Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 13 May 2013 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101020/11575411511/dailydirt-life-other-planets.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101020/11575411511/dailydirt-life-other-planets.shtml abundant in the universe, but there's not that much hard evidence (yet!). Here are just a few astronomical discoveries that might encourage researchers to look for signs of life a bit more carefully.

• Exoplanets have been discovered circling some extremely old, metal-poor stars, creating interesting curiosities that might expand the theories of how planets form. These exoplanets might not harbor any kind of life... or we may want to get a bit more creative about how we envision life on other worlds. [url]
• A free-floating planet named CFBDSIR2149 is not orbiting a star, and it's only one of about two dozen or so known examples of a starless planet. This rogue planet is relatively young compared to the Earth, and some spectroscopic measurements suggest this planet's temperature is about 430° Celsius -- a bit too warm for our tastes (but maybe not for aliens?). [url]
• Within our own solar system, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected spurts of water from Saturn's moon Enceladus. This evidence leads to some speculation of a habitable zone on some icy moons where microbes might be able to survive. [url]

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]]> http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101020/11575411511 Tue, 7 May 2013 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090603/1212035112/dailydirt-living-earth-elsewhere.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090603/1212035112/dailydirt-living-earth-elsewhere.shtml synthetic life based on existing lifeforms). Here are just a few fascinating links on the topic of life.

• Moore's law probably doesn't apply to biology, but if it did, it suggests that life as we know it began before the Earth existed. Genetic complexity as a function of time has been extrapolated backwards, but it's obviously more of an interesting thought experiment than a meaningful biological theory. [url]
• NASA's Curiosity rover has analyzed some martian rock samples to answer the question: "could life have ever been supported on Mars?" The answer seems to be yes, but that still doesn't mean Mars had (or has) any life. [url]
• Do we need to look for alien life that's already amongst us? A shadow biosphere on earth could be an explanation for some mysteries like "desert varnish"... or Occam's razor might start cutting in here. [url]

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090603/1212035112 Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110114/17200012688/dailydirt-to-seek-out-new-life.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110114/17200012688/dailydirt-to-seek-out-new-life.shtml

James Cameron has recently donated his custom-built submarine to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (a year after his record-setting dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench). Last year, Cameron observed about 68 specimens of life on the ocean floor, and future dives could possibly turn up more discoveries. [url]

DNA characterization techniques promise to speed up the identification of new species. Ecogenomics will be used to survey biodiversity and could lead to finding hundreds of new species in a matter of months. [url]

The Dead Sea looks devoid of life on the surface, but biologists since the 1930s have known that the salty body of water is teeming with microbes that thrive in water that is over 8 times saltier than the ocean. More recently, life has been discovered at the bottom of the Dead Sea, about 100 feet down, where mats of bacteria survive near freshwater springs. [url]

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110114/17200012688 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]

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101215/03531112286 Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110105/20073112537/dailydirt-looking-life-all-wrong-places.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110105/20073112537/dailydirt-looking-life-all-wrong-places.shtml Venter kinda cheated). Here are some astrochemists looking for clues that might help us understand the origins of life.

• Two molecules, cyanomethanimine and ethanamine, have been seen in drifting in the interstellar cloud known as Sagittarius B2. The researchers who found them note that these molecules could be chemical precursors for DNA and RNA. [url]
• The existence of homochirality in biochemistry is a bit of mystery, but there may be some explanations that involve radiation from distant supernovas. Finding evidence of homochirality on asteroids or comets would be a nice find.... [url]
• The evidence of cellulose in interstellar space would be really exciting... if the spectroscopy data were more reliable. In 1978, polysaccharides were reported to be present near the Orion Trapezium Cluster, but confirming that finding hasn't panned out. [url]

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110105/20073112537 Mon, 18 Feb 2013 17:00:00 PST Joyce Hung http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101116/10560411890/dailydirt-another-day-another-new-species.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101116/10560411890/dailydirt-another-day-another-new-species.shtml

How many species of life exist on Earth? According to the National Science Foundation's "Tree of Life" project, there may be anywhere from 5 million to 100 million species on Earth. So far we have identified only about 2 million. [url]

Penn State researchers have been studying the ultrasmall microbial population found at a depth of over 3,000 meters in a 120,000-year-old Greenland glacier ice core. They were able to isolate a variety of tiny microbes that were either phylogenetically new or related to other ultramicrobacteria. [url]

Microbiologists are studying "thermophiles," the bacteria found at deep-sea hydrothermal vents where temperatures can exceed 350 degrees Celsius. The record for life growing at high temperatures is 113.25 degrees Celsius. Thermophiles are not only useful in helping us look for evidence of past and present life on other planets, but they also produce enzymes that can be used at high temperatures and for genetic research. [url]

A NASA-sponsored expedition in 2011 found a huge phytoplankton bloom underneath the Arctic ice pack in the Chukchi Sea. This was the first direct observation of an under-ice algal bloom, which was previously thought to be impossible, and now scientists think such algal blooms may actually be more widespread and could be an important indicator of significant shifts in Arctic ecosystems, such as those caused by global warming.[url]

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101116/10560411890 Wed, 6 Feb 2013 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101031/08132811661/dailydirt-life-abhors-vacuum.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101031/08132811661/dailydirt-life-abhors-vacuum.shtml

Evidence of life in a subglacial lake in Antarctica has been found, and it could mean that bacteria are much more widespread than we previously thought. Researchers still need to verify this discovery and make sure they're not looking at bacterial contamination from other sources. [url]

Frost flowers are salty ice crystals that form on calm ocean surfaces, and arctic sea meadows of these flowers may become more common with climate change near the north/south poles. About a million bacteria live in the few milliliters of frozen saltwater of a frost flower, and studying these cells could teach us more about how hardy some extremophile organisms can be. [url]

Bacteria living below the ocean and at the ocean surface have it easy compared to bacteria that live 6 miles above sea level in the troposphere. Microorganisms could play a role in cloud formation, and there is a lot we don't know about how life survives in different parts of the atmosphere. [url]

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101031/08132811661 Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101110/19051611808/dailydirt-life-life-everywhere.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101110/19051611808/dailydirt-life-life-everywhere.shtml

Astronauts have actually discovered a new species of life... while training in an underground cave. The astronauts were taking a week-long ESA CAVES underground training course to prepare for duties on the international space station and to acclimate to working under extreme conditions, and they found a new kind of crustacean. [url]

An ecosystem exists in the deepest layer of the Earth's ocean crust, in the gabbroic layer, living off hydrocarbons such as methane and benzene. This discovery could mean there may be life even deeper, possibly in the Earth's mantle. [url]

Microbes isolated beneath 65 feet of Antarctic ice might define a new limit for life to survive. These little organisms live in Lake Vida without much sunlight, without oxygen, at -13°C, in acidic salt water. [url]

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101110/19051611808 Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101116/10563511891/dailydirt-happiness-is.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101116/10563511891/dailydirt-happiness-is.shtml

Gallup polls say that American happiness levels are at four-year highs, but at the same time, 40% of Americans have not (yet) found a satisfying life purpose. Happiness can be elusive, and perhaps striving for a meaningful life, instead of a happy one, will have better outcomes. [url]

There are so many books on happiness, and how to achieve it... and happiness itself isn't a single thing. Good-day happiness, good-life happiness and peak happiness are just three examples of different kinds of happiness (and there are probably more). [url]

Money can't buy happiness, but it certainly correlates pretty well. Having more money not only seems to correlate with higher levels of satisfaction, but people who are happy also seem to earn more money. [url]

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101116/10563511891 Tue, 25 Sep 2012 17:00:00 PDT Joyce Hung http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120301/15405117935/dailydirt-defying-nature-quest-longer-life-eternal-youth.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120301/15405117935/dailydirt-defying-nature-quest-longer-life-eternal-youth.shtml

As early as in 1935, studies have suggested that restricting caloric intake can extend the lifespan of rats, but does the same idea apply to humans? Researchers at Tufts University are conducting a study (CALERIE) to see if reducing caloric intake by 25% can help to slow aging and extend life. [url]

Researchers at the University of Paris have found that feeding rats fullerene (C60) in olive oil can almost double their lifespan, with no long-term toxic effects. Apparently, an unaffiliated small startup is already selling research-ready C60 olive oil solution -- prepared the same way as in the study -- to people interested in studying it (in rats, not people!) [url]

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have figured out how to turn adult blood cells into embryonic stem cells. Aside from curing the incurable, perhaps the discovery could one day lead to eternal youth. [url]

A study from Northwestern University suggests that children with older fathers are more likely to live longer. This is because they inherit longer telomeres from their fathers (and paternal grandfathers) that protect against aging processes. [url]

The FDA has apparently approved "suspended animation" for human trials. The idea is that by injecting critically injured patients with a cold fluid to induce severe hypothermia, death can be postponed so that surgeons can work on them in suspended animation for 60-90 minutes. This extra time could mean the difference between life and death. [url]

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120301/15405117935 Thu, 6 Sep 2012 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100923/04513211135/dailydirt-detecting-signs-life.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100923/04513211135/dailydirt-detecting-signs-life.shtml thought they might have found evidence of life that wasn't from Earth, but upon further analysis, those discoveries weren't so clear cut. Still, the search for ETs is on-going, and here are just a few links on some ways to find alien friends.

• Spectroscopic biosignatures could be detected in light reflections off of alien planets. Reflected sunlight is polarized when it bounces off the Earth, and plant life on Earth absorb specific bands of light -- so alien worlds may exhibit similar phenomena (if only we could detect it). [url]
• In the 1970s, there was some speculation that cellulose could be detected in interstellar space. However, it's not so easy to figure out how to detect biopolymers in the vast vacuum of space. [url]
• The Drake Equation estimates how many alien civilizations might exist in our galaxy. It's just an estimate, and there are a lot of unknown variables... [url]
• Moqui marbles are unusual spherical rocks that have a rusty iron oxide exterior and a sandy interior -- and were formed with the help of microorganisms. So if we find similar rocks on other worlds, we might be able to infer that extra-terrestrial microbial life also exists. [url]

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100923/04513211135 Tue, 4 Sep 2012 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101005/12220411292/dailydirt-living-longer-longer.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101005/12220411292/dailydirt-living-longer-longer.shtml

Stanford economists report that the decreases in death rates are improving more for people over 70 years old, rather than for kids or teenagers. So planning to retire early might not work out so well.... [url]

Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov is trying to get other billionaires to pony up some research funds for a project that's aiming for cybernetic immortality for humans by 2045. This sounds like the plot of a bad summer action movie, so maybe they can finance part of the project by selling the movie rights to the story. [url]

Calorie restricted diets were proposed as a possible way to living longer, but apparently it might not be such an effective regime. A 25-year study on rhesus monkeys shows that caloric restriction doesn't necessarily lead to longer lifespans. [url]

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101005/12220411292 Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100302/1026588363/dailydirt-re-visting-vitalism.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100302/1026588363/dailydirt-re-visting-vitalism.shtml vitalism -- which suggested that living matter was fundamentally different from inanimate chemicals. Over a hundred years later, though, no one has really discovered how to create living materials from scratch. Here are just a few projects that could change that.

• Martin Hanczyc gives a TED talk about the difference between life and non-life. Making a chemical "protocell" model might help us understand how life develops from non-living materials. [url]
• Working on metal-based life could lead to the discovery of completely non-organic life. Inorganic chemical reactions could form self-replicating structures with sufficient complexity to begin evolutionary processes. Maybe. [url]
• Re-programming worms to create an unnatural amino acid could be the start of designing artificial lifeforms with unnatural traits. This achievement is just a proof of principle project that could lead to other biological techniques for modifying the genetic expression in all kinds of multicellular animals. [url]
• To discover more interesting biological curiosities, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

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

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100302/1026588363 Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090501/1746554722/dailydirt-life-not-as-we-know-it.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090501/1746554722/dailydirt-life-not-as-we-know-it.shtml classification of living things is a bit tricky. It's not just plants and animals anymore. Biologists are continuously discovering creatures that defy the old taxonomies. Here are just a few more examples of the incredible diversity of life on our planet.

• Christoph Adami tries to define life -- by studying artificial life and the characteristics of information processes that seem to behave like life. His self-replicating programs evolve and create virtual ecosystems -- and could help figure out how to find extraterrestrial life. [url]
• Biologists thought they had only cataloged about 10% of all fungal species. But there could be a whole different domain of life that is similar to fungus, but isn't. [url]
• Mantaphasmatodes is the first new insect order discovered since the 1900s. And these insects are almost everywhere. [url]
• To discover more interesting biological curiosities, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

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

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090501/1746554722 Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110521/20410214379/dailydirt-to-seek-out-new-life.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110521/20410214379/dailydirt-to-seek-out-new-life.shtml

Spongiforma squarepantsii is a recently discovered fungus that looks like a sponge (but doesn't live under the sea). It looks like biologists need more formal naming conventions. [url]

Bacteria that can live on pure caffeine were found in a nice flowerbed in Iowa. And researchers have isolated the enzymes that can metabolize caffeine -- potentially to be used in a new "organic" way to remove caffeine from coffee/tea. [url]

Steve Grand isn't trying to discover new life in the real world. He's trying to build virtual lifeforms from "complex networks of virtual brain cells and biochemical reactions and genes." The final product will be a video game called Grandroids -- virtually descended from Grand's popular 1996 game, Creatures. [url]

To discover more interesting biological curiosities, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

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

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110521/20410214379 Tue, 5 Apr 2011 16:12:04 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110403/23265713753/how-do-you-use-your-computer-life-worklife-balance.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110403/23265713753/how-do-you-use-your-computer-life-worklife-balance.shtml experiments lately with more interactive ad units that actually seek out feedback from our users. You can click in the ad to "vote" on the poll question, and from there you're able to input your own views as well. This time, the discussion focuses on what you most use your computer for when you're not working, with the poll answers being Games, Movies, Music or other. Once again, we're going to shut down comments on this post directly, but the ad unit should be running for the next few days both on the front page of Techdirt and beneath this post. If you have some thoughts on the subject, please feel free to take part.

Once again, this is sponsored by ASUS Windows Slate, in partnership with Microsoft and SAYMedia.

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]]> people-have-lives? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110403/23265713753 Thu, 2 Dec 2010 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101201/17113712085/dailydirt-somewhat-alien-life-outer-space.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101201/17113712085/dailydirt-somewhat-alien-life-outer-space.shtml

NASA-funded research discovers that arsenic can replace phosphorous in important biological molecules within living bacteria. Nobel prize worthy stuff, folks. [url]

New, improved universe. Now with THREE TIMES the number of stars. [url]

Dead astronomers sometimes make for good drama. Tycho Brahe is dug up, and he might get a made-for-TV movie based on his life (and suspicious death). [url]

Via "anonymous" -- mercury can turn birds gay or something. Apparently, toxic elements can make life more interesting for all kinds of animals. [url]

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101201/17113712085 Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:42:46 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090218/0240033815.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090218/0240033815.shtml crcb alerts us to a fun discovery made by his sister, who had purchased a phone plan from Tracfone, including the companies advertised "Double Minutes for Life" deal. The idea is that if you sign up and pay for that plan, any additional minutes you buy actually give you double the stated number of minutes. Obviously, for some, that sounds like a really good deal. Except that, at least in this case, it turned out that the "for life" part actually only meant "one year." If she wanted to continue getting "Double Minutes for Life" she had to buy a new plan... which also apparently would only last a year. This seems quite reminiscent to various telcos having trouble understanding the meaning of the word "unlimited." Either way, I contacted Tracfone for comment on this on Monday of this week, using two separate email addresses provided on the company's website, clearly explaining what I was writing about... and have received absolutely no response. Perhaps all the folks there are out living it up... since apparently they believe life only lasts a single year, and they shouldn't waste a minute of it.

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]]> 'till-death-or-contractual-fun-due-us-part http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090218/0240033815