Saturday, January 31, 2009

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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Friday, January 30, 2009

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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Thursday, January 29, 2009

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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Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

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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Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

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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Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Monday, January 26, 2009

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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Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Sunday, January 25, 2009

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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Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Life around black smokers and into the universe’s hidden corners

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 from Princeton University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan have agreed to collaborate over the next 10 years, using new instrumentation on the Hawaii-based Subaru Telescope to peer into hidden corners of the nearby universe and ferret out secrets from its distant past. See article.
g Abodes - Scientists studying life around "black smokers" deep below the Pacific Ocean have discovered unique organisms that can survive in one of the harshest environments on Earth. The habitat may also provide information about how life could survive on other locations in the solar system. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat classroom activity: “Alien Safari.” New from NASA PlanetQuest, Alien Safari can be used in your classrooms or informal education settings to help kids discover some of the most extreme organisms on our planet, and find out what they are telling astrobiologists about the search for life beyond Earth. See article.
g Aftermath - Book alert: The authentic discovery of extraterrestrial life would usher in a scientific revolution on par with Copernicus or Darwin, says Paul Davies in “Are We Alone?: Philosophical Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life.” Just as these ideas sparked religious and philosophical controversy when they were first offered, so would proof of life arising away from Earth. With this brief book (160 pages, including two appendices and an index), Davies tries to get ahead of the curve and begin to sort out the metaphysical mess before it happens. Many science fiction writers have preceded him, of course, but here the matter is plainly put. This is a very good introduction to a compelling subject. See reviews.

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Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Friday, January 23, 2009

Best hopes for finding extraterrestrials and extremophile primer

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 - What is the habitable zone of the nearby red dwarf Gliese 581, which boasts three planets?
g Abodes - If we ever do find extraterrestrial life in the solar system, it's probably much more likely to look like a few cells than a walking-and-talking green man. Nonetheless, finding any kind of life beyond Earth would be extraordinary. Here are our best hopes.
g Life - The 410 million-year-old skull and jaws of a fish may yield important information about the origin and evolution of vertebrates on Earth. See article.
g Cosmicus - There is fierce debate over the direction humanity should take when exploring the solar system. One argument claims that a “one step at a time” approach is essential, with moon bases being the next key step. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat primer (for kids) to understanding extremophiles and how an understanding of them affects astrobiology: “Brave New Biosphere”.
g Aftermath - Freelance writer Mark Pendergrast examines the folly of the Anthropic Principle in a Vermont newspaper op-ed. See article. Note: This column is from 2005.

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

First ground-based detection of thermal emissions from extrasolar planets and could lifeforms like the Thasians exist?

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 - Determining the habitability of red dwarf systems could help reveal how likely extraterrestrial life is to exist, as red dwarfs make up a majority of all the stars in the galaxy. See article.
g Abodes - Two independent groups have made the first ground-based detection of thermal emissions from extrasolar planets. The studies open a new frontier for monitoring alien worlds from Earth, and also paves the way for further observations of extrasolar atmospheres. See article.
g Life - The intense radiation around Jupiter will complicate possible future missions to the moon Europa. A new project plans to create a "radiation weather map" that will help pinpoint regions where astrobiologically-relevant molecules may survive. See article.
g Message - It’s a quite old news story, but the issues raised remain relevant and greatly underexamined: If E.T. phones our home, will it be safe to answer? See article. Note: This article is from 1996.
g Cosmicus - The Universities Space Research Association has announce NASA's recent selection of a team of scientists from USRA's Lunar and Planetary Institute and the Johnson Space Center to be one of seven initial members of NASA's Lunar Science Institute See article.
g Imagining - An early “Star Trek” alien is the Thasians, who serve a deux ex machina role in one episode. The Thasians apparently are a noncorporeal life form that gave a human child incredible powers of telekinesis. Such capabilities, as exhibited by the child (now a 17-year-old teenager) appear to stem from within his own physical being, however. The Thasians themselves also are dependent on the physical reality of a spacecraft for traveling beyond their planet. Of course, how a noncorporeal life form might exist is beyond our physical science, though one might suspect it is an organized pattern of electrical impulses, somehow held together and organized without use of a physical platform (such as our brain cells) — though their powers can be transferred to such a platform, as occurs with the boy. Most likely the Thasians did not evolve as noncorporeal life forms but instead, being eons ahead of us in technology, rely on machines (using teleportation-like technology) to do their work; their own beings might be interfaced with such machines so a mere concentrated thought can command it. The Thasians, thus feeling encumbered by physical form, shifted to another dimension — again, more fiction than reality — where the very nature of that space allows the beings (electrical patterns) to remain organized, and perhaps better able to communicate with their machines. Of course, too little was said about the Thasians in the episode, though the boy did note that the Thasians do not “feel” or “touch” in the same way that humans do.
g Aftermath - Here’s an intriguing article that is frequently referenced in astrobiology papers: “"The Consequences of a Discovery: Different Scenarios", by astronomer Ivan Almar. Note: This article dates from 1995.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future


Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Planets around binaries and looking for extrasolar biosignatures

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 new study suggests that planets may easily form around binary star systems. The finding is helping astronomers narrow down the best locations in the universe to search for extrasolar planets. See article.
g Abodes - The methane found on Mars could be a sign of life on the red planet. Researchers are devising an instrument to measure the isotopic abundances that could distinguish a biological origin from a geological one. See article.
g Life - The prospect of finding extraterrestrial life is no longer the domain of science fiction or UFO hunters. Rather than waiting for aliens to come to us, we are looking for them. We may not find technologically advanced civilizations, but we can look for the physical and chemical signs of fundamental life processes: “biosignatures.” See article.
g Message - The Earth's radio emission is now comparable to or stronger than the Sun's. So for aliens looking in the radio frequency, we should be the brightest spot in the solar system. See article. Note: This article is from 2005.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future


Tuesday, January 20, 2009

When we’ll know where there are planets that support life and science under attack again in Texas

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 - Frenzied star-making in the Milky Way Galaxy starting about 2400 million years ago had extraordinary effects on life on Earth. Harvests of bacteria in the sea soared and crashed in a succession of booms and busts, with an instability not seen before or since. According to new results published by Henrik Svensmark of the Danish National Space Center in the journal Astronomische Nachrichten, the variability in the productivity of life is closely linked to the cosmic rays, the atomic bullets that rain down on the Earth from exploded stars. They were most intense during a baby boom of stars, many of which blew up. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Abodes - Sorry, folks: you probably won’t be picking up an extraterrestrial pen pal before you die. But way before that, we’ll know where the planets are that could support life, says Saint Mary’s University astronomy and physics professor Rob Thacker. See article.
g Life - A pair of Scripps Research Institute scientists has taken a significant step toward answering that question. The scientists have synthesized for the first time RNA enzymes that can replicate themselves without the help of any proteins or other cellular components, and the process proceeds indefinitely. See article.
g Learning - It isn't just evolution under attack in Texas. A member of the committee writing the standards for a new Earth and Space Sciences course in Texas public schools, notes that the creationist members of the Texas BOE have also placed young earth creationists on that committee. See article.
g Imagining - Some distant planets could support alien life. But what might this life be like? The only example that scientists have is life on Earth, which needs carbon-based chemicals and water. There may be alien life forms based on different chemicals - some of these could be so strange that we would not recognise them. But astronomers are looking for Earth-like planets, so scientists have imagined aliens based on water and carbon. See article.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future


Monday, January 19, 2009

How tidal heating determines planet habitability and ‘Fifty Solutions to Fermi's Paradox’

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 star must live in a relatively tranquil cosmic neighborhood to foster planet formation, say astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. A team of scientists came to this conclusion after watching intense ultraviolet light and powerful winds from O-type stars rip away the potential planet-forming disks around stars like our sun. See article.
g Abodes - As it orbits a star, a planet can be squeezed and flexed by intense gravitational forces. In this podcast, Brian Jackson explains how this "tidal heating" can help determine whether a planet will have life. See article.
g Life - One of life's greatest mysteries is how it began. Scientists have pinned it down to roughly this: Some chemical reactions occurred about 4 billion years ago — perhaps in a primordial tidal soup or maybe with help of volcanoes or possibly at the bottom of the sea or between the mica sheets — to create biology. See article. See article.
g Intelligence - Making money comes naturally to some people - specifically to men exposed to high levels of testosterone before they were born. That, at least, is the conclusion of a study published this month by John Coates of the University of Cambridge and his colleagues. See article.
g Message - Book alert: In response to Enrico Fermi's famous 1950 question concerning the existence of advanced civilizations elsewhere, physicist Stephen Webb in “If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens... Where Is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to Fermi's Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life” critically examines 50 resolutions to explain the total absence of empirical evidence for probes, starships, and communications from extraterrestrials. He focuses on our Milky Way Galaxy, which to date has yielded no objects or signals that indicate the existence of alien beings with intelligence and technology. His comprehensive analysis covers topics ranging from the Drake equation and Dyson spheres to the panspermia hypothesis and anthropic arguments. Of special interest are the discussions on the DNA molecule, the origin of life on Earth, and the threats to organic evolution on this planet (including mass extinctions). Webb himself concludes that the "great silence" in nature probably results from humankind's being the only civilization now in this galaxy, if not in the entire universe. This richly informative and very engaging book is recommended for most academic and public library science collections. See reviews.
g Cosmicus - The Mars Science Laboratory rover may be retargeted to land near a methane vent on Mars to specifically seek direct evidence of current Martian life. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a useful Web site for educators about microbial life and its role in astrobiology, created by Sarah Bordenstein of the Marine Biological Laboratory: “Microbial Life and Astrobiology”.
g Imagining - Could the Oankali of Octavia E. Butler’s “Xenogenesis” trilogy really use human genes to continue their species? For a biologist’s analysis, click here. The answers may surprise you.
g Aftermath - How is the search for life elsewhere reflected culturally in symbols that we recognize daily? One signpost invented to characterize the 'state of the Internet' is the occasional change in the logo of the world's most popular search engine. How that doodle has come to recognize astrobiology seems to violate conventional wisdom on what is meant by tinkering with one's cherished brand recognition. See article. Note: This article is from 2004.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future


Sunday, January 18, 2009

Habitable zone for Epsilon Eridani and alien cloud creatures

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 -What is the habitable zone for the nearby star Epsilon Eridani? New information about the star shows where three possible planets in this young star system might exist.
g Abodes - According to new research, two rare meteorites found in Antarctica are from an ancient asteroid with a crust similar to that of Earth's continents. The samples are the oldest example of rock with such a composition, and shed light on the materials of the early solar system. See article.
g Life - We're one step closer to self-sustaining chemical replicators, similar to what would have existed a few billion years ago, before true cells evolved. See article.
g Intelligence - The lineages of humans and chimpanzees, our closest relatives, diverged from one another about 4.1 million years ago, according to a new estimate that is said to be far more precise than previous ranges for this critical evolutionary moment. See article.
g Message - The first episode of “I Love Lucy” was broadcast sometime on Oct. 15, 1951. About 0.0002 seconds later, the signal glided over the rooftops of the farthest city suburbs, and headed into space. It’s still going. Every day, that first installment passes through an additional 4 thousand trillion trillion trillion cubic kilometers of the cosmos. Given that stars in our galactic neighborhood are separated by about 4 light-years, it’s easy to figure that roughly 10 thousand star systems have been exposed to “I Love Lucy” in the past five decades. That may suggest a high Nielson rating, but the chance that extraterrestrials are now hooked on 1950s television is low. See article.
g Cosmicus - In this op-ed, former astronaut Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin explains why "We should reach for the moon." See article.
g Learning - Dana Backman was staffing one of the walk-by tables in a gizmos and gadgets “Share-a-thon” session at the National Science Teachers Association’s annual convention in St. Louis last month. Her demo showed how an inexpensive photocell could detect both visible light from a flashlight, and invisible near-infrared radiation from a TV remote-control unit, which is one of the four activities in her SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) Active Astronomy kit. As hundreds of teachers filed by during two hours, she hawked my wares and handed out teacher guide on CD-ROMs plus web address cards to those who lingered for a conversation. And then things got interesting … See article.
g Imagining - Could “cloud creatures” exist on alien worlds? Here’s one writer’s speculations.
g Aftermath - High-tech telescopes on the ground and in space that perform daunting astronomical peep shows in a search for Earth-like worlds aim to answer one of humankind's most monumental questions: “Are we alone?” There is on-going deliberation relating to the societal, philosophical and religious fallout that stems from resolving such a stellar inquiry. See article.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future


Saturday, January 17, 2009

Geophysical energy source on Enceladus and how soon we might detect an alien signal

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 jets of icy particles and water vapor issuing from the south pole of Enceladus are evidence for activity driven by some geophysical energy source. See article.
g Life - By tweaking chemical strands of RNA, researchers have taken another step towards understanding how life may have first evolved on our planet. See article.
g Message - If extraterrestrials are out there, signals that would prove their existence are cascading over your body right now. Needless to say, you don’t notice. The challenge for SETI researchers is to build an instrument that will. Rising to the challenge, the SETI Institute and others are developing new search strategies and telescopes, encouraging some scientists to speculate that a signal detection will occur in the next decade or two. See article.
g Cosmicus - MIT faculty and students will play substantial roles on two of the seven teams that NASA selected to be part of its virtual Lunar Science Institute, aimed at addressing key questions about lunar science in preparation for the resumption of human visits to the moon about a decade from now. See article.
g Learning - How are key concepts of astrobiology treated in science fiction? See article. Note: This article is from 2001 and intended to be used as part of a classroom lesson.
g Aftermath - Book alert: In “Cosmic Company,” Seth Shostak and Alex Barnett ponder the possibility of aliens visiting the Earth, as well as the consequences of receiving a signal from the cosmos proving we're neither alone, nor the most intelligent life forms. They explain why scientists think life might exist on other worlds, and how we might contact it. Shostak and Barnett, experienced writers of popular astronomy, provide an accessible overview of the science and technology behind the search for life in the universe. See article.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future


Friday, January 16, 2009

The new science of geobiology and ‘The Rare 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 - The dust that condensed to form the sun, the Earth and the stuff of human bodies has long been thought to have originated in violent explosions of giant stars. But these explosions - called supernovae - can't account for all the dust in the cosmos. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Abodes - An average galaxy contains a hundred billion stars. We suspect there are perhaps a hundred billion galaxies in the universe. Although this is an educated guess (only 1 billion galaxies are known, for instance), even being off by several factors of ten still means that there is a vast supply of stars out there. Of this immense population, how many stars have planets? How many of these planets have the necessary ingredients and the right conditions for life? See article. Note: This article is from 1999.
g Life - It's new science - so new that its name, “geobiology”, has barely taken hold - and it's brimming with notions that only a few years back would have been laughed off as lurid science fiction. See article.
g Cosmicus - The University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey, which has discovered 70 percent of all known near Earth objects, is about to begin operating a new telescope. The Mount Lemmon telescope will increase survey productivity, helping to identify potentially hazardous objects like asteroids and comets on collision courses with Earth. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat classroom activity courtesy of NASA: “The Rare Earth.” How special are the circumstances that have allowed complex life, like animals and plants, to develop on Earth? In this activity, students systematically investigate the time frame for complex life to develop on Earth..See article.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future


Thursday, January 15, 2009

Methane on Mars and maintaining strategic dialogue with extraterrestrials

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 - Plumes of methane, a gas typically produced on Earth by cow digestion, flatulence and rice paddies, were reported on Mars by scientists today, raising the tantalizing possibility that life may dwell beneath the planet's inhospitable surface. See article.
g Life - How life began: This problem really permeates much of humankind, societies and cultures past and present. Some have evoked a supreme being to explain the origin of life; others look to the scientific method to provide answers. Regardless of the position, there have been at least two extremely exciting discoveries or reports that really change the nature of the game. The first one is the discovery of planets around nearby stars. There are other solar systems in space. The other is the discovery of the possibility that life existed on Mars. See article.
g Message - You don’t have to leave Earth to find intelligent life on other worlds. All you have to do is tune in ... at the right time ... on the right frequency ... in the right direction ... with the right spectrometer ... using the most powerful supercomputer on this planet. See article. Note: this article is from 2004.
g Cosmicus - Researchers have developed an incredibly strong and versatile building material using simulated lunar rock. The technology could be used to build colonies for human explorers and scientists using resources that are already available on the moon. See article.
g Imagining - Incredibly it’s been four decades since Federation Starship NCC-1701, better known as the Enterprise, first ignited its matter-antimatter engines and coasted into the dark spaces of the galaxy to seek out new life. See article.
g Aftermath - What are the challenges to comprehension in initiating and maintaining strategic dialogue in highly uncertain situations — such as with extraterrestrials? See article.

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Rock varnish as a Martian habitat and plasma-based lifeforms

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 study has suggested that rock varnish could provide a niche habitat for microbial life onMars and in other extraterrestrial environments devoid of liquid water. See article.
g Life - Researchers have made steps toward understanding how life originated by synthesizing RNA enzymes that can replicate themselves without the help of additional molecules. See article.
g Message - Book alert: If you are interested in how researchers plan to search the heavens for signs of intelligent life, you should have “SETI 2020” on your bookshelf. Written by Ronald D. Ekers (editor), D. Kent Cullers and John Billingham, “SETI 2020: is a remarkably comprehensive study of how scientists busy with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence should direct their efforts between now and the year 2020. Distilling the work of dozens of top SETI experts, astronomers and technology mavens, this book gives an overview of the problem of finding evidence for extraterrestrial technologies, and how to best address it. New radio telescopes consisting of large arrays of relatively small antennas are proposed and detailed. So are new types of antennas that can survey the entire sky at once. Of particular interest is the extensive treatment of optical SETI — the search for signals beamed our way using high-powered, pulsed lasers or their equivalent. A book that's interesting for both the layman and the technically sophisticated, “SETI 2020” is the definitive publication in this fascinating field.
g Cosmicus - MIT faculty and students will play substantial roles on two of the seven teams that NASA selected to be part of its virtual Lunar Science Institute, aimed at addressing key questions about lunar science in preparation for the resumption of human visits to the moon about a decade from now. See article.
g Imagining - You’ve heard of carbon-based and silicon-based lifeforms in science fiction. But what about plasma-based life? Is it plausible? See article.
g Aftermath - In the next two dozen years, the Allen Telescope Array will parse the nearest thousand light-years of space. If there are other occupants of this galactic neighborhood, we could turn up a signal. But then what? Would the discovery be put under wraps, either voluntarily or by government edict? If we found a signal, would you know? See article. Note: This article is from 2006.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Lunar Science Institute and how proof of extraterrestrial intelligence might affect humanity’s ‘world’ view

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 - Scientists may have traced a link between a dark eclipsed moon and cold weather. The key is volcanic eruptions, highlighting the interconnections between the geology, climate and life on Earth. See article.
g Life - How life takes shape is a mystery. Butterfly or baby, cells organize themselves into tissues, tissues form organs, organs become organisms. Over and over, patterns emerge in all living creatures. Spiders get eight legs. Leopards get spots. Every nautilus is encased in an elegant spiral shell. See article.
g Cosmicus - NASA has selected seven academic and research teams as initial members of the agency's Lunar Science Institute. See article. For related story, see “University of Colorado at Boulder selected for two lunar research grants totaling $11 million”.
g Learning - NASA has a Facebook page designed for students in grades 9-12 and higher education. The page is updated daily, excluding weekends and holidays. It features information for students regarding competitions, feature articles, podcasts, videos and more. 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 2000.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future


Monday, January 12, 2009

Simulation of life on Mars and real-time evolutionary changes

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 have observed the motions of 28 stars orbiting the Milky Way’s most central region, which has helped them to study the supermassive black hole lurking there. See article.
g Abodes - Scientists have developed a simulation of Mars, which indicates that some form of lifecould exist below the surface of the Red Planet. See article.
g Life - For the first time scientists have observed in real-time evolutionary changes in one species driven by competition for resources from another. See article.
g Cosmicus - The success of a robotic drilling mission to search for subsurface life has demonstrated that robotic core sampling combined with remote laboratory analysis is both technically feasible and could be used for life detection on Mars. See article.
g Aftermath - Finding out that we are alone in the universe or a suburb of a huge village of other star folk - either alternative is mind boggling. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future


Sunday, January 11, 2009

Asteroids orbiting white dwarfs and how space explorers might determine what happened to an extinct alien race

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 - New observations of chewed-up asteroids around old dead stars called white dwarfs bolster the idea that the Earth and other rocky planets in our solar system are far from alone in the universe. See article.
g Abodes - If aliens sent a probe to Earth in search of life, their best target would be the tropics, where life is dense. But on other nearby worlds, tropics are hard to come by. Most likely, if we find life elsewhere in our solar system, we'll find it in ice. See article.
g Life - Diatoms are an abundant type of plankton in the ocean that play a big role in carbon cycling on Earth. Trends in diatom numbers throughout time can tell scientists a great deal about the climate history of Earth – a history that may need to be rewritten. See article.
g Message - Is there any good reason to look for intelligently generated extraterrestrial emissions in the spectrum at Pi GHz or 3.141... GHz. See article.
g Cosmicus - The co-founder of a rocket launch firm has proposed an audacious plan to send astronauts on a one-way trek to Mars using a pair of tethered U.S. space shuttles that would parachute to the Martian surface. See article.
g Learning -It's 110 degrees at the end of July here in the badlands around the border of North Dakota and Montana as the pickaxes swing down against the Hell Creek rock. The volunteers who have braved rattlesnakes and scorpions to work here in the swirling dust may look as if they are in prison, but they are in a time machine, traveling back 65 million years by excavating through rock. And if these volunteers are lucky, they can keep bones they find..See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Aftermath - How might explorers determine what happened to an extinct alien race based on the clues they left behind on their home planet? See article.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future


Saturday, January 10, 2009

New interstellar chemical discoveries and Russia’s robotic mission to Mars

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 - New images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveal 14 young, runaway stars plowing through regions of dense interstellar gas, creating brilliant arrowhead structures and trailing tails of glowing gas. See article.
g Abodes - From Area 51 to those mysterious crop circles, human beings have had a number of reasons to wonder if we’re not alone in the universe. If/when we do find life on another planet, will they be friendly like our lovable long-necked E.T., or will they come to consume all of Earth's resources, only to be defeated by a bat-wielding Joaquin Phoenix and a glass of water? Well it appears that were closer than ever to knowing the truth, as new chemical discoveries by the Hubble Space Telescope has launched a breakthrough in the finding of extraterrestrial life. See article.
g Cosmicus - Russia is pushing forward on a robotic mission to Mars dubbed Phobos-Grunt — now seemingly on a countdown clock that ticks away for an October launch. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a neat classroom activity courtesy of NASA: Who Can Live Here? Students explore the limits of life on Earth to extend their beliefs about life to include its possibility on other worlds.
g Imagining - Speculation about aliens has typically been left to science fiction authors, science fiction readers and Hollywood writers and directors. But what if we apply what we have learned about life on Earth to speculate about what alien life forms might be like? Here’s a primer.
g Aftermath - Alien encounters and science fiction permeate pop culture, but what would it really mean if scientists found life beyond Earth? If even a single-celled organism on another planet was discovered, for many, this would be the last thread of evidence proving that life is simply chemistry. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future


Friday, January 09, 2009

First drop of liquid ever observed on an extraterrestrial surface and a larger galaxy than once thought

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 - New measurements of how quickly our galaxy is rotating have led a team of Harvard astrophysicists to conclude that our galaxy is 50 percent more massive than previously thought, and likely does have four arms. See article.
g Abodes - The Huygens probe has captured an image of what may be the first drop of liquid ever observed on an extraterrestrial surface. See article.
g Message - Is there life "out there"? If so, is it intelligent life? One way we can address the issue is to make a reasoned guess, based upon everything we know about astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and a host of other disciplines. Many years ago the radio astronomer Frank Drake did just this, combining all the "knowledge" in the form of a mathematical equation now named for him: The Drake Equation. See article.
g Cosmicus - Scientists recently conducted field tests in Hawaii of equipment and rovers to be used on the moon. The goal was to demonstrate how astronauts might prospect for lunar resources and make their own oxygen. See article.
g Learning - Here’s a good website that gives an general overview of astrobiology for kids: “Astrocentral.”See article.
g Aftermath - Book alert: Science fiction writers have given us many fine novels contemplating humankind's first contact with intelligent extraterrestrials. But our nonfiction world has not thought much about what to do if we are actually faced with this situation. In “Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” Jean Heidmann, chief astronomer at the Paris Observatory (and self-styled bioastronomer), offers a book on the subject that is at once serious and fun. Heidmann's obvious joy in raw speculation - all of it grounded in real science - is contagious. If aliens send us a message from many light years away, for example, how should we respond? Heidmann reviews the protocols established in the SETI Declaration and then offers his own suggestion: send them the entire contents of the Encyclopedia Britannica. See article.

Get your SF book manuscript edited

Thursday, January 08, 2009

International Year of Astronomy and how an alien visit might influence the world’s religions

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 - With the VISIR instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have mapped the disc around a star more massive than the Sun. The very extended and flared disc most likely contains enough gas and dust to spawn planets. It appears as a precursor of debris discs such as the one around Vega-like stars and thus provides the rare opportunity to witness the conditions prevailing prior to or during planet formation. See article. Note: This article is from 2006.
g Abodes - It has long been thought that climate change brought about the extinction of the Paleo-Americans and large animals such as mammoths, mastodons and saber-toothed tigers about 12,900 years ago when the planet stopped emerging from the Ice Age.Instead, it reverted to glacial conditions for another 1500 years. Scientists are now more seriously considered what was previously a highly controversial hypothesis - that an extraterrestrial event caused this turn of events. See article.
g Learning - The year 2009 is being recognized as the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). It marks the four hundredth anniversary of the year 1609 when Galileo Galilei used the then newly-invented telescope to observe astronomical objects after publishing his discoveries in his work “Sidereus Nuncius.” See article.
g Aftermath - How will an alien visit influence the world’s religions? Here’s one common man’s view.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future


Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Understanding planetary formation and astrobiology’s goals

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 are now studying the evolution of planets by studying dead stars. These stars are littered with the remnants of asteroids – providing information about the building materials of planets. Understanding planetary formation is essential in determining where to look for habitable worlds beyond our solar system. See article.
g Abodes - In the “Star Wars” movies fictional planets are covered with forests, oceans, deserts, and volcanoes. But new models from a team of MIT, NASA, and Carnegie scientists begin to describe an even wider range of Earth-size planets that astronomers might actually be able to find in the near future. See article.
g Cosmicus - After decades of work, researchers made rat stem cells, built the first memristor and watched a language evolve like an organism. But none of those accomplishments impressed us as much as the breakthroughs on this list. See article.
g Learning - In the 1990s, scientists coined the term "astrobiology" to refer to the study of life in space. During a 2003 radio broadcast of Earth and Sky, scientist Bruce Runnegar discussed the goals of this fascinating field. See article.
g Imagining - How common are other civilizations in the universe? This question has fascinated humanity for centuries, and although we still have no definitive answer, a number of recent developments have brought it once again to the fore. Chief among these is the confirmation - after a long wait and several false starts - that planets exist outside our solar system. See article. My apologies in advance for the Web site that I found this otherwise credible article on.
g Aftermath - The statement that extraterrestrial intelligence exists or doesn’t can have the parallel statement that God exists or doesn’t. Some people say there’s already sufficient evidence of existence for both. If you set aside abductions and miracles, it’s true that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence for either. However, if and when humanity ever detects evidence of an extraterrestrial intelligence, it will break the symmetry of these two statements and, in fact, that evidence will be inconsistent with the existence of God or at least organized religions. See article. Note: This article is from 2004.

Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future