Lifeboat Foundation

An exploration of whether aliens are out there, what kind of extraterrestrial life is most likely to exist, and how we’re looking for it.

Starship Troopers.
by Robert A. Heinlein.
Read by Christopher Hurt.
Originally issued by NLS on cassette in 1982
Can we refrain from inane comments about fascism? Unless you have something constructive to say I’ll probably just delete it and block you from commenting in the future. Or I might turn off comments altogether. With that out of the way, enjoy the book.
“Thousands of years in the future, a young man joins mobile infantry and fights in an interplanetary war against insect-like aliens.“
Chapter list:
00:00:00 — (i) Book info.
00:01:03 — (01)
00:38:44 — (02)
01:17:03 — (03)
01:35:28 — (04)
01:51:35 — (05)
02:24:49 — (06)
03:03:54 — (07)
03:23:54 — (08)
03:49:49 — (09)
04:05:24 — (10)
04:36:24 — (11)
05:13:19 — (12)
06:25:44 — (13)
08:20:23 — (14)

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One of the most startling scientific discoveries of recent decades is that physics appears to be fine-tuned for life. This means that for life to be possible, certain numbers in physics had to fall within a certain, very narrow range.

One of the examples of fine-tuning which has most baffled physicists is the strength of dark energy, the force that powers the accelerating expansion of the universe.

If that force had been just a little stronger, matter couldn’t clump together. No two particles would have ever combined, meaning no stars, planets, or any kind of structural complexity, and therefore no life.

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The Expanse is an American science fiction television series developed by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby for the Syfy network, and is based on the series of novels of the same name by James S. A. Corey. The series is set in a future where humanity has colonized the Solar System. It follows a disparate band of protagonists—United Nations Security Council member Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo), police detective Josephus Miller (Thomas Jane), ship’s officer James Holden (Steven Strait) and his crew—as they unwittingly unravel and place themselves at the center of a conspiracy that threatens the system’s fragile state of cold war, while dealing with existential crises brought forth by newly discovered alien technology.

Continue reading “The Expanse Behind the Science Gravity” »

For some reason the universe is full of stars, galaxies, and life. But it didn’t have to be this way.

How are planets born? Scientists have long proposed that ice-covered pebbles are the seeds of planet formation. These icy solids are thought to drift toward the newborn star from the cold, outer reaches of the disk surrounding it. The theory predicts that, as these pebbles enter the warmer region closer to the star, they would release significant amounts of cold water vapor, delivering both water and solids to nascent planets.

Now, the James Webb Space Telescope.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) is an orbiting infrared observatory that will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope. It covers longer wavelengths of light, with greatly improved sensitivity, allowing it to see inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today as well as looking further back in time to observe the first galaxies that formed in the early universe.

Things may not have ended well for dinosaurs on Earth, but Cornell University astronomers say the “light fingerprint” of the conditions that enabled them to emerge here provide a crucial missing piece in our search for signs of life on planets orbiting alien stars.

Their analysis of the most recent 540 million years of Earth’s evolution, known as the Phanerozoic Eon, finds that telescopes could better detect potential chemical signatures of life in the atmosphere of an Earth-like exoplanet.

An exoplanet (or extrasolar planet) is a planet that is located outside our Solar System, orbiting around a star other than the Sun. The first suspected scientific detection of an exoplanet occurred in 1988, with the first confirmation of detection coming in 1992.

In 1916, famed theoretical physicist Albert Einstein put the finishing touches on his Theory of General Relativity, a geometric theory for how gravity alters the curvature of spacetime. The revolutionary theory remains foundational to our models of how the Universe formed and evolved. One of the many things GR predicted was what is known as gravitational lenses, where objects with massive gravitational fields will distort and magnify light coming from more distant objects. Astronomers have used lenses to conduct deep-field observations and see farther into space.

In recent years, scientists like Claudio Maccone and Slava Turyshev have explored how using our Sun as a Solar Gravity Lens (SGL) could have tremendous applications for astronomy and the Search for Extratterstiral Intelligence (SETI). Two notable examples include studying exoplanets in extreme detail or creating an interstellar communication network (a “galactic internet”). In a recent paper, Turyshev proposes how advanced civilizations could use SGLs to transmit power from star to star – a possibility that could have significant implications in our search for technosignatures.

The preprint of Turyshev’s paper, “Gravitational lensing for interstellar power transmission,” recently appeared online and is being reviewed for publication. Slava G. Turyshev is a research scientist with the Structure of the Universe Research Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This group is engaged in a wide range of research topics associated with the evolution of the Universe from the Big Bang to the present day. This includes the formation of the first stars and galaxies, the role of Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the formation of large-scale cosmic structures, and the accelerating expansion of the cosmos Universe (respectively).

Space Force and SpaceX announced that they’ve reached a deal for a brand-new military capability: Starshield. Is it a new laser defense shield against nuclear missiles? An Ultron for our time to destroy alien armadas? Or Starlink, but with new branding and (probably) a new fleet of satellites?

Yup, the last one. But with how clutch Starlink is in Ukraine, a military-controlled version of the network could change operations there. And it would dramatically improve U.S. and allied military communications in future conflicts. Now, the American military will lead military space-based communications with the start of Starshield. But expect allies to clamor aboard and other nations to try developing rival platforms.

Space Force has one of the most descriptive, succinct names in the modern military, but it appears to be even worse at naming its programs than the other branches. Still, its Proliferated Low Earth Orbit Program, or “PLEOP,” for acronym addicts who want to hear the sound of a dump every time they discuss the program, is promising.