Life, I tell you! Extraterrestrial…. liiiiiiife!
October 2nd, 2009 by 
Morgan J. Locke
So, here is a quickie, to get warmed up and breathe a little life back into my own posting habits.
Science News reports that some very clever people have come up with a laser technique for detecting microbial activity. We can not only use it to, say, detect Martian life from orbit, but even use it to detect life on worlds orbiting other suns! Even better, it uses very inexpensive, off-the-shelf equipment. Which means maybe even some enterprising amateurs could conceivably be the first people to discover extraterrestrial life.
How cool is that?
Posted in Geniuses, Look up!, Morgan, Science, Technology | 
6 Comments »
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Depending on how cheap cheap is, I wouldn’t mind sitting in my backyard shooting lasers into space. (Is this where I insert a *pew-pew-pew* joke?)
October 2nd, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Cheap-cheap, pew-pew-pew? A sonic smorgasbord.
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:06 am
Hmmm. I’m just a bit confused here. Is this usable from the ground, or do you have to get the equipment out of the atmosphere?
If the latter, those are some impressive amateurs…
That said, I’ve got a suspicion that it’s just a matter of time before dedicated hobbyists start making serious contributions to space science. Now that I think of it, some astronomers already have, haven’t they?
October 3rd, 2009 at 10:54 am
Yay, Morgan! Keep up the posting!
I muchly like that this gives me an excuse to acquire for my own personal use a powerful laser with a highly accurate targeting system.
October 5th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Eeep! Start pointing that thing around.
November 11th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
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