Chemical fingerprint of an extrasolar planet and origin of life no longer a ‘mystery’

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 - By studying a triple planetary system, astronomers have obtained the “chemical fingerprint” of an extrasolar planet. This is the first time the spectrum of an exoplanet orbiting a normal, almost Sun-like star has been obtained directly. The data represents a new milestone in the search for habitable planets beyond our own solar system. See article.
g Life - The origin of life should be traced beyond the bracketed knowledge as the mystery of life may be resolved through astrobiology, said Nalin Chandra Wikramsinghe, director of the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology, Cardiff University, UK, on Saturday. See article.
g Message - What are the chances that an alien signal has been sent our way just at the right moment to splash upon our antennas during that brief interval? If the extraterrestrials beam their broadcasts to the whole galaxy (or at least a big chunk of it), the chances are 100 percent. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Learning - The SETI Institute has created an “Adopt a Scientist Program.” Among the scientists is the father of SETI, Frank Drake.
g Imagining - Many science fiction story lines involve alien life forms. From a literary prospective, aliens often serve as metaphors for something more familiar. From a practical prospective, they make stories more interesting and TV more eye-catching. But what of scientific accuracy? A professor offers his advice about “How to Build an Alien”.
g Aftermath - Within the scientific community, the question is no longer whether extraterrestrial life exists, but if ET is smart enough to do long division — and the United States and other world governments already have detailed secret plans for first contact. My apologies in advanced for Popular Mechanic’s lurid title, but the reporting is sound. See article. Note: This article is from 2004.

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Life in other universes and how Earth-like planets survive their solar system’s birth

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 - Planets are thought to grow from swirling disks of dust and gas around stars. New simulations show how small planets like Earth can survive in these tumultuous environments instead of crashing into their host stars. The key is inward and outward migrations that trap the planets on orbits. See article.
g Life - Could our universe be just one among countess universes that emerged from the same primordial vacuum? And if so... could other universes be inhabited by life? In a recent article, theorists from Florida State University and the Weizmann Institute discussed these questions and the answers that physics may hold. See article.
g Message - The timescales of interstellar communication can be measured in two ways. First, we can compute them by the objective ticking of timepieces. Measuring time by a clock has the virtue of being objective and quantifiable, whether using a beloved old windup pocket watch or the latest atomic clock, accurate to one second in 20 million years. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.
g Aftermath - Book alert: Beep, beep, bop, be-bop. These could represent a new song or a communication from intelligent species on another world. With discoveries of more and more planets circling far away suns, there seems an increasing possibility that we have fellow, smart occupants sharing this universe. Michael Michaud takes this consideration seriously in his book Contact with Alien Civilizations. In a very forwarding looking text, he puts sound reasoning into analyzing the issues about if and when we find we're not alone.

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We’ll know in a few months if there’s another Earth and why aliens will be more advanced than us

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 - Thanks to a NASA telescope currently scanning the skies as it orbits the Sun, we may be mere months from knowing that there are inhabitable Earth-like planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy, said a NASA researcher and University at Albany professor. See article.
g Life - Contrary to a widely held scientific theory that the mammalian Y chromosome is slowly decaying or stagnating, new evidence suggests that in fact the Y is actually evolving quite rapidly through continuous, wholesale renovation. See article.
g Intelligence - Have you ever accidentally pulled your headphone socket out while listening to music? What happens when the music stops? Psychologists believe that our brains continuously predict what is going to happen next in a piece of music. So, when the music stops, your brain may still have expectations about what should happen next. See article.
g Message - In 2003, an international science team led by Alexander Zaitsev of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Richard Braastad of Team Encounter, broadcast scientific and personal messages in “Cosmic Call 2003” to five, Sun-like stars. Here’s a brief description of the preparation and implementation of CC-2003. See article.
g Cosmicus - Scientists in Texas are reporting the development of a "nanodragster" that may speed the course toward development of a new generation of futuristic molecular machines. The vehicle - only 1/50,000th the width of a human hair - resembles a hot-rod in shape and can outperform previous nano-sized vehicles. See article.
g Aftermath - Movie aliens are often like distant relatives: they resemble us in an unpleasant sort of way. This is hardly a surprise. Hollywood creates characters that audiences can identify with, and that’s why its aliens are so anthropomorphic (and why Donald Duck looks more like a human than a duck.)But appearances aside, cinema aliens have another implausible attribute: They’re nearly always at our level of technical sophistication. We frequently trade gunfire with them or chase them around in dogfights. This is silly, of course. Any beings capable of bridging the vast distances between the stars would be able to clean our clock when it comes to science and engineering. See article. Note: This article is from 2000.

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Five years on Titan and water on Mars 3 billion BCE

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 - New satellite images suggest that the surface of Mars was warm enough to sustain lakes three billion years ago. This period of time on Mars was previously thought to be too cold and arid for liquid water to persist. The data may have implications in determining the habitability of ancient Mars. See article.
g Message - While some scientists cautiously plan for ways to reply to extraterrestrial transmissions, others haven't waited for a signal to start talking. Sending messages from Earth into space to announce the existence of the human race is somewhat rare and controversial. Digital transmissions have been beamed into space from radio telescopes, and four spacecraft currently leaving the solar system bear messages for anyone who finds them. See article. Note: This article is from 2002.
g Cosmicus - Exactly five years ago today the European Space Agency's (ESA) Huygens Probe made history when it landed on Titan, the largest moon in the Saturnian system. The touchdown on the surface of Titan marked the first, and so far only, landing of a man-made probe in the outer Solar System. See article.

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Imagining the cosmos and what Martians might look like

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 IceBite team is studying a location on Earth where the terrain resembles that of the Phoenix landing site on Mars. The place: a mile above sea level in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys. The goal: to test ice-penetrating drills for future Mars mission. Click the 'Ask a Scientist' button to ask questions of the science team. See article.
g Life - In this interview, Nigel Mason explains how molecules formed in space might eventually lead to life, and describes what scientists are doing to better understand this process. See article. Note: This article is from 2008.
g Message - The idea and project of the 1st Theremin Concert for Aliens (stated in the Arecibo Proposal "One-Dimensional Radio Message for Blind Aliens" was not accepted by Arecibo reviewers because of their misgiving that such interstellar radio transmission may be a dangerous affair. See article.
g Cosmicus - Imagine the cosmos. What do you picture? A great void extending infinitely in all directions, sparsely dotted by stars, planets and other heavenly bodies, booby-trapped by black holes and traversed by light rays and magnetic fields? If you are a modern secularist that might be what you envision. See article.
g Learning - The Beginner's Guide to Rockets will help you learn the basic math and physics that govern the design and flight of rockets. See article.
g Imagining - What might life on Mars look like? Discover an ecosystem in “A Cold Dry Cradle”, a short story by Gregory Benford and Elizabeth Malarte, anthologized in “The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifteenth Annual Collection”.

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Rocky exoplanet remains of gas giant and what life on Europa might look like

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 - Research indicates that the most Earth-like exoplanet yet found could be the rocky remains of a Saturn-sized gas giant. The study increases our knowledge of how planets form and evolve and could help astronomers better estimate the potential number of Earth-like planets in the universe. See article.
g Life - Final proof that Mars has bred life will be confirmed this year, leading NASA experts believe. The historic discovery will come not on Mars itself but from chunks of the red planet here on Earth. David McKay, chief of astrobiology at NASA's Johnson Space Centre in Houston, says powerful new microscopes and other instruments will establish whether features in Martian meteorites are alien fossils. See article.
g Learning - Students for the Exploration and Development of Space is an international student organization whose purpose is to promote space exploration and development through educational and engineering projects. See article.
g Imagining - What might life on Europa look like? Meet the Ventlings in “A Spy in Europa”, a short story by Alastair Reynolds.

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Recently discovered exoworld unbearably hot and interpreting alien message via anticryptography

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 meteors that rained down the early morning of Sept. 1, 2007, date from around 4 A.D., the latest calculations show. See article.
g Abodes - This past October, scientists confirmed the discovery of the first rocky planet outside our solar system. Now, astronomers have gathered further information about the planet, CoRoT-7 b. The distant world might experience surface temperatures of more than 2,200 degrees Celsius, rendering the surface uninhabitable. See article.
g Message - Interpreting any alien message likely will involve anticryptography. See article.
g Learning - The NASA Postdoctoral Program offers qualified postdoctoral scientists and engineers the opportunity to engage in ongoing NASA research and serves as a source of talent to ensure the continued quality of the NASA research workforce. These competitive one- to three-year fellowship appointments advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems and astrobiology. See article.

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Evolutionary potential linked to environment and the ‘Arecibo message’

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 - Astrobiology Magazine's climate blog, The Hot Zone, discusses a recent essay by Jim Hansen of NASA GISS. In the piece Hansen speaks of the increase in negative attitudes toward climate change and the need for a 'fighting spirit' if a future climate crisis is to be averted. See article.
g Life - Coral reefs aren't just beautiful and rich in species. They also have long served as an evolutionary wellspring for countless types of marine life, even groups such as clams and snails that researchers thought had originated in shallow coastal waters. That's the conclusion of a new examination of the fossil record, and the findings reinforce the idea that evolutionary potential is linked to the environment. See article.
g Message - In 1974, astronomers sent the "Arecibo message," a binary-coded signal that decodes to a graphic illustrating some basic characteristics of Earth. The message was intended more to demonstrate the power of the telescope than to contact distant civilizations. Cornell's 25th anniversary announcement includes a decoded explanation and more information about what the scientists were thinking. See article. Note: This article is from 1999.
g Learning - Every summer, NAI teams and others host hands-on, in-the-field, in-the-lab workshops for educators. The workshops feature cutting edge astrobiology research delivered by astrobiology scientists and education professionals, as well as inquiry- and standards-based activities ready for your classroom. See article.

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Just 15 % of galaxy’s solar systems like our own and the benefits of reading Franz Kafka

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 new study shows that just 15 percent of solar systems in the galaxy are like our own. The finding may have implications in the search for habitable worlds in the universe. See article.
g Abodes - Book review: “The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World”, by Peter Ward and Don Brownlee, is the first real biography of the Earth - not only a brilliant portrait of the emergence and evolution of life on this planet, but a vivid and frightening look at Earth's remote future. Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee combine storytelling power with extreme scientific care, and their narrative is as transfixing as any of H.G. Wells' fantasies, but more enthralling, for Ward and Brownlee have real power to prognosticate. This is a book that makes one shiver, but also inspires one to wonder how humanity (if we survive in the short term) will fare in the distant future." Oliver Sachs Peter Ward and Don Brownlee, a geologist and an astronomer respectively, are in the vanguard of the new field of astrobiology. Combining their knowledge of the evolution of life on our planet with their understanding of the life cycles of stars and solar systems, the authors tell the awe-inspiring story of the second half of Earth's life. The process of planetary evolution will essentially reverse itself; life as we know it will subside until only the simplest forms remain. The oceans will evaporate, and as the sun slowly expands, Earth itself will eventually meet a fiery end.
g Message - In the absence of knowledge of physical and cultural clues, communication between two species can be almost impossible - almost. See article. Note: This article is from 1999.
g Learning - Reading a book by Franz Kafka –– or watching a film by director David Lynch – could make you smarter. See article.

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Ultra-blue galaxies discovered and gamma ray bursters key to discovering ETI

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 - NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has broken the distance limit for galaxies and uncovered a primordial population of compact and ultra-blue galaxies that have never been seen before. See article.
g Abodes - When scientists confirmed in October that they had detected the first rocky planet outside our solar system, it advanced the longtime quest to find an Earth-like planet hospitable to life. See article.
g Intelligence - Did our extinct Neanderthal cousins have an artistic bent, and did they interbreed with modern humans? Newly published research seems to support affirmative answers to both questions, but those answers are far from final. See article.
g Message - Regardless of what causes gamma-ray bursters, they could be the key to discovering life elsewhere in the universe. An astrophysicist says smart aliens might use the bursts to alert us to their messages. See article. Note: This article is from 1999.
g Learning - The International Year of Astronomy is ending, but the legacy of the last 12 months of celestial celebration will continue, under night skies and especially on the Internet. See article.

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Black hole rips apart massive star and ETI too far away

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 - New results from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Magellan telescopes suggest that a dense stellar remnant has been ripped apart by a black hole a thousand times as massive as the Sun. See article.
g Abodes - Long thought to have no atmosphere, the Moon actually does have an extremely thin exosphere. See article.
g Message - The famous question posed by the physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950 remains unanswered. "Where is everybody?" he asked. If the galaxy is teeming with sophisticated aliens, we should have heard from them by now. A new response to the Fermi Paradox comes in a recent issue of the journal New Astronomy. The aliens, like the truth, may be out there - but perhaps are so far out that there's no hope of receiving even a text message. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.

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Best methods for exploring the Moon and are our messages too boring for ET?

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 - Solar physicists attempting to unlock the mysteries of the solar corona have found another piece of the puzzle by observing the sun's outer atmosphere during eclipses. See article.
g Abodes - Those seeking to understand and predict climate change can now use an additional tool to calculate carbon dioxide exchanges on land, according to a scientific journal article publishing this week. See article.
g Intelligence - DNA that is left in the remains of long-dead plants, animals, or humans allows a direct look into the history of evolution. So far, studies of this kind on ancestral members of our own species have been hampered by scientists' inability to distinguish the ancient DNA from modern-day human DNA contamination. See article.
g Message - Messages sent into space directed at extraterrestrials may have been too boring to earn a reply, say two astrophysicists trying to improve on their previous alien chat lines. See article.
g Cosmicus - As space agencies around the world gear up for a return of humans to the Moon, researchers are beginning to outline important scientific priorities. A new study at an impact crater in Canada is helping mission planners develop the most effective methods for exploring the lunar surface. See article.
g Imagining - Extraterrestrials could consist of living, breeding, floating clouds of interstellar dust, according to a study by an international team. See article.

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Martian lake and alien life as dancing specks of dust

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 - NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured an action-packed picture of the nearby Small Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy that looks like a wispy cloud when seen from Earth. See article.
g Abodes - Spectacular satellite images suggest that Mars was warm enough to sustain lakes three billion years ago, a period that was previously thought to be too cold and arid to sustain water on the surface, according to research published in the journal Geology. See article.
g Life - Could alien life exist in the form of dancing specks of dust? According to a new simulation, electrically charged dust can organize itself into DNA-like double helixes that behave in many ways like living organisms, reproducing and passing on information to one another. See article. Note: This article is from 2007.
g Intelligence - A new study of chimpanzees living in the wild adds to evidence that our closest primate relatives have cultural differences, too. See article.
g Message - Earthlings could make contact with extraterrestrial beings by the year 2025, two astronomers predict. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.
g Cosmicus - The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has passed a key milestone crucial to producing the high-quality images that will be the trademark of this revolutionary new tool for astronomy. See article.
g Imagining - Alien life has been one of the staples of science fiction since the origins of the genre, and Star Trek, one of its best-known examples, has hardly shied away from it. Yet, while the line above—taken from a memorable (if annoying) parody of the original series—has been indelibly linked to the Star Trek franchise, it is hardly representative of the life forms seen in its various incarnations on the big and small screen. For every unusual alien, be it a vaporous cloud or the silicon-based Horta, Star Trek featured dozens, if not hundreds, of humanoid aliens, differing from humans only through some combination of forehead ridges, crumpled noses, or pointed ears (and almost all speaking flawless English, of course.) Such are the limitations of the makeup and special effects budgets of a TV series, one might argue. Yet even the Star Wars epics, with budgets far larger than any television series, feature a menagerie of aliens not so dissimilar that they could not socialize together at the Mos Eisley cantina. See article.
g Aftermath - Will we find extraterrestrial intelligence—and should we want to? Such are the questions examined in “Contact with Alien Civilizations.” Michael A.G. Michaud, a space policy analyst and former diplomat, provides an engrossing overview of the probabilities, promises, and risks of encountering smart aliens. Drawing heavily on the scientific and scholarly literature (he apologizes for not thoroughly discussing science fiction), Michaud’s approach is to compile diverse expert opinions on alien-related topics and relentlessly scrutinize premises about what the extraterrestrials would be like. His analysis suggests that contact is a serious—and not necessarily pleasant—possibility. See article or this review.

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Exploring Martian life in Australian lakes and the five tones of ‘Close Encounters’

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 - Researchers have discovered a distant star that exploded when its center became so hot that matter and anti-matter particle pairs were created. The star, dubbed Y-155, began its life around 200 times the mass of our Sun but probably became "pair-unstable" and triggered a runaway thermonuclear reaction that made it visible nearly halfway across the universe. See article.
g Abodes - The Voyager 1 spacecraft, after traveling about 4 billion miles into space, turned around and looked back home. From such a distance, the Earth appeared as a pale blue dot, a single point of light suspended in the vast blackness of space. If aliens from much more distant worlds were to look at our solar system, the Earth, if it could be seen at all, would seem even more tiny and faint. How could they know that dot of light represents a world teeming with life? See article.
g Life - By the time Curiosity, the next Mars Rover, launches in 2011, scientists on Earth will know more about the potential for life on Mars because of microorganisms that live in Australian lakes. See article.
g Intelligence - Spontaneous brain activity formerly thought to be "white noise" measurably changes after a person learns a new task, researchers have shown. See article.
g Message - Would the five tones from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” be a good signal to send ETI? See article.
g Learning - A new study co-written by a University of Illinois expert in math education suggests that incorporating technology in high school-level geometry classes not only makes the teaching of concepts such as congruency easier, it also empowers students to discover other geometric relationships they wouldn't ordinarily uncover when more traditional methods of instruction were used. See article.
g Imagining - From historical myths and legends to fanciful science-fiction tales of little green men and the uncertain possibility of life beyond our planet, Aliens have been a pop-culture phenomenon for centuries now, being portrayed as both harmless curious visitors to threatening monsters with aspirations to take over our planet. See article.
g Aftermath - A raft of newly unclassified CIA documents reveal that the remote possibility of alien invasion elicited greater fear than a Soviet nuclear attack. See article.

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Five more exoplanets discovered and keys to ensure a beneficial and rewarding first encounter with ETI

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 - The lead scientist for a new NASA space telescope announced the discovery of five more "exoplanets" far beyond our own solar system, and expressed optimism that his team is on a path to finding an Earth-sized planet in an Earth-like orbit in the near future. See article.
g Message - Should we modify the Drake Equation to account for civilizations which actually engage in deliberate interstellar transmission? See article. Note: This article is from 2005.
g Cosmicus - The mission of NASA's Mars rover Spirit was initially scheduled for three months. Now, the rover has marked six years on Mars. In this time, Spirit has found evidence that the ancient environment of Mars was far different than today. The data will help astrobiologists understand if the red planet was once habitable for life. See article.
g Aftermath - A detection of extraterrestrial intelligence will profoundly affect all inhabitants of our planet. The scientific community has realized that the keys to ensure a beneficial and rewarding encounter is education and preparation, and these two characteristics apply to many facets of a detection. See article.

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Plausibility of ‘Avatar’ and help SETI discover ETI

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Life - For a brief span of time, about 542 million years ago, the world belonged to the Ediacarans, a group of life forms so physiologically unique that biologists have considered giving them their own taxonomic kingdom.. See article.
g Intelligence - Some Neanderthals probably were redheads, DNA reveals. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Message - Want to help SETI discover alien life? If you haven’t already done so, download the free SETI at Home software. Using Internet-connected computers, the program downloads and analyzes radio telescope data on your desktop when it is idle. The program has been so successful in plowing through data that other scientific researchers, especially in medicine, are adopting it to their fields. Click here for the program.
g Cosmicus - A new website is giving amateur and professional astronomers formal mechanisms for reporting unexplained phenomena they observe in the night sky. The site will contribute toward a better understanding of transient phenomena occurring in the atmosphere. See article.
g Imagining - Since 1977 we’ve discovered over 400 planets orbiting others stars. We have reconnoitered the solar system. Base on today’s knowledge, what about “Avatar” is scientifically plausible or implausible? See article.

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Moon colony in a hole and the odds of detecting ETI’s signal

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Intelligence - Are redheads going extinct? See article.
g Message - What are the chances that an alien signal has been sent our way just at the right moment to splash upon our antennas during that brief interval? If the extraterrestrials beam their broadcasts to the whole galaxy (or at least a big chunk of it), the chances are 100 percent. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Cosmicus - Building a home near a moon crater or a lunar sea may sound nice, but moon colonists might have a much better chance of survival if they just lived in a hole. See article.
g Aftermath - With humanity now on the verge of being capable to leave its home world, Earth, scientists have begun to wrestle with the consequences of this next great journey; of the social impact humanity will undergo upon discovering life elsewhere, be it fossil, bacterial or an intelligent civilization. See article. Note: This article is from 1999.

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Solar system’s age recalculated and scientific accuracy of Polyphemus

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 - Researchers have recalculated the solar system’s age. See article.
g Abodes - The new science fiction blockbuster "Avatar" is set on habitable and inhabited moon Pandora, which orbits the fictional gas giant Polyphemus in the real Alpha Centauri system. See article.
g Intelligence - The timing of molar emergence and its relation to growth and reproduction in apes is being reported by two scientists at Arizona State University's Institute of Human Origins. See article.
g Message - One of our natural tendencies when we make contact with strangers is to try to impress them. Sloppy dressers might polish their shoes for a job interview, hopeful suitors will wash their cars for a first date and prospective children-in-law will be on their best behavior in the presence of the parents of their intended. Wouldn’t we want to do the same in our first contact with ET? Lewis Thomas, in his book “Lives of a Cell,” suggests that if we want to impress an alien civilization, we should send "Bach, all of Bach, streamed out into space, over and over again." See article. Note: This article is from 2002.
g Cosmicus - A speedy NASA spacecraft is halfway to Pluto and on track for a 2015 rendezvous with the distant, icy world. See article.

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A New Years' Resolution

As the new year begins, let us all make a resolution: We will work to make humanity a truly space-faring race. For the past half-century, we’ve ventured into space as if children wading a few feet into a great ocean. But there are other islands out there — and now is the time to swim.

This blog is dedicated to one event that very well may compel us to becoming a space-faring race: contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. It is a serious site; you won’t find a discussion of UFOs and the Fifth Dimension’s denizens here. Instead, it updates readers daily of the latest scientific advances in a number of fields related to the multidisciplinary study of astrobiology.

Its sections are loosely arranged around the now famous Drake equation, developed by astronomer Frank Drake, who conducted the first modern search for extraterrestrial life in 1960. The equation seeks to determine the number of technological civilizations that might exist among the stars:

R * FP * NE * FL * FI * FC * LN = N

In the equation, R is the mean rate of star formation averaged over the lifetime of the galaxy; FP the fraction of stars with planetary systems; NE the mean number of planets per system with environments suitable for the origin of life; FL the fraction of such planets on which life does develop; FI the fraction of such planets on which intelligent life rises during the lifetime of the local sun; FC the fraction of planets on which advanced technical civilizations rises; L the lifetime of this technical civilization; and N the number of advanced technical civilizations emitting detectable radio signals.

This blog’s sections and the general topics addressed in each one include:
g Stars - Cosmology and astronomy, which affect our understanding of the mean rate of star formation averaged over the lifetime of the galaxy and the fraction of stars with planetary systems, or R and FP in the equation
g Abodes - Geology and Earth climate, which helps us grasp the mean number of planets per system with environments suitable for the origin of life, or NE in the equation
g Life - Biology, especially the evolution of life, as well as chemistry and other sciences that advance our understanding of the fraction of such planets on which life does develop, or FL in the equation
g Intelligence - How homo sapiens and, more generally, intelligence evolves, to help us determine the fraction of such planets on which intelligent life rises during the lifetime of the local sun, or FI in the equation
g Message - A discussion of our attempts to communicate with our other intelligences, to increase our knowledge of the fraction of planets on which advanced technical civilizations rises, or FC in the equation
g Cosmicus - Humanity's climb to the status of a space-faring civilization, a necessary step to increase the lifetime of this technical civilization, or L in the equation; the term “cosmicus” comes from the father of Russian astronautics, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who envisioned humanity becoming “homo cosmicus” or a space-faring civilization — we will become “homo cosmicus” when the first human is born, lives, grows old and dies in space, returning to Earth only as a visitor
g Learning - Science education, as humanity's future and astrobiology's success depends upon a science-literate youth and public; it also is a necessary step to increase the lifetime of this technical civilization, or L in the equation
g Imagining - This section consists of musings on the possibilities of science fiction aliens as science fiction offers a literary portal for us to examine elements of the Drake Equation; I’ll primarily focus on “Star Trek,” the most popular and serious of the science fiction genre
g Aftermath - Looking beyond the Drake Equation is perhaps the most important question that will face humanity in the century ahead: “What will happen after we make contact with aliens?”; this section offers the latest speculations

I hope each of you will return daily to stay current with astrobiology — and that it may inspire you to work toward cosmicus.

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Technological advances in searches for ETI and comparing human/chimp genomes

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Life - Evolution uses every chance it gets to try something new. Dutch researcher Anneke Rijpkema investigated how petunia flowers are formed and discovered that nature is even more varied than the naked eye can spot. The genes involved in flower formation can function differently in different species. Evolution has discovered a system that works, but within that system it continues to innovate. See article.
g Intelligence - Humans share at least 97 percent of their genes with chimpanzees, but, as a new study of transcription factors makes clear, what you have in your genome may be less important than how you use it. See article.
g Message - Searches for extraterrestrial intelligence are about to expand into new realms, thanks to new advances in technology — and new thinking. See article. Note: This article is from 2001.
g Cosmicus - The sight of a cockroach scurrying for cover may be nauseating, but the insect is also a biological and engineering marvel, and is providing researchers at Oregon State University with what they call "bioinspiration" in a quest to build the world's first legged robot that is capable of running effortlessly over rough terrain. See article.
g Aftermath - How would proof of extraterrestrial intelligence affect humanity’s “world” view? Astronomer Steve Dick discusses the matter in this transcribed Smithsonian Institute lecture, from 1999.

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Exoplanet discovered around exotic binary and a very slow diplomatic pouch to ETI

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 - A team of Chinese astronomers have discovered a giant planet close to the exotic binary star system QS Virginis. Although dormant now, in the future the two stars will one day erupt in a violent nova outburst. See article.
g Life - Recent research indicates that early prokaryotes merged to create cyanobacteria. See article.
g Intelligence - A team of archaeologists has identified traces of alcohol in prehistoric sites, which suggests that the thirst for a brew was an incentive for Neolithic man to start growing crops. See article.
g Aftermath - For the last million years or so, mankind's principal diplomatic interest has been to handle social intercourse on his own planet. Interaction with other worlds’ societies was the province of science fiction. That soon may change. Modern science and technology suggest that a transmutation of past fiction to present reality could be imminent. If so, the dynamics of interaction will surely be far different than the alien encounters routinely portrayed in the cinema and on television. The ideas developed more than a century ago by European novelists such as Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, while imaginative, were not prescient. The aliens won't come here, and we won't go there. Our interaction will be a distant one, conducted by the electronic equivalent of very slow diplomatic pouch. See article.

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Feeding on ancient carbon and ‘The Quest for Extraterrestrial Intelligence’

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 - Glaciers along the Gulf of Alaska are enriching stream and near shore marine ecosystems from a surprising source - ancient carbon contained in glacial runoff, researchers from four universities and the U.S. Forest Service report. See article.
g Life - Scientists have shown for the first time that insects, like mammals, use vision rather than touch to find footholds. They made the discovery thanks to high-speed video cameras - technology the BBC uses to capture its stunning wildlife footage - that they used to film desert locusts stepping along the rungs of a miniature ladder. See article.
g Aftermath - Here’s a classic I stumbled across online: Carl Sagan’s 1978 article “The Quest for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.” Few other pieces so eloquently capture the essential, human purpose behind astrobiology and SETI. See article.

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Mystery of blue stragglers and SETI pioneers

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 - For almost 50 years, astronomers have puzzled over the youthful appearance of stars known as blue stragglers. See article.
g Abodes - Like sugar plum fairies in "The Nutcracker," the moons of Saturn performed a celestial ballet before the eyes of NASA's Cassini spacecraft. New movies frame the moons' silent dance against the majestic sweep of the planet's rings and show as many as four moons gliding around one another. See article.
g Intelligence - Maternal behavior itself can trigger the development of new neurons in the maternal brain independent of whether the female was pregnant or has nursed, according to a study released by researchers. See article.
g Message - Book alert: Here’s an oldie but goodie worth picking up — “SETI Pioneers: Scientists Talk About Their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence” by David W. Swift. This instructive book (by a University of Hawaii sociologist) compiles Q & A interviews with 17 researchers, mostly American, who are involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. While the field, which did not attract attention from scientists until 1959, remains a fledgling discipline, it now draws physicists, astronomers, electrical engineers, chemists and an aerospace physician into its orbit. Scientists featured here discuss current methods used to investigate ETI, and others they hope to develop, but general readers will most likely value the impact of their personalities — modest, open, thoughtful, occasionally waggish — above talk of technicalities.
g Cosmicus - Quote of the Day: “To know there was intelligent life – waiting for us out in the galaxy - … that would stimulate our curiosity, our drive to get there, more than anything else would.” – Fredric Brown, “The Lights in the Sky are Stars”

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Star vampirism and ‘Science, Society, and the Search for Life in the Universe’

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 - Vampirism not only revives the careers of Hollywood stars, it appears it can also revive stars of a celestial nature. See article.
g Life - It's commonly known that plants interact with each other on an everyday basis: they shade each other out or take up nutrients from the soil before neighboring plants can get them. Now, researchers at the University of Michigan have learned that plants also respond to the past. See article.
g Message - Here’s an intriguing plan: Using NASA’s Terrestrial Planet Finder for Optical SETI. See paper. Note: This paper is from 2000.
g Cosmicus - To travel to our neighboring stars as practically as envisioned by science fiction, breakthroughs in science are required. One of these breakthroughs is to discover a self-contained means of propulsion that requires no propellant. To chart a path toward such a discovery, seven hypothetical space drives are presented to illustrate the specific unsolved challenges and associated research objectives toward this ambition. See NASA paper. Note: This paper is from 1996.
g Aftermath - Book alert: Jeff Foust, editor and publisher of The Space Review, reviews Bruce Jakosky’s “Science, Society, and the Search for Life in the Universe”, saying, “A fair amount has been written in recent years about the emerging science of astrobiology: the search for life, intelligent or otherwise, on other worlds in this and other solar systems. Far less, though, has been written about the interplay of astrobiology and the sciences that constitute this multidisciplinary field with broader society—a factor that could become critical should astrobiologists one day discover evidence of life beyond Earth. That, and many other far-reaching issues associated with astrobiology, are tackled by University of Colorado scientist Bruce Jakosky in Science, Society, and the Search for Life in the Universe”.

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Brown dwarfs more common than thought and SETI’s radio telescopes

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 brown dwarf-sized objects orbiting a giant old star show that planets may assemble around stars more quickly and efficiently than anyone thought possible, according to an international team of astronomers. See article.
g Abodes - The faint tug of the sun and moon on the San Andreas Fault stimulates tremors deep underground, suggesting that the rock 15 miles below is lubricated with highly pressurized water that allows the rock to slip with little effort, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, seismologists. See article.
g Life - The Earth is estimated to have about a nonillion (1030) microbes in, on, around, and under it, comprised of an unknown but very large number of distinct species. Despite the widespread availability of microbial genome data - close to 2,000 microbes have been and are being decoded to date - a vast unknown realm awaits scientists intent on exploring microorganisms that inhabit this "undiscovered country." See article.
g Intelligence - Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have made a major discovery in how the brain encodes memories. The finding, published in the Dec. 24 issue of the journal Neuron, could eventually lead to the development of new drugs to aid memory. See article.
g Message - The wide dishes, 20 feet across and raised high on their pedestals, creaked and groaned as the winds from an approaching snowstorm pushed into this highland valley. Forty-two in all, the radio telescopes laid out in view of some of California's tallest mountains look otherworldly, and now their sounds conjured up visions of deep-space denizens as well. See article.
g Cosmicus - Quote of the day: (about humanity reaching the stars) “No, you won’t see it. But you’re part of it, as you’re part of mankind, and you can help. For as long as you live, you can help push, since you can’t ride. You can help push rockets and men toward the stars.” – Fredric Brown, “The Lights in the Sky are Stars”
g Aftermath - Even if the public seems less than awestruck by the prospect that alien life is a bunch of microscopic bugs, astrobiologists say unequivocal discovery of microbial life beyond Earth will change human society in profound ways, some unfathomable today. See article. Note: This article is from 2001.

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Life arising in shallow waters and what the Star of Bethlehem might have been

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 - In finding answers to the mystery of the origin of life, scientists may not have to dig too deep. New research is shedding light on shallower waters as a possible location for where life on Earth began. See article.
g Message - Here’s a neat piece: an interview with Frank Drake, the astronomer and pioneer who flipped the "on" switch for Project Ozma, the first modern “SETI” project. See article. Note: The interview is from 2000.
g Cosmicus - Two missions within the ExoMars Programme have been approved by the Council of the European Space Agency (ESA). Both missions, the first orbiting about the planet and the second roving on the surface, will look for potential life on the planet. See article.
g Learning - Suppose the Star of Bethlehem was an actual astronomical event. Are there phenomena in space that could explain what the wise men saw? Can we find evidence beyond the Scriptures of its existence? See article.
g Aftermath - To create interstellar messages that have a realistic chance of being understood across interstellar distances, we need to identify some information shared by humans and extraterrestrials. We need to identify a foundation for establishing a universal language that will let us bridge the gap between our world and theirs, all without the convenience of face-to-face contact. See article. Note: This article is from 2002.

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Plausibility of moon from ‘Avatar’ and Project Ozma’s 50th anniversary

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 - New research indicates that life-bearing moons, such as those featured in Hollywood blockbusters, might be possible. If astronomers discover such a moon nearby, the James Webb Telescope may be able to study its atmospheres and detect key gases like carbon dioxide, oxygen and water vapor. See article.
g Message - April 2010 will mark the 50th anniversary of the start of Project Ozma, and those involved in the search for extraterrestrial life, or SETI, will be raising a glass. Not only did the experiment inspire countless people to continue the search, it brought alien-hunting into the mainstream and arguably seeded the science of astrobiology. See article.
g Cosmicus - Quote of the Day: “… when you’re climbing a staircase to a room – an infinite room – filled with all the treasures of the universe, should you stop climbing just because you don’t find a handful of treasure on the first two or three steps?” – Fredric Brown, “The Lights in the Sky are Stars”
g Learning - This video from the Science and Technology Chat series introduces astrobiology, a field of science concerned with finding life elsewhere in the universe. Learn how astrobiologists study the conditions in which life emerged on Earth and complex organisms evolved, and how this knowledge helps them in their search for other planetary bodies capable of fostering life. The video features remote-sensing technologies, such as satellites, and mechanical rovers that can collect data from other planets or moons to assist these scientists in their search.
g Aftermath - If we encountered an intelligent species on another planet, could we understand them? In turn, could extrasolar species decipher one of our 8,000 terrestrial languages in use today? See article. Note: This article is from 2004.

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Could galactic empires exist and new ideas about magnetic loops

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g Intelligence - Scientists believe they have worked out the dimensions of the most attractive female face. See article.
g Message - Could galactic empires exist? In a previous article, we noted that there has been plenty of time for aliens keen on colonizing the Milky Way to pull it off. However, we see no signs of galactic federation ("Star Trek" aside). Why does the cosmos look so untouched and unconquered? What is keeping advanced extraterrestrials from claiming every star system in sight? See article. Note: This article is from 2001.
g Cosmicus - The magnetic fields generated by electric currents in wires are typically depicted as neat closed loops, but this may be more the exception than the rule. See article.
g Aftermath - Quote of the Day: "We have to mentally prepare ourselves for this big shock — perhaps even being dethroned from the center of the universe, the biological universe — when we discover evidence of life in outer space. At that point, there'll be another Copernican revolution, a biological Copernican revolution when we realize that we're not the only game in town." — Michio Kaku

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Did galactic tides prompt life on Earth and why the search for ETI matters

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 galactic tide is defined in the international astronomical community as a tidal force that is generated by a galaxy on surrounding dwarf companions, or even its own solar systems and their asteroid belts. The Milky Way, being the massive galaxy that it is, produces large amounts of tidal forces of its own, which also act on our solar system, and especially on the Oort Comet Cloud, a hypothesized spherical cloud of comets and other space rocks that lies roughly 50,000 AU from the Sun. Some experts have even recently proposed that these interactions may have prompted life on Earth. See article.
g Abodes - New research, focusing on shallow hydrothermal vents, is shedding light on a possible location for where life on Earth began. See article.
g Life - For a brief span of time, about 542 million years ago, the world belonged to the Ediacarans, a group of life forms so physiologically unique that biologists have considered giving them their own taxonomic kingdom. See article.
g Intelligence - Crows have shown that two tools are better than one when it comes to problem solving, scientists say. See article.
g Message - WHAT is the biggest question in science? The origin of consciousness? How to combine quantum mechanics with general relativity? These are big, but arguably there's a bigger one: is there anyone out there? See article.
g Cosmicus - Quote of the Day: “Space is the final frontier for humankind … It is the place that we will always know the least about because of its almost limitless extent. But it also offers the potential of almost unlimited opportunity.” – Brian Schmidt, astrophysicist
g Aftermath - If we do make contact with extraterrestrials, they’ll probably be a Type II or III Kardashev civilization. What’s a Kardashev civilization? Here’s a related story on the Kardashev scale.

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Concepts for interstellar propulsion systems and how to talk back to extraterrestrials

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 - A new method of detecting past comet strikes on Earth could help scientists understand how frequent large impacts were in the past. The frequency of impacts could be used to determine the likelihood of future, catastrophic impacts. See article.
g Message - If we are not alone in the Universe, why have we never picked up signals from an extraterrestrial civilization? Known as the Fermi paradox after physicist Enrico Fermi, who first posed the question, this long-standing puzzle remains one of the strongest arguments against the existence of intelligent aliens. But two physicists say they have come up with a solution. They suggest a way in which aliens could send messages to each other across space that not only disguises their locations but also makes it impossible for a casual observer to even distinguish the messages from background noise. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.
g Cosmicus - What are some ideas - based on the sciences that do exist today - that have been suggested over the years for interstellar travel? See article.
g Aftermath - Douglas Vakoch is one of a relatively small collection of scientists addressing the question of how to talk back to extraterrestrials. While most researchers involved in the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence come from physics and engineering backgrounds, Vakoch draws on a background in linguistics, sociology and psychology to explore SETI-related issues. Here’s an interview with him from 2003 about communicating with ET.

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