Wednesday, February 04, 2009

The first sounds of Earth that aliens may here and glowing baceterium

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 - Chirps and whistles of our planet's auroral kilometric radiation might be the first thing an extraterrestrial civilization is likely to hear from Earth. In reality, they are the sounds that accompany the aurora. The European Space Agency's Cluster mission is showing scientists how to understand this emission and, in the future, search for alien worlds by listening for their sounds. See article.
g Life - Scientists studying a glowing bacterium that lives in both squid and fish have made an astonishing discovery about how the bacteria is able to inhabit two different species. It all comes down to a single gene that allows the bacteria to change its host, which highlights the importance of genetic information in the evolution of living organisms. See article.
g Learning - A new comet may be seen in the night sky later this month. Sounds like a great opportunity to introduce kids to astronomy. See article.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

AKR sounds very interesting....

Rob Bignell said...

Agreed. I like the approach of thinking about how aliens might hear us ... it should provide great insights into how we can hear them.