Possible Evidence Of Early Life And Postbiological Life

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:

g STARS - What is the habitable zone for the nearby star Gliese 628?

g ABODES -Material from Earth's first billion years, including possible evidence of early life, may be preserved in meteorites on the moon. See article.

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 AFTERMATH - Will we ever find a primer for decoding messages from extraterrestrials? A gathering of anthropologists at a major conference in Atlanta heard some news that will be sobering for SETI enthusiasts: it may be much more difficult to understand extraterrestrials than many scientists have thought before. See article.