Maybe the search for life shouldn't restrict attention to planets like Earth. Science fiction writers have other ideas: balloon-like creatures... →
Martin Rees
The first voyagers to the stars will be creatures whose life cycle is matched to the voyage: the aeons involved in traversing the galaxy are not... →
We do not fully understand the consequences of rising populations and increasing energy consumption on the interwoven fabric of atmosphere, water... →
If we ever established contact with intelligent life on another world, there would be barriers to communication. First, they would be many light... →
Stars that become supernovae start off at least eight times heavier than our sun. They're so short-lived that, even if they have planets, there... →
The first arrival of earthly life on another celestial body ranks as an epochal event not only for our generation, but in the history of our planet.... →
The scientific issues that engage people most are the truly fundamental ones: is the universe infinite? Is life just a sideshow in the cosmos? What... →
From a personal perspective, I am disappointed that we have yet to really achieve a full understanding of the origins of life on Earth. What was the... →
There's now, for the first time, a huge gulf between the artefacts of our everyday life and what even a single expert, let alone the average... →
We know too little about how life began on Earth to lay confident odds. It may have involved a fluke so rare that it happened only once in the entire... →