A bug that eats metal

Science continues to find life – on Earth! – that evades our definition of what life should be. That’s on Earth.

Scientists have discovered a “metal munching” plant (Rinorea niccolifera) in the Philippines. “Professor Fernando said that the Rinorea niccolifera’s leaves can take in up to 18,000 parts per million of nickel. This is a thousand times more than what any other known plant species can safely absorb.”

We need news such as this, to help us prepare for the likely undefinable life that we will encounter on other stars one day.

Of course, it’s ironic, that the first thought upon this discovery, is who we can make money from it, putting it to work in our mines.



Obviously we have seen evidence of “tidal heating” in some of the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn. So if there are any “Super-Earths” that are orbiting outside of a star’s “Goldilocks zone” then they still might be worth checking out.

This article misses the fact that our planet-finding capabilities are currently weighted towards finding very large planets in very close orbit around very small stars. Using these current techniques, we would not be able to find Earth from Alpha Centauri.

So, we cannot assume that there are NO Earth-sized planets there.


Earth is the only known example of an inhabited planet in the Universe, so the search for alien life has focused on Earth-like worlds. But what if there are alien worlds that are even more habitable than Earth-like planets?

A recent paper in the journal Astrobiology examines the potential for so-called “superhabitable” worlds. One such planet might even exist around the stellar system closest to Earth: Alpha Centauri B.

The study was authored by René Heller of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and John Armstrong of Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, USA. According to the authors, their collaboration was “inspired by a question John Armstrong asked online during an AbGradCon talk in 2012.”

The Astrobiology Graduate Conference (AbGradCon) is supported by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, and is organized by graduate students and post docs in fields related to astrobiology. AbGradCon provides early career researchers with the chance to discuss research, network and collaborate. AbGradCon 2014 will be held at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York. For more information, visit: http://www.abgradcon.org/index.html

To be habitable, a world (planet or moon) does not need to be located in the stellar habitable zone (HZ), and worlds in the HZ are not necessarily habitable. Here, we illustrate how tidal heating can render terrestrial or icy worlds habitable beyond the stellar HZ. Scientists have developed a language that neglects the possible existence of worlds that offer more benign environments to life than Earth does. We call these objects “superhabitable” and discuss in which contexts this term could be used, that is to say, which worlds tend to be more habitable than Earth. In an appendix, we show why the principle of mediocracy cannot be used to logically explain why Earth should be a particularly habitable planet or why other inhabited worlds should be Earth-like.

Superhabitable worlds must be considered for future follow-up observations of signs of extraterrestrial life. Considering a range of physical effects, we conclude that they will tend to be slightly older and more massive than Earth and that their host stars will likely be K dwarfs. This makes Alpha Centauri B, which is a member of the closest stellar system to the Sun and is supposed to host an Earth-mass planet, an ideal target for searches for a superhabitable world. Key Words: Extrasolar terrestrial planets—Extraterrestrial life—Habitability—Planetary environments—Tides. Astrobiology 14, 50–66.


There could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive


Absolutely what I have been saying all along: when we meet genuine alien life forms or intelligence, we will have difficulty recognizing it for what it is.


The intriguing remark was made by Lord Martin Rees, a leading cosmologist and astrophysicist who is the president of Britain’s Royal Society and astronomer to the Queen of England. Rees believes the existence of extra terrestrial life may be beyond human understanding.

An alien might have four limbs, just like we humans. Or it might sport 17 tentacles, depending on evolutionary pressures. We can observe, quantify and describe such things. But how can we truly gauge the workings of an alien mind?



Yes, one of my favorite places in the system surrounding the star called “the Sun”.

Titan is a large moon orbiting Saturn. It is remarkable in that it has lakes consisting of methane and ethane, which are liquid at Titan’s temperature.

Recently, waves have been observed in the surface of one of its lakes. 1

What’s so remarkable about that? Follow me.

There IS wind on Titan. The mostly nitrogen atmosphere blows enough to visibly sculpt dunes in the surface of Titan. Yet the lakes of Titan have – until now – not shown evidence of waves. 2

Methane, in its liquid state, has very low viscosity. Thus it should be easy for it to form waves. 3

Here we go:
Researchers had previously toyed with several explanations, including that the lakes may be frozen or covered with a tar-like substance that damps wave motion. 4

A TAR-LIKE substance? Think about that for a minute. If we know the physical characteristic of the liquid in this lake, and we have a ballpark idea of what kind of winds are blowing, then we should be able to predict what kind of waves we should see.

It appears that the waves are smaller and less frequent than we have predicted.

Is there something floating on the surface of this lake. Pond scum? LIFE? How would it survive there?

Well, we do have forms of life on Earth that are methanogens, meaning that they create methane in the way that we create carbon dioxide when we breathe. They are archaea, simply the most primitive and ancient forms of life on our planet. These MIGHT be the source of all this methane.

There are also methanotrophs, primitive lifeforms that consume methane.

Since Titan’s methane inevitably evaporates into space, something on the surface must be producing it. And something seems to be consuming atmospheric hydrogen at the surface.

I think it’s time to get ourselves back to Titan. There are just too many mysteries and opportunities for astounding discoveries on this remote rock.

More Martian bugs?

Detail of the Allan Hills meteorite.

We all remember the famous Allan Hills meteorite (Allan Hills 84001) that – in 1996 – was thought to have evidence of fossil bacteria on it.

By the way, how do we know that these rocks were from Mars?
The SNC meteorites are from Mars
NASA Rover Confirms Mars Origin of Some Meteorites

Anyway, recently Astrobiology Journal reported that meteorite Yamato 000593, found in Antarctica in 2000, “contains microscopic burrows and spheres that resemble the marks microorganisms leave when they eat through rocks on Earth”.

From the folks at NASA:



Paired with the recent discoveries suggesting that Mars once had abundant water, this is opening the way to the possibility of life in space, in a form that even the most cautious scientist can begin to accept.

Mirage Men

It’s interesting to see UFO “sightings” given a pass because the alleged witness is with the government. Suddenly employees of the government are reliable and trustworthy!

Not so fast, sunshine.

Here’s a thought for you: Consider whether the UFO phenomenon is nothing more than a psychological operation, courtesy of the U.S. intelligence establishment, developed during the Cold War with the U.S.S.R., with the express intent of hiding the development of advanced (human-developed) weapon platforms – with the desirable side-effect of convincing the enemy that we might have our hands on invincible alien technology.

They wouldn’t do such a thing, you say. Bollocks, they have done much worse. This would cost much less. Their denials simply serve to stir up the crazies even more.


It seems that the words “flying saucer” are equivalent to the term “UFO” in our national parlance.

Ignoring (for the moment) the fact that the “U” in UFO stands for “Unidentified”, I choose to examine this idea that alien spacecraft are shaped like saucers.

This has penetrated popular culture so much that the military industrial complex was inspired to build one, the Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar, albeit an obvious ground-effect vehicle or hovercraft.

I’m always concerned with the origins of things. It usually reveals something remarkable. And this one is no exception.

One of the earliest famous UFO sightings was by a pilot, Kenneth Arnold in June 24, 1947.

He was flying near Mount Ranier in the state of Washington, where he said that he saw nine UFOs:
The Story of the Arnold Sighting

The newspaper The Chicago Sun reported his story on June 26, with the headline: “Supersonic Flying Saucers Sighted by Idaho Pilot”.

However, most of his descriptions seem to have run along this line: “They looked something like a pie plate that was cut in half with a sort of a convex triangle in the rear.” Then: “they wobbled and flipped, like saucers skipping on the water.” To be fair, his descriptions varied depending on the day or perhaps the listener, but the press leaped on the saucer term and soon even Arnold was describing his craft as “saucers”.

In June of that year, another sighting followed in 1947, which soon proved to have been a hoax: the Maury Island incident. So copy-cat behavior was already a standard feature of the UFO phenomenon.

To this day, this is the most common form that UFO sighting commonly take, if there is any visible detail beyond a dancing light in the sky.

Responsible scientists have even published studies on how a saucer shape could potentially make an ideal shape for an aircraft. Oh, but it’s not really air-worthy.

The Air Force Releases Schematics On How To Build A Flying Saucer
Flying Saucer designs made on Earth
How to Build a Flying Saucer

The bug hunter diaries


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