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How a radical redefinition of life could help us find aliens

How a radical redefinition of life could help us find aliens

19 June 2023

Sara Imari Walker, who developed Assembly Theory with chemist Lee Cronin, explains how the theory's definition of life might help us find it on other planets


Alien plants: The search for photosynthesis on other worlds

Alien plants: The search for photosynthesis on other worlds

5 May 2021

Looking for signs of life in exoplanet atmospheres is fraught with uncertainty. But now that we can detect polarised light reflected directly off other worlds, we could spot unmistakable evidence of photosynthesis


Avi Loeb: Is ‘Oumuamua extraterrestrial technology?

Avi Loeb: Is ‘Oumuamua extraterrestrial technology?

15 February 2021

Avi Loeb suggests ‘Oumuamua could be an alien spacecraft and that the search for extraterrestrial life is just good science.


Why we're in for a long wait to hear from intelligent aliens

Why we're in for a long wait to hear from intelligent aliens

30 September 2020

Hints of bacteria on Venus are encouraging, but finding life beyond Earth is the easy part. A new analysis suggests the evolution of human-like intelligence on another planet is more improbable than we like to imagine


Strange worlds unlike Earth may be our best bet to find alien life

Strange worlds unlike Earth may be our best bet to find alien life

26 August 2020

From rogue worlds that roam the cosmos alone to Tatooines that orbit two suns, astronomers are expanding our definition of habitable exoplanets


seafloor

Deep-sea microbes survive on less energy than we thought possible

5 August 2020

We thought we understood life’s minimal energy requirements – but microbes beneath the sea floor survive on hundreds of times less energy than we considered possible


Inflatible green Aliens standing in line

Alien life could be weirder than our Earthling brains can ever imagine

11 December 2019

Our conceptions of alien life are based on a sample of one: Earth’s life. That means even our wildest imaginings are likely to be completely off beam


life artwork

Why the hunt for alien life is under way far beneath Earth's surface

13 November 2019

Microbes that breathe sulphur could redefine what it means to be alive and provide clues about what organisms may lurk in the cosmos


Lewis Dartnell: Astrobiology – the search for alien life

Lewis Dartnell: Astrobiology – the search for alien life

17 December 2018

Could there be life on other planets, and if so, what would it look like? Astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell is hunting for alien life in whatever form it takes. Join him as he explores how life developed on our planet, and where life might exist beyond Earth


DNA model

Artificial genes show life does not have to be based on DNA

18 September 2018

Two modified versions of DNA add different “letters” to life’s genetic code but still work just as well as the original


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