Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101215/03531112286/dailydirt-life-outside-earth.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101215/03531112286/dailydirt-life-outside-earth.shtml several theories for how life might have come about, but it's difficult to design experiments to narrow down these options. In the meantime, researchers continue to look for clues and evidence for life that didn't originate on our planet. Here are just a few examples that could one day lead us in the right direction.

• Meteorite fragments found in Sri Lanka *might* contain extra-terrestrial fossils -- if you kinda squint and tilt your head, the algae-like fossils support a panspermia theory for the origin of life. This isn't the first time a peer-reviewed journal has published a story like this, and it won't be the last. The real question is when will these papers actually be convincing to skeptics.... [url]
• In 1996, a rock named ALH84001 made a lot more headlines when scientists claimed that it might contain evidence of life from Mars in the form of microfossils. Since then, the ALH84001 debate seems to have settled on the view that those small fossils weren't necessarily created by ET life, and the media hoopla re-affirmed that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." [url]
• Maybe we'll see evidence of life outside our solar system by looking for evidence of asteroid mining operations around other stars -- if we see unusual amounts of dusty debris, it could mean intelligence life has been exploring for interplanetary resources. It might be hard to determine the difference between natural and unnatural debris, though. [url]
• NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered that Mars once had an environment suitable for life. This is an important find, and it raises questions of why Mars doesn't seem to have ubiquitous life now. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101215/03531112286 Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100507/1058279336/dailydirt-unobtainium-will-save-us.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100507/1058279336/dailydirt-unobtainium-will-save-us.shtml

Planetary Resources has been getting some buzz for its plans to mine nearby asteroids for precious metals and water. If gold was as abundant as aluminum, what would we do with it? [url]

Is it time to start studying up on space law now? Ownership of asteroids and the legalities of mining them could be a lucrative field someday! [url]

NASA and Astrobotic Technology are going to look for ice deposits and possible sources of useful materials on the moon. Silly, NASA, everyone knows the moon is made of cheese... [url]

To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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