I have always been in the camp of those that think that there is life elsewhere in the universe.  Statistically, the universe is too vast, practically beyond human comprehension, for there not to be some form of life elsewhere.  Those that have argued otherwise always come from the point of view that Earth and its’ biosphere is unique and have a definition of life that is completely Earth centric.

It was therefore with great interest that I read the report published last week by the National Research Council.  This report suggested that life with an alternative biochemistry to that of life on Earth may be possible elsewhere in the universe. It went on to say that the search for extraterrestrial life should be broadened to consider this possibility and recommended research and missions in which the federal government should invest to increase our knowledge in this area.

Using the phrase “weird life” the Council suggested that “the fundamental requirements for life as we generally know it — a liquid water biosolvent, carbon-based metabolism, molecular system capable of evolution, and the ability to exchange energy with the environment — are not the only ways to support phenomena recognized as life”. The chair of the committee that published this recommendation, John Baross, professor of oceanography at the University of Washington said “”Our investigation made clear that life is possible in forms different than those on Earth,”.

The assumption that “life” should be defined by what we know about life on Earth has always impressed …

A newspapers function is to report the news.  It is also to sell newspapers.  As a result we the readers usually are subjected to endless articles about national and local politics, the disaster in Iraq, the latest news of the celebrity or celebrity couple of the moment, and most recently all aspects of the global warming issue.  At least the last topic is getting attention, as the survival of our species could be in the balance. 

From time to time there is an article in the newspaper that can shift the reader’s consciousness to an entirely different place than the obsessing about the human condition.  There was such an article the other day in the New York Times that did that for me.  Under the headline “Astronomers Report One for the Record Books” was the story about the human ‘discovery’ of the brightest and most powerful stellar explosion ever recorded.  Of course ever recorded means by humans, not necessarily the largest ever, but since it is a newspaper for humans, we’ll let that one go.

Last September, a graduate student from the University of Texas was using a small telescope at the McDonald Observatory in Texas.  The graduate student, Robert Quimby was “trolling for supernovas” late one night when he discovered this explosion in a galaxy 240 million light years away in the constellation Perseus.  [Now I have never trolled for supernovas let alone deep sea fish, but Quimby obviously must now be considered to be a master at supernova trolling].  The …

The last time a human being walked on the Moon was in 1972.  Close to half of the U.S. population has been born since then.  It therefore falls to people over the age of 50 to recall the incredible excitement and sense of discovery and adventure that was the NASA Space program up to that year.  There were few things in my lifetime that both excited and united humanity as much as the first 15 years of space exploration that started with Sputnik in 1957. I remember the day when John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth and how there were transistor radios everywhere at school, and even the teachers devoted time during class for us to listen in on the news reports of this journey.  I remember when Neal Armstrong first set foot on the Moon.  The whole world was watching as a member of our species did something that had never been done before. 

Discussions of space exploration are now back in the news.  Recently, in just a matter of days NASA announced first that it was firming up plans for America’s return to the Moon and then, days later, the startling discovery that water had flowed on the surface of Mars within the past seven years.  Days later a crew went into space to work at and on the space station.  It was kind of triple hit of space news that brought back to mind the great adventure of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.  Sure the …