VIRGO: Když se na to tak dívám, ne že bych byl pesimista nebo tak něco, ale pomalu to vypadá, že je čas na nějaké další velké vymírání. Tentokrát by to mohlo být pro změnu s ledem a sněhem, ať to není tak jednotvárné... Když už máme nejvíc zalednění, které bylo pro dané události k dispozici :)

Microbes Could Survive Thin Air of Mars - Astrobiology Magazine
http://www.astrobio.net/news-exclusive/microbes-survive-thin-air-mars/

Microbes that rank among the simplest and most ancient organisms on Earth could survive the extremely thin air of Mars, a new study finds.

The Martian surface is presently cold and dry, but there is plenty of evidence suggesting that rivers, lakes and seas covered the Red Planet
billions of years ago. Since there is life virtually wherever there is liquid water on Earth, scientists have suggested that life might have
evolved on Mars when it was wet, and life could be there even now.

“In all the environments we find here on Earth, there is some sort of microorganism in almost all of them,” said Rebecca Mickol, an astrobiologist
at the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and the lead author of the study. “It’s hard
to believe there aren’t other organisms out there on other planets or moons as well.”

Mickol and her team detailed their findings in the paper, “Low Pressure Tolerance by Methanogens in an Aqueous Environment: Implications for
Subsurface Life on Mars,” which was published in the journal Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres.

SF State astronomer searches for signs of life on Wolf 1061 exoplanet | SF State News
http://news.sfsu.edu/news-story/sf-state-astronomer-searches-signs-life-wolf-1061-exoplanet

SF State astronomer Stephen Kane searches for signs of life in one of the extrasolar systems closest to Earth

Is there anybody out there? The question of whether Earthlings are alone in the universe has puzzled everyone from biologists and physicists
to philosophers and filmmakers. It’s also the driving force behind San Francisco State University astronomer Stephen Kane’s research into
exoplanets — planets that exist outside Earth’s solar system.

As one of the world’s leading “planet hunters,” Kane focuses on finding “habitable zones,” areas where water could exist in a liquid state
on a planet’s surface if there’s sufficient atmospheric pressure. Kane and his team, including former undergraduate student Miranda Waters,
examined the habitable zone on a planetary system 14 light years away. Their findings will appear in the next issue of Astrophysical Journal
in a paper titled “Characterization of the Wolf 1061 Planetary System.”

“The Wolf 1061 system is important because it is so close and that gives other opportunities to do follow-up studies to see if it does indeed
have life,” Kane said.

Úžasná infografika PHL
Earth: Evolution of a Habitable Planet (Animated Poster) - Planetary Habitability Laboratory @ UPR Arecibo
http://phl.upr.edu/projects/visual-paleo-earth/vpe_globes

Study of microbes reveals new insight about Earth’s geology and carbon cycles | Argonne National Laboratory
http://www.anl.gov/...les/study-microbes-reveals-new-insight-about-earth-s-geology-and-carbon-cycles

Tiny microbes play a big role in cycling carbon and other key elements through our air, water, soil and sediment.
Not only do microbes capture and release carbon, contributing to a cycle that is central to life on Earth, they also
release compounds that can change existing minerals and form new ones — in turn shaping the geology of the world around us.

Grasping the biological, chemical and geological processes microbes engage in is critical to understanding and predicting
global climate, greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient transport and other natural phenomena.

Researchers who study these processes at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have discovered that
these microbial communities are significantly affected by the types of carbon “food” sources available. Their findings,
published in the journal PLOS ONE, reveal that the type of carbon source affects not only the composition and activity
of natural microbial communities, but also in turn the types of mineral products that form in their environment.

A Break in the Search for the Origin of Complex Life – IPSA SCIENTIA POTESTAS EST
https://bioinfonerd.wordpress.com/2017/01/14/a-break-in-the-search-for-the-origin-of-complex-life/
A group of newly discovered microbes, named after Norse gods, may belong to the lineage from which we evolved.

We’re one step closer to identifying the precursors that led to complex organisms (such as multicellular eukaryotes... that’s you and I).
We always knew our primordial ancestors were of the microbe variety. Now, we may have have found them. Meet Asgard archaea...

The Cosmos’ Fine-Tuning Does Not Imply a Fine-Tuner - Facts So Romantic - Nautilus
http://nautil.us/blog/the-cosmos-fine_tuning-does-not-imply-a-fine_tuner

The fine-tuning argument rests on an interesting discovery of physical cosmology that the odds were strongly stacked against life.

XCHAOS: Supr, díky za to info kolem. Roman Tkačenko je úžasný chlapík.

NASA - Venus Landsailing Rover
https://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/early_stage_innovation/niac/2012_phase_I_fellows_landis.html

Chybějící telemetrie, ale zřejmě problémy s příjmem na pozemní stanici...

How the darkness and the cold killed the dinosaurs | EurekAlert! Science News
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-01/pifc-htd011317.php

66 million years ago, the sudden extinction of the dinosaurs started the ascent of the mammals, ultimately resulting in humankind's reign on Earth.
Climate scientists now reconstructed how tiny droplets of sulfuric acid formed high up in the air after the well-known impact of a large asteroid
and blocking the sunlight for several years, had a profound influence on life on Earth. Plants died, and death spread through the food web. Previous
theories focused on the shorter-lived dust ejected by the impact. The new computer simulations show that the droplets resulted in long-lasting cooling,
a likely contributor to the death of land-living dinosaurs. An additional kill mechanism might have been a vigorous mixing of the oceans, caused by
the surface cooling, severely disturbing marine ecosystems.

"The big chill following the impact of the asteroid that formed the Chicxulub crater in Mexico is a turning point in Earth history," says Julia Brugger
from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), lead author of the study to be published today in the Geophysical Research Letters. "We
can now contribute new insights for understanding the much debated ultimate cause for the demise of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous era."
To investigate the phenomenon, the scientists for the first time used a specific kind of computer simulation normally applied in different contexts,
a climate model coupling atmosphere, ocean and sea ice. They build on research showing that sulfur- bearing gases that evaporated from the violent
asteroid impact on our planet's surface were the main factor for blocking the sunlight and cooling down Earth.

VIRGO: To celkem jde