Methane rainstorm and ETI’s message in a bottle

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 discovery of a pattern of X-ray "stripes" in the remains of an exploded star may provide the first direct evidence that a cosmic event can accelerate particles to energies a hundred times higher than achieved by the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth. See article.
g Abodes - When photos showed a large patch near the equator of Titan mysteriously darken and then grow lighter within a couple of weeks, scientists knew something big was happening on Saturn's largest moon. But what they found was something they didn't expect: a methane rainstorm in a region of Titan thought to be covered by vast, arid dunes. See article.
g Life - By studying the effects of spaceflight on a bacterium from Earth, scientists are gaining a better understanding of how infectious disease occurs in space. The research could improve the health of patients here on Earth as well as astronauts. See article.
g Intelligence - New research bring scientists one step closer to isolating the mechanisms by which the brain compensates for disruptions and reroutes neural functioning -- which could ultimately lead to treatments for cognitive impairments in humans caused by disease and aging. See article.
g Message - A new study suggests it is more energy efficient to communicate across interstellar space by sending physical material — a sort of message in a bottle — than beams of electromagnetic radiation. Solid matter can hold more information and journey farther than radio waves, which disperse as they travel. See article. This article is from 2004.
g Cosmicus - A research institution that has inked landmark deals with two private spaceflight firms may be performing experiments in suborbital space within two years, one of its scientists says. See article.

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