Logical Fallacies and SETI

I have to apologize. Some of you were expecting another post on Friday, which I realize I did foolishly promise. But I’m still on vacation, and I needed some time to, well, vacation. Don’t worry, I haven’t been abducted by the MIB. My apologies for leading you on.

As you can see, I’m still in Paris, mulling over my thoughts after observing SETI scientists in action at the first-ever “Searching for Life Signatures” symposium at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

It will take me several more days to pull together my conclusions, but I want to share a few initial reactions.

As a launching point, I want to react to a comment to my Thursday post “Something is Here,” which recapped a French scientist’s proposal that SETI take a serious look at UFO phenomena.

I have been an avid supporter of SETI for many years. However, attending this conference opened my eyes to several logical fallacies in the natural philosophy underlying SETI and in SETI’s rejection of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis as an explanation for some UFO sightings that science cannot adequately explain.

Here’s the comment I want to react to (it was posted by a fellow attendee of the conference, who admits she missed Alain Labeque’s presentation on Tuesday):

“I wasn't at UNESCO to listen to my colleagues talks. I don't regret it by reading your post. . . . Science... as a candle in the dark... “

What caught my attention, of course, was the “Science as a candle in the dark” allusion to Carl Sagan. I think this comment operates on three different levels, all logical fallacies commonly resorted to by so-called “skeptics” who attack those suggesting science should seriously investigate the possible extraterrestrial origin of some UFO reports.

First, the comment is merely a rhetorical flourish with no scientific meaning, although on its face it pretends to have such meaning.

Other rhetorical flourishes popular with the SETI crowd are “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” – Sagan again – and “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” – Arthur C. Clarke’s “Third Law.” (The SETI crowd never seems to seriously consider Clarke’s First and Second Laws.)

Rhetorical flourishes like this, of course, are just that – rhetoric. They mean nothing from the viewpoint of science, but do open a window into the logic (or lack of logic) underlying a scientist’s claims.

Second, such comments are an appeal to authority, another logical and scientific fallacy.

I understand the late Carl Sagan was known, loved and respected by many in attendance at the SETI conference at UNESCO, but just because he said something doesn’t mean it is true – or that it is a truly scientific or logical manner of reasoning.

Or even that it should be taken seriously.

I have never heard the SETI crowd so found of quoting Sagan as an authority against UFOs also quote another famous set of claims from Sagan’s book The Demon-Haunted World – the very work from which the “Science as a candle in the dark” flourish is drawn.

Specifically, in this book Sagan stated he found value in the serious scientific exploration of several paranormal claims. Sagan felt three reported psychic phenomena merited serious scientific scrutiny (though just barely):

(1) the reported ability of humans, by thought alone, to produce minute but statistically significant variations in random number generators run on computers:

(2) “ganzfeld” studies in which people under mild sensory deprivation appear to receive thoughts and images transmitted to them mentally by other people; and

(3) claims that young children sometimes relate the details of a previous life, details which are verified upon checking and which the children could not have known in any conventional way (except, presumably, through reincarnation)

I doubt you will ever hear anyone in the SETI crowd refer to Sagan’s interest in telekinesis, ESP and reincarnation, even while they quote him authoritatively on other subjects, such as why interstellar travel is (in their view) unlikely or impossible.

Finally, the “Science as a candle in the dark” flourish is really a thinly veiled ad hominem attack on anyone who would suggest an advanced technological civilization in our galactic neighborhood might venture to travel between the stars -- including our star, the Sun.

Reduced to its essentials, what the “Science as a candle in the dark” comment really means in this context is:

SETI = Science = candle, light

UFOs = Pseudoscience = darkness

Sadly, these three logical fallacies – reliance upon rhetorical flourishes, appeals to authority and ad hominem attacks – were all on display at the SETI conference at UNESCO.

Intriguingly, by far one of the most – if not the most -- data-packed presentations at the SETI conference at UNESCO was that of Bjorn Gitle Hauge on the “Investigation and analysis of transient luminous phenomena in the low atmosphere of Hessdalen valley, Norway.”

The Hessdalen phenomenon has been known for many years, but Hauge presented stunning new photographic, spectrographic and radar data indicating a luminous, energetic phenomena of an unknown character and source occurring over Hessdalen.

I’ll write up Hauge’s presentation in more detail when I return to the States, but for now I can tell you the visceral reaction of the American SETI contingent at UNESCO ranged from apparent mockery to thinly veiled anger.

It is important to understand Hauge advanced no hypothesis to explain the reported phenomena – although he begged the scientists at the conference to examine his data and suggest an explanation. He certainly did not suggest the phenomena were evidence of extraterrestrial visitation. He merely reported evidence the phenomena were real.

And – unlike much of the “science” presented at the conference – he actually had empirical data to back up his claims.

That, however, was too much for some of the most renowned scientists in the SETI field, who apparently cannot tolerate even the suggestion of unexplained phenomena in our atmosphere, even when supported by multiple data sets and unaccompanied by a suggested extraterrestrial explanation.

I guess that’s what passes for science these days.

(On that note, I’ll tell you what I learned at UNESCO about Dyson Spheres – a much-loved canard taken very seriously by many at the SETI conference – in a future post. Suffice it to say, if these imaginary constructs utterly unsupported by empirical evidence were called “Korbitz Spheres,” no one would take the idea seriously, and rightly so.)

To be continued . . .

"Something Is Here"

RB-47 Aircraft

“Something is here.”

Remember those words.

It’s cool here in Paris, but things are heating up at the SETI symposium currently under way at the UNESCO headquarters, sponsored by the International Academy of Astronautics. This is my third report from the conference.

Tuesday was an intriguing day, particularly the presentation by Alain Labeque of the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale in Orsay, France, which took an unexpected and -- for me -- shocking turn.

Entitled “Active SETI and the Zoo Hypothesis,” Labeque’s presentation began conventionally enough with a review of the well-known Fermi Paradox and it’s possible solutions. (For those of you who don’t know, the Fermi Paradox is simply the quandary that science tells us the Universe should be teeming with intelligent life, and yet the aliens don’t seem to be here on Earth – or anywhere else that we look. Where are they?)

There are several possible solutions to the Fermi Paradox, including the aliens don’t exist at all or interstellar travel is impossible or simply too expensive -- even for civilizations that may be millions (or billions) of years more advanced than humans. (I’ve discussed these proposed solutions before.)

Another possible solution to the Fermi Paradox is the Zoo Hypothesis, which I’ve also discussed before. Simply put, the Zoo Hypothesis is the suggestion the aliens have imposed a Star Trek-style “Prime Directive” to quarantine the Earth, for any one of many possible reasons:

Maybe they want to study us in our pure state, without us knowing they are watching.

Maybe they consider us to be too primitive and too savage.

Or maybe they are simply marinating us and aren’t ready to throw us on the grill.

In all seriousness, I find the Zoo Hypothesis the most plausible of the possible solutions, because it is a reasonable speculation on how a scientifically (and hopefully ethically) advanced civilization would behave toward us: they would want to study us, as we study nature, without inserting themselves into the experiment. In other words, no observational bias!

This is, of course, pure (if informed) speculation, but in his talk yesterday Alain Labeque proposed a possible method for scientists to test the Zoo Hypothesis.

And this is where my jaw dropped.

As I have written about before, I have become accustomed to the searing scorn generally heaped by the American scientific intelligentsia on anyone – inside or outside of traditional science – who proposes an advanced technological civilization in our galactic neighborhood might venture to travel between the stars – including our star, the Sun.

What I am learning at this symposium, however, is that this is a somewhat uniquely American attitude not so widely shared in Europe. (I will leave for another day – soon – my thoughts on the reasons for this seemingly American derangement that lately passes under the gross misnomer of “skepticism.”)

Labeque told his assembled colleagues they should examine UFO sightings for clues as to how to design the SETI experiment.

Suggesting we seriously consider the Zoo Hypothesis as a solution to the Fermi Paradox, Labeque essentially asked his colleagues: if we are being watched, as the Zoo Hypothesis suggests, where are the watchers? (As Labeque put it, where are the “photographers”?)

For a clue, Labeque urged his colleagues consider UFO sightings, including the 1400 or so documented in the Dominique Weinstein catalog. Labeque pointed out that, although many unexplained UFOs appear to behave as if they are under intelligent control, no organized scientific effort to understand the phenomena currently is underway.

In particular, Labeque pointed to the well-known July 1957 RB-47 sighting, during which:

"An Air Force Boeing Stratojet reconnaissance jet RB-47, equipped with electronic countermeasures gear and manned by six officers, was followed by an unidentified object for a distance of well over 700 miles, and for a time period of more than one hour, as it flew from Mississippi, through Louisiana and Texas and into Oklahoma. The object was, at various times, seen visually by the cockpit crew as an intensely luminous light, followed by ground-radar and detected on ECM monitoring gear aboard the RB-47. Of special interest in this case are several instances of simultaneous appearances and disappearances on all three of those physically distinct observation channels, and rapidity of maneuvers beyond aircraft possibilities."

According to Labeque, during the sighting the RB-47 detected a 3 GHz microwave transmission from the unknown craft.

Since the unidentified craft exhibited intelligent maneuvers and appeared to be communicating with someone, Labeque suggests SETI scientists use this data point to design an experiment.

Positing the craft may have been a scout craft sent from an alien station somewhere in our solar system, Labeque proposed SETI scientists transmit a microwave signal at 3 GHz and see if it elicits a reply. Since the possible location of an alien station is unknown, the signal would have to be broadcast in all directions of the sky. After transmitting for a period of time, the signal would be shut off, and scientists would listen for a response.

A few of Labeque’s European and Russian colleagues appeared intrigued by the suggested plan and challenged Labeque to clarify several points. In reference to the wealth of unexplained UFO sightings, Labeque concluded, “Something is here.”

The American contingent of SETI scientists asked no questions, politely applauding like everyone else at the end of Labeque’s talk.

Later in the day, another European scientist – Jean-Pierre Rospars of France -- suggested at the end of his presentation on SETI and terrestrial biological evolution:

“Possible ET presence in our environment should not be neglected. It may be partly accessible to our limited means of investigation.”

The SETI symposium wraps up today. More to come, tomorrow . . .

Calling All Aliens!

Get ready to phone E.T.

In 1974, in response to the broadcast of the Arecibo Message -- the first serious effort at Active SETI or METI (Messages to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) – astronomer Sir Martin Ryle expressed misgivings, saying any creature receiving the message may be “malevolent or hungry.”

Some are resurrecting those concerns today as scientists – and others – seriously pursue plans to broadcast messages to the stars in the hopes they will one day be received, and answered, by an advanced extraterrestrial civilization.

Such plans are under debate at the International Academy of Astronautics’ symposium on SETI, taking place right now at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

So far, no one presenting at the conference has explicitly expressed concern over such plans, and some have expressed unqualified and enthusiastic support for – and intention to send – such messages.

Traditional or “passive” SETI experiments began almost 50 years ago with Frank Drake’s pioneering research, which led to the first true SETI program – Project Ozma – and the Drake Equation. (Drake was also one of the folks behind the 1974 Arecibo Message.)

Five decades later, SETI scientists have yet to detect an unmistakable signal from an alien civilization – although they will be the first to tell you they have only scratched the surface of the vast galactic haystack. (Try this on for size: According to Dr. Jill Tarter, the SETI Institute’s science director and a presenter at the conference, there are more stars in the Universe than grains of sand on Earth.)

Now, some SETI scientists want to speed up the search by announcing the presence of humanity to the cosmos, in hopes a receiving alien civilization will be moved to respond in kind.

Russian astronomer Alexander Zaitsev is easily among the most enthusiastic supporters of this effort. Zaitsev plans to broadcast what he calls the Earth Radio Message starting in October.

Controversy over the wisdom of METI has roiled the SETI community for several years, as detractors – including diplomat Michael Michaud – have argued for restraint, or at least debate, before broadcasts begin.

METI advocates such as Zaitsev point out humans have already been announcing their presence to the cosmos for decades through military and civilian radar and broadcasting.

Critics have advanced plans to revise voluntary protocols governing the practice of SETI by adding proposed restraints on the practice of METI. (Current SETI protocols already provide that no broadcast response to a received alien signal should be given without international consultation.)

At the UNESCO conference, SETI Institute astronomer Seth Shostak vigorously and eloquently argued against such efforts, stating the SETI community has no right to tell others not to broadcast.

Shostak’s fear is the controversy will wrongly paint SETI as a dangerous activity -- which it is not, since traditional SETI has always been a purely “listening” exercise and most SETI scientists have no intention to broadcast anything.

“Leave SETI alone,” Shostak implored those who want to place new restrictions on METI in the current SETI protocols.

Shostak labeled as “paranoia” fears a successful METI project might point a malevolent extraterrestrial species to our existence here on Earth.

Do we “cower and hide,” Shostak said, asking if we do, must we tell our progeny to also hide forever?

Concluding his remarks, Shostak labeled efforts to use the existing SETI protocols to proscribe active broadcasts to aliens a “senseless, paranoid, and useless Maginot Line against an unfound, undefined and unknown foe” and called SETI an endeavor "too noble to be caged by fear and bad policy.”

However, one of Shostak’s colleagues at the SETI Institute, Doug Vakoch, offered a different viewpoint, telling his colleagues he viewed passive SETI as potentially more dangerous than actively broadcasting signals because if passive SETI ever does receive an alien signal, that success will lead to unrestrained and unregulated broadcasting by everyone with access to a transmitter.

Alexander Zaitsev, the Russian METI advocate, challenged this view, suggesting if everyone – including the aliens – are afraid to broadcast out of fear of invasion by an interstellar civilization, then traditional or passive SETI has no chance of success because there will be no signals to receive.

Others at the conference, such as William Edmondson of the University of Birmingham, suggested METI may prove useful in planning passive SETI strategies, on the assumption figuring out how to signal an extraterrestrial species will be instructive in how to search for a similar civilization’s signal beamed toward Earth.

Later in the conference, anthropologist Kathryn Denning of York University in Toronto argued for more respect on all sides of the controversy.

Whether or not to expose humanity to the potential risks of METI is ultimately a social and not a scientific question, Denning said, similar to current debates over climate change and global warming.

Because scientists cannot offer the public a realistic or quantifiable risk/benefit analysis, Denning suggests those involved in the debate acknowledge the hopes and fears of the opposing view.

“The real question is: who is entitled to make decisions that may affect all?” Denning proposed.

More to come . . .

Paris SETI Conference at UNESCO

As you can see from the picture above, I am in Paris, and among other things I’m attending the “Searching For Life Signatures” symposium on SETI coordinated by the International Academy of Astronautics and held at the UNESCO headquarters here.

According to one of the conference organizers, this is the first SETI conference to be held at a United Nations facility – a significant development given the potential for cultural shock that may occur when and if SETI is successful in detecting a signal from an advanced extrasolar civilization.

The conference has gathered luminaries in the fields of SETI, Astrobiology, and the search for extrasolar planets. Well, those folks -- and me. Talk about a fish out of water. But they had to know that if they were going to discuss potential scientific threats to the survival of the human race, sooner or later the lawyers would show up!

(Now, having made that quip, I want to make one thing clear:  so far, no one presenting at the conference believes SETI -- in either its traditional Passive mode or its new Active iteration -- presents any danger to the human race -- and neither do I, for reasons I will address in future posts.)

The conference rationale is to gather experts in all of these fields to discuss strategies for both “Passive” (traditional) SETI and “Active” SETI (or METI -- Messages to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), which proposes broadcasting radio messages into space in hopes they will be received and answered by advanced extraterrestrial civilizations.

The conference opened yesterday with talks by Frank Drake, originator of the Drake Equation used by SETI scientists to estimate the frequency of extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy; Jill Tarter, scientific director of the SETI Institute; Didier Queloz, co-discoverer (with Michel Mayor) of the first extrasolar planet ever discovered; and Alexander Zaitsev, the Russian astronomer who is the leading advocate for the practice of METI. 

The main event comes later this week when the conference attendees discuss and debate the wisdom of METI and the possible need for any voluntary protocols to guide and restrain such activity.

But there have also been a few surprising statements already regarding UFOs and SETI, which I will address in future posts soon to come.

The UNESCO headquarters where we are meeting is a typical mid-20th century concrete monstrosity. When I walked in yesterday I had imagined we would be meeting in one of the grand salles, one of which is pictured below, which have the appearance of a modern cathedral.

To my chagrin, however, I was ushered to a windowless room no larger than a typical college classroom, crammed with tables and chairs, a power point projector and a screen. It is here that I find myself sardined for the next several days with several dozen academics and a reporter or two:

A few quick tidbits from the opening day:

Frank Drake, who more than anyone alive today can be considered the sire of modern SETI, spoke by telephone on changes in the SETI paradigm from the pioneering days of 50 years ago. For one thing, our concept of a solar system’s habitable zone has broadened from what we originally thought it was. Today, scientists have reason to believe that primitive microbial life could exist from a distance of just past the orbit of Venus to the outer solar system, at least to the orbit of Neptune. That is a vast expansion of habitable space from a zone once thought to be broad enough to encompass only the orbit of Earth and perhaps that of Mars. This expanded habitability zone is attributed to a greater understanding of the capabilities of extreme microbial life on Earth and a greater understanding of the insulating capabilities of planetary atmospheres, icy crusts and even oceans.

The end result: we know now life can exist many places we never thought possible. The real estate available for life to take hold and develop is far more vast than we imagined.

Drake also conceded that at the dawn of SETI 50 years ago, scientists’ original conception of alien technology was unjustifiably arrogant, assuming humans were essentially the technological equivalent of aliens that may be out there. Today, it is well accepted that if aliens exist, they are statistically likely to be vastly older and more advanced technologically than we currently are – a probability with many intriguing implications I will discuss in future posts.

Finally, Drake discussed one of the challenges that may be undermining modern SETI – the fact that as they become more advanced, technological civilizations may tend to go “quiet” in the electromagnetic spectrum – as humans are with the advent of fiber optic and satellite communications. The implication may be that we will be left searching for the light emitted by extraterrestrial cities on extrasolar planets. (Nobody pointed out that even humans are trying to change that, through “dark sky” movements to fight light pollution and conserve energy.)

Didier Queloz, co-discoverer of the first extrasolar planet ever found, predicted that we are on the verge of discovering the first truly Earth-like planets, and that the first such planet will be discovered using the radial velocity method he and his colleagues have pioneered.

Finally, Alexander Zaitsev, the Russian METI pioneer and its leading advocate today, blasted those who have expressed reservations about the wisdom of trying to broadcast messages to extraterrestrials, labeling such concerns “superstition.” Zaitsev, a presence both imposing and engaging at the same time, has recently built an increasingly visible public image upon his advocacy for beaming messages to the stars – or rather, to any inhabitants of planets orbiting those stars.

Zaitsev outlined his proposal for what he originally called the European Radio Message but is now calling the Earth Radio Message. (Zaitsev expressed his irritation at recent European efforts to beam messages to the stars, which included a commercial for Doritos.)

Zaitsev dismisses concerns about broadcasting to aliens based on the reasoning that any advanced aliens in our galactic neighborhood already know Earth is here and that it is habitable and inhabited. First, although we have only been a spacefaring species for 50 years, we have the ability to detect the presence of Earth-like planets in our own neighborhood. Second, Earth has had levels of oxygen in its atmosphere detectable through spectroscopy for at least 200 million years – and only life can produce consistent quantities of oxygen. Finally, we have been broadcasting ourselves for 100 years – long enough to announce our presence to a sphere now with a diameter of 200 light-years.

Zaitsev contends METI is a fundamentally new type of human activity -- one that combines the scientific with the artistic and the diplomatic.

More to come tomorrow . . . including some intriguing insights on the attitude of European scientists toward UFO phenomena and their potential relevance to SETI.

Evolution Preceded Life Itself

Two Harvard biologists have shown that a rudimentary form of natural selection acting on the chemicals present in Earth's prebiotic primordial soup preceded the origin of life itself and probably made the origin of life more likely to occur.

According to New Scientist:

"To examine how this might occur, Martin Nowak and Hisashi Ohtsuki, mathematical biologists at Harvard University, used simple equations to model the growth of such chains of building-blocks.

The model shows that because longer chains require more assembly reactions, they should be much less common than short chains. And if some assembly reactions run
faster than others, then chains built from these fast-assembling sequences of building blocks grow to be most abundant."

In such a system, molecules might form that have attributes tending to make them more likely to make copies of themselves. The prebioltic selection posited by the Harvard scientists would ensure that the molecules that most efficiently made copies of themselves became more common. As New Scientist explains:

"At some point, Nowak's model predicts, the best replicator may get fast and accurate enough to dominate the population, sucking up all the resources and driving all the other prebiotic sequences extinct. This is the threshold of life."

In other words, life destroys what preceded it.

More Ingredients For Life Found In Outer Space

A team of researchers led by Spanish scientists has published their discovery of the complex molecule naphthalene in an interstellar star-forming cloud, indicating many prebiotic organic molecules necessary for life as we know it could have been present when our own solar system formed.

According to the new research -- published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters -- the naphthalene molecules were discovered 700 light-years from Earth in a star-forming region of the constellation Perseus, in the direction of the star Cernis 52.

When napthalene is mixed with water and ammonium -- both also common in the interstellar medium -- and subjected to ultraviolet light, these molecules react to form a variety of compounds essential to the development of life as we know it on Earth, including amino acids and several precursor molecules to vitamins.

Scientists: Republicans Are Uptight!

According to New Scientist, a team of researchers from the University of Nebraska -- a red state if there ever was one -- have demonstrated what we all probably knew already: Republicans and social conservatives are wound a little too tight.

By comparing measurements such as skin conductivity, perspiration and eye blinking, political scientists in Lincoln discovered social conservatives react more strongly than liberals to shocking images and sudden noises.

How did the scientist know this? The social conservatives sweat more and blinked harder when shown the disturbing images.

The results may suggest a biological or even a genetic predisposition to political beliefs.

First Exoplanet Photographed?

Credit:  Gemini Observatory

In a discovery that challenges commonly accepted theories of planetary formation, scientists announced this week they have likely photographed for the first time a true planet orbiting another star.  

In addition to probably being the first planet photographed around another star, the announcement is extraordinary because the exoplanet in question orbits its host star at a distance of 11 times that of Neptune from our Sun or 330 times the Earth-Sun distance.  

The extraordinary distance of the extrasolar planet from its host star raises questions about our current theories of solar system formation, and indicates there are probably many more paths to planet formation that science currently recognizes.

The discovers from the University of Toronto used the Gemini North Telescope on Hawaii's Mauna Kea to photograph the gas giant, which orbits a young Sun-like star approximately 500 light-years from our own solar system.  You can read their entire research paper here.

Goldilocks Solar System

New research indicates our solar system -- indeed our Earth -- is "neither unique nor all that strange."

Scientists at Caltech used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope surveyed three young Sun-like stars that still had their protoplanetary disks.  The results, according to Space.com:

"For one of the stars, SR 21, it's likely that a giant planet orbits at 3.5 times the distance between the Earth and the sun (3.5 astronomical units, or AU). For the second star, HD 135344B, a planet could be orbiting at 10 to 20 AU. The observations of the third star, TW Hydrae, may also require the presence of one or two planets."

The researchers conclude each Sun-like star will produce very different planetary systems.  Previous studies have concluded Earth-like planets are probably common in our galaxy.

It Came From Outer Space!

Actually it came back from outer space.

New Scientist and Science Daily are reporting the results of an intriguing experiment in which scientists launched tardigrades or "water bears" -- tiny invertebrates about one millimeter long -- into space onboard the European Space Agency's FOTON-M3 spacecraft.

After 10 days in the vacuum of space, the satellite returned to Earth and the tardigrades were recovered.  The tardigrades survived the vacuum just fine, but exposure to the Sun's ultraviolet radiation proved deadly for most of the water bears.  However, some did survive.

The tardigrades are the first animals to have survived such an experiment, a feat previously achieved only by lichens and bacteria.

Are Variable Stars A Galactic Internet?

A scientist at the University of Hawaii is suggesting that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations may communicate with one another by triggering variable stars called Cepheids to pulsate in code.

According to New Scientist magazine, John Learned and his colleagues are suggesting an advanced technological civilization could use powerful beams of neutrinos to "tickle" Cepheids into expanding and contracting in a sort of extraterrestrial Morse Code.

Our Milky Way galaxy is home to approximately 500 Cepheid variables, which can be seen as far as 60 million light-years away.

Astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute is skeptical, suggesting radio as a far more practical mode of communication.

Did Life Come From The Stars?

Via New Scientist:

"COULD a star in a distant solar system have thrown the life's building blocks our way?

Previous studies into whether material could travel between solar systems predicted that such an exchange would be unlikely, because the speed matter would need to be travelling at to escape one star would mean it was moving too fast to be caught by another.

Now Edward Belbruno and colleagues at Princeton University have shown that planetary systems in young, densely packed star clusters could throw out rocks at a slower pace. They showed that for rocks in certain orbital positions, the gravitational pull of the central star is equal to the pull of other stars in the cluster. This sends the rocks into chaotic orbits that eventually allow them to wander off at about 0.1 kilometres per second - slow enough for other stars to catch them."

Read the New Scientist article here, and the published paper here.

The Clouds Of Mars

Via Space.com:

"A series of still images taken by the Phoenix Mars Lander of water-ice clouds sailing overhead on the red planet has been turned into a short animation by NASA mission scientists.

'The images were taken as part of a campaign to see clouds and track wind. These are clearly ice clouds,' said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University and the lead scientist for the lander's surface stereo imager, which snapped the pictures of the clouds during a 10-minute period on Aug. 29. The resulting animation is just a few seconds long."

You can view the movie here or here.

A Long Way From Home

Via NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day:

On July 4th, 2005, the Deep Impact spacecraft directed a probe to impact the nucleus of Comet Tempel 1. Still cruising through the solar system, earlier this year the robotic spacecraft looked back to record a series of images of its home world 31 million miles (50 million kilometers) away. In a sequence from top left to bottom right, these four frames from the video show a rotating Earth. They combine visible and near-infrared image data with enough resolution and contrast to see clouds, oceans, and continents. They also follow a remarkable transit of Earth by its large, natural satellite, the Moon. The Moon's orbital motion carries it across the field of view from left to right. Imaging the Earth from this distant perspective allows astronomers to connect overall variations in brightness at different wavelengths with planetary features. The observations will aid in the search for earth-like planets in other solar systems.

Obama Believes In Science

Imagine how nice it would be to have a President who believes in science.

Via Slashdot:

"A couple months ago, Scientists and Engineers for America, Science Debate 2008, and a bunch of other science organizations sent McCain, Obama, and all the Congressional candidates a bunch of questions on science and technology. Topics included biosecurity, genetics research, and national security, as well as the more common questions on research and education. Well, Senator Obama just answered.

Senator McCain has not responded to the questionnaire at this point in time, but the site has a profile of his views and actions relating to science policy, which provides a good basis for comparing the candidates' stances. We've previously discussed the differences between the two candidates' technology platforms. According to a recent NPR story, both candidates intend to keep politics out of science. "

You can read the survey and Senator Obama's responses here.