Extraterrestrial Life

If heat is needed to kickstart life, water may be the only crucible, argues Philip Ball.

The Moon Capital competition brought out new visions of lunar living, circa 2069

Analysis of 166 stars found almost a quarter--much more than expected--had small, rocky planets, which should force a change in thinking on the overall frequency of such bodies. Adam Hinterthuer reports

A newfound "super-Earth" just 20 light-years away appears to reside in the habitable zone of its host star

A new album from the group One Ring Zero envisions a journey through the solar system and beyond

A new book highlights the most unique locations in the solar system, some of which are surprisingly close to home

A planetary system 125 light-years away could represent the largest collection of known worlds outside the solar system

The influential decadal survey champions the pursuit of potentially habitable worlds but offers few details for the near future

Dark energy and exoplanets prioritized by decadal survey.

Podcast host Steve Mirsky talks with human evolution expert Kate Wong about the small group of humans who survived tough times beginning about 195,000 years ago and gave rise to all of us, a story told in the cover article of the August issue of Scientific American, our 165th anniversary edition. And Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina talks about the rest of the contents of the issue, including our coverage of the search for rocky exoplanets. Plus, we test your knowledge about some recent science in the news. Web sites related to content of this podcast include http://snipurl.com/10louu