Exploring bleeding edge experiments, oddities, new and bizarre dicoveries, and fact-checking conspiracy theories since 2008. No question is out of bounds and no topic is too strange for a deep dive.
# science
Ragbir Bhathal responds to Weird Things to set the record straight: the story about his detection of laser signals from Gliese 581g are pure fiction.
# astrobiology
Astronomer Ragbir Bhathal supposedly claims he received a signal from Gliese 581g, but the story behind the claims doesn't seem to make much sense.
# space
Ads for extrasolar attractions and preemptively naming cities on an alien world are all well and good. But what will it take to really start colonizing a distant planet?
# space
We think Gliese 581g might have liquid water on its surface. How do we check if it really does?
# astrobiology
It's not completely impossible that you could have some alien DNA. But the odds are literally astronomical.
# astrobiology
Convergent evolution is a very real phenomenon, but how likely is it to apply across different worlds?
# astrobiology
Nearly half the planet's living things could live deep under the surface, raising fascinating questions about how life got started on Earth and where else it could thrive in our solar system.
# astrobiology
Alien hunting is a long, complicated, and arduous process. Pop sci news coverage wants to make it sound fast paced and exciting, even if editors have to sell the same stories again and again.
# space
Mars isn't a hostile desert because its cold and has a barely-there atmosphere. It's because killer UV rays are constantly sterilizing its surface.
# astrobiology
While we strive to avoid contaminating alien worlds with our toughest germs, what if it's not only inevitable, but could actually lead to some good over the eons?