Artificial proteins and alien eveasdropping

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 - Two ESA observatories have combined forces to show the Andromeda Galaxy in a new light. Herschel sees rings of star formation in this, the most detailed image of the Andromeda Galaxy ever taken at infrared wavelengths, and XMM-Newton shows dying stars shining X-rays into space. See article.
g Life - A team of researchers has constructed artificial proteins that enable the growth of living cells. The achievement could help scientists 'build' new biological systems, and provide new information about the origin and evolution of life. See article.
g Intelligence - Researchers discovered that a border collie comprehends the names of over 1,000 objects, differentiating between names of objects and orders to fetch them. This research deepens the findings of researchers in Germany, who had discovered a dog that knew the names of a couple of hundred objects. Important questions were left open as to how far a dog could go, and whether the dog really understood that the object names were nouns and not commands to retrieve the object. See article.
g Message - For more than 80 years, we’ve been sending radio (and eventually television) transmissions into space, allowing anyone in space to hear war reports from London, “I Love Lucy” reruns and our latest election results. So wouldn’t hearing aliens be as simple as turning on the radio? See Here’s why not. This article is from 2004.
g Cosmicus - Quote of the Day: “Man must rise above the earth – to the top of the atmosphere and beyond – for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.” - Socrates

Read this blogger’s books