Trusting the government to handle first contact and largest evolutionary tree of plants

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 bright star cluster surrounded by iridescent red gas looks like a blooming cosmic rose in a new photo from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. See article.
g Abodes - From extreme precipitation events to catastrophic droughts, the effects of climate change may be heralding in a new era of extreme weather. Scientists are trying to determine what the repercussions for the Earth's biosphere could be. See article.
g Life - An international research team has amassed the largest evolutionary tree (phylogeny) for plants. It has learned that major groups of plants tinker with their design and performance before rapidly spinning off new species. The finding upends long-held thinking that plants' speciation rates are tied to the first development of a new physical trait or mechanism. See article.
g Intelligence - Just like snowflakes, no two people are alike, even if they're identical twins according to new genetic research aimed at determining the genetic sequencing of schizophrenia using identical or monozygotic twins. See article.
g Cosmicus - Contrary to popular belief, NASA didn’t invent Tang. But the space agency's contributions to people's everyday lives here on Earth still run wide and deep. 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.

Read this blogger’s books