Planet close to Earth-size discovered and determining shape of extremely small, distant objects

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 astronomers that includes the University of Hawaii’s Nader Haghighipour has announced the discovery of a planet that could have liquid water on its surface. The planet, which is probably 30 percent larger than Earth, was discovered using one of the telescopes of the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea. It orbits a relatively small star, Gliese 581, which is 20 light-years from Earth in the constellation Libra. See article.
g Message - Since the beginning of astronomical observation, science has been viewing light on a curve. In a galaxy filled with thousands of eclipsing binary stars, we've refined our skills by measuring the brightness or intensity of so-called variable star as a function of time. The result is known as a "light curve." Through this type of study, we've discovered size, distance and orbital speed of stellar bodies and refined our ability to detect planetary bodies orbiting distant suns. Here on Earth, most of the time it's impossible for us to resolve such small objects even with the most powerful of telescopes, because their size is less than one pixel in the detector. But new research should let us determine the shape of an object ... like a ringed planet, or an orbiting alien space station. See article. This article is from 2005.
g Cosmicus - Bid adieu to wind power or conventional solar power, for scientists have suggested that the world's energy needs could be met 100 billion times over using a satellite to harness the solar wind and beam the energy to Earth - though focussing the beam could be tricky. See article.

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Narrow timeframe to listen for ETI signals and U.N. alien ambassador

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 - Lightning on Venus and Earth may spark in much the same way despite vast differences in the atmospheres of the two planets, scientists say. See article.
g Life - A new paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology is providing a unique account of the origin of forms in plant and animal body plans. The model is not based on genetic code or natural selection, and could provide new insights into the origin and evolution of life on our planet. See article.
g Message - A new study suggests that intelligent aliens, if their technological progression is similar to that of humanity's, are likely to have moved away from noisy radio transmissions to harder-to-hear digital signals within a 100-year time frame. That offers Earth just a narrow window in which to pick up any signals. See article.
g Cosmicus - The private spaceflight company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has shifted a planned Oct. 23 launch of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo vessel to November. See article.
g Aftermath - According to some British news reports, the U.N. is set to appoint Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman as the world organization's space ambassador for extraterrestrial contact affairs. See article.

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Venus’ hot atmosphere cooling its interior and new robotic lunar lander

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 - It may seem downright bizarre, but a new model of Venus' super-hot atmosphere suggests its greenhouse gases may actually be cooling the planet's interior. See article.
g Message - On an episode of “The Space Show”, Scot Stride, a senior engineer at NASA JPL in Pasadena, Calif., was the guest for this Space Show program. Stride discussed SETI programs with us and highlighted his discussion with the SETI alternatives, SETV (Search for ET Visitation) and S3ETI (Solar System SETI). Stride provided listeners with a superb background and history on SETI, how it started and how it became what it is today. Listen to the show. This program is from 2005.
g Cosmicus - The aerospace company Astrium Space Transportation will complete mission design work on a robotic lunar lander under an 18-month contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) valued at 6.5 million euros ($8.5 million), Astrium officials announced. See article.
g Learning - Dr. Charles Lee is a FRST Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Biological Sciences at The University of Waikato. His research into the microbial ecology of extreme environments received a significant financial boost on Friday when the 2010 Marsden Fund grants were announced. The Fast-Start grant will support new research into the relationship between the McMurdo Dry Valleys soils and their resident microbial populations. Studying the microscopic life of this frozen desert could shed new light on the long-term glacial history of the valleys, while providing a valuable biological perspective with which to assess current and future environmental change in the Antarctic. Dr. Lee was kind enough to field a few questions from Journeys to the Ice for Sciblogs.

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What our solar system looks like to aliens and coreshine

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 - Science is literally in the dark when it comes to the birth of stars, which occurs deep inside clouds of gas and dust. These clouds are completely opaque to ordinary light. Now, a group of astronomers has discovered a new astronomical phenomenon that appears to be common in such clouds, and promises a new window onto the earliest phases of star formation. The phenomenon - infrared light that is scattered by unexpectedly large grains of dust, which the astronomers have termed "coreshine" - probes the dense cores where stars are born. See article.
g Abodes - New supercomputer simulations tracking the interactions of thousands of dust grains show what the solar system might look like to alien astronomers searching for planets. The models also provide a glimpse of how this view might have changed as our planetary system matured. See article.
g Message - Visiting another civilization on a distant world would be fascinating, but at present such a trip is beyond our capabilities. However, it is perfectly within our capabilities to develop a communications system using a powerful transmitter and a sensitive receiver, and using it to search the sky for alien worlds whose citizens have a similar inclination. See article.
g Cosmicus - The second model of Europe's automated space station cargo carrier will not be launched until February 2011 at the earliest, rather than in December as planned, in what European government and industry officials said Sept. 21 is a classic conflict between commercial and government customers that use the same rocket. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat site: The World At Night. TWAN is a program to produce and present a collection of stunning photographs and time-lapse videos of the world’s landmarks against the celestial attractions. The eternally peaceful sky looks the same above symbols of all nations and regions, attesting to the truly unified nature of Earth as a planet rather than an amalgam of human-designated territories.

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Source of Martian methane and unique account of the origin of forms in plant and animal body plans

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 majestic new image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals billowing waves of glowing gas and dust at the heart of a bright and active star-forming nebula in deep space. See article.
g Abodes - A new study indicates that methane in the atmosphere of Mars lasts less than a year. Methane is replenished from localized sources that show seasonal and annual variations. This pattern of methane production raises questions as to whether the methane comes from geological activity - or biological processes. See article.
g Life - A new paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology is providing a unique account of the origin of forms in plant and animal body plans. The model is not based on genetic code or natural selection, and could provide new insights into the origin and evolution of life on our planet. See article.
g Message - Here’s an interesting interview of Jill Tarter, the director of the SETI Institute, by The Montreal Mirror from 2002. See article.
g Cosmicus - Medical devices being developed to help deliver health care to astronauts in space might also benefit patients on Earth. See article.
g Learning - He has spent much of his life charting human folly, but scientist Tim Flannery remains a determined optimist. He talks to Peter Munro about love, skeletons and his latest book. See article.

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Pope’s astronomer would baptize ETI an complex Moon 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 Stars - Call it the ultimate solar fake-out: A new study has found that when storms rage on the sun, they don't always shoot out in a straight line, but actually switch directions. See article.
g Abodes - New data shows that the Moon's surface is more complex than scientist previously thought. By studying evidence of geologic processes and impacts on the Moon, astrobiologists are learning about the history of our solar system and the conditions that allowed for a habitable Earth. See article.
g Message - Just how does SETI work? Here’s a good primer.
g Cosmicus - There's a microscopic hope for U.S.-China space ties, analysts say. See article.
g Aftermath - If extraterrestrials exist, then they may have souls, and if they'd like to be baptized, a Vatican astronomer has offered to reach out and touch them. See article.

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Imaging a galaxy like our own and synthetics to aid Mars mission

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 beautiful spiral galaxy 60 million light-years from Earth could help astronomers better understand our own Milky Way because of a trademark central bar-like structure. See article.
g Abodes - The dinosaurs apparently got a warning shot. See article.
g Cosmicus - When packing for a manned mission to Mars or the Moon, the best thing to bring may not be food or fuel, but specially-designed organisms that can create those things for you. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat Web site for young kids, courtesy of NASA: Space Place . It offers games, animations, projects, and fun facts about Earth, space and technology.

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Giant exoworlds snuggling up to stars and NASA's Desert RATS

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 newfound alien solar system with planets the size of Saturn circling close to their star is helping astronomers learn how some giant worlds snuggle up to their stellar parents like moths to a flame. See article.
g Intelligence - Princeton University research suggests something that college students have known for decades: Sexual activity may lower stress. 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. This article is from 1996.
g Cosmicus - NASA's Desert RATS – or Research and Technology Studies – are making their 13th trip to the desert this fall for another round of analog testing. The Earth-based project is helping NASA plan future human missions to locations like Mars where humans will play a scientific role in the search for life in our solar system. See article.
g Learning - The scientists who put an innovative "tree of life" online last year now have made that same resource available -- for free - for iPhone users. The new "TimeTree" application lets anyone with an Apple iPhone harness a vast Internet storehouse of data about the diversity of life, from bacteria to humans. The intuitive interface is designed to answer a simple question, quickly and authoritatively: how long ago did species A and species B share a common ancestor? See article.

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Hot exoworld with no methane and crafting a message that represents Earth and humanity

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, hot alien planet with almost no methane in its atmosphere continues to stump astronomers, who have long thought the gas was a common feature of such worlds. See article.
g Life - An ancestor of HIV that infects monkeys is thousands of years older than previously thought, suggesting that HIV, which causes AIDS, is not likely to stop killing humans anytime soon, finds a study by University of Arizona and Tulane University researchers. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA needs to evolve for the future, not get stuck in the past, the agency's deputy chief said this week. See article.
g Learning - Princeton University has announced a new Planets and Life certificate program, which will introduce students to astrobiology, a field that explores the origins of life and the potential for life on other planets. 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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Comets produce amino acids and astronaut veggies grown in Arizona

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 comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma (a thin, fuzzy, temporary atmosphere) and sometimes also a tail. Occasionally, they will collide with planets such as the Earth. New research from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists shows that comets that crashed into Earth millions of years ago could have produced amino acids - the building blocks of life. Amino acids are critical to life and serve as the building blocks of proteins, which are linear chains of amino acids. See article.
g Life - Even some of the most advanced technology in medicine couldn't get Clarisse to give up all of her secrets. After all, she's protected them for more than 50 million years. See article.
g Message - Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can join a worldwide search for intelligent life in space. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/345465.stm.
g Cosmicus - Astronauts flying to Mars or beyond may be able to grow their own veggies during the long trip using new technology tested in the Arizona desert. See article.

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Explaining absence of organic compounds on surface of Mars and a sign of alien intelligence

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 model has been proposed to explain the absence of organic compounds on surface of Mars. See article.
g Life - A mineralogist believes he's discovered how life's early building blocks connected four billion years ago. See article.
g Intelligence - A new study shows how fitter kids generally score better on academic tests. See article.
g Message - What would be a sign of alien intelligence? Forget mathematics — try a simple, pure-tone radio signal. See article. This article is from 2003.
g Cosmicus - NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, aka Curiosity, is scheduled to launch in late 2011. The goal of the mission is to determine whether or not Mars once had environments capable of supporting life as we know it. For astrobiologists, Curiosity will be a major step toward understanding the habitability of our solar system. See article.

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Habitable worlds in our solar system and new trans-Neptunian objects

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 - With some clever science, astronomers have re-examined data archives from the Hubble Space Telescope and discovered 14 new trans-Neptunian objects. These objects rest beyond the orbit of Neptune and can teach us a great deal about the history of the Solar System and the materials that could have been delivered to the early Earth. See article.
g Intelligence - Quote of the Day: “I’m sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It’s just been too intelligent to come here.” – Arthur C. Clarke
g Cosmicus - An astrobiologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center says the possibility of extraterrestrial life in our solar system is not limited to Mars; other "habitable" worlds might exist including the icy Moons of Jupiter and Saturn, known as Europa and Enceladus. The challenge for scientists and engineers in the next couple of decades, he says, will be to design miniaturized instruments and technologies capable of detecting the signatures of life in our own solar system and beyond. See webcast. This webcast is from 2009.
g Aftermath - Among scientists involved in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, 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 — to discover the aftereffects of contact between two intelligent cultures. See article. Note: This article is from 2002.

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Planetary formation and UC Berkeley's Hat Creek’s 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 - An astronomer may have caught a star cannibalizing its companion. The event could allow a second generation of exoplanets to develop out of the resulting disk of dust and debris. The finding provides a unique view into the processes behind planetary formation. See article.
g Abodes - This summer, amateur astronomers worked with professionals to spot two fireballs lighting up Jupiter's atmosphere. It was the first time Earth-based telescopes captured relatively small objects burning up in the atmosphere of a giant planet. See article.
g Intelligence - Quote of the Day: “How unreasonable it would be to suppose that besides Earth and the sky we can see, there are no other skies and no other Earths?” – Teng Mu, ancient Chinese scholar
g Message - The SETI Institute predicts that we'll detect an extraterrestrial transmission within fifteen years. If that turns out to be true, it'll probably be the folks at UC Berkeley's Hat Creek radio observatory who will have heard the call. See article. This article is from 2004.
g Cosmicus - Imagine this: A wedge-shaped aircraft attached to a supersonic jet engine is hurtling along an electrified track, carrying a pod or spacecraft destined for orbit. Sound farfetched? It may not be. See article.
g Learning - A crowd that included a restless 7-year-old and a Peter Gallagher look-a-like went on a mission to Mars on Thursday. See article.

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Altering human biology to colonize space and Harvard 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 Abodes - Most of the big, super-hot alien planets that astronomers are searching for in old star clusters may have been destroyed long ago, a new study suggests. See article.
g Message - The Harvard SETI Group have conducted several searches for extraterrestrial life since 1978. Read a history of those searches.
g Cosmicus - As the growing global population continues to increase the burden on the Earth’s natural resources, some historians and scientists think humans should prepare to colonize space. The problem is we may have to alter human biology significantly to achieve that goal. See article.

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Liquid water and life on Mars and what drives the search for extraterrestrial 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 - Data from NASA's Phoenix lander suggests that liquid water has interacted with the Martian surface throughout the planet's history and into modern times. The findings could have important implications in the search for signs of past or present life on the red planet. 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. This article is from 2006.
g Learning - The NASA Astrobiology Roadmap and new discoveries are driving the search for extraterrestrial life, a group of scientists argue. See article.

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Hot Jupiters probably no longer there and intensely bright star outshines galaxy

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 intensely bright star between Earth and a distant galaxy steals the spotlight in a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope that was originally aimed at the galaxy in the background. See article.
g Abodes - New research indicates that most of the “hot Jupiter” planets that have been discovered beyond our solar system were likely destroyed by their stars long ago. The study provides new insight into the formation and evolution of planetary systems and will help astrobiologists determine where to search for habitable, extrasolar worlds. See article.
g Life - We have a long way to go in understanding climate change, but we do know that complex interactions between plants and the climate of Earth go well beyond the Carbon Cycle. Studying the links between life and climate will aid in understanding life's future on Earth. See article.
g Intelligence - As children in Western cultures grow, they learn to place numbers on a mental number line, with smaller numbers to the left and spaced further apart than the larger numbers on the right. Then the number line changes to become more linear, with small and large numbers the same distance apart. Children whose number line has made this change are better at remembering numbers, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. See article.
g Message - In the absence of knowledge of physical and cultural clues, communication between two species can be almost impossible — almost. See article. This article is from 1999.

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Catalyzing the synthesis of life's building blocks and influence of an alien visit on religion

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 photograph of a weird cosmic spiral in deep space taken by the Hubble Space Telescope is no trick of light – it's astrophysics in action, scientists say. See article.
g Abodes - Scientists have proposed a new potential catalyst for jump-starting metabolism, and life itself, on the early Earth. Transition metals like iron, copper and nickel along with small organic molecules could have catalyzed the synthesis of life's building blocks deep in the oceans around hydrothermal vents. See article.
g Life - What if there were a way to predict when a species was about to become extinct - in time to do something about it? See article.
g Intelligence - Scientists have discovered that viruses that "invaded" the human genome millions of years ago have changed the way genes get turned on and off in human embryonic stem cells. See article.
g Cosmicus - Humans must continue exploring space, if only for the romance of it, and time travel should be possible, but engineers will have to figure out a way to warp space-time to be sure, famed physicist Stephen Hawking says. See article.
g Aftermath - What would the influence of an alien visit would be on the world’s religions? Here’s an answer from members of the International Society for Philosophers: See article.

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Tight binaries not great places for life and how trace elements influenced evolution of 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 - Tight double-star systems with the dusty remains of huge planet collisions may not be the best places to look for extraterrestrial life, a new study has found. See article.
g Abodes - A study indicates that environmental availability of trace elements over Earth’s history influenced the selection of elements used by life as biological evolution progressed. Their results show that environmental concentrations of trace metals influenced which types of metal-binding proteins evolved, and the relative timing of their evolution. See article.
g Life - Is there life on other planets? That has been a question raised from the early beginnings of science fiction. The notion was scoffed at as pure mind play for dreamers and the occasional grifter selling rides to the Moon. At least it was until we were able to reach into space and discover new facts and gather new intel. See article.
g Message - Looking for life elsewhere is a tough task for human or robot. The good news is that the scientific skill and tools to search for, detect and inspect extraterrestrial life are advancing rapidly. See article. This article is from 2002.
g Cosmicus - Tiny rock-eating microbes could mine precious extraterrestrial resources from Mars and pave the way for the first human colonists, but would take much longer to help transform the red planet via terraforming. See article.

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Discovering volcanoes on exoworlds and evolution of oxygen-producing 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 Abodes - Volcanoes display the awesome power of nature like few other events. Now that astronomers are finding rocky worlds orbiting distant stars, they're asking the next logical questions: Do any of those worlds have volcanoes? And if so, could we detect them? See article.
g Life - The evolution of oxygen-producing organisms has been pushed back another 270 million years through the discovery of well-preserved fossils in Western Australia's Pilbara region. See article.
g Intelligence - Students who cheat in high school and college are highly likely to fit the profile for subclinical psychopathy - a personality disorder defined by erratic lifestyle, manipulation, callousness and antisocial tendencies, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. These problematic students cheat because they feel entitled and disregard morality, the study found. See article.
g Message - When the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft were launched in 1977, they each included a gold-plated phonograph record (a "golden record") of natural sounds, greetings in human voices, and a variety of music. The record cover has symbolic instructions that show how to use and understand the record, though scientists still debate whether other civilizations will be able to decipher them. Seeinfo on the Golden Record.

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Technological manifestations of ETI that could detect and a new spiral arm

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 wispy arms of a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way can be seen in striking detail in a new image from the European Southern Observatory. See article.
g Abodes - New data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is helping astronomers better understand near-Earth objects. The study is of interest to astrobiology because asteroids could have played an important role in the origin and evolution of life on Earth. See article.
g Life - Researchers report the discovery of long-sought chemical antioxidants in the world's toughest microbe - Deinococcus radiodurans. First studied nearly 50 years ago, this bacterium can survive massive exposures to gamma-radiation, ultraviolet radiation, desiccation, and other agents which kill cells by generating reactive oxygen species. See article.
g Intelligence - In an early step toward letting severely paralyzed people speak with their thoughts, University of Utah researchers translated brain signals into words using two grids of 16 microelectrodes implanted beneath the skull but atop the brain. See article.
g Message - What technological manifestations would make an advanced extraterrestrial civilization detectable? See article. This paper is from 1992.

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Looking for oceans on exoworlds and searching for the first virus

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 - Seven years ago Northwestern University physicist Adilson E. Motter conjectured that the expansion of the universe at the time of the Big Bang was highly chaotic. Now he and a colleague have proven it using rigorous mathematical arguments. See article.
g Abodes - The sparkle of starlight off water could be the clincher for finding oceans on extrasolar planets. And it could be observable with the tech that will be deployed in the next generation of space telescopes. See article.
g Life - How long have viruses been around? No one knows. Scientists at Portland State University have begun taking the first steps toward answering this question. See article.
g Intelligence - One of the key drivers of human evolution and diversity, accounting for changes that occur between different generations of people, is explained by new research. See article.
g Message - Here’s a quick, easy to understand primer to SETI’s radio searches and the Fermi Paradox.
g Cosmicus - A big, bug-like rover that could one day carry heavy loads on the moon has stretched its six legs in the Arizona desert during NASA field trials. See article.

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Carbon-based chemical building blocks of life on Mars and tuning in to the universe

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 are planning a new mission to travel closer to the Sun than ever before. See article.
g Abodes - Experiments prompted by a 2008 surprise from NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander suggest that soil examined by NASA’s Viking Mars landers in 1976 may have contained carbon-based chemical building blocks of life. The findings could make a difference in how astrobiologists search for signs of past or present life on the red planet. See article.
g Life - A York University doctoral student who discovered a new species of bee on his way to the lab one morning has completed a study that examines 84 species of sweat bees in Canada. Nineteen of these species - including the one Jason Gibbs found in downtown Toronto − are new to science because they have never been identified or described before. See article.
g Intelligence - Success is sexy -- a statement that applies not just to human beings, but also to various other animals. Male bonobos appear to benefit from this phenomenon as well. A team of researchers led by Gottfried Hohmann of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology has discovered that the higher up a male bonobo is placed in the social hierarchy, the greater his mating success is with female bonobos. See article.
g Message - Book alert: H. Paul Shuch’s “Tune in the universe! A radio amateur's guide to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence” (published by ARRL in 2001 in CD format) provides a good introduction to SETI by the executive director of the SETI League. The contents range from how to build your own radio receiver in your backyard to Shuch's selected memoirs and songs. See article.
g Cosmicus - A new theoretical physics model helps define the subatomic origins of ferromagnetism - the everyday "magnetism" of compass needles and refrigerator magnets. See article.
g Learning - God did not create the universe and the "Big Bang" was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics, the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking argues in a new book. See article.

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Genetic structure of evolved creature and 520-day trek to 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 - Earth today is one of the most active planets in the Solar System, and was probably even more so during the early stages of its life. Thanks to the plate tectonics that continue to shape our planet's surface, remnants of crust from Earth's formative years are rare, but not impossible to find. A paper published in Nature Sept. 2 examines how some ancient rocks have resisted being recycled into Earth's convecting interior. See article.
g Life - Scientists at the University of Oregon have determined the fine-scale genetic structure of the first animal to show an evolutionary response to rapid climate change. See article.
g Intelligence - Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis found that starvation allows the need for nourishment to push aside the need for sleep. Like humans and rats, fruit flies cannot survive without sleep. But in a line of flies engineered to be sensitive to sleep deprivation, starvation nearly tripled the amount of time they could survive without sleep. See article.
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. See article.
g Cosmicus - When it comes to flying in space, the makeup of an astronaut crew can be just as important as the mission itself, and the same goes for a team of six volunteers going through the motions of a 520-day trek to Mars without ever leaving Earth. See article.

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Potassium discovered on exoworld and cosmic volcano prevents star formation

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 galactic "supervolcano" in the massive galaxy M87 is erupting, blasting gas outwards. The cosmic volcano — driven by a giant black hole in M87's center — is preventing hundreds of millions of new stars from forming. See article.
g Abodes - Astronomers have discovered the element potassium in the atmosphere of a planet about 190 light years from Earth. Identifying elements necessary for life in the atmospheres of exoplanets could one day help astrobiologists identify habitable worlds beyond our solar system. See article.
g Life - Ants are not out of their weight class when defending trees from the appetite of nature's heavyweight, the African elephant, a new University of Florida study finds. See article.
g Intelligence - Our cerebral cortex, or pallium, is a big part of what makes us human: art, literature and science would not exist had this most fascinating part of our brain not emerged in some less intelligent ancestor in prehistoric times. But when did this occur and what were these ancestors? Unexpectedly, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, have now discovered a true counterpart of the cerebral cortex in an invertebrate, a marine worm. See article.
g Message - The spectral approach is a universal tool of both astronomical observations and SETI. Furthermore, it has a clear physical meaning – a spectrometer finds the energy distribution of photons, in human sensing it is color and pitch. Under the hypothesis on identity of physical laws in our part of universe, it may be proposed that spectrometry also are using by those aliens, who know radio and lead theirs own SETI, too. See article. This article is from 2001.
g Cosmicus - what are some different ways – including those of a speculative nature – that we might propel a ship through space? See article.
g Learning - The academic performance of adolescents will suffer in at least one of four key subjects - English, math, science, history - if their DNA contains one or more of three specific dopamine gene variations, according to a new study. See article.

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New insights on Martian cycles and microbes that generate clean energy

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 - Ancient galaxies may be cosmic senior citizens today, but some have a wild streak in their past, one packed with frenetic star birth, astronomers say. See article.
g Abodes - Data collected by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander before it went silent for good on the Red Planet is providing valuable insight for a new study on the interactions between the Martian dirt and atmosphere. See article.
g Life - Microbes could soon be used to convert metallic wastes into high-value catalysts for generating clean energy, say scientists writing in the September issue of Microbiology. See article.
g Message - A number of searches for extraterrestrial intelligence actually have occurred, are ongoing and are planned. Here’s one of the more famous ones: Project BETA, at Harvard University.
g Cosmicus - Could ETI or we use a tachyon drive to travel “faster” than light and visit one another? See article. This article is from 1996.

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For water just add starlight and hopes and fears of contacting 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 - ESA's Herschel infrared space observatory has discovered that ultraviolet starlight is the key ingredient for making water in space. It is the only explanation for why a dying star is surrounded by a gigantic cloud of hot water vapor. See article.
g Abodes - Astronomers have measured the temperature of a young gas-giant planet and found that its atmosphere is unlike that of any previously studied extrasolar planet. Such observations help astrobiologists understand the properties of extrasolar planets and will aid in the search for habitable worlds beyond our solar system. See article.
g Life - Scripps Research Institute scientists have identified two proteins with potential to be important targets for research into a wide range of health problems, including pain, deafness, and cardiac and kidney dysfunction. See article.
g Cosmicus - Sugar, salt, alcohol and a little serendipity led a Northwestern University research team to discover a new class of nanostructures that could be used for gas storage and food and medical technologies. And the compounds are edible. See article.
g Aftermath - Here’s an interesting book that is slated for June publication: “Contact with Alien Civilizations: Our Hopes and Fears about Encountering Extraterrestrials,” by Michael Michaud. This book describes a wide variety of speculations by many authors about the consequences for humanity of coming into contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. The assumptions underlying those speculations are examined, and some conclusions are drawn. As necessary background, the book also included brief summaries of the history of thinking about extraterrestrial intelligence, searches for life and for signals, contrasting paradigms of how contact might take place, and the paradox that those paradigms allegedly create. See review.

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Is red rain a sign of ET and Venus’ enigmatic topography

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 - Observations made with NASA's newly refurbished Hubble Space Telescope of a nearby supernova are allowing astronomers to measure the velocity and composition of "star guts" being ejected into space following the explosion, according to a new study. See article.
g Abodes - A tortured, volcanic wasteland, baked by a runaway greenhouse effect, the surface of Venus has clearly had an unpleasant history. But just how unpleasant has become the subject of renewed debate among planetary scientists trying to understand the planet's enigmatic topography. See article.
g Life - A group of researchers is questioning, again, if aliens visited India in 2001 – in the form of red rain. See article.
g Cosmicus - What can scientists hope to learn in the coming decade about the most basic questions about the cosmos and our place in it - from extraterrestrial life to the evolution of the Universe - while keeping to an earthbound budget? See article.
g Aftermath - If we establish communication with a civilization even as close as 100 light years from Earth, the round-trip time for a message and its reply is 200 years. What will be the psychology of a civilization that can engage in a meaningful conversation with this sort of delay? How is such a conversation to be established? What should the content of such a conversation be? These are the questions which motivate the title: "Minds and Millennia: The Psychology of Interstellar Communication".

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Active geological processes on other planets and how to build an alien

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 magnetar is a weird duck, indeed. It's a spinning neutron star with a super-strong magnetic field a thousand trillion times stronger than Earth's magnetic field. See article.
g Abodes - An expert in processing spacecraft images of the planets, Dr. Cynthia Phillips is particularly interested in the search for active geological processes on Mars, Europa, Io and beyond. These worlds represent locations where liquid water, a possible indicator of life, could be present today. Here’s an interview with her.
g Message - "If you're sending a message to extraterrestrials, what you want to send is what's special about us and our planet — what is unusual," according to SETI astronomer Frank Drake. Read his essay. This essay is from 2006.
g Cosmicus - Propelled by sunlight pressure, large lightweight sails made of ultrathin aluminum-coated plastic could one day take probes to the edge of our solar system and other stars. See article.
g Imagining - Many science fiction story lines involve alien life forms. From a literary prospective, aliens often serve as metaphors for something more familiar. From a practical prospective, they make stories more interesting and TV more eye-catching. But what of scientific accuracy? A professor offers his advice about "How to Build an Alien".

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What If everybody is listening and nobody is transmitting and support for Obama’s space vision

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 striking galaxy buzzing with energetic star formation takes center stage in a new photograph that showcases an unusual "superwind" of out-flowing gas, researchers say. See article.
g Abodes - Researchers are discovering new ways in which the Earth's oceans have influenced global climate. At the end of the last ice age, north Atlantic ice sheets melted, added fresh water and caused the collapse of the Atlantic Ocean conveyor belt. That should have plunged the northern Hemisphere into a deep freeze... but it didn't. See article.
g Message - Whenever the director of SETI research presents a public lecture, she can almost guarantee that “What If everybody is listening and nobody is transmitting?” will be one of the questions the audience asks. See article.
g Cosmicus - President Obama's proposals to change the focus of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has won the support of 14 Nobel laureates, as well as several former American astronauts and senior NASA officials who have signed their names to an open letter addressed to House Committee on Science and Technology Bart Gordon. See article.
g Aftermath - Would dutiful American citizens trust the government to handle first contact with extraterrestrials and rush to get information to the public? See article. This article is from 1999.

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Atmospheric maps of Mars and role of asteroids in planetary habitability

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 study shows that asteroids are constantly changing “little worlds” that can give birth to smaller asteroids. Studying asteroids is important because asteroid impacts could have played an important role in the origin of life, and may still affect the future habitability of Earth. See article.
g Intelligence - Archaeologists have found new clues why the Maya left their seemingly prosperous civilization. See article.
g Message - If we get a message from extraterrestrials, we can’t count on them laying out direct translations between one of their languages and, say, English or Swahili. And that, say anthropologist Ben Finney and historian Jerry Bentley, could limit how much we can learn from extraterrestrials. See article. This article is from 2001.
g Cosmicus - One of the instruments on a 2016 mission to orbit Mars will provide daily maps of global, pole-to-pole, vertical distributions of the temperature, dust, water vapor and ice clouds in the Martian atmosphere. The data will help astrobiologists determine the potential for past or present life on Mars. See article.
g Learning - The launch pad used by the first United States astronauts to enter orbit around Earth may soon be revived as an engineering classroom for a new generation of rocket builders, where laid off space shuttle technicians are the teachers. See article.
g Aftermath - Scientists should pay greater attention to discussing the social implications of discovering extraterrestrial life - even though many researchers shy away from the subject because they don't consider it "hard" science. See article. This article is from 2002.

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