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| How Advanced Could They Be? |
| Topic: Alien Life |
04/26/04 |
| Summary: Renowed physicist, Dr. Michio Kaku, considers the physics of extra-terrestrial civilizations, and whether we can classify their evolution judging from our own work in progress. |
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| Nearby Planet Nursery |
| Topic: New Planets |
04/24/04 |
| Summary: In an exclusive interview with Berkeley astronomer, Paul Kalas, he describes how their planet-finding team uncovered a nearby nursery that may include the closest star with an embryonic solar system in the making. |
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| Interview with Ben Bova |
| Topic: Missions |
04/21/04 |
| Summary: Ben Bova, the prolific author of science fiction novels such as "Mars" and "Jupiter," studies science and politics of astrobiology in his newest book, "Faint Echoes, Distant Stars." In this interview with Astrobiology Magazine, Bova shares his thoughts about astrobiology, space travel, and the discoveries of the future. |
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| Mariners to the Red Planet |
| Topic: Mars |
04/19/04 |
| Summary: When Mariner IV took the first close views of Mars, the person charged with camera-tracking the planet was JPL's William Momsen. As the first step towards the outer reaches of our solar system, the Mariner series proved that interplanetary missions were possible. |
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| The Greatest Catastrophe on Earth |
| Topic: Geology |
04/14/04 |
| Summary: Paleontologist Peter Ward of the University of Washington discusses his latest book, entitled "Gorgon: Paleontology, Obsession, and the Greatest Catastrophe on Earth", in which he follows the fossil trail of what might be left after over seven of every ten species on Earth disappeared 250 million years ago. |
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| Can SETI Probe for Probes? |
| Topic: Alien Life |
04/12/04 |
| Summary: Just as our own robots reach out beyond the solar system, searching for life elsewhere may well involve hailing some kind of space artifact in our own neighborhood. At least one style of life search is about looking for the technological evidence of life, rather than its wet biology. |
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| Europa: Living World or Frozen Wasteland? |
| Topic: Europa |
04/05/04 |
| Summary: Within our solar system, Jupiter's moon Europa is on the short list of potentially habitable worlds. It's a bizarre place, believed to contain a globe-spanning ocean covered by a thick layer of ice, and to be pummeled by intense radiation from Jupiter's magnetosphere. |
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| Can Intelligent Life Thrive in Close Quarters? |
| Topic: Alien Life |
03/31/04 |
| Summary: Where should SETI researchers target their hunt for other intelligent species? The answer depends in large part on whether planets orbiting dim red-dwarf, or M-class, stars can provide suitable habitats for the evolution of intelligent life. |
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| Surviving With - and Without - Oxygen |
| Topic: Biosphere |
03/17/04 |
| Summary: Without oxygen, animal life on Earth would not be possible. But Earth's atmosphere wasn't always rich in oxygen. In fact, to early life, oxygen was a deadly poison. So where did the oxygen come from? And how did life survive the crisis that its arrival caused? |
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| Mars: Goldilocks' Oasis? |
| Topic: Mars |
03/10/04 |
| Summary: Changing a rocky, dry planet into a habitat suggests terraforming on a vast scale. Pumping in greenhouse gases and raising the global temperature would have to begin a centuries-long metamorphosis. |
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