Planets around M-type stars and the rising potential of life beyond Earth

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - A massive project to generate an all-color map of the galaxies in a small area of sky, utilizing four satellite telescopes and four ground-based telescopes, is yielding new information about the universe's "pre-teen" years and the early evolution of galaxies and galaxy clusters. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Abodes - The changing view of planets orbiting low mass stars, M stars, as potentially hospitable worlds for life and its remote detection was motivated by several factors, including the demonstration of viable atmospheres and oceans on tidally locked planets, normal incidence of dust disks, including debris disks, detection of planets with masses in the 5–20 M_ range, and predictions of unusually strong spectral biosignatures. See article.
g Message - Nobody has yet seen an extraterrestrial, which may sound like a problem in establishing a science of astrobiology. But in the past 20 years or so, scientists have found clues that life may be quite common in the universe, and many are hopeful that they will soon find hard evidence of life beyond Earth. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.

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Skies of alien worlds and the hunt for E.T.

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - Scientists were startled when they discovered in 2004 that the center of our galaxy is emitting gamma rays with energies in the tens of trillions of electronvolts. Now astrophysicists have found a mechanism that might produce these high-energy rays. The black hole at the center of our Milky Way could be working like a cosmic particle accelerator, revving up protons that smash at incredible speeds into lower energy protons and creating high-energy gamma rays. See article.
g Abodes - What would the skies of alien worlds look like? See article.
g Message - E.T. may have "phoned home" back in 1982, but in the world outside of popular cinema the hunt for extraterrestrial life continues. See article.

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Alien life on Earth and ‘Pride and Predator’

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Life - No need to leave the planet to look for alien life — perhaps it's here, in peaceful coexistence with or complete isolation from the standard variety that permeates Earth. See article.
g Cosmicus - Space, the final travel frontier - and now 50 percent cheaper, sort of. See article.
g Imagining - Elton John’s Rocket Pictures is to produce “Pride and Predator”, a film that combines Jane Austen’s England with aliens. The alien costume drama tells the story of an alien who crash lands and begins to butcher the characters from Pride and Prejudice. Oh boy. See article.

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Mission to Jupiter’s moons and how we’ll react when E.T. is discovered

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - It was the biggest bang humans have seen. Led by Jochen Greiner, of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, they have concluded that the explosion happened 12.2 billion light years away. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA and ESA officials have decided to pursue a mission to Jupiter and its four largest moons. These moons are important locations of interest for astrobiologists. Europa in particular, with its cache of subsurface water, is thought to be one of the most likely places for life in our solar system. Additionally, a plan for a second mission to Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus will follow. See article.
g Aftermath - Imagine that tomorrow morning scientists tell the world they've found evidence for a colony of aliens living only 35 million miles from Earth. Do you think your neighbors would wig out - stocking up on Ramen noodles, and secluding themselves and the family schnauzer in the basement? Or do you believe most folks would simply mutter "whatever," and go back to checking out new Facebook friends? See article.

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Plate tectonics a necessity for life and what may change in the years ahead

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Planetary scientists have been considering the potential importance of plate tectonics. Some believe that this geological process is essential for the development of complex lifeforms, and in the future could even be used as a biosignature to detect habitable worlds. See article.
g Life - A unique bacterium living 2,500 meters below the surface of the ocean is providing clues about how life adapts to extreme environments. Scientists have identified genetic adaptations that allow the microorganism to survive in the waters surrounding deep-sea hydrothermal vents. See article.
g Cosmicus - Last December, following an annual tradition, the Edge Foundation asked a select group of intellectuals, researchers, artists and visionaries to reply to this brief question. Their answers, totaling 151 contributions and an estimated 107,000 words, are posted online at the Web site of the World Question Center under this year's heading: "What will change everything?" See article.

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Clues about the origin of life on Earth and dark comets

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - Galaxies can be classified as spiral, elliptical or merging. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has images of nearly a million galaxies. See article.
g Abodes - The pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems, scientists said Saturday. See article.
g Life - Researchers in the field of synthetic biology are yielding clues about the origin of life on Earth. By studying how molecules self-assemble, the team is helping scientists understand how the first protocells may have captured energy and nutrients from the environment - allowing for growth and reproduction. See article.
g Cosmicus - Comets could be the most significant impact hazard to Earth, with sky surveys underestimating the number that are potentially devastating by a factor of between 10 and 100, British astrophysicists say. See article.

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Exoplanet catalog and Technology Worlds

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Here’s a catalog of all known exoplanets within 200 parsecs. See article.
g Life - Forget little green men on Mars - aliens could be right here on Earth, a leading scientist has claimed. See article.
g Intelligence - At the most recent NASA Astrobiology Science Conference, a panel of scientists talked about planets where alien life might be found. In the third segment of this series, Jill Tarter describes different kinds of Technology Worlds. See article.
g Cosmicus - The fireball that streaked across the sky and alarmed numerous Texas residents was likely just a big meteor and not wreckage from colliding satellites, experts said Monday. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a page for kids: “For kids: Either Martians or Mars has gas”.

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Artificial DNA and Martian hot springs

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Mounds on Mars that could be from ancient hot springs are described in a new study, after setting the astrobiology community abuzz last spring. See article.
g Life - A strange, new genetic code a lot like that found in all terrestrial life is sitting in a beaker full of oily water in a laboratory in Florida, a scientist said today, calling it the first example of an artificial chemical system that is capable of Darwinian evolution. See article.
g Cosmicus - According to new data released by NASA and JPL-Caltech, the Spirit exploration rover received a larger input of electricity on February 6th, which seems to indicate the fact that Martian winds managed to blew a significant quantity of the dust that covered the robot's solar panels. See article.
g Learning - With a widespread distrust of authority and ignorance of science, you have a recipe for conspiracy theories. Born of fear and fed by misinformation, they can spread like wildfire in the vast forest of the information age. See article.

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Antarctic worm and searching for a new home for humanity

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Global warming may be fueling Australia's fires. See article.
g Life - Researchers have discovered a hardy Antarctic worm that has unique methods for surviving in one of Earth's harshest environments. The worm's adaptations include drying itself out and going into suspended animation when water is low, and the ability to release antifreeze when temperatures drop. See article.
g Cosmicus - When humans look into outer space and its amazing distant realms, sometimes all we really want to find is someplace like home. Another planet like Earth, that is. Soon, a new NASA telescope mission called Kepler may finally make that happen. See article.
g Learning - To close off our coverage of Darwin Week, we provide a list of additional readings on the topic of evolution. See article.

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Ice age planets and 361 advanced, stable civilizations in the Milky Way

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - The light reflected off of vegetation could be a signal of life on an alien planet. Researchers have now shown that this plant life signal can be seen even if a world is in the midst of an ice age. See article.
g Life - Paleontologists are examining the long-lasting effects of a 65 million-year-old mass extinction. Dinosaurs and many other organisms disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous, and the evolutionary ramifications can still be seen today. See article.
g Intelligence - If life can only arise under a narrow set of initial conditions, a researcher estimates there should be 361 advanced, stable civilizations in the Milky Way. If life can spread from one planet to another through biological molecules embedded in asteroids, though, the number jumps to nearly 38,000. See article.
g Cosmicus - The collision between a U.S. and a Russian satellite over Siberia may have been accidental and the first of its kind, but experts say more crashes will inevitably occur and could have geopolitical consequences. See article.

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Mars’ ancient springs and Darwin’s lasting genius

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggest the discovery of ancient springs in the Vernal Crater, sites where life forms may have evolved on Mars. See article.
g Life - More than a third of native California bird species could vanish from a wide swath of their current range by the end of the 21st century because of global warming, according to a new study by Audubon California. See article.
g Intelligence - Bosses may be an overbearing breed, but more often than not, you've got to admire their business chops. Wouldn't you love to have that same sense of competence and confidence, that ability to assess tough problems and reach smart solutions on the fly? Guess what? So would they. If you have ever suspected your boss might not actually be good enough at what he does to deserve the job in the first place, a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests you might be right. See article.
g Cosmicus - Additional safety features being added to the world's largest atom smasher will postpone its startup until the end of September, a year after the $10 billion machine was sidelined by a simple electrical fault. See article.
g Learning - This week is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and this year also marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's On The Origin of Species. It seems only fitting to reflect on the reasons why Darwin's conclusions about the origins and evolution of human - and all - life continue to trouble and challenge members of the human species in the 21st century. This lasting "disturber effect" may be one of the most convincing proofs of Darwin's genius. People don't get all riled up, 150 years after the fact, by bland, small, discredited ideas. See article.

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Source of methane on Mars and how Galileo changed the world

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - A team of researchers have announced another milestone in determining the source of methane on Mars, along with the best next steps to ascertain whether the gas is connected to life or to geologic activity on the Red Planet. See article.
g Life - The first animal life may have emerged from a planetary deep-freeze 635 million years ago to eventually become a small part of those gallons of regular or high test that we pump into our gas tanks each week. See article.
g Intelligence - People in AD 1000 may have made drinks from cacao beans, which researchers had believed were brought from Mexico in the 15th century. See article.
g Cosmicus - China and Japan are contributing to a cutting-edge East Asian radio telescope network by respectively building the world's top-level radio telescope apparatus to be dedicated to further observations into the galaxy and black holes. See article.
g Learning - The revolution was not his alone. The idea was actually an ancient one, and other scientists had embraced it along the way. But it took Galileo and the telescope he built to prove the truth to the masses: Earth is not the center of the universe. See article.

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Many kinds of intelligences and new use for Mars Organic Analyzer

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - A new technique is allowing astronomers to measure the sizes of small asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter for the first time. Previously, these asteroids were too small to measure using traditional methods. See article.
g Intelligence - We are used to thinking of humans as occupying the sole pinnacle of evolutionary intelligence. That's where we're wrong. See article.
g Cosmicus - A portable device known as the Mars Organic Analyzer, which was developed to sniff out extraterrestrial life on other planets, is taking on a new role in detecting air pollutants on Earth. See article.

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Types of planets where we might find alien life and Earth’s first animals

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - At the most recent NASA Astrobiology Science Conference, a panel of scientists discussed different types of planets where we might find alien life. In the second part of this series, T.C. Onstott digs beneath the surface to look for life, and Peter Ward weighs the odds of finding complex life in space and time. See article.
g Life - The first animal life may have emerged from a planetary deep-freeze 635 million years ago to eventually become a small part of those gallons of regular or high test that we pump into our gas tanks each week. See article.
g Cosmicus - Astronomers last week celebrated the formal acceptance of the first North American antenna by the Joint ALMA Observatory in Chile. See article.
g Learning - It is a testament to Darwin's extraordinary insight that it took almost a century for biologists to understand the essential correctness of his views. See article.

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Trail of carbon from dying star and a scientific quest to answer questions about alien life

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - Astronomers found a tail of carbon, oxygen, and other material trailing behind a dying star called Mira. See article.
g Life - Scientists have determined that formations once identified as ancient tubeworm fossils are actually the remnants of 70-million-year-old methane vents. The discovery highlights how our understanding of life's evolution can change in light of new scientific evidence. See article.
g Message - Could humans be the only intelligent beings in all the vastness of the universe? Or are we just one humble race, a member of a vast intergalactic fraternity of advanced civilizations? SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is the scientific quest to answer these great unknowns. See article.
g Cosmicus - This month marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of NASA's Stardust spacecraft, which is now more than 8.4 million miles from Earth. See article.
g Learning - The 1859 publication of "On the Origin of Species" changed scientific thought forever — and generated opposition that continues to this day. It is this elegant explanation of how species evolve through natural selection that makes Darwin's 200th birthday on Feb. 12 such a major event. See article.

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37,964 intelligent civilizations in galaxy and Google Mars 3D

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - Astrophysicists analyzing infrared images captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope found indications of a dust cloud surrounding a relatively young star. The star is 10 to 16 million years old, and analysis of the dust cloud suggests that it may coalesce and become a rocky planet like earth. It is located at a distance from the star that it may build an atmosphere, collect liquid water, and perhaps, in millions and millions of years, support life. See article. Note: This article is from 2008.
g Intelligence - A group of Irish scientists have calculated that intelligent creatures could be living on 37,964 planets in the Milky Way. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA and Google have announced a new 'Mars mode' in Google Earth. Now, everyone can navigate three-dimensional views of the Red Planet - through the eyes of Mars rovers and other Mars missions. Google Mars 3D will also serve as a platform for scientists to share data. See article.

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Embryo of Sun’s twin and is panspermia misguided?

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - Members of a research team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to peer at the embryo of an infant star in the nearby Eagle Nebula, which they believe may someday develop into a virtual twin of Earth's sun. See article.
g Life - Some astrobiologists think life may have arrived on Earth inside a comet or meteorite. Calling this process “Panspermia” is misguided, says a historian who has studied the evolution of thought about life’s origin. See article.
g Intelligence - Philosophers and mathematicians have been arguing for centuries over whether math is a system that humans invented or a cosmic - possibly divine - order that we simply discovered. That's the fundamental question Mario Livio probes in his engrossing book “Is God a Mathematician?” See article.

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Smallest exoplanet known discovered and move over T-Rex

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - With observations from the COROT telescope, astronomers have identified the smallest exoplanet known. The planet is less that twice the size of Earth, orbits a sun-like star and is solid enough to walk on. This important discovery widens the scope for astronomers searching for habitable, Earth-like planets around distant stars. See article.
g Life - Move over T-Rex, “Titanoboa” slithered to comparable — maybe even greater — lengths. See article.
g Intelligence - Orphaned infant chimpanzees that received attentive, nurturing care from human surrogate mothers were found to be more intellectually advanced than the average human baby when both groups were compared at the age of nine months, according to a new study published in the latest issue of Developmental Psychobiology. See article. This find courtesy of the blog A Different Train of Thought.

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Thousands of alien civilizations and how an astrobiology class led to a great idea

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - A large ice cap found at Mars' northern pole is "of a very high degree of purity," according to an international study reported by French researchers. See article.
g Life - Our earliest animal ancestors, it appears, were sponges -- multicellular animals that feed by passing seawater though a complex system of internal channels. See article.
g Intelligence - Intelligent civilizations are out there and there could be thousands of them, according to an Edinburgh scientist. See article.
g Learning - Here’s the story of a teenager who got a great idea while attending an astrobiology class. See article.

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The first sounds of Earth that aliens may here and glowing baceterium

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Chirps and whistles of our planet's auroral kilometric radiation might be the first thing an extraterrestrial civilization is likely to hear from Earth. In reality, they are the sounds that accompany the aurora. The European Space Agency's Cluster mission is showing scientists how to understand this emission and, in the future, search for alien worlds by listening for their sounds. See article.
g Life - Scientists studying a glowing bacterium that lives in both squid and fish have made an astonishing discovery about how the bacteria is able to inhabit two different species. It all comes down to a single gene that allows the bacteria to change its host, which highlights the importance of genetic information in the evolution of living organisms. See article.
g Learning - A new comet may be seen in the night sky later this month. Sounds like a great opportunity to introduce kids to astronomy. See article.

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How planets’ atmospheres respond to super-summer day and Slime World

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - What would happen if, for a single day, the sun's light and heat were amplified a thousand times? While this sounds like the setup for a classic tale of science fiction, astronomers know of one planet that experiences just such a climate extreme. Now, thanks to NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have measured how this planet's atmosphere responds to a super-summer day. See article.
g Life - At the most recent NASA Astrobiology Science Conference, a panel of scientists discussed different types of planets where alien life might be found. In part one of this series, Seth Shostak reviews the search for extrasolar planets, and Tori Hoehler describes a place of “colorful microbial goo” called Slime World. See article.
g Cosmicus - A retired Air Force major general could soon be heading up the US space agency after being tapped by president-elect Barack Obama to take over the helm of NASA, a transition team source said. See article.
g Learning - Two centuries after Charles Darwin's birth on Feb. 12, 1809, people still argue passionately about his theory of evolution. See article.

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Exoplanetology and ‘The Quest for Extraterrestrial Intelligence’

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Here’s a fascinating new Web site: Exoplanetology.com. It’s a “hub of the emerging new field of Exoplanet Science,” according to the site introduction, adding “This site is a growing repository of ideas, insights, resources, and relevant news gathered from around the web regarding the study of exoplanets. The goal of this website is to provide the most extensive and updated resource for the new science of exoplanets.”
g Message - Here’s a classic essay on SETI: Carl Sagan’s “The Quest for Extraterrestrial Intelligence”.
g Cosmicus - NASA has announced that the Kepler Telescope, a new observatory destined for one of the most important missions in astronomy, namely to find planets similar to the Earth orbiting other stars, is nearing completion in Florida. Scheduled to take off on March 5, the newest addition to the American space agency's arsenal will analyze over 100,000 stars over the course of its 3.5 year-long mission, in hope of finding periodic brightness fluctuations, which would imply that another celestial body, perhaps a planet, has passed in between the star and the observatory. See article.

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Medea Hypothesis and Roman aliens

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Late next month Earth will receive a new celestial visitor named Lulin – or Comet C/2007 N3 – which astronomers say may have never visited this corner of the solar system before and should be visible to the naked eye. See article.
g Life - Asteroid strikes get all the coverage, but "Medea Hypothesis" author Peter Ward argues that most of Earth's mass extinctions were caused by lowly bacteria. The culprit, a poison called hydrogen sulfide, may have an interesting application in medicine. See article.
g Message - The idea that we Earthlings may not be alone is not new, nor is the idea of trying to signal our cosmic neighbors. The first era of interplanetary communication began in the 19th century. See article.
g Imagining - It's been two millennia since the Roman Empire held sway, but it's thriving on a dozen fictional planets. Somehow, aliens love to imitate the glory that was Rome. Here are the greatest interplanetary toga parties. See article.

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Exoplanet’s atmosphere and ‘Into the Cool”

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Astronomers have managed to yield important clues about the atmosphere of a distant planet as it swung close to its parent star. The information also allowed them to make realistic simulations of what the planet might look like. See article.
g Life - A talk by author-scientist Eric Schneider about the science of organization in nature is now available as a free video podcast from Montana State University. Schneider is an expert on thermodynamics, the relationship between heat and movement, and author of "Into the Cool." His science-for-the-public talk centered on how organisms in nature have a remarkable tendency to organize, and that even non-living systems such as a hurricane can "self-organize" when in the midst of a gradient. See podcast.
g Message - Project Argus, The SETI League's key technical initiative, has been called the most ambitious microwave SETI project ever undertaken without government equipment or funding. When fully operational, it will provide, for the first time ever, continuous monitoring of the entire sky, in all directions in real time. For more, click here.
g Cosmicus - Astronauts lose strength in their bones when spending long periods of time in space. A new study shows that this may adversely affect their health back on Earth. Studying the effects of space travel on the health of astronauts is vital for future human missions into orbit and beyond. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat Web site, courtesy of NASA: “Flies in Space”. For grades 5-8, the activity has students step into a space biologist's shoes and predict experiment results.
g Aftermath - The recent Hollywood movie “War of the Worlds” by Steven Spielberg garnered much attention, but it was nothing like that accorded the 1938 radio version of H.G. Wells' novel. The extent of the panic that broadcast caused is still debated. So what really happened that night? See article.

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How theories about plant evolution are changing and the probability of alien invasion

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Life - The discovery of lignin in red alga cells is changing theories about the evolution of plants on Earth. Lignin, a principle component of wood, was identified in algae for the first time using powerful chemical and microscopic techniques. See article.
g Message - Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can join a worldwide search for intelligent life in space. Here’s a primer to how Seti@home works.
g Cosmicus - NASA’s Mars Spirit rover may be rolling again as soon as this weekend, although engineers remain perplexed as to what caused it to lose memory and abort an attempted drive last Sunday. See article.
g Learning - Here is a very thorough list of astrobiology-related journals, magazines and newsletters.
g Imagining - The alien invasion is a common theme in science fiction stories and film, in which a technologically-superior extraterrestrial society invades Earth with the intent to replace human life, or to enslave it under a colonial system. But would aliens actually ever attack another planet? See article.

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Studying the sun’s heliosphere and why E.T. won’t look like us

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - A Florida Institute of Technology professor of physics and space sciences, has received a three-year, $434,000 NASA grant to study the outer heliosphere. The heliosphere is a "bubble" in the interstellar medium filled with magnetized plasma primarily emanating from the Sun. It extends from the Sun's upper atmosphere to well beyond the planets. See article.
g Life - What is fundamentally required for life to evolve? What types of life could there be in the universe? See podcast.
g Message - To contact an alien civilization, humanity might want to consider a Bracewell probe — a hypothetical concept for an autonomous interstellar space probe dispatched for the express purpose of communication with (an) alien civilization(s). It was proposed by Ronald N. Bracewell in a 1960 paper, as an alternative to interstellar radio communication between widely separated civilizations. See article.
g Cosmicus - More than 9,000 pieces of space debris are orbiting the Earth, a hazard that can only be expected to get worse in the next few years. And currently there's no workable and economic way to clean up the mess. See article.
g Imagining - Among the earliest Star Trek alien races that were exact duplicates of homo sapiens were the Beta III humanoids. But the chance of extraterrestrials looking exactly like us is nil. Why? A note here: The Beta III humanoids show up fairly late in Star Trek’s very first season; until that episode, the series was quite conscious of at least making humanoid aliens different in shape and color — or at least producing an excuse, such as the aliens “assumed” human form for some nefarious purpose. With this race, however, exact duplication of Homo sapiens becomes commonplace in the show.

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Where postbiological life might exist and ‘2001’’s astrobiological vision

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - The Indian spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1, has returned images of never-before-seen regions of the moon's poles using a NASA-developed instrument. The mission will help determine if important resources like ice deposits exist in permanently shadowed craters near these regions. See article.
g Life - Book alert: In book publishing, timing and controversy are everything. So it is no surprise to see University of Chicago professor and evolutionary geneticist Jerry A. Coyne's new book, “Why Evolution Is True”, appearing just in time for Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. See review.
g Message - Postbiological life might operate (communicate, organize, travel, colonize) on a larger scale than a single galaxy—possibly on the scale of the supercluster. The most advanced postbiological civilizations in our Local Supercluster may have developed in the Virgo Cluster, a rich cluster where intergalactic communication and travel would be easiest. If these advanced civilizations wanted to contact new civilizations elsewhere in the Supercluster they might collectively broadcast from one central location, for the sake of efficiency and to make it easy to find. A powerful, centrally located beacon would tend to replace all others in the Supercluster. This could explain the failure of SETI. The most likely location for this beacon is the giant elliptical galaxy M87. See article.
g Cosmicus - Visionary science writer Sir Arthur C Clarke, author of more than 100 books, died recently at the age of 90 in Sri Lanka. Once called ‘the first dweller in the electronic cottage’, his vision of an astrobiological future and its technology captured the popular imagination. In this essay from Astrobiology Magazine, European Edition, the science and culture of his novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is assessed. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a great book for fourth- through sixth-grade kids: “Is Anybody Out There?” by Heather Couper, Nigel Henbest and Luciano Corbella. Of the book, one reviewer wrote: “Does intelligent life exist beyond our planet? This visually exciting examination looks at both the myth and the science related to the question. The authors, both British science writers, describe what alien lifeforms might look like, how we might communicate with them, and the impact the discovery of extrasolar planets has had on the development of scientific equipment. The book is organized into 17 appealing photo-spreads, comprising color photographs, detailed captions and boxed insets that contain information about a scientist or about a historic scientific event, or suggested activities for would-be scientists. The inclusion of a "count the alien civilizations" foldout board game is a bonus.”
g Aftermath - Hundreds of astronomers recently learned that life in outer space is likely to lack green eyes and be far more prosaic, tiny and, quite possibly, completely unlike life as we know it. This blunt appraisal came from the University of Washington's Center for Astrobiology and Early Evolution, one of the first programs in the country to give an advanced degree in astrobiology. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.

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Where to send the next planetary probe and theological implications of a universe willed with many intelligent beings from many other worlds

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - Which celestial bodies are more likely to host extraterrestrial life: Saturn’s hazy moon Titan and water-spewing moon Enceladus, or Jupiter’s icy moons Europa and Ganymede, which may have liquid oceans beneath their frozen crusts? That’s the difficult question facing NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) as they try to decide where to send the next planetary probe. See article.
g Life - Researchers have discovered filamentous ropes of microorganisms growing in the cold waters of an Italian cave - 1,600 feet below the Earth's surface. The sulfur caves provide a truly unique environment in which previously unidentified microbes can thrive. See article.
g Cosmicus - While recognizing that many of the driving forces behind human space flight are social and political, rather than narrowly scientific, it seems clear that science has been, and will continue to be, a major beneficiary of having people in space. What, after all, is the alternative? We can either stay at home, sending a few robot spacecraft to our neighboring planets, and continuing to gaze at the more distant universe across light years of empty space, or we can get ourselves out among the planets and, eventually, the stars. In which alternative future would we learn the most about this universe and our place within it? See article.
g Imagining - England's Astronomer Royal says he believes aliens could exist, possibly as balloon-like creatures floating in dense atmospheres. See article.
g Aftermath - What are the theological implications of a universe willed with many intelligent beings from many other worlds? See article.

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Why cyanobacteria didn’t poison itself and ‘Why Evolution is True’

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Abodes - The collection of rocks that the Apollo astronauts brought back from the moon carried with it a riddle that has puzzled scientists since the early 1970s: What produced the magnetization found in many of those rocks? See article.
g Life - Researchers have long been puzzled as to how cyanobacteria billions of years ago could make the Earth’s oxygen without poisoning themselves. To avoid their DNA getting wrecked by a hydroxyl radical that naturally occurs in the production of oxygen, the cyanobacteria would have had to evolve protective enzymes. But how could natural selection have led the cyanobacteria to evolve these enzymes if the need for them didn't even exist yet? See article.
g Message - Most SETI programs scan the sky looking for strong radio signals. Any signals that are deemed interesting are put on a list for follow-up observations weeks, months — even years later. Long delays in verification of potential ET signals sometimes generate tantalizing, but ultimately frustrating, stories. See article. Note: This article is from March 2003.
g Learning - Book alert: Jerry Coyne's lucid, accessible "Why Evolution Is True" desperately needed. With logic and clarity, the University of Chicago professor presents the vast trove of scientific evidence that supports Darwin's theory. See review.
g Aftermath - If you’re not familiar with Astriobiology.com’s “Great Debates series, you’ll want to head right away to their Web site. The discussions draw upon experts in the astrobiology field. The Fermi Paradox (“If there’s intelligent life out there, then why haven’t we heard from them?”) is examined in six parts.

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New galaxy formation theory and alien minds

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - Cosmologists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have come up with a new theory as to how galaxies were formed in the universe billions of years ago, attributing their formation to intensive cosmic streams of cold gas, and not galactic mergers. See article.
g Abodes - Astronomers have discovered a planet somewhat larger and more massive than Neptune as it passed in front of its parent star. This 'transit' method of finding planets is useful because it can yield information about the physical properties of the planet. See article.
g Message - Here’s a nice summary of various astrobiological authors on the Fermi Paradox, or the question of why, if there supposedly are so many aliens, we haven’t met any of them yet.
g Imagining - Book alert: Of course, quality science fiction is really less about aliens than the human condition. That’s why you ought to scour some used bookstores for this rare edition: “Star Trek on the Brain: Alien Minds, Human Minds,” by Robert Sekuler and Randolph Blake. An educational and entertaining nonfiction work that uses Star Trek to explain the workings of the human mind, the authors (both psychology professors) have put together an excellent and highly readable neurology primer. Their two-pronged task is to give a Star Trek example and then link it to contemporary science of the nervous system. Do you want to better understand emotions, their cultural implications and universal expressions? Then this is the book. See reviews..
g Aftermath - An intriguing conference begins today at NASA Ames: “Contact: Culture of the Imagination.” Contact is a unique interdisciplinary conference that brings together some of the foremost international social and space scientists, science fiction writers and artists to exchange ideas, stimulate new perspectives and encourage serious, creative speculation about humanity's future ... onworld and offworld. See article.

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