In Search For Habitable Planets, Why Stop At 'Earth-Like'?

Kepler-22b, seen in this artist's rendering, is a planet a bit larger than Earth that orbits in the habitable zone
of its star. Some researchers think there might be "superhabitable" worlds that may not resemble Earth.

by NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE

In their hunt for potentially habitable planets around distant stars, scientists have been so focused on finding Earth-like planets that they're ignoring the possibility that other kinds of planets might be even friendlier to life, a new report says.

So-called superhabitable worlds wouldn't necessarily look like Earth but would nonetheless have conditions that are more suitable for life to emerge and evolve, according to the study published this month in the journal Astrobiology.

"In my point of view, astronomers and biologists are biased," saysRene Heller, an astrophysicist at Canada's McMaster University who is the study's lead author. "These scientists look for planets that are Earth-like."

But it's possible that Earth is actually only marginally habitable by the standards of the universe, says Heller, who points out that our home may not represent a typical habitable world.

He and co-author John Armstrong of Weber State University in Utah have come up with a long list of traits that might make a planet "superhabitable."

Such planets would most likely be older than Earth and two to three times bigger, the researchers say. And they would orbit stars that are somewhat less massive than our sun.

Any liquid water wouldn't be in a giant, deep ocean, but would be scattered over the surface of the planets in shallow reservoirs. The planets would need a global magnetic field to serve as protection from cosmic radiation, and they would probably have thicker atmospheres than the Earth does.

"It's good to start thinking now about how do we sort of rank these planets in terms of their potential to host life," agrees Rory Barnes of the University of Washington, who uses computer models to explore the habitability of planets outside our solar system. "I think this paper does a really good job of examining the different kinds of features that all come into play when making a habitable planet."

So far, scientists have detected about a thousand planets orbiting other stars. Current technology usually can't reveal much about them — just a planet's size, density and how far it orbits from its host star.

Planets are said to be in the "habitable zone" when their surface temperatures would potentially allow liquid water to exist on the surface.

"That's all we can really say at this point," Barnes says. "We don't have any clue if they actually are habitable, let alone if they are inhabited."

Souce: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/16/263106030/in-search-for-habitable-planets-why-stop-at-earth-like?ft=1&f=1007&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=nprscience

The Truth About Psychedelics

Neurons To Nirvana Kickstarter - ELEVATE and Mangusta Films

Ancient medicines, new molecules, interviews from researchers at universities like John Hopkins, UCLA, NYU; neurochemistry, neurotheology, shamanism and psychotherapy; Ayahuasca, LSD, Cannabis, Psilocybin, MDMA — all potent tools for getting to know who we are, who we can be, and for healing the trauma of a society that is addicted to greed and consumerism — Neurons to Nirvana covers it all and the proverbial more.

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Iran Says 'Tall, White' Space Aliens Control America

Michael Peck, Contributor

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpeck/2014/01/13/iran-says-tall-white-space-aliens-control-america/

Documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden conclusively prove that the United States has been ruled by a race of tall, white space aliens who also assisted the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

These revelations about our alien overlords might not cost you any sleep. But the part that should concern you a tad is that the UFO storywas just published by the Fars News Agency, the English-language news service of Iran, a nation that may be very close to acquiring nuclear weapons.

This being a crazy conspiracy theory, naturally the Russians are behind it. The alleged alien invasion was revealed in a report by Russia’s FSB spy agency, which found “incontrovertible proof’ that an ‘alien/extraterrestrial intelligence agenda’ is driving U.S. domestic and international policy, and has been doing so since at least 1945,” said the Iranian news service.

Fars apparently got the story from a hard-core conspiracy site calledwhatdoesitmean.com. Here is the gist of the whatdoesitmean.com story as best I understand it (or as the alien mind-control lasers allow me to understand it):

Snowden, who has been given asylum in Russia, leaked documents that a race of extraterestrial “tall whites” arrived on Earth, helped Nazi Germany build a fleet of advanced submarines in the 1930s, and then met in 1954 with President Dwight Eisenhower “where the ‘secret regime’ currently ruling over America was established.”

“Most disturbingly, this FSB report warns, is that the ‘Tall White’ agenda being implemented by the ‘secret regime’ ruling the United States calls for the creation of a global electronic surveillance system meant to hide all true information about their presence here on earth as they enter into what one of Snowden’s documents calls the ‘final phase’ of their end plan for total assimilation and world rule.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. government is embroiled in a “cataclysmic” power struggle between President Obama, who heads the alien shadow government, and some unknown force that opposed the U.S.-alien alliance. “Most to be feared by Russian policy makers and authorities, this [FSB] report concludes, is if those opposing the ‘Tall White’ ‘secret regime’ ruled over by Obama have themselves aligned with another alien-extraterrestrial power themselves.”

Any good conspiracy theory needs a patina of truth, a bit of intellectual cover to camouflage the craziness. In this case, the whatdoesitmean.com/Fars story cites Paul Hellyer, the 1960s Canadian defense minister who is now a fervent UFO activist. Hellyer allegedly has confirmed the accuracy of Snowden’s UFO leaks.

This is almost a funny story, until one remembers that Iran is a moderately powerful nation of 76 million people, with a possible nuclear arsenal, relatively large conventional military power, extensive terrorist capabilities through its intelligence agencies and Hezbollah, and a fundamentalist government that could easily engage in hostilities against the U.S. Laugh if you will at conspiracy theories, but they offer explanatory value for their believers, a way of making sense of why things happen, even if it is a funhouse-mirror explanation of the world. The Fars News Agency is reportedly affiliated with Iran’s influential Revolutionary Guards, which suggests that either Iran is either desperate to smear the U.S. any way it can, or there indeed is a very peculiar view of U.S. politics at the highest levels of the Iranian government.

If there is a bright spot to this as well as a funny bone, it’s that the goal of U.S. policy is to contain and neutralize Iranian influence. So, perhaps it’s not necessarily a bad thing that Tehran thinks its main adversary is backed by the power of space aliens. It’s good to have friends in high places, even if they have two heads.

---------------------------------------

See related story:

Austrailian TV show Interviews Charles Hall: US Military Worked with Extraterrestrials

Did Roger Ebert Have a Deathbed Vision?

Famous movie pundit Roger Ebert was often claimed by others as an atheist, although his own opinion was that he disliked his convictions being reduced to one word or label. Ebert's real 'religion', I think, was summed up by his admission that he had "spent hours and hours in churches all over the world...not to pray, but to gently nudge my thoughts toward wonder and awe" - a position many readers here would probably feel aligned with.

It did not surprise me then when I read, in a recent Esquire article ("Oral Histories of 2013"), a first-hand account of Ebert's passing from his wife Chaz that suggests he had a profound experience in his final days:

On April 4, he was strong enough again for me to take him back home. My daughter and I went to pick him up. When we got there, the nurses were helping him get dressed. He was sitting on his bed, and he looked really happy to be going home. He was smiling. He was sitting almost like Buddha, and then he just put his head down. We thought he was meditating, maybe reflecting on his experiences, grateful to be going home. I don't remember who noticed first, who checked his pulse… In the beginning, of course, I was totally freaked out. There was some kind of code thing, and they brought machines in. I was stunned. But as we realized he was transitioning out of this world and into the next, everything, all of us, just went calm. They turned off the machines, and that room was so peaceful. I put on his music that he liked, Dave Brubeck. We just sat there on the bed together, and I whispered in his ear. I didn't want to leave him. I sat there with him for hours, just holding his hand.

Roger looked beautiful. He looked really beautiful. I don't know how to describe it, but he looked peaceful, and he looked young.

The one thing people might be surprised about — Roger said that he didn't know if he could believe in God. He had his doubts. But toward the end, something really interesting happened. That week before Roger passed away, I would see him and he would talk about having visited this other place. I thought he was hallucinating. I thought they were giving him too much medication. But the day before he passed away, he wrote me a note: "This is all an elaborate hoax." I asked him, "What's a hoax?" And he was talking about this world, this place. He said it was all an illusion. I thought he was just confused. But he was not confused. He wasn't visiting heaven, not the way we think of heaven. He described it as a vastness that you can't even imagine. It was a place where the past, present, and future were happening all at once.

As I noted in my recent book Stop Worrying! There Probably is an Afterlife, the fascinating phenomena associated with end-of-life experiences (ELEs), such as deathbed visions, aren't restricted to occurring in the minutes or seconds before passing...they can occur, days, weeks and sometimes even months before. I'd love to hear more from Chaz Ebert about what Roger experienced and described, because it certainly does sound like he had visions of a some kind of 'other' place that his consciousness was transiting to.
 
Link: Oral Histories of 2013: Roger Ebert's Wife, Chaz, on His Final Moments

Related: Stop Worrying! There Probably is an Afterlife (Kindle/Paperback)

(h/t Nathan Deitcher/Michael Hughes)

Source: http://www.dailygrail.com/Spirit-World/2014/1/Did-Roger-Ebert-Have-Deathbed-Vision

Meditation transforms roughest San Francisco schools

David L. Kirp

Published 6:37 pm, Sunday, January 12, 2014

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Meditation-transforms-roughest-San-Francisco-5136942.php

Barry Zito, David Lynch, Russell Brand meditate with students during Quiet Time at Burton High.
Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

At first glance, Quiet Time - a stress reduction strategy used in several San Francisco middle and high schools, as well as in scattered schools around the Bay Area - looks like something out of the om-chanting 1960s. Twice daily, a gong sounds in the classroom and rowdy adolescents, who normally can't sit still for 10 seconds, shut their eyes and try to clear their minds. I've spent lots of time in urban schools and have never seen anything like it.

This practice - meditation rebranded - deserves serious attention from parents and policymakers. An impressive array of studies shows that integrating meditation into a school's daily routine can markedly improve the lives of students. If San Francisco schools Superintendent Richard Carranza has his way, Quiet Time could well spread citywide.

What's happening at Visitacion Valley Middle School, which in 2007 became the first public school nationwide to adopt the program, shows why the superintendent is so enthusiastic. In this neighborhood, gunfire is as common as birdsong - nine shootings have been recorded in the past month - and most students know someone who's been shot or did the shooting. Murders are so frequent that the school employs a full-time grief counselor.

In years past, these students were largely out of control, frequently fighting in the corridors, scrawling graffiti on the walls and cursing their teachers. Absenteeism rates were among the city's highest and so were suspensions. Worn-down teachers routinely called in sick.

Unsurprisingly, academics suffered. The school tried everything, from counseling and peer support to after-school tutoring and sports, but to disappointingly little effect.

Now these students are doing light-years better. In the first year of Quiet Time, the number of suspensions fell by 45 percent. Within four years, the suspension rate was among the lowest in the city. Daily attendance rates climbed to 98 percent, well above the citywide average. Grade point averages improved markedly. About 20 percent of graduates are admitted to Lowell High School - before Quiet Time, getting any students into this elite high school was a rarity. Remarkably, in the annual California Healthy Kids Survey, these middle school youngsters recorded the highest happiness levels in San Francisco.

Reports are similarly positive in the three other schools that have adopted Quiet Time. At Burton High School, for instance, students in the program report significantly less stress and depression, and greater self-esteem, than nonparticipants. With stress levels down, achievement has markedly improved, particularly among students who have been doing worst academically. Grades rose dramatically, compared with those who weren't in the program.

On the California Achievement Test, twice as many students in Quiet Time schools have become proficient in English, compared with students in similar schools where the program doesn't exist, and the gap is even bigger in math. Teachers report they're less emotionally exhausted and more resilient.

"The research is showing big effects on students' performance," says Superintendent Carranza. "Our new accountability standards, which we're developing in tandem with the other big California districts, emphasize the importance of social-emotional factors in improving kids' lives, not just academics. That's where Quiet Time can have a major impact, and I'd like to see it expand well beyond a handful of schools."

While Quiet Time is no panacea, it's a game-changer for many students who otherwise might have become dropouts. That's reason enough to make meditation a school staple, and not just in San Francisco.

David L. Kirp, a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, is the author of "Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School District and a Strategy for America's Schools."

Some Strange Things Are Happening To Astronauts Returning To Earth

Who would have thought traveling to outer space could be such a profound experience? OK, probably everybody, but these former astronauts really articulate it in a way that was just a little mind-blowing.

Source: http://www.upworthy.com/some-strange-things-are-happening-to-astronauts-returning-to-earth?g=2

Alien Life on Earth-Like Planets 'Far More Widespread Than Previously Believed'

By Hannah Osborne | January 7, 2014 14:35 PM GMT

Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/alien-life-earth-like-planets-far-more-widespread-previously-believed-1431361

Europa a likely candidate for extra-terrestrial life

Extra-terrestrial life on alien worlds could be far more widespread than previously thought, researchers have said.

According to a study by experts at the University of Aberdeen, the number of habitable Earth-like planets in the universe could be far greater than is currently thought.

Published in Planetary and Space Science, the team challenge traditional ideas about "habitable zones" – the area of space around a star or sun that can support life – by looking at life below ground.
PhD student Sean McMahon explained: "A planet needs to be not too close to its sun but also not too far away for liquid water to persist, rather than boiling or freezing, on the surface.

"But that theory fails to take into account life that can exist beneath a planet's surface. As you get deeper below a planet's surface, the temperature increases, and once you get down to a temperature where liquid water can exist – life can exist there too."

Using a computer model that includes the top five kilometres below the surface of the planet, researchers found the habitable zone for an Earth-like planet is three times bigger than currently believed.

Life on Mars would have to be far below the planet's surface.

If looking at the top 10km of a planet's surface, the habitable zone in our solar system would extend out further than Jupiter and Saturn – 14 times more than current thinking.

McMahon also noted that life could be present on "rogue" planets that drift around in darkness: "Rocky planets a few times larger than the Earth could support liquid water at about five km below the surface even in interstellar space (i.e. very far away from a star), even if they have no atmosphere because the larger the planet, the more heat they generate internally.




"It has been suggested that the planet Gliese 581 d, which is 20 light years away from Earth in the constellation Libra, may be too cold for liquid water at the surface. However, our model suggests that it is very likely to be able to support liquid water less than 2 km below the surface, assuming it is Earth-like."

McMahon said he hopes more researchers will use the study to consider how life might be found on other planets: "The results suggest life may occur much more commonly deep within planets and moons than on their surfaces. This means it might be worth looking for signs of life outside conventional habitable zones.

"The surfaces of rocky planets and moons that we know of are nothing like Earth. They're typically cold and barren with no atmosphere or a very thin or even corrosive atmosphere. Going below the surface protects you from a whole host of unpleasant conditions on the surface. So the subsurface habitable zone may turn out to be very important. Earth might even be unusual in having life on the surface."

Space worms, bacteria and fungus most likely
in planets with little energy, McMahon said.

Speaking to IBTimes UK, McMahon said that while we currently have no evidence of life outside our planet, it is feasible: "We have a convention of saying that where you have liquid water and the right sort of temperatures and possible sources of food and energy – in those sorts of conditions life could survive.

"What we've found is that those types of conditions are probably very common below the surface and maybe more so than they are on the surfaces. But that means that life can originate in these environments below the surface of rocky planets."

Explaining why the idea of life below the surface has not been considered outside our solar system before, he said: "It's partly a historical thing that when the idea of a habitable zone was first formulated we did not know as much about life below the surface.

"We're used to thinking about the possibility of life below the surface in our own solar system, but we've stuck with this notion of a habitable zone which was formulated in the early 90s based around the idea that life is something that happens on the surface. Since then we've discovered that life goes much further below the surface of the Earth.

"In our own solar system the best candidates for inhabited planets and moons are Mars and some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, which have ice on the outside and liquid water below. If there is life on Mars today it's probably quite far below the surface, where it's still warm."

And considering what life we might find festering underneath the surface of alien worlds, he added: "It depends on how much energy is available. On some planets and moons there might be quite a lot but on others there would not be much. The other problem is that there is not much space in the cracks and pores of rocks for larger life forms to grow and become complex.

"If there is not much, you wouldn't find anything more than bacteria, fungus and perhaps worms – the sorts of things you find several miles below the earth's surface."

To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.co.uk