Sure, Black Friday and Cyber Monday might be over, but since this is December, there’s still A LOT of amazing deals available for the holiday season! Here are some of the best one we stumbled on today! Please note that Geeks are Sexy might get a small commission from qualifying purchases done through our posts. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
–1minAI: Lifetime Subscription – Why choose between ChatGPT, Midjourney, GoogleAI, and MetaAI when you could get them all in one tool? – $234.00 $39.99
We have only one example of biology forming in the universe – life on Earth. But what if life can form in other ways? How do you look for alien life when you don’t know what alien life might look like?
These questions are preoccupying astrobiologists, who are scientists who look for life beyond Earth. Astrobiologists have attempted to come up with universal rules that govern the emergence of complex physical and biological systems both on Earth and beyond.
I’m an astronomer who has written extensively about astrobiology. Through my research, I’ve learned that the most abundant form of extraterrestrial life is likely to be microbial, since single cells can form more readily than large organisms. But just in case there’s advanced alien life out there, I’m on the international advisory council for the group designing messages to send to those civilizations.
Many of these exoplanets are small and rocky, like Earth, and in the habitable zones of their stars. The habitable zone is the range of distances between the surface of a planet and the star it orbits that would allow the planet to have liquid water, and thus support life as we on Earth know it.
The sample of exoplanets detected so far projects 300 million potential biological experiments in our galaxy – or 300 million places, including exoplanets and other bodies such as moons, with suitable conditions for biology to arise.
The uncertainty for researchers starts with the definition of life. It feels like defining life should be easy, since we know life when we see it, whether it’s a flying bird or a microbe moving in a drop of water. But scientists don’t agree on a definition, and some think a comprehensive definition might not be possible.
NASA defines life as a “self-sustaining chemical reaction capable of Darwinian evolution.” That means organisms with a complex chemical system that evolve by adapting to their environment. Darwinian evolution says that the survival of an organism depends on its fitness in its environment.
The evolution of life on Earth has progressed over billions of years from single-celled organisms to large animals and other species, including humans.
Exoplanets are remote and hundreds of millions of times fainter than their parent stars, so studying them is challenging. Astronomers can inspect the atmospheres and surfaces of Earth-like exoplanets using a method called spectroscopy to look for chemical signatures of life.
Spectroscopy might detect signatures of oxygen in a planet’s atmosphere, which microbes called blue-green algae created by photosynthesis on Earth several billion years ago, or chlorophyll signatures, which indicate plant life.
NASA’s definition of life leads to some important but unanswered questions. Is Darwinian evolution universal? What chemical reactions can lead to biology off Earth?
Evolution and complexity
All life on Earth, from a fungal spore to a blue whale, evolved from a microbial last common ancestor about 4 billion years ago.
The same chemical processes are seen in all living organisms on Earth, and those processes might be universal. They also may be radically different elsewhere.
In October 2024, a diverse group of scientists gathered to think outside the box on evolution. They wanted to step back and explore what sort of processes created order in the universe – biological or not – to figure out how to study the emergence of life totally unlike life on Earth.
Two researchers present argued that complex systems of chemicals or minerals, when in environments that allow some configurations to persist better than others, evolve to store larger amounts of information. As time goes by, the system will grow more diverse and complex, gaining the functions needed for survival, through a kind of natural selection.
They speculated that there might be a law to describe the evolution of a wide variety of physical systems. Biological evolution through natural selection would be just one example of this broader law.
In biology, information refers to the instructions stored in the sequence of nucleotides on a DNA molecule, which collectively make up an organism’s genome and dictate what the organism looks like and how it functions.
If you define complexity in terms of information theory, natural selection will cause a genome to grow more complex as it stores more information about its environment.
However, it’s wrong to conclude that animals are more complex than microbes. Biological information increases with genome size, but evolutionary information density drops. Evolutionary information density is the fraction of functional genes within the genome, or the fraction of the total genetic material that expresses fitness for the environment.
Organisms that people think of as primitive, such as bacteria, have genomes with high information density and so appear better designed than the genomes of plants or animals.
A universal theory of life is still elusive. Such a theory would include the concepts of complexity and information storage, but it would not be tied to DNA or the particular kinds of cells we find in terrestrial biology.
Implications for the search for extraterrestial life
Researchers have explored alternatives to terrestrial biochemistry. All known living organisms, from bacteria to humans, contain water, and it is a solvent that is essential for life on Earth. A solvent is a liquid medium that facilitates chemical reactions from which life could emerge. But life could potentially emerge from other solvents, too.
Astrobiologists Willam Bains and Sara Seager have explored thousands of molecules that might be associated with life. Plausible solvents include sulfuric acid, ammonia, liquid carbon dioxide and even liquid sulfur.
Alien life might not be based on carbon, which forms the backbone of all life’s essential molecules – at least here on Earth. It might not even need a planet to survive.
Advanced forms of life on alien planets could be so strange that they’re unrecognizable. As astrobiologists try to detect life off Earth, they’ll need to be creative.
One strategy is to measure mineral signatures on the rocky surfaces of exoplanets, since mineral diversity tracks terrestrial biological evolution. As life evolved on Earth, it used and created minerals for exoskeletons and habitats. The hundred minerals present when life first formed have grown to about 5,000 today.
For example, zircons are simple silicate crystals that date back to the time before life started. A zircon found in Australia is the oldest known piece of Earth’s crust. But other minerals, such as apatite, a complex calcium phosphate mineral, are created by biology. Apatite is a primary ingredient in bones, teeth and fish scales.
Another strategy to finding life unlike that on Earth is to detect evidence of a civilization, such as artificial lights, or the industrial pollutant nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere. These are examples of tracers of intelligent life called technosignatures.
It’s unclear how and when a first detection of life beyond Earth will happen. It might be within the solar system, or by sniffing exoplanet atmospheres, or by detecting artificial radio signals from a distant civilization.
The search is a twisting road, not a straightforward path. And that’s for life as we know it – for life as we don’t know it, all bets are off.
Tom BetGeorge is weaving pure holiday magic once again this season with his amazing light shows! His home in Linden, CA, becomes a wonderland of twinkling lights and fireworks, synchronized perfectly to music, creating a symphony of color and sound. This year’s lineup features Lindsey Stirling’s “Carol of the Bells,” Benny Benassi’s “Satisfaction” (Just_us Remix), a John Williams compilation, the iconic holiday classic “Wizards in Winter” by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and—my absolute favorite—a compilation of 80s hits! Be sure to check ’em all out below!
In the latest episode of How to Train Your Patience: Westeros Edition, George R.R. Martin has once again reminded us that time is a flat circle, especially when it comes to The Winds of Winter. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Martin confessed what fans have suspected for years: the book might be late enough to qualify for AARP benefits.
“Thirteen years late,” he said, sounding like a man who just realized he accidentally RSVP’d to a wedding in 2011 and forgot to show up. “Every time I say that, I’m like, ‘How could I be 13 years late?’ I don’t know, it happens a day at a time.” Yes, George, that’s how calendars work. But, to his credit, the man is alive, vital, and still keeping the dream alive—at least until another HBO spin-off steals his attention.
A Song of Ice, Fire… and Frustration
Fans of A Song of Ice and Fire have become as legendary as the series itself, enduring each delay with the grim determination of the Night’s Watch. Some have taken to writing their own endings. Others have moved on, knowing the true spirit of the series is the friends (and therapy bills) we made along the way. And yet, like a direwolf stubbornly guarding its post, most of us cling to the hope that The Winds of Winter will someday grace our shelves—preferably before we see a real dragon flying.
To be fair, Martin hasn’t exactly been resting on the Iron Throne. He’s been producing spin-offs, nurturing adaptations of his late friend’s works, and working as an executive producer on House of the Dragon. He even found time to drop Fire & Blood, a 700-page detour that inspired the prequel series. (Let’s just say it’s like starting a side quest while the main storyline sits neglected in your inventory.)
“I Seem Pretty Vital!”
Martin has heard the morbid grumblings from the fandom—those dark whispers that he might not finish the series before he joins the Old Gods (or the New). “A lot of people are already writing obituaries for me,” he said with a chuckle. “Maybe they’re right. I don’t know. I’m alive right now! I seem pretty vital!”
That’s the kind of pep talk fans needed… 10 years ago. At this point, it feels like Martin is engaged in an epic standoff with time itself, armed only with a quill, some stubborn optimism, and a mountain of unfinished pages.
The Real Winner of the Game of Thrones
Let’s be honest: George R.R. Martin is playing a game far more cunning than any scheming Lannister. He knows we’re hooked, and he’s mastered the art of making us wait. After all, the man did invent a plotline where Jon Snow’s true parentage was teased for over a decade.
But here’s the twist: maybe the real final chapter isn’t about The Winds of Winter or its sequel, A Dream of Spring. Maybe the saga is about us—the fans who keep waiting, theorizing, and holding out hope. (Or maybe that’s just what we tell ourselves to feel better about checking release updates for the 7,000th time.)
Until that fateful day when the book finally lands, we can only echo the words of a certain direwolf-loving Stark: Winter is coming. Eventually. Probably. Hopefully.
Sure, Black Friday and Cyber Monday might be over, but since this is December, there’s still A LOT of amazing deals available for the holiday season! Here are some of the best one we stumbled on today! Please note that Geeks are Sexy might get a small commission from qualifying purchases done through our posts. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
–1minAI: Lifetime Subscription – Why choose between ChatGPT, Midjourney, GoogleAI, and MetaAI when you could get them all in one tool? – $234.00 $39.99
Few shows have redefined the boundaries of animated storytelling like Arcane. From its breathtakingly detailed environments to its emotionally charged character expressions, every frame feels like a painting come to life. Now, after years of anticipation, Gamerstrix brings us an incredible video that highlights the sheer artistry behind the series.
The video is a labor of love three years in the making. Gamerstrix began working on it shortly after season 1 was released but chose to wait for the continuation of the story. The result is a comprehensive appreciation of every shot, scene, and sequence that makes Arcane a masterpiece. Be sure to check this one out!
The holiday season just got a warp-speed upgrade! John Lennon’s iconic “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” has been reimagined in Star Trek: The Original Series style, thanks to a fun montage by Youtuber John C. Worsley. Check it out below!
John has also created numerous other holiday-themed Star Trek videos! I’ll include some of my favorite below for your viewing pleasure!