion-year-old crystals seems to indicate that our planet already had plate tectonics, and may have looked much like it does today. See article.
g Life -The first signs of life beyond our solar system might come from the gentle breathing out of plants on an alien world. See article.
g Message -Since the beginning of astronomical observation, science has been viewing light on a curve. In a galaxy filled with thousands of eclipsing binary stars, we've refined our skills by measuring the brightness or intensity of so-called variable star as a function of time. The result is known as a "light curve." Through this type of study, we've discovered size, distance and orbital speed of stellar bodies and refined our ability to detect planetary bodies orbiting distant suns. Here on Earth, most of the time it's impossible for us to resolve such small objects even with the most powerful of telescopes, because their size is less than one pixel in the detector. But new research should let us determine the shape of an object... like a ringed planet, or an orbiting alien space station. See article.
g Aftermath - How is the search for life elsewhere reflected culturally in symbols that we recognize daily? One signpost invented to characterize the 'state of the internet' is the occasional change in the logo of the world's most popular search engine. How that doodle has come to recognize astrobiology seems to violate conventional wisdom on what is meant by tinkering with one's cherished brand recognition. See article. Note: This article is from 2004.

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New data supports liquid water ocean on Enceladus and the microwave band

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 - New data from Cassini supports the theory that Saturn's moon Enceladus has liquid water beneath its surface. Water is essential for life, and determining locations of liquid water is the first step in the search for life in our solar system. See article.
g Message - The universe is a noisy place, filled with the hiss and crackle of stars being born and dying. There is little escape from this cosmic din, except in one small region of the radio dial — the microwave band. Here, only the faint whimper of the Big Bang breaks the silence, making it a “really good place to communicate,” according to Dan Werthimer of Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory, perched close to the stars atop Grizzly Peak. See article. Note: This article is from 2000.
g Imagining - What is panspermia, a concept that appears in a number of science fiction stories, and how plausible is it? See article.
g Aftermath - Here’s an interesting book for some astrobiological reading: “After Contact: The Human Response to Extraterrestrial Life” by Albert A. Harrison.

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Links between meteorites and astrobiology and should the government be trusted to handle first contact?

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 -In this podcast, Beda Hofmann explores the links between meteorites and astrobiology, and discusses Europe's proposed Marco Polo Mission to an asteroid.
g Learning -As the bankruptcy of creation "science" becomes increasingly recognized, a new catch phrase, intelligent design, has been adopted by those who persist in their attempts to inject creationism into the science curriculum. See article.
g Imagining - Some science fiction tales show aliens (and often humans) “de-evolving,” or undergoing some mutation that makes the lifeform the creature its species evolved from. This occurred in a “Star Trek: The next Generation” episode and a Theodore Sturgeon novella. By tracing the 30-million year history of variation in a gene found in plants such as tomatoes and tobacco, biologists at the University of California, San Diego have found new evidence to support an old idea - that some evolutionary changes are irreversible. Their study, published in an early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers new support for the idea that the loss of complex traits, like eyes, wings or in this case a reproductive mechanism, is often irreversible. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Aftermath - Would dutiful American citizens trust the government to handle first contact with extraterrestrials and rush to get information to the public? See article. Note: This article is from 1999.

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