Monday, December 06, 2010

Clues about Enceladus’ habitability and how common is life with arsenic in its DNA

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 - Researchers calculate low mass dark matter particles could be transferring energy from the core to the external parts of the Sun, which would affect the quantity of neutrinos that reach Earth. See article.
g Abodes - NASA's Cassini spacecraft has caught a view of active fissures through the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The web of warm fractures is more complicated than previously thought, and could provide clues about the potential for habitable environments beneath the moon's surface. See article.
g Life - The discovery of a microbe that thrives on arsenic won't force scientists to rewrite entire biology textbooks, but some paragraphs will definitely need to be revised, experts say. See article.
g Intelligence - Could the bacteria that we carry in our bodies decide who we marry? According to a new study the answer lies in the gut of a small fruit fly. See article.
g Message - How scientifically accurate was the ultimate astrobiology film, “Contact”? See article.
g Cosmicus - IBM scientists have unveiled a new chip technology that integrates electrical and optical devices on the same piece of silicon, enabling computer chips to communicate using pulses of light (instead of electrical signals), resulting in smaller, faster and more power-efficient chips than is possible with conventional technologies. See article.
g Imagining - How common might extraterrestrial life utilizing arsenic rather phosphorous in its nucleic acids be? See article.

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