Thursday, February 03, 2011

Kepler potentially finds 50 planets in habitable zones and chances of finding 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 - NASA’s Kepler telescope is finding whole new worlds of possibilities in the search for alien life, including more than 50 potential planets that appear to be in the habitable zone. See article.
g Life - About 450 million years ago, Earth suffered the second-largest mass extinction in its history - the Late Ordovician mass extinction, during which more than 75 percent of marine species died. Exactly what caused this tremendous loss in biodiversity remains a mystery, but now researchers have discovered new details supporting the idea that the mass extinction was linked to a cooling climate. See article.
g Intelligence - A detailed analysis of data from 185 human genomes sequenced in the course of the 1000 Genomes Project has identified the genetic sequence of an unprecedented 28 000 structural variants (SVs) - large portions of the human genome which differ from one person to another. See article.
g Message - In 1961 the Drake Equation launched the search for other civilizations among the stars. How does it look today? What is the chance of finding aliens? See article. This article is from 2005.
g Cosmicus - Smaller and more energy-efficient electronic chips could be made using molybdenite. In an article appearing online Jan. 30 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, EPFL's Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures publishes a study showing that this material has distinct advantages over traditional silicon or graphene for use in electronics applications. See article.
g Learning - A new Texas museum opened Feb. 1 to honor the space shuttle Columbia and its seven-astronaut crew on the eighth anniversary of the fatal disaster that ended the orbiter's final mission. See article.

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