Lifeboat Foundation

Darwin applied the theory of evolution to life on earth, but not to other massively complex systems like planets, stars, atoms and minerals. Now, an interdisciplinary group of researchers has identified a missing aspect of that theory that applies to essentially everything.

Their paper, “On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems,” published Oct. 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes “a missing law of nature” that recognizes for the first time an important norm within the natural world’s workings. The new law states that complex natural systems evolve to states of greater patterning, diversity and complexity.

“This was a true collaboration between scientists and philosophers to address one of the most profound mysteries of the cosmos: why do complex systems, including life, evolve toward greater functional information over time?” said co-author Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences and chair of astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“The Holy Grail in exoplanet science is to look for habitable worlds and the presence of life, but all the features that have been talked about so far have been beyond the reach of the newest observatories,” Julien de Wit, discovery team member and an assistant professor of planetary sciences at MIT, said in a statement. “Now we have a way to find out if there’s liquid water on another planet. And it’s something we can get to in the next few years.”

Currently, scientists are very good at using instruments to determine how far a planet is from its host star and thus whether it is in that star’s “habitable zone” — defined as the region that’s neither too hot nor too cold to allow for the existence of liquid water.

In our own solar system, however, Earth, Mars and even Venus are all in the habitable zone around the sun. Yet, only one of those planets currently has the capability to support life as we know it. That means habitability and preserving liquid water for exoplanets isn’t all location, location, location. So, currently, scientists don’t have a robust way of confirming if a planet is habitable or not.

University of Rochester astrophysicist Adam Frank explores the links between atmospheric oxygen and detecting extraterrestrial technology on distant planets.

In the quest to understand the potential for life beyond Earth, researchers are widening their search to encompass not only biological markers, but also technological ones. While astrobiologists have long recognized the importance of oxygen for life as we know it, oxygen could also be a key to unlocking advanced technology on a planetary scale.

In a new study published in Nature Astronomy, Adam Frank, the Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester and the author of The Little Book of Aliens (Harper, 2023), and Amedeo Balbi, an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Roma Tor Vergata, Italy, outline the links between atmospheric oxygen and the potential rise of advanced technology on distant planets.

An AI trained to hunt for technosignatures from intelligent alien life found 8 interesting signals on its first deployment.

Can a lack of certain atmospheric characteristics in an exoplanet be a sign of life? This is what a team of international scientists hope to unlock as they discuss a novel strategy for detecting the lack of carbon dioxide in a rocky exoplanet’s atmosphere compared to other planets in the same system and how it could help isolate where to look for life. In a recent study published in Nature Astronomy, the researchers ascertain this investigation could be conducted using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and holds the potential to help astronomers better understand the necessary atmospheric conditions that could be suitable for finding life as we know it throughout the cosmos.

“The Holy Grail in exoplanet science is to look for habitable worlds, and the presence of life, but all the features that have been talked about so far have been beyond the reach of the newest observatories,” said Dr. Julien de Wit, who is an assistant professor of planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a co-author on the study. “Now we have a way to find out if there’s liquid water on another planet. And it’s something we can get to in the next few years.”

The researchers postulate a three-step strategy for using JWST in detecting carbon dioxide and ozone in exoplanets residing in the TRAPPIST-1 system located approximately 40 light-years from Earth. This strategy calls for detecting a planetary atmosphere around rocky exoplanets in approximately 10 transits of the parent star, assessing a lack of carbon dioxide within the exoplanet’s atmosphere in approximately 40 transits, and obtaining measurements of the atmosphere’s ozone while comparing this to the lack of carbon dioxide in approximately 100 transits.

The absence, not the presence, of the most important element for life in planets’ atmospheres may be what we should be seeking.

“The presence of high degrees of oxygen in the atmosphere is like a bottleneck you have to get through in order to have a technological species,” said Dr. Adam Frank.

What are the criteria for an extraterrestrial civilization to become a technological species? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to figure out as a team of international researchers examine how oxygen plays a role in technological advancement, specifically pertaining to it being a necessary requirement for producing fire. This study was partially funded by a NASA grant and holds the potential to help researchers better understand the criteria for identifying technological signatures of extraterrestrial intelligence, also known as “technosignatures”

Illustration depicting how higher atmospheric oxygen levels could lead to technoligcal advancement for an extraterrestrial species, specifically pertaining to the creation of fire. (Credit: University of Rochester illustration / Michael Osadciw)

Continue reading “Astrobiologists Uncover the Oxygen Bottleneck in the Search for Alien Technosignatures” »

Astronomers have discovered more than 5,000 planets outside of the solar system to date. The grand question is whether any of these planets are home to life. To find the answer, astronomers will likely need more powerful telescopes than exist today.

I am an astronomer who studies astrobiology and planets around distant stars. For the last seven years, I have been co-leading a team that is developing a new kind of space telescope that could collect a hundred times more light than the James Webb Space Telescope, the biggest space telescope ever built.

Almost all space telescopes, including Hubble and Webb, collect light using mirrors. Our proposed telescope, the Nautilus Space Observatory, would replace large, heavy mirrors with a novel, thin lens that is much lighter, cheaper and easier to produce than mirrored telescopes. Because of these differences, it would be possible to launch many individual units into orbit and create a powerful network of telescopes.

Kmele steps inside Fermilab, America’s premiere particle accelerator facility, to find out how the smallest particles in the universe can teach us about its biggest mysteries.\
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This video is an episode from @The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation.\
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Watch the full podcast now ► • Dispatches from The Well \
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According to Fermilab’s Bonnie Flemming, the pursuit of scientific understanding is “daunting in an inspiring way.” What makes it daunting? The seemingly infinite number of questions, with their potentially inaccessible answers.\
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In this episode of Dispatches from The Well, host Kmele Foster tours the grounds of America’s legendary particle accelerator to discover how exploring the mysteries at the heart of particle physics help us better understand some of the most profound mysteries of our universe.\
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Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/dispatc…\
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00:00:00 — The Miracle of Birth\
00:04:48 — Exploring the Universe’s Mysteries\
00:09:20 — Building Blocks of Matter and the Standard Model\
00:13:35 — The Evolving Body of Knowledge\
00:17:39 — Understanding the Early Universe\
00:22:05 — Reflections on Particle Physics\
00:25:34 — The Extraordinary Effort to Understand the Small\
00:29:59 — From Paleontology to Astrophysics\
00:33:40 — The Importance of the Scientific Method and Being Critical\
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About Kmele Foster:\
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Kmele Foster is a media entrepreneur, commentator, and regular contributor to various national publications. He is the co-founder and co-host of The Fifth Column, a popular media criticism podcast.\
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He is the head of content at Founders Fund, a San Francisco based venture capital firm investing in companies building revolutionary technologies, and a partner at Freethink, a digital media company focused on the people and ideas changing our world.\
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Kmele also serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).\
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Read more from The Well: \
Actually, neuroscience suggests “the self” is real\
► https://bigthink.com/the-well/actuall…\
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein can illuminate the debate over generative AI\
► https://bigthink.com/the-well/mary-sh…\
Few of us desire true equality. It’s time to own up to it\
► https://bigthink.com/the-well/few-des…\
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About The Well\
Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.\
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Together, let’s learn from them.\
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Continue reading “Finding meaning at the quantum level” »