As we’ve said here before, it is a reasonable idea. If only we could find a fossil bacterium on Mars.
Exoplanets
36 alien civs? Paltry! Claim: up to 6 billion Earthlike planets in our galaxy
There’s got a reason why so much science is beginning to sound like the National Enquirer for STEM nerds. But we are waiting for the Big Explain book to come out. Should be a classic.
Is NOTHING sacred? Silicon-based life “may not be likely”?
At Air & Space: “There aren’t many organic silicon compounds to begin with, and silicon-based life in water, or on an oxygen-rich planet, would be all but impossible as any free silicon would react quickly and furiously to form silicate rock. And that’s pretty much the end of the story.”
Researchers: Maybe elliptical galaxies aren’t especially cradles of life
But remember, the space aliens are invented gods. If we don’t locate them here, we can locate them somewhere else.
Is Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) gaining respectability again?
Sarah Scoles: Proper science is now more willing to embrace SETI… Don’t just ignore all the outliers as outliers, in other words: Important truth, if not whole truth, can lurk inside of them too.
Some people think they can tell us what space aliens will be like
So if aliens exist, they must be just like us because… evolution. This is a religion. Didn’t say it was a bad religion. But definitely a religion.
Earthsize, yes, but is planet TOI 700 Earth-LIKE?
“Habitable zone” needn’t mean a whole lot. Abundant Earth is in a habitable one but so is the lifeless Moon, tidally locked.
First British astronaut: Aliens exist among us
It’s curious how space aliens are assigned to “science,” no matter what proposition is entertained with respect to them. Perhaps they reward sheer, blind faith.
Philosophy prof: Our theories steer us away from finding ET
Every so often the people searching for extraterrestrial life that just never seems to turn up need a pep talk. It often takes the form of “You know, we could be on the wrong track”.
At Smithsonian Magazine: What space aliens must be like
Fascinating to be so sure when we have no evidence of any space aliens at all. A religion underlies this, you may be sure.
At New Scientist: Our puny human brains can’t imagine alien life
Not true! We humans more or less invented the whole idea of aliens. Without us, they probably wouldn’t exist even as a story. Just think: There would be no market for ET tales, films, and trade goods except for us humans. Don’t believe me? Try to get clams or termites interested in ET and see what happens…
Chipping away at the millions of habitable exoplanets…
By some mere cosmic accident, these sudden radiation problems don’t affect us, right?
Talk about hope springing eternal: 2020 for our history-making alien life find?
It would be marvellous to find aliens out there to talk to, even if they turned to be an awful bore. But there is something suspicious about these statistics. With no single alien ever found, they offer us no history to go by.
Rob Sheldon dumps cold water on the “planetary autopsy” that says ET life is common
Sheldon: I would argue that this is a very weak argument, mostly trying to jazz up a very boring data set or at least distract the audience from remembering the “standard candle” Nobel Prize assumed that all white dwarfs were identical. Either way, its a preposterous story attempting to distract from its most distressing results.
Researchers: Rocky dead planets common, therefore ET life common
In case you thought this field was “settled science,” see also, recently: “‘Evolution’ says we are alone” and “Once again, for the thousandth time, we are “closing in” on alien life