Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Weirdly empty portions of universe and general public offers advice on future astrobiology missions

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Astronomers had just found a chunk of the universe that seemed weirdly empty — no galaxies, no clouds of gas, no nothing. In the decades since, they've found lots more. The universe, we now know, resembles a cosmic Swiss cheese, with galaxies organized into sheets and filaments surrounding mostly empty spaces. See article.
g Abodes - While examining a relatively new crater on Mars, NASA's Opportunity rover has discovered rocks coated with a strange material that may have been formed through a process involving water. New software is also helping Opportunity gather more science data by allowing the rover to choose its own research targets autonomously. See article.
g Message - While advanced civilizations might be tempted to use optical means such as lasers to send information between the stars, there are some good reasons that nearly all the major Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence experiments are looking for radio waves instead. See article. Note: This article is from 1996.
g Cosmicus - For the last few months, Astrobiology Magazine has been running a poll to see what our readers think should be the next target of a mission in the solar system. As we close the poll, see how the results compare to current mission plans. See article.
g Learning - In many places, science (and the arts) are not even on the school bus with the kids. This is not simply a mistake. It’s a form of discrimination against children who will never find the entrance to the “pipeline” that leads to well-paid science, technology, engineering and mathematics education careers. See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Which aliens we can hear and the Galaxy Zoo

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Do you have an Internet connection, some free time and a penchant for staring off into space? Then Galaxy Zoo needs you – to classify galaxies. See article.
g Abodes - Miles Below Antarctica's icy surface, scientists are finding abundant life in liquid lakes and rivers. See article.
g Message - When someone tells you the aliens couldn't possibly hear us, you can just smile politely. The truth is, they could. And what about us hearing them? We've only had radio for a century. Some extraterrestrials have surely had it for a hundred or thousand times longer. If our signals are detectable, theirs might be far more so. See article. Note: This article is from 2008.
g Aftermath - If we find other civilizations, what will we say to them? Crafting a message that represents Earth and humanity and can be understood by another life form is no minor endeavor. SETI Institute psychologist Douglas Vakoch has been charged with this formidable task, and has enlisted the help of mathematicians, artists, astronomers and anthropologists. Hear the messages he helped compose and learn about the thinking behind them.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited

Monday, March 29, 2010

Connections between a planet's physical properties and its habitability, and no cryptologists standing by at SETI

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - An exhaustive study of nearly half a million deformed galaxies observed by the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed definitive proof of the acceleration of our universe's expansion. See article.
g Abodes - A new model of the Earth is helping scientists understand how our planet's surface moves and deforms. The model shows Earth's tectonic plates as a dynamic, 3D puzzle, and could help astrobiologists understand the intricate connections between our planet's physical properties and its habitability for life. See article.
g Message - Modern SETI searches are looking for technically sophisticated aliens around other star systems. Do the research teams that run these experiments also have cryptologists standing by? See article. Note: This article is from 2000.
g Learning - The constellations we’re generally familiar with generally comes from the ancient Greeks and Romans. Here’s a neat Web site that teaches kids about alternate constellations – those in the Lakota Sioux tradition.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Potential for life on Europa and Mars500 project

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - About 90 percent of distant galaxies do not show up in a commonly used galaxy survey method, a new study has found. See article.
g Abodes - Cracks in the icy shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa contain sulfur-rich material. An expedition to a sulfur spring in the Arctic could help solve some mysteries about Europa – including its potential for life. See article.
g Cosmicus - A crew of six will soon begin a simulated mission to Mars in a mockup that includes an interplanetary spaceship, Mars lander and Martian landscape. The Mars500 project is a full-duration simulation and will help scientists plan for the future of human space exploration. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a glossary of just some terms you should know about exploring the night sky. See article.
g Aftermath - If we do make contact with extraterrestrials, they’ll probably be a Type II or III Kardashev civilization. What’s a Kardashev civilization? See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Are we an exhibit for alien tourists and how our planet became conducive to life

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Cosmologists have used the distorted shapes of primordial galaxies to "weigh" the distribution of unseen matter in the early universe and confirm the existence of mysterious "dark energy." See article.
g Abodes - As a faculty member at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the leader of the UH branch of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute, Karen Meech considers some of the biggest of the big questions. One of her main areas of interest is water, and how its presence makes planets conducive to life. Next week, she’s giving a talk titled, “When and How Did Our Planet Become Conducive to Life?” as part of the Institute for Astronomy’s Frontiers of Astronomy Lecture series. Honolulu Weekly caught up with Meech beforehand to talk about everything from subsurface oceans to UFOs. See interview.
g Message - A resolution for the so-called Fermi Paradox is that we’ve been singled out for special treatment: we are an exhibit for alien tourists or sociologists. Our world may be known to the extraterrestrials, but they observe us through a sophisticated type of one-way mirror. See article. Note: This article is from 2001.
g Learning - Do you have a children with a question about a topic in astronomy or about an object in space? You may find the answer under one of the categories at “Ask an Astronomer for Kids”.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Friday, March 26, 2010

Galactic empires and two human species once lived alongside homo sapiens

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - The habitable zone around any star is where water can exist as a liquid. The list of exoplanets has already crossed 400. Such planets with signatures of ozone and methane in addition to water would be even more exciting. See article.
g Intelligence - A 40,000-year-old child's pinky bone found in a Siberian cave probably belonged to a previously unknown human species living near modern humans of the era, a gene study reports. See article.
g Message - Could galactic empires exist? There has been plenty of time for aliens keen on colonizing the Milky Way to pull it off. However, we see no signs of galactic federation ("Star Trek" aside). Why does the cosmos look so untouched and unconquered? What is keeping advanced extraterrestrials from claiming every star system in sight? See article. Note: This article is from 2001.
g Learning - Here’s a great resource for educators, courtesy of NASA: The Earth Science Education Update is a free monthly email newsletter describing the latest news, programs, events, and resources related to NASA's Earth Science Education Program.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Moon’s different water flavors and history of Harvard SETI searches

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - Since the surprise discovery last year of trace amounts of water on the moon, scientists have been redefining their concept of Earth's rocky neighbor. Now researchers say the water on the moon comes in three different flavors. See article.
g Message - The Harvard SETI Group have conducted several searches for extraterrestrial life since 1978. Here’s a history of those searches.
g Cosmicus - Democratic members of the House subcommittee that controls NASA spending were not as hostile to Obama’s NASA plan as their counterparts on the House Science and Technology Committee. See article.
g Learning - The nation’s school children made little or no progress in reading proficiency in recent years, according to results released Wednesday from the largest nationwide reading test. See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Choosing the right stars to listen for ETI signals and SpaceShipTwo tested

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - People interested in Mars exploration, like many of the scientists at the Carl Sagan Center in Mountain View, Calif., often start by exploring cold, dry, thin aired Mars-like “analogue” sites on earth. Most of these places are isolated and hard to reach. Antarctica, the Arctic, the Peruvian Andes, Kamchatka and other exotic locales offer scientists glimpses into the kinds of environments that may hold clues to understanding Mars and the processes that have shaped it. Of key interest is the extreme or unusual conditions under which life persists. We know that everywhere on earth where we find liquid water, we find life, but what are the limits? How cold, how hot, how high, how deep, can life be and still survive? Temperature, pressure, gravity, pH, salinity, radiation, available nutrients and more all represent parameters that can influence an environment and its ability to sustain life, so areas where these parameters are extreme can be very informative. See article.
g Life - True to their name (which is a Greco-Latin combo for “someone who loves extremes”), extremophiles can batten and fatten in conditions that humans – and most other species – would consider off limits. See article.
g Intelligence - Some think ancient stone spheres discovered in Costa Rica are evidence of alien visitation. One anthropologist says that while the reason the large spheres were created is not known, they have more in common with pottery than spaceships. 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.
g Cosmicus - Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane took to the air for the first time Monday morning from California's Mojave Air and Space Port. See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Influences on our search for ET and who can own what on the lunar surface

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - Jupiter’s moon Europa, about the size of Earth’s Moon, is thought to have an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy surface, making it a possible environment for life. Two of the necessary ingredients for life, liquid water and appropriate biogenic elements, are now thought to exist at Europa. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.
g Life - Book alert: Our approach to the search for life in the universe is highly influenced by our knowledge of life at home on Earth. In “Life: How to Make a Cosmic Omelet, The DNA Files” looked at the ways in which genetic tools have helped define life as we know it, from bacteria found in a boiling hot spring in Yellowstone National Park to microbes found frozen (and alive!) in the Arctic.
g Cosmicus - New photographs of the former Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 rover on the moon, which is owned by an American millionaire, is causing a legal stir over who can own what on the lunar surface. See article.
g Learning - An amateur astronomer has made a "major astronomical discovery" while accessing a telescope in Hawaii over the internet while at work in the UK. See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Monday, March 22, 2010

Scientists develop prime directive for Earth and how Mars expands astrobiological research

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - New observations on Mars have greatly expanded the scope of astrobiological research topics. It is clear that much greater emphasis should be placed on evaporite minerals (including sulfates and carbonates), as well as iron oxides. See article.
g Life - You don’t have to go far to see extremeophiles here in northern California, Rocco Mancinelli, once told a crowd of astronomy lovers in a Bay Area lecture hall. People giggled. But Mancinelli wasn’t talking extreme life styles or fashion; he was talking about microbes. Specifically, salt-loving halophiles that thrive in the crimson patchwork of evaporation pools - those commercial salt extraction ponds clustered along southern portions of the San Francisco Bay. Tiny creatures that thrive in harsh conditions on Earth are of great fascination to astrobiologists. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.
g Message - SETI scientists speculate on whether or not the first extraterrestrial intelligence they contact will be machine intelligence or biological intelligence. See article. Note: This article is from 2000.
g Cosmicus - Space begins 100 kilometers up, according to the federal government. That’s obviously an arbitrary definition. See article. Note: This article is from 2004.
g Aftermath - Scientists from NASA and the SETI Institute are boldly going where no bureaucracies (real or fictional) have gone before—drawing up the safety protocols we Earthlings will use as we explore new worlds, and the social and ethical guidelines we'll turn to if we ever do find life on other planets. See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Rosetta stone of exoplanet research and new wave of astrobiology books

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - Astronomers have identified a gas giant exoplanet that orbits close to its host star. Its orbit allows scientists to examine the planet, dubbed Corot-9b, in great detail. The research team believes Corot-9b could be a “Rosetta stone” in exoplanet research, providing key information about how planets form and evolve. See article.
g Life - While taking the first images of the underbelly of an ice sheet in Antarctica, scientists have made a surprising discovery. They captured video of a complex, shrimp-like animal swimming through the cold and dark subglacial waters. See article.
g Cosmicus - Materials scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have designed a way to harvest small amounts of waste energy and harness them to turn water into usable hydrogen fuel. The process is simple, efficient and recycles otherwise-wasted energy into a usable form. See article.
g Learning - not only have astronomers failed to find evidence of alien intelligence, they still do not know for sure that any life exists beyond Earth, even simple micro-organisms. Yet, as a crop of new books shows, astrobiology – the scientific search for extraterrestrial life, simple or advanced – has never been more active. Evidence is growing that many stars in our galaxy have planets on which life might have originated. At the same time, new technology should make it easier to detect alien life if it exists – in primitive form in our solar system or more advanced on other star systems. See article.
g Aftermath - Search for Life in the Universe: In this two-part essay, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, Neil deGrasse Tyson, reflects on the scientific and cultural implications of finding life elsewhere in the cosmos. Read Part I. Note: This article is from 2003.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Titan’s liquid cycles and what alien astronomers would know about is if they had the Hubble

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Astronomers have come across what appear to be two of the earliest and most primitive supermassive black holes known. The discovery, based largely on observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, will provide a better understanding of the roots of our universe, and how the very first black holes, galaxies and stars all came to be. See article.
g Abodes - On Saturn’s giant moon Titan, it is so cold that water is frozen as hard as granite. And yet there is a complete liquid cycle of methane and ethane. Scientists wonder whether there could also be life. See article.
g Message - If alien astronomers from a nearby star system pointed their version of the Hubble Space Telescope at Earth, astronomer Markus Landgraf believes they would not see our planet but they would find hints of our presence. See article. Note: This article is from 2002.
g Cosmicus - Using images taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the exact location of the Russian lunar rover, Lunokhod 2, has been identified on the Moon. The rover was the second of two unmanned Soviet rovers, and was lost on the Moon over 30 years ago. See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Friday, March 19, 2010

Most Earth-like orbit of an exoworld discovered and eavesdropping on signals from galactic civilizations

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - An international team of astronomers has discovered an exoplanet - one outside our solar system - that has a more Earthlike orbit than any alien planet discovered so far using the same technique. See article.
g Message - Soon, we may be eavesdropping on signals from galactic civilizations. See article.
g Cosmicus - Researchers have proposed a new sample-return mission to visit the asteroid 1999 RQ36. Such a mission could help us learn how to move an asteroid that's set on a collision course with Earth. See article.
g Learning - The patterns etched by geological evolution are visible at altitude. Closer up, fossils tell the story of earlier life upon our continent. Gazing to the heavens, astronomers gather evidence of the evolution of planets, stars, galaxies—the whole universe evolves. Natural history museums host large collections of extant and extinct life that document biological evolution. Yet, teaching evolution remains controversial in America. See article. Note: This article is from 2005.
g Aftermath - Book alert: If you have been interested in scholarly theories concerning extraterrestrial intelligence but have not had the opportunity to read the books, journal articles and conference reports on the subject, this is the book for you. In “Extraterrestrials: Science and Alien Intelligence,” editor Edward Regis, Jr., science writer and associate professor of philosophy at Howard University, brings together the reflections of notable scientists and philosophers concerned with the existence and nature of ETs. One essay specifically discusses the philosophical and sociological impact of contact. See article. Note: The book was published in 1990.

Get your SF book manuscript edited

Thursday, March 18, 2010

How similar Titan may be to Earth and first contact’s overthrowing of organized religions

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - Unique patterns in images of Titan's surface have puzzled scientists for years. Now, a “volunteer researcher” has provided NASA with a unique interpretation the data, showing how similar Titan may be to Earth. See article.
g Message - This year marks a double anniversary in the search for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. It was 25 years ago last month that the SETI Institute began its work to see if we are alone in the universe or one among many intelligences populating the stars. See article.
g Cosmicus - The European Cluster mission has provided new information about the energetic particles trapped in Earth's radiation belt. These dangerous electrons from solar storms can be harmful for satellites and astronauts in orbit. Understanding their properties will help make future missions safer. See article.
g Aftermath - The statement that extraterrestrial intelligence exists or doesn’t can have the parallel statement that God exists or doesn’t. Some people say there’s already sufficient evidence of existence for both. If you set aside abductions and miracles, it’s true that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence for either. However, if and when humanity ever detects evidence of an extraterrestrial intelligence, it will break the symmetry of these two statements and, in fact, that evidence will be inconsistent with the existence of God or at least organized religions. See article. Note: This article is from 2004.

Get your SF book manuscript edited

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

SETI’s 25th anniversary and exploring distant worlds via avatars

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Have a good look at this star. For astronomers have discovered that it is on course to collide with the outskirts of our solar system with potentially catastrophic consequences. See article.
g Abodes - Scientists have discovered that the Earth's magnetic field 3.5 billion years ago was only half as strong as it is today. This could have had profound implications for the evolution of the biosphere, which would have been bathed in higher levels of intense solar radiation. See article.
g Life - There’s a lot more going on beneath those huge sheets of Antarctic ice than you might think. NASA researchers say they uncovered a major surprise in December: The team drilled an eight-inch hole and stuck a video camera 600 feet down, hoping to observe the underbelly of the thick ice sheet. To their amazement, a curious critter swam into view and clung to the video camera’s cable. The team also retrieved what they believe to be a tentacle from a jellyfish. See article.
g Message - Marking its 25th anniversary this year, the SETI Institute has conducted some of the world’s most profound and influential scientific research since opening its doors for business in 1985. See article.
g Cosmicus - At this year's Oscars, there was a great deal of buzz surrounding the science fiction epic, “Avatar.” The movie focuses on human explorers virtually immersing themselves in the environment of a distant world through the eyes and body of an avatar. The movie may be science fiction, but the concepts behind avatars in space exploration are based in science fact. See article.
g Aftermath - What would be the social consequences in case a SETI-project would actually be successful or mankind would be confronted in another way with the existence of an extraterrestrial civilization? See article. Note: This article is from 2005.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Reasons for optimism that life exists beyond Earth and is our solar system a binary?

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Is our Sun part of a binary star system? An unseen companion star, nicknamed “Nemesis,” may be sending comets towards Earth. If Nemesis exists, NASA’s new WISE telescope should be able to spot it. See article.
g Abodes - Geologists have found new evidence to support the “snowball Earth” theory, where sea ice extended all the way to the equator. Such an icy environment may have had a profound effect on the evolution of life on our planet. See article.
g Life - A major step in the evolution of life occurred some 1.5 billion years ago when cells began storing their DNA inside a nucleus. Scientists are gaining new insights into this evolutionary leap from prokaryotes to eukaryotes by studying the genome of a unique, single-celled organism. See article.
g Message - "Surely one of the most marvelous feats of 20th-century science would be the firm proof that life exists on another planet. In that case, the thesis that life develops spontaneously when the conditions are favorable would be far more firmly established, and our whole view of the problem of the origin of life would be confirmed." Stanley Miller and Harold Urey wrote in 1959. Unfortunately, their dream has not been realized, and as we begin this new millennium the question of whether life exists beyond the Earth remains unanswered. However, there are reasons for optimism that in the not-too-distant future we may have an answer. See article. Note: This article is from 2001.
g Cosmicus - Space exploration's multiple hazards don't end with a safe re-entry and landing: astronauts can disembark with serious medical problems brought on by prolonged exposure to microgravity. See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Monday, March 15, 2010

Titan’s analogies to Earth and finding ETI with a screensaver

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - Planetary scientists have been puzzling for years over the honeycomb patterns and flat valleys with squiggly edges evident in radar images of Saturn's moon Titan. Now, working with a "volunteer researcher" who has put his own spin on data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, they have found some recognizable analogies to a type of spectacular terrain on Earth known as karst topography. See article.
g Message - Here’s an interesting proposal: Search for extraterrestrial intelligence by analyzing cosmic radiation for signals. See article.
g Cosmicus - Engineering researchers have crafted a flat surface that refuses to get wet. Water droplets skitter across it like ball bearings tossed on ice. See article.
g Aftermath - Book alert: As many Earthlings already know —including more than 2 million computer users with firsthand experience — our best hope for finding extraterrestrial intelligence might just lie with an ingenious little screensaver. So it's not surprising that “Beyond Contact: A Guide to SETI and Communicating with Alien Civilizations” (by Brian S. McConnell), an introduction to searching for and communicating with intelligent life, begins with some of the details behind UC Berkeley's groundbreaking, massively distributed SETI@home project, which processes intergalactic noise for pennies on the teraflop. But that's just the start of the story. Inventor and software developer Brian McConnell continues with an overview of whether and why we might find something out there, who's doing what to look for it (including the folks at Berkeley), and — once some ET picks up on the other end — what we might say and how we might say it. This last problem, which occupies the final half of the book, proves to be the most thought provoking, and McConnell has put together a methodical, nuts-and-bolts walkthrough of both the challenges involved and how binary code might be enlisted to solve them. See reviews.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Expanding searches for ETI into new realms and don’t eat your peas if you care about humanity’s future

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - Anyone who knows a trilobite from an ammonite can tell you that the history of early life is a book written in rock. According to SETI Institute scientist Friedemann Freund, chapter one and perhaps chapter two may have been written at least in part, by the rocks themselves. Common rocks, he explains, such as gabbro and granite carry a payload of complex chemistry that may have played a dynamic role in life’s origin, and the co-evolution of life and Earths oxygen-rich atmosphere. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.
g Message - Searches for extraterrestrial intelligence are about to expand into new realms, thanks to new advances in technology — and new thinking. See article. Note: This article is a few years old.
g Cosmicus - If harnessing the unlimited solar power of the sun were easy, we wouldn't still have the greenhouse gas problem that results from the use of fossil fuel. And while solar energy systems work moderately well in hot desert climates, they are still inefficient and contribute only a small percentage of the general energy demand. A new solution may be coming from an unexpected source - a source that may be on your dinner plate tonight. See article.
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.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Potential for life on Jupiter’s moons and a list of the big hunts for ETI signals

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - Could any of Jupiter’s moons support life? See article. Note: This article is from 2002.
g Message - Several big hunts are seeking radio and laser emissions from other civilizations. From Project Phoenix to SETI@home, here's a complete rundown of all the searches now under way or recently conducted.
g Cosmicus - What if space held the key to producing alternative energy crops on Earth? That's what researchers are hoping to find in a new experiment on the International Space Station. See article.
g Aftermath - Even if the public seems less than awestruck by the prospect that alien life is a bunch of microscopic bugs, astrobiologists say unequivocal discovery of microbial life beyond Earth will change human society in profound ways, some unfathomable today. See article. Note: This article is from 2001.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Friday, March 12, 2010

Understanding how to live in space long-term and to search for extraterrestrial life at the famous Arecibo Observatory

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - A big crater inside a huge crater on the moon could offer a view of the lunar innards, scientists now say. See article.
g Message - What’s it like to search for extraterrestrial life at the famous Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico? SETI astronomer Seth Shostak shares his experiences in a five-day series: Part I; part II; part III; part IV; and part V. Note: This series is from 2003.
g Cosmicus - Astronauts love doing zero-G stunts on the International Space Station, but only after the urge to vomit from space sickness has faded. Now fish, snails and other animals could help understand whether living in space can create long-term or even permanent damage in the inner ear. See article.
g Aftermath - The structure of terrestrial music might provide clues to creating interstellar messages that could be understood by extraterrestrial intelligence. In the process, he suggests that music may provide a means of communicating "something of our consciousness that is essentially human, regardless of the civilization from which it emerges." See article. Note: This article is from 2002.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Manipulating creatures via bacteria transfer and alien signals cascading over your body

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - Fires are a normal and healthy part of the natural cycle - yet the severity of duration of fire seasons seem to be on the rise. This could be due to a drier, warmer climate in some parts of the world resulting from changes in the global climate. See article.
g Life - Increased appetite and insulin resistance can be transferred from one mouse to another via intestinal bacteria, according to research. See article.
g Message - If extraterrestrials are out there, signals that would prove their existence are cascading over your body right now. Needless to say, you don’t notice. The challenge for SETI researchers is to build an instrument that will. Rising to the challenge, the SETI Institute and others are developing new search strategies and telescopes, encouraging some scientists to speculate that a signal detection will occur in the next decade or two. See article. Note: This article is from 2001.
g Cosmicus - NASA last week launched the newest in a series of high-tech weather satellites that will help forecasters predict sunshine and showers alike. See article.
g Aftermath - To create interstellar messages that have a realistic chance of being understood across interstellar distances, we need to identify some information shared by humans and extraterrestrials. We need to identify a foundation for establishing a universal language that will let us bridge the gap between our world and theirs, all without the convenience of face-to-face contact. See article. Note: This article is from 2002.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Can we ever relate to an alien species and the dangers of warp drive for ETI

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - One of the pleasures of perusing ancient maps is locating regions so poorly explored that mapmakers warned of dragons and sea monsters. Now, astronomers using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope find themselves in the same situation as cartographers of old. A new study of the ever-present fog of gamma rays from sources outside our galaxy shows that less than a third of the emission arises from what astronomers once considered the most likely suspects - black-hole-powered jets from active galaxies. See article.
g Abodes - The protective magnetic field shrouding the early Earth was likely only half as strong as it is today, a new study suggests. See article.
g Life - In a significant leap forward in the understanding of how specific types of tissue are determined to develop in mammals, an international team of scientists has succeeded in mapping the entire network of DNA-binding transcription factors and their interactions. This global network indicates which factors can combine to determine cell fate. See article.
g Intelligence - A daily dose of vitamin D may just be what people in northern climates need to get through the long winter, according to researchers. See article.
g Message - Here’s a classic I stumbled across online: Carl Sagan’s 1978 article “The Quest for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.” Few other pieces so eloquently capture the essential, human purpose behind astrobiology and SETI. See article.
g Cosmicus - Captain Kirk might want to avoid taking the starship Enterprise to warp speed, unless he's ready to shrug off interstellar hydrogen atoms that would deliver a lethal radiation blast to both ship and crew. See article.
g Aftermath - Could humanity ever relate to an alien species? Consider the questioning context of these online speculations about why "Star Trek is human centered?" The latter is an interesting question, possibly creating a situation dealing with a prejudice on the behalf of the writers and producers. However, would a series completely dedicated to another species, such as the Romulans, be successful in a television market? Is it possible that the reasons it wouldn’t be might indicate humanity may care little about an alien species other than as a potential threat? See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Exotic matter from universe’s birth discovered and to Mars in 40 days

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Scientists have created a never-before seen type of exotic matter that is thought to have been present at the earliest stages of the universe, right after the Big Bang. See article.
g Abodes - According to a comprehensive review of all the available evidence, the extinction of the dinosaurs and half the species on Earth was caused by an asteroid colliding with our planet. A panel of 41 international experts reviewed 20 years' worth of data to determine the cause of the KT extinction. See article.
g Life - Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. We hear this mantra time and again. When it comes to carbon - the "Most Wanted" element in terms of climate change - nature has got reuse and recycle covered. However, it's up to us to reduce. Scientists at Harvard Medical School are trying to meet this challenge by learning more about the carbon cycle, that is, the process by which carbon moves from the atmosphere into plants, oceans, soils, the earth's crust, and back into the atmosphere again. One of the biggest movers and shakers is the lowly cyanobacteria, an ocean-dwelling, one-celled organism. See article.
g Intelligence - Rapamycin, a drug that keeps the immune system from attacking transplanted organs, may have another exciting use: fighting Alzheimer's disease. The drug - a bacterial product first isolated in soil from Easter Island - rescued learning and memory deficits in a mouse model of Alzheimer's. See article.
g Cosmicus - Future Mars outposts or colonies may seem more distant than ever with NASA's exploration plans in flux, but the rocket technology that could someday propel a human mission to the red planet in as little as 40 days may already exist. See article.
g Imagining - Movie aliens often are like distant relatives: They resemble us in an unpleasant sort of way. This is hardly a surprise. Hollywood creates characters that audiences can identify with, and that’s why its aliens are so anthropomorphic (and why Donald Duck looks more like a human than a duck.) But appearances aside, cinema aliens have another implausible attribute: they’re nearly always at our level of technical sophistication. We frequently trade gunfire with them or chase them around in dogfights. This is silly, of course. Any beings capable of bridging the vast distances between the stars would be able to clean our clock when it comes to science and engineering. Visitors from other worlds — should any appear — would be enormously ahead of us from a technological viewpoint. See article. Note: This article is from 2000.
g Aftermath - If we encountered an intelligent species on another planet, could we understand them? In turn, could extrasolar species decipher one of our 8,000 terrestrial languages in use today? See article. Note: This article is from 2004.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Monday, March 08, 2010

Lava formed Martian ‘river’ channels and ETI’s message in a bottle

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - New data indicates that at least one of the meandering channels on the surface of Mars was formed by flowing lava rather than liquid water. The study could help astrobiologists determine the likelihood of finding signs of past or present life on Mars. See article.
g Intelligence - Why do nice girls fall for bad boys? Let's shine the cold light of evolutionary psychology on the topic. See article.
g Message - Virtually all SETI experiments probe the skies looking for broadcasts from afar: radio or light signals that would tell us that someone as sharp-witted as ourselves is out there. But could it be that while we use binoculars to scan the cosmic sea, bottled messages have washed up unnoticed at our feet? See article. Note: This article is from 2004.
g Cosmicus - NASA chief Charles Bolden has asked senior managers to draw up an alternate plan for the space agency after members of Congress indicated they wanted to reject a White House proposal to hire private companies to ferry U.S. astronauts into orbit and beyond. See article.
g Aftermath - One of our natural tendencies when we make contact with strangers is to try to impress them. Sloppy dressers might polish their shoes for a job interview, hopeful suitors will wash their cars for a first date and prospective children-in-law will be on their best behavior in the presence of the parents of their intended. Wouldn’t we want to do the same in our first contact with ET? Lewis Thomas, in his book “Lives of a Cell,” suggests that if we want to impress an alien civilization, we should send "Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again." See article. Note: This article is from 2002.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Making it more difficult for ETI to her us and the man who’ll welcome the aliens

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - Twinkling stars are often compared with diamonds, sparkling and bright. Stars are made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium with traces of other elements; diamonds are made of carbon. However, there are real diamonds in the sky, and they derive from the fiery furnaces that make stars shine. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Abodes - Asteroid impacts may not only account for extinctions in the oceans and on land 65 million years ago. According to new research, the resulting dust, darkness and toxic metal contamination following impact may also be responsible for the unevenness of extinctions and recovery following the impact event. See article.
g Intelligence - Governments should prepare for the worst if aliens visit Earth because beings from outer space are likely to be just like humans, a leading scientist is claiming. See article.
g Message - Human beings are making it harder for extraterrestials to pick up our broadcasts and make contact, the world's leading expert on the search for alien life warned. See article.
g Cosmicus - we want to go to the Moon. Why? Because the Moon is an ideal "staging post" for us to accumulate materials and manpower outside of the Earth's deep gravitational well. From the Moon we can send missions into deep space and ferry colonists to Mars. Tourists may also be interested in a short visit. Mining companies will no doubt want to set up camp there. The pursuit of science is also a major draw. For whatever reason, to maintain a presence on this small dusty satellite, we will need to build a Moon base. Be it for the short-term or long-term, man will need to colonize the Moon. But where would we live? How could we survive on this hostile landscape? See article. Note: This article is from 2008.
g Imagining - Here we are swimming three-dimensionally through the blue dream of Avatar when some spoil-sport astro-biologist called Simon ­Conway Morris snatches off our glasses to tell us that, when the third encounter happens, aliens will be "very like us". Who needs body snatching? Carbon-based ­bipeds must, according to the laws of evolution, be roughly the same throughout the universe's 250bn galaxies. Boringly humanoid. If Dr Conway Morris is right, it will be a sad day for sci-fi, fantasy and horror. Ever since the Grendel family rose out of the ­primeval marsh to take on ­Beowulf in the first work of English literature, we have pictured aliens as the ­ineffable "other". Fictional aliens come in all colours, shapes and ­dispositions. See article.
g Aftermath - If we are ever contacted by aliens, Paul Davies with will be one of the first humans to know. He's chair of the SetiSearch For Extraterrestrial Intelligence Post-Detection Task Group. They're a group of the world's most eminent scientists and will be, come the big day, the planet's alien welcome committee. His is an awesome responsibility, and one he doesn't take lightly. See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Ice found at Lunar North Pole and alien languages in science fiction

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - The magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have had dramatic global consequences. Scientists believe that the quake was strong enough to change the Earth's rotation and may have shortened the length of an Earth day. See artricle.
g Message - In late 1997, after almost 40 years of operation, the Ohio State University Radio Observatory and its "Big Ear" radio telescope — which picked up the famous “Wow!” signal — ceased operation. The land on which the observatory was sitting (owned by the Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio) was sold in 1983 to land developers who later claimed their rights to develop the property. The telescope was destroyed in early 1998. Here's a Web page memorial to Big Ear.
g Cosmicus - Vast pockets of water ice numbering in the millions of tons have been discovered at the north pole of the moon, opening up another region of the lunar surface for potential exploration by astronauts and unmanned probes. See article.
g Imagining - Book alert: Here’s an oldie worth finding in a used bookstore: Walter E. Meyers’ “Aliens and Linguists: Language Study and Science Fiction.” It examines how science fiction treats aliens using languages, aptly pointing out fallacies and offering some intriguing speculations. See review.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Friday, March 05, 2010

Mini astrobiology lab tested and could plants from ‘Avatar’ really evolve?

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - Scientists are testing a miniature laboratory that could be used to study the composition of rocks and atmospheres on moons, asteroids and planets in the solar system. A recent field test of the instrument was performed in the mouth of a sleeping Hawaiian volcano. See article.
g Message - Analogies can provide a useful role for anticipating what might happen if, some day, we detect a signal from extraterrestrials. To briefly recap our last article in this series, some scholars have suggested that we might gain insights into decoding extraterrestrial messages that may be embedded in such a signal. These insights, they suggest, come from the experience that linguists have gained in the course of decoding ancient languages on Earth. See article. Note: This article is from 2001.
g Cosmicus - President Barack Obama's new plan for NASA has been met with some anger and confusion in the weeks since its announcement, drawing sharp objections from critics who view it as a radical vision change for the space agency that would upset the world leadership of the United States in space. See article.
g Learning - “Are we alone?" It's a question asked by curious kids of all ages including grown-up kids called scientists. In the classroom, the question may take different forms: Do extraterrestrials exist? Can we look for and find ET? Are aliens visiting Earth? Did ETs land in Roswell, New Mexico, or are ETs hidden in the Nevada desert? Can NASA send a spaceship to search the galaxy for ET? In this classroom activity, students consider how long it takes to travel to Sirius using different modes of transportation: walking, bicycling, driving, flying, and traveling in the space shuttle or a spacecraft.
g Imagining - Although they're not nominated for an Academy Award, plants play a central role in the blockbuster movie "Avatar." A botanist provided the science behind how these unusual organisms may have evolved. See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Size-age of universe and NASA’s new direction

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - The size and age of the universe, as well as how fast it is expanding, has been confirmed with a new, precise method that uses galaxies as lenses to look at other galaxies. See article.
g Abodes - What is astroecology? See article.
g Message - Just exactly how does SETI work? See primer.
g Cosmicus - NASA field center directors and mission directorate chiefs will report directly to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden under organizational changes Bolden announced Feb. 23 in a memo to senior agency officials. See article.
g Learning - Some artists work at an easel in their studio, others from photographs. Hailey-based artist Karen Jacobsen travels by deep-sea submersible to the most inhospitable places on Earth to paint her subjects. See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Living analogs of the primordial microbe communities and prospecting Mars

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - Microbe mats in Yellowstone's hot springs may be living analogs of the primordial microbe communities that constructed the oldest rock fossils on Earth. See article.
g Life - The key to life as we know it is water, a tiny molecule with some highly unusual properties, such as the ability to retain large amounts of heat and to lose, instead of gain, density as it solidifies. It behaves so differently from other liquids, in fact, that by some measures it shouldn't even exist. Now scientists have made a batch of new discoveries about the ubiquitous liquid, suggesting that an individual water molecule's interactions with its neighbors could someday be manipulated to solve some of the world's thorniest problems - from agriculture to cancer. See article.
g Cosmicus - We may not be prospecting Mars anytime soon, but scientists have mapped out where on the planet we should look - some day. See article.
g Aftermath - According to astronomer Allen Tough, even before a signal is detected, six positive consequences will result from the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence, usually called SETI. (1) Humanity's self-image. SETI has enlarged our view of ourselves and enhanced our sense of meaning. Increasingly, we feel a kinship with the civilizations whose signals we are trying to detect. (2) A fresh perspective. SETI forces us to think about how extraterrestrials might perceive us. This gives us a fresh perspective on our society's values, priorities, laws, and foibles. (3) Questions. SETI is stimulating thought and discussion about several fundamental questions. (4) Education. Some broad-gauge educational programs have already been centered around SETI. (5) Tangible spin-offs. In addition to providing jobs for some people, SETI provides various spin-offs, such as search methods, computer software, data, and international scientific cooperation. (6) Future scenarios. SETI will increasingly stimulate us to think carefully about possible detection scenarios and their consequences, about our reply, and generally about the role of extraterrestrial communication in our long-term future. Such thinking leads, in turn, to fresh perspectives on the SETI enterprise itself. For the full paper, see article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Improving the Deep Space Network and Enceladus’ dramatic plumes

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Abodes - A new photo shows dramatic plumes, both large and small, spray water ice out from many locations along the famed “tiger stripes” near the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. See article.
g Life - Promiscuous females may be the key to a species' survival, according to new research. See article.
g Intelligence - Even premature babies at 33 weeks post-conceptional age, about 2 months before term (40 gestational weeks), are capable of recognizing and distinguishing two objects of different shapes (a prism and a cylinder) with their right or left hands. This is the first demonstration of fully efficient manual perception in preterm human infants. See article.
g Message - There’s an intriguing set of four articles, each with a separate explanation of a different quantum phenomena, that when taken together form a mosaic needed to understand the final explanation of a proposed quantum astronomy experiment, possibly using the Allen Array Telescope and the narrow-band radio-wave detectors being build by the SETI Institute and the University of California, Berkeley. For the first piece in the series, click here; second piece; third piece; fourth piece. Note: These articles are from 2004.
g Cosmicus - NASA officials broke ground near Canberra, Australia, on Feb. 24, beginning a new antenna-building campaign to improve Deep Space Network communications. See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Monday, March 01, 2010

Host star destroying its gas giant and RNA molecule synthesized

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Stars - A team of astrophysicists has determined that a massive planet outside our solar system is being distorted and destroyed by its host star. The finding provides further information about how planets can form and evolve in other solar systems. See article.
g Abodes - Our Earth is a restless planet. Occasionally – quite often, in some regions of the world – the restlessness turns deadly. Of all natural hazards, earthquakes are the most feared. They are feared because they seem to strike so unpredictably. Yet, for centuries, and even millennia, people living in seismically active regions have noted premonitory signals. The historical records talk of changes of the water level in wells, of strange weather, of ground-hugging fog, of unusual behavior of animals (both domestic and wild) that seem to feel the approach of a major earthquake. With the advent of modern science and technology the list of premonitory signals has become even longer. See article.Note: This article is from 2005.
g Life - Scientists have created an extremely small RNA molecule that can catalyze a key reaction needed to synthesize proteins, the building blocks of life. The team believes that their findings could shed light on life's early origins on Earth. See article.
g Message - Is it even ethical for us to contact alien life? See article. Note: This article is a few years old.
g Cosmicus - Space apparently has its own recipe for making carbon nanotubes, one of the most intriguing contributions of nanotechnology here on Earth, and metals are conspicuously missing from the list of ingredients. See article.

Get your SF book or manuscript edited


Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future