Looking for the wrong kind of signals from extraterrestrials and oldest fossils of multicellar 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 Abodes - Some scientists have thought that the Earth's Ice Age conditions 12,900 years ago were triggered by a meteor or comet. But a recent study suggests that the evidence pointing to the ancient impact is nothing more than fungus and other matter. See article.
g Life - Scientists say they've discovered cookie-shaped fossils in Gabon that may represent the earliest-known multicellular life, dating back 2.1 billion years. But when you go that far back, claims about fossilized life get complicated. See article.
g Message - For almost half a decade, the SETI project has unsuccessfully searched for alien life. However, SETI may be looking for the wrong kind of signals from extraterrestrials, believe two researchers. See article.
g Cosmicus - The UK Space Agency has announced it will develop and launch a miniature satellite to be used for inexpensive science missions in low-Earth orbit. See article.

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100 million Earths and speculation that the Wow! signal was real

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 leader of the Kepler planet-hunting team has created a slow-moving scientific stir by telling an audience at a high-tech conference that our galaxy could harbor 100 million Earths, based on the space mission's raw data. The resulting buzz focuses not only on the findings, but also on the means by which they came to light. See article.
g Message - Several times over the past 50 years, searchers have picked up radio signals that flashed once or twice, then disappeared. The best known of these is called the "Wow!" signal, because that's what an astronomer who picked it up wrote on a printout from a radio telescope at Ohio State University in the 1970s. SETI searchers went back to the star in question immediately, but heard nothing. It may be well be, suggests scientist Gregory Benford, that we detected extraterrestrials more than three decades ago — and because we weren't taking into account what E.T. would do, failed to confirm it. See article.
g Cosmicus - A large asteroid in space that has a remote chance of slamming into the Earth would be most likely hit in 2182, if it crashed into our planet at all, a new study suggests. See article.
g Imagining - Want to play the “The Game of Life”? Okay, it’s not really a game. It is an implementation of cellular automata that John H. Conway chose to call "The Game of Life." It simulates the birth, death, etc., of organisms based on certain rules. If you like Tetris, you’ll find the game amusing.

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The science of StarCraft and what would we say to another civilization?

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 giant black hole spouting energy from inside a galaxy is acting like a cosmic magnifying glass, giving astronomers a clear view of an even more distant galaxy behind it. See article.
g Abodes - What may be the best-preserved small impact crater ever seen on Earth has been discovered in the remote Egyptian desert. See article.
g Message - If we finally prove were not alone in the cosmos, will it happen because we’ve discovered flashing lights in the sky? A growing number of SETI researchers think this is possible. See article. This article is from 2001.
g Cosmicus - It is a difficult business to design, build, successfully launch and then operate spacecraft on other worlds. Accomplishing the mission is particularly difficult for planetary probes, which go through significant atmospheres, collecting data on their way to the surface and, due to the challenges of the extreme environments associated with such destinations, often only survive for relatively brief periods once they have landed. See article. This article is from 2007.
g Imagining - Scientists in a variety of fields including entomology, evolutionary biology, systems ecology, astrobiology, and physics, help us determine how much of the technology featured in the StarCraft universe is entirely science fiction and what could actually exist in real life. See article.
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.

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Different forms of SETI through history and deepest known hydrothermal vent

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 Sun is equivalent to 80 billion hydrogen bombs exploding every second, but it is just a little star. See article. This article is from 2000.
g Abodes - An expedition partially funded by NASA has discovered the deepest known hydrothermal vent in the world. Studying the site, 5000 meters below the Caribbean Sea, can help astrobiologists understand the limits of life on Earth. See article.
g Life - Every day, millions of microorganisms travel with the wind from one place on Earth to another. Bacteria, funguses and viruses on dust particles can move thousands of kilometers. A team of researchers has now found that the phenomenon is escalating with climate change. See article.
g Intelligence - Is there obvious proof that we could be alone in the galaxy? Enrico Fermi thought so - and he was a pretty smart guy. Might he have been right? See article. This article is from 2001.
g Message - The search for extraterrestrial life has taken many forms through the years starting with pure imagination. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, completed its first survey of the entire sky. Among the more than one million images of everything from asteroids to distant galaxies, WISE has discovered over 90 near-Earth objects. See article.
g Aftermath - Look for an intriguing book to read: “Space, the Final Frontier?” by G. Genta e M. Rycroft. Published in 2003. The book primarily examines how we can become a spacefaring civilization, but it does include an interesting chapter about life in the universe, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, the Drake Equation, intelligent lifeforms, whether other lifeforms will be more like ET or Alien, and the possible humanoid characteristics of extraterrestrials. See commentary and table of contents.

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Nasty-smelling microbial slime and the various searches 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 - Cosmic explosions thousands of light-years away could shut down photosynthesis in the ocean at depths of up to 260 feet, a new study suggests. The calculations add to a growing body of research linking these great blasts, called gamma-ray bursts, with biological damage and even mass extinctions on Earth. See article.
g Abodes - For the first time, astronomers have discovered a planet far, far away that might be similar to Earth. This distant world, which pirouettes around a dim bulb of a star with the unglamorous name Gliese 581, may possibly sport a landscape that would be vaguely familiar to us – a panorama of liquid oceans and drifting continents. If so, there’s the chance that it’s a home to life – perhaps even advanced life. See article. This article is from 2007.
g Life - Astrobiology Magazine’s field research editor Henry Bortman spent a week alongside members of the Pavilion Lake Research Project in British Columbia, Canada. In Bortman’s sixth and final report, he describes a day trip to collect nasty-smelling microbial slime at nearby lakes. See article.
g Message - Want to get a sense of SETI’s history and varying projects? Jodrell Bank Observatory offers an easy to follow yet informative primer.
g Cosmicus - In theory, threats from space may be detected far in advance of their arrival, giving plenty of time to deflect them or at least prepare for the aftermath. But that’s in theory. “What we may actually get,” says psychologist Albert Harrison, “is an obsessive focus on a very constricted range of options, a refusal to consider or integrate new data, defensiveness that prevents decision makers from appreciating threats and developing alternatives, and panicky, ineffective last-minute choices.”
See article. This article is from 2006.
g Aftermath - Looking for some interesting reading on “first contact”? Try the science fiction anthology “First Contact,” edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Larry Segriff. The book came out in 1997. Here’s a review (though it’s less than flattering).

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Difficulty of understanding ETI and maps of the Red Planet

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 - Dark matter successfully explains the observed large-scale structure of the universe, a science blogger argues, as simulations without dark matter all fail to match the observations, but with dark matter, they match up practically perfectly. See article.
g Abodes - A camera aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has helped develop the most accurate global Martian map ever. Researchers and the public can access the map via several websites and explore and survey the entire surface of the Red Planet. See article.
g Life - Is there any evidence for panspermia, or is it just a seductive idea with a sexy moniker? See article. This article is from 2003.
g Message - What if we examined how to communicate with extraterrestrials from a telecommunication engineer’s point of view? That’s the approach of Brian McConnell’s book, “Beyond Contact: A Guide to SETI and Communicating with Alien Civilizations.” Though the book has been out a few years now, it’s still worth a read if you haven’t already delved into it. For more about the book and an interview with McConnell, see review.
g Cosmicus - Yvonne Pendleton has been named director of the NASA Lunar Science Institute headquartered at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. See article.
g Aftermath - Will we ever find a primer for decoding messages from extraterrestrials? Recently anthropologists who gathered for a major conference heard some news that will be sobering for SETI enthusiasts: It may be much more difficult to understand extraterrestrials than many scientists have thought before. See article.

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‘Cost-optimized’ signals from aliens and returning Martian soil samples to Earth in 2020s

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 discovered a star that is 300 times the mass of the Sun - twice as large as the previously accepted limit for the size of stars. The finding could alter theories of how solar systems form and evolve. See article.
g Abodes - It was Valentine’s Day 1990 when a sleeping eye awoke after nearly nine years of inactivity, and for a few brief moments, from a distance of nearly four billion miles, took its last look at the cosmic neighborhood from whence it came. Voyager 1, now the most distant human made object from Earth, sent back an image now known as “the Pale Blue Dot.” See article. This article is from 2005.
g Message - For 50 years we've been scanning the skies for signals from intelligent aliens. Now, scientists are wondering if there is a better approach. A new theory is bringing economics into the fold with the search for 'cost-optimized' signals from alien civilizations. See article.
g Cosmicus - Space officials in the United States and Europe are planning an ambitious dual-rover mission that could start collecting Martian soil samples in 2018 to be picked up by a subsequent mission and returned to Earth in the 2020s. See article.

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Photosynthesis zones and turning to the past in the search for life beyond Earth

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 camera riding on the world's first deep space solar sail has caught managed to observe a violent gamma-ray burst, one of the most powerful explosions in the universe See article.
g Abodes - By calculating where photosynthesis might be possible around the galaxy, scientists are developing a new way to figure out where Earth-like planets with life might be located. See article.
g Message - Among the most important SETI work is being done at Harvard University. See Harvard SETI page.
g Cosmicus - Astrobiology Magazine’s field research editor Henry Bortman is spending a week alongside members of the Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP) in British Columbia, Canada. In Bortman’s fifth report, he talks with astronauts participating in PLRP. See article.
g Learning - The question of whether we are alone in our universe has fascinated humanity since the earliest of times. Stories of mysterious beings from the sky permeate the mythology of many cultures and make a regular appearance in fiction, while the number of UFO sightings continues to rise. Yet aside from the myths and sensationalism, the study of astrobiology--the search for life elsewhere in the universe--has become widely accepted as a valid and important area of research. Astrobiology encompasses cosmology, astrophysics, planetary science, palaeontology, chemistry, biochemistry, biology, genetics and anthropology. Monica Grady, head of petrology and meteoritics in the department of mineralogy at the Natural History Museum, presents a comprehensive online introduction to astrobiology.
g Aftermath - Among scientists involved in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), it’s quite common to be focused on the future, ever mindful that it could take years, or even decades, to find a signal from otherworldly intelligence. But if historian Steve Dick has his way, astronomers will also turn their attention toward the past as they search for life beyond Earth. See article. This article is from 2003.

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Cash-strapped alien scientists and SETIcon

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 - Pioneering observations with the National Science Foundation's giant Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) have given astronomers a new tool for mapping large cosmic structures. The new tool promises to provide valuable clues about the nature of the mysterious "dark energy" believed to constitute nearly three-fourths of the mass and energy of the universe. See article.
g Abodes - The thermosphere, the layer of Earth's atmosphere that meets space, recently collapsed and is now rebounding again ... and we don't know why. The thermosphere is important because it shields us from the Sun's extreme ultraviolet photons. See article.
g Life - New research has identified the stem cells that generate three critical classes of nerve cells - olfactory receptors (ORNs), vomeronasal (VRNs) and gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons - that are responsible for enabling animals and humans, to eat, interact socially and reproduce. See article.
g Message - We know that the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is often strapped for cash. But what if the aliens out there trying to reach us, rather than being far superior technologically and beaming signals in all directions, are actually starving scientists, too? See article.
g Cosmicus - Veteran space industry observers say the manned space program is in deeper trouble and greater turmoil than at any time since the U.S. landed men on the moon more than 40 years ago. See article.
g Learning - SETIcon, “the first-ever public convention focused on the search for life in the universe in science fact and science fiction,” will take place Aug. 13–15 in Santa Clara, Calif. See article.
g Imagining - Here’s a neat site that examines aliens in science fiction films. While short on studying the evolution of those aliens, it does discuss how these villainous creatures are a manifestation of our own fears, a nice take on the anthropomorphic bias most people possess regarding alien life.
g Aftermath - Book alert: Here’s an interesting book for some astrobiological reading: “After Contact: The Human Response to Extraterrestrial Life” by Albert A. Harrison. See review.

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ETI sending tweets and lake-level changes on Titan

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 discovered the most massive stars known, including one at more than 300 times the mass of our sun — double the size that scientists thought heavyweight stars could reach. See article.
g Abodes - Scientists have found evidence of lake-level changes on Saturn's moon, Titan. Titan is the only world aside from Earth than is known to have a hydrological cycle. Studying Titan's hydrology can help astrobiologists understand how such cycles operate beyond Earth, and could have implications for theories about strange life on the unique moon. See article.
g Life - Scientists are regularly blown away by the complexity, power, and sheer number of microbes that live in our bodies. “We have over 10 times more microbes than human cells in our bodies,” said George Weinstock of Washington University in St. Louis. But the microbiome, as it’s known, remains mostly a mystery. “It’s as if we have these other organs, and yet these are parts of our bodies we know nothing about.” See article.
g Intelligence - Researchers have provided evidence that women can multitask more effectively than men. See article.
g Message - Aliens may be using a cosmic version of Twitter to contact us - but for decades we have been missing their "tweets", it has been claimed. ETI is more likely to be sending out short, directed messages than continuous signals beamed in all directions, say experts. See article.
g Cosmicus - A private suborbital spaceship built for the space tourism firm Virgin Galactic made its first flight with a crew onboard last week as it soared over California's Mojave Desert beneath its enormous mothership. 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. Read paper.

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No partial discoveries for SETI and challenges to planetary formation theory

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 - If M-Stars could host habitable planets, life may be much more widespread that we’ve previously thought. See article.
g Abodes - Recent discoveries of planetary systems around other stars have challenged the traditional model of planet development. These exoplanet discoveries have included gas giant planets in close orbit around their stars, some of which are in radically different planes of rotation from their primary stars. See article.
g Message - Sometimes being close counts – in horseshoes and romance, for example. For SETI, however, it’s hard to argue that a close call is any better than no call. After all, even if a signal mimics ET’s expected emission, what good is it if we eventually learn that it was only the carrier from a telecommunications satellite, ricocheting off the backup structure of our antenna? Ergo, SETI is often described as a one-bit experiment: there are no partial discoveries. See article. This article is from 2002.
g Cosmicus - With some robotic help, a team of scientists from NASA, Carnegie Mellon and the USGS has helped authorities solve a cold case murder investigation. See article.
g Aftermath - Here’s a follow-up to yesterday’s Aftermath feature about how SETI is using the social sciences to decipher our thoughts on alien life. See article. This article is from 2002.

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New exoworld discovered and defending the planet against invading 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 Abodes - Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a gas giant planet, named HD 209458b, that is orbiting so close to its star that its heated atmosphere is escaping into space. Studying the 'cometary planet' can provide new information about the evolution of planets and the variety of worlds that exist beyond our solar system. See article.
g Message - As the deep, rich drone of a didgeridoo continued to emanate from a portable CD player, American composer Andrew Kaiser wrapped up his argument for the role of music in interstellar communication. Speaking at a 2002 workshop in Paris, Kaiser echoed the sentiments of others at the meeting, stressing the fruitful interplay of art and science in constructing interstellar messages. See article. This article is from 2002.
g Cosmicus - To address the needs of high mobility along with a variety of manipulation activities for a astrobiology robot, a modular based approach seems appropriate because, the robot could be adjusted and modified in the field to test a variety of configurations for different tasks. One target of the field experiments was to see how long it would take to reconfigure and reprogram the system to adapt to new changes. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat classroom activity courtesy of NASA: Size and Shape. Size and shape are important in astrobiology. In this activity and slideshow, students will observe the importance of relative size and morphology in identifying microscopic structures when viewed with the scanning electron microscope.
g Aftermath - Book alert: How do we defend the planet in the event of an extra-terrestrial invasion? In “An Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare Applied to Extra-Terrestrial Invasion”, Travis Taylor, et al., examine the matter.


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Contingency plan for first contact with ETI and the argument for panspermia

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 have identified a new class of moons in the rings of Saturn. It is the first time that scientists have been able to track the orbits of individual objects in a debris disk. The research is revealing clues about disks around other stars in our universe that are too far away to observe directly. See article.
g Life - A researcher argues that “only panspermia is a viable scientific explanation as to the origin of Earthly life. The first life forms to appear on Earth were produced by other living creatures who were likely encased in debris from the shattered remnants of those planets that circled the parent star nearly 5 billion years ago.” See paper. This paper is from 2009.
g Message - The second "A" in ATA stands for array, meaning that this instrument is made of many small dishes. Although each dish is as big as a house, they are small compared to the complete telescope: ten city blocks on a side. The bigger the telescope, the more detail you see in the images. By breaking up our collecting area into hundreds of small pieces, we capture detail as if we had a telescope the size of a subdivision for the price of a single apartment building. See article. This article is from 2008.
g Cosmicus - The Senate Commerce Committee, capping months of intense debate over the future of NASA's manned-exploration program, on Thursday unanimously approved a $19 billion bill giving the White House most of what it sought to outsource space transportation. See article.
g Learning - Evolution for educators: Visit “Understanding Evolution,” a site Berkeley University’s launched in 2004 to meet the needs of K-12 teachers. The site provides an informal on-line course covering essential science content, as well as a searchable database of resources for the classroom. See course.
g Aftermath - What if aliens were to make contact—do we have an E.T. contingency plan? See article.

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Juno spacecraft in cleanroom and following up potential 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 - Scientists with NASA's ICESCAPE mission are currently exploring the Arctic's Chukchi Sea, studying the physics, chemistry and biology of the ocean and ice. Studying environments such as this can help astrobiologists better understand the effects of climate change and the role they will play in the future habitability of Earth. See article.
g Life - Astrobiology Magazine’s field research editor Henry Bortman is spending a week alongside members of the Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP) in British Columbia, Canada. In Bortman’s fourth field report, he discusses work being done to determine the role biology plays in forming the Pavilion Lake microbialites. See article.
g Intelligence - A woman's body shape may play a role in how good her memory is, according to a new study. See article.
g Message - In real-time SETI, if you miss a beat the dance starts over. If you have to start over, you’ve just wasted precious telescope time and perhaps missed the most important discovery in history. That’s why Project Phoenix follows up on potential Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ETI) signals within minutes of the original detection. See article. This article is from 2003.
g Cosmicus - NASA's Juno spacecraft is in a cleanroom in Denver, where engineers recently added a unique protective shield around its sensitive electronics. Juno's launch window opens in August 2011, when the craft will begin its mission to study the Jupiter system. See article.
g Learning - What is the Carl Sagan Center? Astrobiology has become one of the hottest fields of science, and one of the most interesting to the general public. Research in astrobiology has spread widely, with many major universities and other research institutions establishing active programs. Scientists at the SETI Institute have been doing astrobiology research for more than two decades. See article. This article is from 2008.

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Rethinking theories of plane formation and transitioning from unicellular to multicelluar organisms

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 atmosphere of the sun blazes clearly in a new image from NASA that combines observations from Earth and space during the only total solar eclipse of this year. See article.
g Abodes - Recent discoveries of gas giant planets in unusual orbits challenge the generally accepted theory of planet formation. While these discoveries do not disprove the theory, they have opened our eyes to chaotic solar systems quite unlike our own. See article.
g Life - A new study shows that the transition from unicellular to multicelluar organisms may not have been as difficult as previously thought. The evolution of multicelluar organisms was one of the most pivotal steps in the history of life on Earth. See article.
g Message - Science fiction author David Brin offers a copy of his 1983 article “Xenology: The Science of Asking Who’s Out There”. While two decades old, the information is still relevant and offers a good overview of fundamental astrobiological questions.
g Cosmicus - For the past half century we have witnessed a golden age of solar system exploration unfold: flybys of all the major planets, followed by orbiters, and on selected worlds, landers. So where do we go from here? See article.
g Imagining - Despite years of “The X Files” and Fox specials, the public seems less prone to believe that aliens are visiting Earth. See article. This article is from 2005.
g Aftermath - There’s a neat transcription of a video conference interview with Dr. Frank Drake (whose famous equation this site is organized after), conducted by the class members of Penn State’s "Space Colonization” class. Drake touches on a variety of SETI topics, including the philosophical implication of extraterrestrial contact. The interview took place in 2001.

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Amateur SETI and space probe rides solar sail

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 - Complex interactions between Saturn and its satellites have led to a comprehensive model that could explain how oxygen may end up on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. The presence of these oxygen atoms could provide the basis for pre-biological chemistry. See article.
g Life - Primitive life left its mark on Earth by transforming rocks, creating patterns and minerals only formed in the presence of life. See article.
g Intelligence - When they taught together at Harvard in the late 1990s, psychologist Daniel Simons and his student Christopher Chabris got an idea for a new experiment testing how the brain processes visual information. Their 60-second test was outrageously simple: it required only that you watch people passing basketballs. See article.
g Message - The search for extraterrestrial life need not be limited to the government or scientists. Don’t believe it? Then check out this Web site, “Amateur SETI: Project BAMBI (Bob and Mike’s Big Investment)”, which describes the design and construction of a 4 GHz amateur radio telescope dedicated to SETI.
g Cosmicus - An unmanned probe riding a solar sail through space has felt its first accelerating push from sunlight in a successful test of its novel propulsion system, Japan's space agency has announced. See article.
g Aftermath - Visitors from other worlds – should any appear – would be enormously ahead of us from a technological viewpoint. The same is true for any aliens we might tune in with our SETI experiments. See article. This article is from 2000.

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Seeing through starlight to find Earth-like planets and the 1974 message we sent to ETIs

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 - Earth-like planets are familiar ground in science fiction, and in reality many scientists believe that our galaxy could be full of such worlds. However, habitable planets and moons are difficult to find because the light of their host stars is so bright in comparison. Now, scientists may have figured out a way to see through the starlight. See article.
g Life - The sample return canister from the Hayabusa spacecraft has been opened, and does contain a small amount of dust, possibly from the asteroid Itokawa. Studying samples from an asteroid can help astrobiologists determine if impacts delivered materials important to the origins of life on the early Earth. See article.
g Intelligence - A new journal article suggests that evolutionary forces also push women to be more sexual, although in unexpected ways. See article.
g Message - Earthlings haven't made many deliberate broadcasts to extraterrestrials, but in 1974, as part of a ceremony at the economy-sized Arecibo radio telescope, the observatory staff arranged to beam a three-minute message to a few hundred thousand stars in the constellation of Hercules. See article. This article is from 2003.
g Cosmicus - The shrinking technology of cell phones, laptops and cameras are now leading to palm-sized satellites. Easy to build and affordable, these small satellites offer a new way to conduct astrobiology research. They also could change the way we explore the universe. See article.

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Could Zeta Reticuli be a home for ETI and what is exoarcheology?

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 - Could an extraterrestrial civilization exist around Zeta Reticuli AB? See article. Note: This article is heavy on UFO mythology.
g Abodes - Researchers are reporting the first experimental evidence showing how atmospheric nitrogen can be incorporated into organic macromolecules. The finding indicates what organic molecules might be found on Titan, a location that may be a model for the chemistry of pre-life Earth. See article.
g Life - Astrobiology Magazine’s field research editor Henry Bortman is spending a week alongside members of the Pavilion Lake Research Project in British Columbia, Canada. In this third field report, he discusses the ongoing effort to classify the lake’s microbialites. See article.
g Intelligence - Exoarchaeology, also known as xenoarchaeology, is the as-yet-theoretical archaeological study of remains and artifacts left by extra-terrestrial (i.e. "alien") cultures and civilizations. In a sense the field parallels the physical study of extraterrestrial life (exobiology or astrobiology), and the would-be study of living alien societies, were we to actually encounter one (exoanthropology). See article.
g Message - The odds of successfully eavesdropping on the daily radio traffic of extraterrestrial life forms have been calculated by a pair of UK scientists to be astronomically small. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA says its next generation Mars rover, Curiosity, will feature X-ray equipment that will let it more rapidly identify areas on the red planet that may have supported life. See article.
g Aftermath - Scientists such as the SETI Institute’s John Billingham and Jill Tarter have taken the lead in planning for the day we might receive a signal from life beyond Earth. Working with diplomats and space lawyers, they have helped develop protocols that guide the activities of SETI scientists who think they may have detected extraterrestrial intelligence. See article. This article is from 2003.

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Best way to hunt down ETI signals and new technique for finding exotic extrasolar planets

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 - For the first time, a team of astronomers has succeeded in investigating the earliest phases of the evolutionary history of our home Galaxy, the Milky Way. The scientists, from the Argelander Institute for Astronomy at Bonn University and the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn, deduce that the early galaxy went from smooth to clumpy in just a few hundred million years. See article.
g Abodes - In a new analysis of a lunar sample collected by Apollo 17, researchers have detected and dated carbon on the moon in the form of graphite -- the sooty stuff of pencil lead - which survived from around 3.8 billion years ago, when the moon was heavily bombarded by meteorites. Up to now, scientists thought the trace amounts of carbon previously detected on the surface of the moon came from the solar wind. See article.
g Life - In a novel mathematical model that reproduces sleep patterns for multiple species, an international team of researchers has demonstrated that the neural circuitry that controls the sleep/wake cycle in humans may also control the sleep patterns of 17 different mammalian species. See article.
g Message - What’s the best way to hunt down the extraterrestrials? Traditionally, radio has been preferred. But is there some earthly bias in this assumption? Do researchers choose to scan the sky with large antennas only because, by historical accident, radio was developed decades earlier than the technology needed to communicate with light? See article. This article is from 2001.
g Cosmicus - Astronomers have used a completely new technique to find an exotic extrasolar planet. The same approach might even be sensitive enough to find planets as small as the Earth in orbit around distant stars. See article.

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Venus may have harbored life billions of years ago and the Search for Extraterrestrial Artifacts

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 - Venus, currently one of the most inhospitable places in the solar system, may once have had an ample supply of water – possibly even oceans – and been a potentially habitable place when it was young, a new study suggests. See article.
g Life - The view that life will emerge with high probability on Earth-like planets is shared by many scientists, although opinions differ on just how like Earth an Earth-like planet needs to be. One planet known to be 100 percent Earth-like is Earth itself. If life originated on Earth, rather than being brought here from somewhere else, the question then arises as to whether life may have arisen more than once. If that is the case, then it is of interest to ask what evidence might exist for such a second genesis of life. See paper. This paper is from 2005.
g Intelligence - Stem cells in the brain remain dormant until called upon to divide and make more neurons. However, little has been known about the molecular guards that keep them quiet. Now scientists from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified the signal that prevents stem cells from proliferating, protecting the brain against too much cell division and ensuring a pool of neural stem cells that lasts a lifetime. See article.
g Message - To subject the Fermi Paradox to needed experimental testing, a researcher has offered the Artifact Hypothesis: A technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilization has undertaken a long-term program of' interstellar exploration via transmission of material artifacts. See article.
g Cosmicus - Work towards realizing space tourism has moved forward a lot in the last few years. Until recently only a few research papers had been published over the previous decade, and largely ignored. Recently however the number of publications and degree of media interest in the subject has increased greatly, and work is now advancing in many directions. See article.

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Exploring 20,000-foot high volcano to better understand ET and Voyager 2 going strong for nearly 33 years

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 highest lake in the world hides near the summit of a dormant volcano, a small icy pool in a sleeping giant towering nearly 20,000 feet above Chiles Atacama Desert. The volcano’s name is Licancabur, and its largely unexplored lake poses many questions that are directly relevant to space exploration and astrobiology. See article. This article is from 2002.
g Life - As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, so does the pressure on the plant kingdom. The hope among policymakers, scientists and concerned citizens is that plants will absorb some of the extra CO2 and mitigate the impacts of climate change. For a few decades now, researchers have hypothesized about one major roadblock: nitrogen. See article.
g Intelligence - A worldwide survey of more than 136,000 people in 132 countries included questions about happiness and income, and the results reveal that while life satisfaction usually rises with income, positive feelings don't necessarily follow, researchers report. See article.
g Message - The drive to place humanity at the center of the universe has led to a stream of assumptions that, as facts have been collected, are shown to be ill founded. The Ptolemaic Earth centered view was replaced by Copernican Sun centered view, which in its time was also replaced. The assumption that we are alone in the universe is also under threat of replacement. One of the more interesting aspects of our apparent aloneness was pointed out by Enrico Fermi and is know as Fermi's Paradox. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA's plucky Voyager 2 spacecraft has hit a long-haul operations milestone June 28 - operating continuously for 12,000 days. For nearly 33 years, the venerable spacecraft has been returning data about the giant outer planets, and the characteristics and interaction of solar wind between and beyond the planets. Among its many findings, Voyager 2 discovered Neptune's Great Dark Spot and its 450-meter-per-second (1,000-mph) winds. See article.

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Martian dry lake beds and could ‘Talosians’ exist?

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 - What is the connection between dry lake beds and following the water? The answer is Mars. See article.
g Life - Saber-toothed cats may be best known for their supersized canines, but they also had exceptionally strong forelimbs for pinning prey before delivering the fatal bite, says a new study. See article.
g Intelligence - Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that women and men eat more chocolate as depressive symptoms increase, suggesting an association between mood and chocolate. See article.
g Message - Book alert: Scour your used bookstore shelves for "Life Beyond Earth," by Timothy Ferris. Rock-solid science writer Ferris has covered this ground before. In the two-hour PBS documentary that he wrote and narrated - which shares the title, text, and many of the images of this generously illustrated book - Ferris tackles two age-old questions about the potentially universal nature of life: Are we alone, and, if not, is anybody listening? See review.
g Cosmicus - Many people still think that to get the chance to go to space you've got to try to be an astronaut. Unfortunately, the chance of getting to be a government astronaut is tiny, simply because there are so few - and there's no prospect of a lot more being employed. However, don't despair. Far more people will go to space as visitors. See article.
g Imagining - Star Trek’s very first alien, the Talosians, pose quite an evolutionary challenge: Their heads are oversized because of large, powerful brains capable of telepathy and even mind control of others. First off, a brain of that size must demand a lot of energy. This is somewhat addressed through the large arteries and veins apparent on their bald heads; their frail bodies also indicate fewer cells below the neckline for oxygen-carrying blood to support. But they probably also need greater lung capacity to cycle more oxygen into their bodies as well as a larger heart for pumping that oxygen-laden blood to and through the brain. Their bodies don’t indicate larger lungs, however. Another problem with their head/brain size is giving birth. The enormity of the head is limited by the size and shape of the pelvis — and their human shape and gait indicates they couldn’t give birth to an infant with a head any larger than ours. A possibility is that their the brain primarily develops outside of the womb; perhaps they grow in their telepathic powers as they age. Another possibility: They are not born naturally but artificially created, indicating a separation from among the most basic instincts – mating. The Talosians, after all, are fairly unimaginative creatures, dependent upon probing the minds of others for new experiences! As for their telepathic and power of illusion capabilities, we’ll just have to presume that somehow their brain lobes have evolved sections capable of connecting and interacting across the medium of air with another creature’s neurons.

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First directly observed extrasolar planet orbits sun-like star and contact with ETI by 2100

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 confirmed that the first directly observed extrasolar planet is orbiting a sun-like star. The planet is adding to our knowledge of how planetary systems form and can help astrobiologists better understand where to search for habitable worlds around distant stars. See article.
g Life - Modern marsupials may be popular animals at the zoo and in children's books, but new findings by University at Buffalo biologists reveal that they harbor a "fossil" copy of a gene that codes for filoviruses, which cause Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fevers and are the most lethal viruses known to humans. See article.
g Message - Britain’s Astronomer Royal says we’ll likely know if intelligent aliens exist by the end of this century. See article. This article is from 2005.

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Searching for ETI’s Dyson Spheres and how humanity drove the mammoth to extinction

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 - There are several potential niches for life elsewhere in the universe, as well as terrestrial niches that we consider extreme, that may not be at all extreme from either an evolutionary, or even a physiological point of view. UV radiation tolerance, acidophily (acid lovers), alkilophily (base lovers), thermophily (heat lovers), halophily (salt lovers), and anaerobiosis (oxygen haters) may all be cases in point. SO what the geochemical extremes of salinity and desiccation? See article. This article is from 2005.
g Life - Once thought to be "evolutionary leftovers," new research has shown that ostriches in fact use their feathered forelimbs as sophisticated air-rudders and braking aids. See article.
g Intelligence - A new analysis of the extinction of woolly mammoths and other large mammals more than 10,000 years ago suggests that they may have fallen victim to the same type of "trophic cascade" of ecosystem disruption that scientists say is being caused today by the global decline of predators such as wolves, cougars, and sharks. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA's space shuttle fleet will continue flying through at least early next year due to delays with the agency's final two missions. See article.
g Learning - A 100-foot tall rocket rolled into Houston last week to join the small collection of very large launch vehicles populating the rocket park at NASA's Johnson Space Center. See article.

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New evidence supports favorable conditions at one time for life on Mars and how the aurora affects our search 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 - Astronomers using NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite, together with optical, infrared and radio data, find that, at times, most of a black hole’s X-rays come from its jets. See article.
g Abodes - New evidence supports theories that conditions favorable for life may have existed all over the surface of ancient Mars. ESA's Mars Express and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have identified hydrated silicate minerals in the northern lowlands of Mars, indicating that water once flowed there. See article.
g Life - It may seem intuitive that growth and development somehow go together so that plants and animals end up with the right number of cells in all the right places. But it is only now that scientists at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy have gotten some of the first insights into how this critical coordination actually works in a plant. See article.
g Intelligence - While environment and family history are factors in healthy aging, genetic variants play a critical and complex role in conferring exceptional longevity, according to a new study by a team of researchers from the Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine and the Boston Medical Center. See article.
g Message - It's the mother of all earthly radio transmissions, a broadcast that's been on the air for billions of years. However, and despite the long run, it's one radio program that you'll probably give a pass: it sounds like Fast-Finger Freddie twisting the shortwave dial at a few hundred RPM. See article. This article is from 2008.
g Cosmicus - Why is astrobiology important for the United States and NASA? See article.
g Learning - NASA may not be sending astronauts back to the Moon anytime this decade, but the space agency hopes to give virtual explorers a sense of what life on the Moon would be like in a new computer game launching this month. See article.

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Could galactic empires exist and how the first stars were born

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 - Many details of how the universe’s first stars were born are not known, but a new experiment helps fill in some gaps. See article.
g Abodes - Recent results from the Cassini mission suggest that hydrogen and acetylene are depleted at the surface of Titan. Both results are still preliminary and the hydrogen loss in particular is the result of a computer calculation, and not a direct measurement. However the findings are interesting for astrobiology. See article.
g Message - Could galactic empires exist? In a previous article, we noted that there has been plenty of time for aliens keen on colonizing the Milky Way to pull it off. However, we see no signs of a galactic federation. Why does the cosmos look so untouched and unconquered? What is keeping advanced extraterrestrials from claiming every star system in sight? See article. This article is from 2001.
g Cosmicus - Astrobiology Magazine’s Henry Bortman is spending a week alongside members of the Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP). This second field report describes the glitches and problems researchers have had to overcome so that their “Gavia” robotic vehicles can explore the lake as planned. See article.
g Learning - It’s a familiar chestnut: “the dinosaurs would be around today if they only had a space program.” Of course there’s truth in this. See article. This article is from 2002.
g Aftermath - Here’s an intriguing article that is frequently referenced in astrobiology papers: "The Consequences of a Discovery: Different Scenarios", by astronomer Ivan Almar. This article is from 1995.

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Observing an exoworld’s superstorm and creating non-Earthly 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 Abodes - Astronomers have measured a “superstorm” in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time. Such observations may pave the way for more precise observations of extrasolar planets, ultimately helping astrobiologists detect habitable worlds around distant stars. See article.
g Message - After its long voyage from Earth across the vast stretches of interstellar space, the space ship finally lands on a planet with an environment compatible with human life. The human space voyagers descend from their ship and encounter a race of intelligent beings native to the planet. Communication is soon established between the two groups, human and alien, of intelligent beings. So might begin a story in the contemporary science fiction genre. Such stories might not seem to have much to do with the question of the nature of language, but there is one aspect of the story that merits our attention, namely, the fact that communication is established. That in itself is remarkable. In real life humans have never succeeded in establishing communication with any other species, at least not in establishing communication in the same way as they do with alien beings in many science fiction stories. In such stories it is often possible to communicate with the aliens as effectively as with a human group who speak another language. Are we to say, then, that these alien beings have language? See article. This article is from 1982.
g Cosmicus - Quote of the Day: “. . . to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on a seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” – Isaac Newton
g Learning - When it comes to summer getaways, space enthusiasts with the means have a plethora of choices, and the rise of commercial spaceflight is making the list even longer. See article.
g Imagining - Science fiction authors produce a lot of very strange critters. In the desperate dash to be different, many go way overboard to invent fantastic, outlandish species unlike anything anyone has ever seen. It’s an admirable expression of their artistic abilities, but there’s an inherent problem: they almost always lose the reader along the way. Sure, it sounds ultra-cool to have a whole herd of 80-foot quasi-limbed orb-stasis beings, but unless you draw me a picture of these things, the reader often has no idea what you’re talking about. However, if you write that your alien has four wings, 10 eyes and looks a little like a kangaroo, the reader is right there with you. Most readers need at least something familiar to draw on for their imagination, or they get lost. See article. This article is from 2002.

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Consequences for society if extraterrestrial intelligence is discovered and ancient stars cannibalized from other galaxies

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 - Our Milky Way galaxy snatched up many of its most ancient stars from smaller galaxies that shredded each other in violent collisions, a new study suggests. See article.
g Abodes - They would have been the first rings ever observed around a moon: three narrow bands of icy debris encircling Saturn's second-largest satellite, Rhea. Space physicists announced their existence in March 2008. But a more definitive search finds that they simply aren't there. And that raises the question of what exactly the first team saw. See article.
g Learning - Need a map of a planet in our solar system? The USGS and NASA come to the rescue! See maps.
g Aftermath - Here’s one common man’s musings on the consequences for society if extraterrestrial intelligence is discovered: "Inevitably society would change should extraterrestrial intelligence be discovered. The question is to what extent. We might react in the same way we did with the new millennium when it was imminent, but it proved to be much ado about almost nothing. The same may be true for the discovery of one or more extraterrestrial civilizations. On the other hand, the extreme opposite is a scenario where all of our worst fears are fulfilled." See article.

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What if ETI is many millennia beyond us and field report from Canada's Pavilion Lake

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 team of scientists and astronauts have ventured to Canada's Pavilion Lake to study the lake's odd bacterial life and practice techniques that may one day be used to seek out life on other worlds. Astrobiology Magazine's Henry Bortman sends a field report from the project
g Message - We inevitably tend to envision the capabilities of putative extraterrestrials as being similar to, or slightly more advanced than ours. But what could a society that’s many millennia beyond us do? Could they ever map our world and see our ancient walls, our cities, or even us? See article. This article is from 2003.
g Cosmicus - NASA's Curiosity rover - part of the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory mission - has been outfitted with an onboard X-Ray instrument that will help scientists determine if Mars was once habitable for life. The mission is currently scheduled for launch in late 2011. See article.
g Aftermath - It’s a quite old news story (14 years!), but the issues raised remain relevant and greatly underexamined: If E.T. phones home, will it be safe to answer? See article.

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What sort of signal is a SETI hit and using atmospheres to measure exoworlds’ masses

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 masses of exoplanets have so far been inferred from the tiny gravitational pull they exert on the host stars. It is now possible to measure them from shifts in spectral lines arising from the planets’ atmospheres. See article.
g Life - Water is not an essential ingredient for life, scientists claim. See article. This article is from 2004.
g Message - What sort of signal would satisfactorily announce an extraterrestrial intelligence as detected by radio-emission or light reception? For an opinion article on what sort of signal is a SETI hit, click here.
g Cosmicus - With the retirement of NASA's space shuttles on the horizon, a special White House-appointed task force has launched a new interactive website to seek input from Florida's Space Coast workers most affected by the looming course changes in America's space program. See article.

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Interview with SETI’s new director and Cassini makes lowest pass through Titan’s atmosphere

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 signal astrophysicists once dismissed as contamination of X-ray observations could actually improve forecasts of dangerous space weather that threatens Earth. See article.
g Abodes - Cassini has successfully completed its lowest pass through Titan's atmosphere. See article.
g Message - The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Life) Institute has a new director of its Carl Sagan Center for Study of Life in the Universe. David Morrison will take the reins from his predecessor, Frank Drake, who pioneered the famous Drake Equation. Here’s the transcript from an NPR interview with Morrison.
g Cosmicus - NASA's Curiosity rover, coming together for a late 2011 launch to Mars, has a newly installed component: a key onboard X-ray instrument for helping the mission achieve its goals. See article.

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