Exoplanet’s atmosphere and ‘Into the Cool”

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 managed to yield important clues about the atmosphere of a distant planet as it swung close to its parent star. The information also allowed them to make realistic simulations of what the planet might look like. See article.
g Life - A talk by author-scientist Eric Schneider about the science of organization in nature is now available as a free video podcast from Montana State University. Schneider is an expert on thermodynamics, the relationship between heat and movement, and author of "Into the Cool." His science-for-the-public talk centered on how organisms in nature have a remarkable tendency to organize, and that even non-living systems such as a hurricane can "self-organize" when in the midst of a gradient. See podcast.
g Message - Project Argus, The SETI League's key technical initiative, has been called the most ambitious microwave SETI project ever undertaken without government equipment or funding. When fully operational, it will provide, for the first time ever, continuous monitoring of the entire sky, in all directions in real time. For more, click here.
g Cosmicus - Astronauts lose strength in their bones when spending long periods of time in space. A new study shows that this may adversely affect their health back on Earth. Studying the effects of space travel on the health of astronauts is vital for future human missions into orbit and beyond. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat Web site, courtesy of NASA: “Flies in Space”. For grades 5-8, the activity has students step into a space biologist's shoes and predict experiment results.
g Aftermath - The recent Hollywood movie “War of the Worlds” by Steven Spielberg garnered much attention, but it was nothing like that accorded the 1938 radio version of H.G. Wells' novel. The extent of the panic that broadcast caused is still debated. So what really happened that night? See article.

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