PRESS RELEASE: https://www.seti.org/press-release/seti-institute-launches-arise-lab-bringing-seti-and-radio-astronomy-community-colleges

The SETI Institute announced it will expand its pilot program funded through a grant from the Amateur Radio and Digital Communication (ARDC) Foundation, now called ARISE Lab (arise.seti.org). This initiative brings SETI science to community colleges and provides hands-on training for community college instructors and students in astronomy, digital signal processing, and radio science.

The Drake Awards honor Frank Drake's bold spirit, scientific ingenuity, and enduring contributions to SETI and astrobiology. Since 2001—when Frank Drake became the first recipient—we’ve celebrated visionary scientists who expand the frontiers of our understanding of life in the cosmos.

We’re thrilled to invite you to The #DrakeAwards2025, taking place on May 20 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, and streaming online.

Played #SETI for the first time yesterday. It's *a lot* but I still won because my one super power is winning games the first time I play them (and then not so much afterwards).

Early bird tickets for The #DrakeAwards2025 are available!

You’re cordially invited to join the SETI Institute on May 20, 2025, for an unforgettable evening celebrating scientific discovery, innovation, and the search for life beyond Earth. Connect with pioneering researchers in #SETI, #astrobiology, and #space #science, enjoy a gala dinner and awards ceremony, and engage with the brightest minds in the field.

Act now! The Early Bird sale ends in five days!

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/drake-awards-2025-tickets-1251126907259

Excited to launch the next season of #Cosmoimaginaries.  Tomorrow we begin with a presentation from Gabriela Radulescu:

Earthly and extraterrestrial connections: CETI/SETI in Armenia and Czechoslovakia (Spojeni s mimozemskymi intelligencemi / the search for extraterrestrial intelligence)

Thurs, Mar 20 4pm EST / 8pm GMT / 9pm CET

Friday, 21 March 9am NZDT/7am AEDT

All welcome.

Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/JL-yhGskSLi74izOB6CoSw

NASA have written this up here: https://www.nasa.gov/universe/exoplanets/webb-discovers-methane-carbon-dioxide-in-atmosphere-of-k2-18-b/

“The abundance of methane and carbon dioxide, and shortage of ammonia, support the hypothesis that there may be a water ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere in K2-18 b. These initial #Webb observations also provided a possible detection of a molecule called dimethyl sulfide (DMS). On Earth, this is only produced by life. The bulk of the DMS in Earth’s atmosphere is emitted from phytoplankton in marine environments.”

#JamesWebb #Space #SETI (well, life, not intelligence…) #Science https://mastodon.social/@pomaranc/114187617832956778

https://www.12news.com/article/tech/science/laser-seti-search-for-aliens-sedona-richard-factor/75-0429299c-af20-4f05-ab08-8742bc839c7c

If aliens are using lasers to communicate with each other, or trying to send a message to us Earthlings, there’s a good chance the instruments on Richard Factor’s roof will detect them.

But only if the night sky over Sedona is clear.

“This is one of my big hopes, big hobbies, big aspirations — to discover space aliens,” Factor said.

It’s why he offered his rooftop to host one of several optical instruments that form the growing LaserSETI network.

Hi, everyone! We're curious to know what #SETI mentions have been circulating from pop culture of late. Anything fun? Interesting? We'd love to play in the sandbox with the big kids... let us know in the comments/replies!

Big Picture Science for Mar 10, 2025: Preventable

Two infectious diseases that we’ve been able to prevent for a half-century are re-emerging. One of the most contagious viruses in the world, measles, is spreading in the United States. Anti-vax sentiment has driven vaccination rates down leading to outbreaks in Texas and New Mexico. The U.S. has also seen an uptick in cases of tuberculosis which has reclaimed its position the deadliest infection globally. The author John Green shares how his travels to Sierra Leone inspired his new book about TB. Through the story of a young patient, Henry, he highlights the health inequities that contribute to over a million and a half tuberculosis deaths annually despite the existence of a cure.

Guests:

* Adam Ratner – Pediatric infectious disease doctor in New York City, and author of Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children's Health
* John Green – Author of The Fault in Our Stars, The Anthropocene Reviewed, and Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of our Deadliest Infection

Download podcast at - https://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/preventable

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/

Get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support!

Do I think Elon Musk is so racist that he hates actual Space Aliens and will close down anything SETI or Exobiological at NASA?

I guess we're going to find out, aren't we?

This month at the SETI Institute, exciting developments are shaping our understanding of the cosmos and the search for extraterrestrial life.

Read the full stories: https://www.seti.org/seti-institute-news-february-roundup

Lurking Inside an Asteroid: Life’s Ingredients
Scientists studying samples that #NASA collected from #asteroid #Bennu found a wide assortment of organic molecules that shed light on how life arose. The chemistry that produced them might be going on today on the ice moons of #Jupiter and #Saturn.
“Our odds of finding life elsewhere are increasing,” said Daniel Glavin, a senior scientist for sample return at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/science/nasa-bennu-asteroid-molecules.html
https://archive.ph/us0yc #SETI

https://www.seti.org/detecting-earth-how-far-away-can-we-detect-earths-technosignatures

How detectable is Earth to others with technology similar to our own?

In a recent SETI Live, Dr. Sofia Sheikh and Dr. Simon Steel from the SETI Institute explored Dr. Sheikh’s study examining how detectable Earth is to extraterrestrial civilizations. Rather than focusing on advanced megastructures like Dyson spheres, the research investigates the signals humankind currently emits and how they might be observed from afar.

In this week's #SETILive podcast, Dr. Sofia Sheikh discusses her recent research paper examining whether other advanced civilizations could detect Earth from our technosignatures alone. She also answers Simon Steel's question about what types of signals other than radio she analyzed.

Listen to the full podcast: https://www.seti.org/seti-live

We hope you had a chance to see our speaker last night from the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope. It's on our YouTube channel now. Speaking of the VLA, another search for signs of alien civilizations has come up empty. The Commensal Open-source Multi-mode Interferometric Cluster (COSMIC) analyzed the signals for anything that appeared to be artificial in nature but none of them survived more rigorous analysis. https://ow.ly/Ikag50V2UPu

Milestone reached! We've finally determined the intensity of the Wow! Signal—one of its long-standing mysteries. Previous estimates were 54 Jy or 212 Jy. This new finding is just one of the key insights we’ll present in our upcoming paper, #AreciboWow II. #Astronomy #RadioAstronomy #SETI

Is humanity alone in the Universe? What scientists really think
During Feb-June 2024, they carried out four surveys regarding likely existence of basic, complex, and intelligent #extraterrestriallife
In total, 521 #astrobiologists responded, and we received 534 non-astrobiologist responses. Results reveal that 86.6% of surveyed astrobiologists responded either “agree” or “strongly agree” that it’s likely that #extraterrestrial life exists somewhere in the universe.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/01/is-humanity-alone-in-the-universe-what-scientists-really-think/ #SETI

#ICYMI - SETI Live: Earth Detecting Earth

Findings of a recent study revealed that radio signals, such as planetary radar emissions from the former Arecibo Observatory, are Earth’s most detectable technosignatures, potentially visible from up to 12,000 light-years away. Simon Steel chatted with lead author Sofia Sheikh about the research's findings and their implications for the search for technosignatures.

Watch here: https://youtube.com/live/Od-1V9ZR2Kc

Next #SETILive: Earth Detecting Earth
TODAY, Thursday, Feb 13, 2:30 PM PST

Findings of a recent study revealed that radio signals, such as planetary radar emissions from the former Arecibo Observatory, are Earth’s most detectable technosignatures, potentially visible from up to 12,000 light-years away. Join Simon Steel to chat with lead author Sofia Sheikh about the research's findings and their implications for the search for technosignatures. WATCH LIVE: https://youtube.com/live/Od-1V9ZR2Kc