Aliens

The search for extraterrestrial life is a funny thing in science. It’s like a private hobby, best not discussed at work with colleagues, nor with friends at parties. It’s OK now and again to illuminate the search for alien life, an interlude in the symphony of scientific work. And that’s just what we’re offering in […]

When I read that more than a billion animals had lost their lives to bushfires still raging in Australia, I froze, staring at the incomprehensible figure on my screen. A sort of sinking feeling came. Scientists made the estimate from the numbers of animals that have died from previous land-clearing practices. It is dismaying to […]

Humans may have one thing that advanced aliens don’t—consciousness.

The results of galactic colonization models are a mixed bag for SETI optimists.

Bringing the Drake Equation up to date.

If there’s life beyond Earth, the genetic code might be our common bond.

There are two kinds of extraterrestrial life with very different implications.