#alienlife — Public Fediverse posts

After messing with the engine and rendering, this project has slowly morphed into an alien physics simulation. It's heavily inspired by the concept of monads as described by Leibniz. It's more of an art thing than a science thing at this point, but lots of fun to play with! 🎮🦠

#cellularAutomata #alienLife #artificialLife

Is this why close encounters with intelligent aliens have so far eluded us? | Letters
By Guardian Staff

Readers offer their explanations for the absence of hard evidence for extraterrestrial civilisations, in response to an article by Adam Kirsch

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/23/is-this-why-close-encounters-with-intelligent-aliens-have-so-far-eluded-us

#Alienlife #Space #Science #TheGuardian #GuardianStaff

Is this why close encounters with intelligent aliens have so far eluded us? | Letters https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/23/is-this-why-close-encounters-with-intelligent-aliens-have-so-far-eluded-us #AlienLife #Space #Science

NASA is giving away a bunch of free e-books https://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/nasa-is-giving-away-a-bunch-of-free-e-books 🪐 #Exoplanet #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #Astrobiology #eBook #Reading

Book Review: Before Eden by Arthur C. Clarke

Hi everyone! I hope you’re all well. Today is Friday, and it’s time for another review. This week, I’m sharing my review of Before Eden by Arthur C. Clarke.

Before Eden was originally published in 1961 in the science fiction magazine ‘Amazing Stories’, and it is 37 pages long. It was also collected in one of Clarke’s short story collections, Tales of Ten Worlds, published in 1962.

The Plot
The story follows a small scientific team stationed on Venus, studying its geology and extreme environment.

Unbeknownst to the explorers, their presence contaminates the environment. When they depart, believing they’vewitnessed a triumph for science, their leftover trash introduces Earth microbes that infect and ultimately destroy the native Venusian life.

Characters
Jerry Garfield
Garfield is the practical engineer and navigator. He is the one piloting the scout car and thinking in terms of routes, obstacles, and logistics. He’s also the one who voices the classic Clarke sentiment: wherever life can exist, it probably will.

Graham Hutchins
Hutchins is the biologist and, in some ways, the emotional core of the story. Hutchins is “the happiest biologist in the Solar System” when he realises they’ve found an alien organism; his excitement embodies the scientific joy of discovery. But it’s a restrained joy – this is Clarke, after all, not pulp melodrama.

George Coleman
George is a more cautious scientist, often playing the foil to Hutchins’ enthusiasm. He’s the one raising doubts about whether life could survive in boiling rain and extreme conditions, and through him, Clarke gets to stage the “could anything really live here?” debate.

Writing Style
Clarke’s writing here is precise, cool, and deliberate. He prioritises scientific plausibility over melodrama, though the Venus he depicts reflects early-1960s assumptions about the planet—steamy, swamp-like, volcanic—before later probes revealed its true nature. Still, within that framework, Clarke’s speculative world-building feels full and immersive.

The prose is lean. Clarke avoids flowery language, instead building tension through detail: atmospheric pressure readings, geological descriptions, and the slow realisation of what has been found—and perhaps destroyed. There’s a quiet, almost clinical tone that amplifies the ethical impact. When the emotional beat lands, it lands without fanfare.

However, readers who prefer character-driven storytelling may find the piece somewhat distant; there’s no backstory, no inner lives beyond their immediate reactions. The crew function more as intellectual lenses than as fully realised personalities. The story’s strength lies in its concept and implication rather than in interpersonal drama.

Final Thoughts
Overall, Before Eden is thoughtful and unsettling, but also restrained to a fault. It raises a powerful ethical idea about humanity’s impact on alien ecosystems—yet it stops just short of full emotional immersion. As a piece of classic science fiction, it’s intellectually engaging and historically interesting—particularly in its pre-space-probe depiction of Venus—but it may feel slight compared to Clarke’s larger, more ambitious works.

I’m giving Before Eden a 5/10.

Have you read this short? What did you think?

As ever, thanks for stopping by and reading my review!

Until next time,

George

© 2026 GLT

An air-and-sea world where oxygen is everywhere, but arthropods never arise. Net result? A planet that's familiar, yet delightfully alien.

Read more at my #blog: https://www.adamasnemesis.com/2026/08/13/leviathans-of-the-airy-deep/

This post's featured illustration is from Iconographia Zoologica, and depicts a manta ray (similar to my world's ancestral "dipod").

#worldbuilding #scifi #sciencefiction #alienlife #aliens #oceanplanet #atmospheres #oxygenatmosphere #evolution #speculativeevolution

Active supermassive black holes may help form massive planets https://phys.org/news/2026-08-supermassive-black-holes-massive-planets.html 🪐 #Exoplanet #Exoplanets #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #Astrobiology

The great silence: why haven’t we found any aliens yet?
By Adam Kirsch

Given the size and age of the universe, it should be full of species with technology far more advanced than our own. So where are they?

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/aug/11/the-great-silence-why-havent-we-found-any-aliens-yet

#Alienlife #Space #Science #Worldnews #Nasa #Astronomy #TheGuardian #AdamKirsch

The great silence: why haven’t we found any aliens yet? https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/aug/11/the-great-silence-why-havent-we-found-any-aliens-yet #AlienLife #Space #Science #WorldNews #Nasa #Astronomy

We might soon have the technology to reach other star systems https://phys.org/news/2026-08-technology-star.html 🪐 #Exoplanet #Exoplanets #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #Astrobiology #SpaceExploration

Why #NuclearReactions on an #Exoplanet won’t imply #AlienLife : Medium

#Scientists’ Side #Hustle? Using #AI and #QuantumComputing to Generate New #Peptides : WIRED

Rare #Contagious #Cancer #Discovered in #Wild #Catfish : Nature

Latest #KnowledgeLinks

https://knowledgezone.co.in/resources/bookmarks

Deep-sea vehicles spot 'alien' sharks deep beneath the waves in the Pacific

https://www.science.org/content/article/deep-sea-vehicles-spot-alien-sharks-deep-beneath-waves-pacific#

Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49140599

#HackerNews #deepsea #sharks #alienlife #oceanexploration #marinebiology #pacificocean

Might want to revisit this piece sometime...one of my earlier paintings, but it looks *fine*...at the risk of tooting my own horn.

By yours truly, the pinwheel-spiral-galaxy version of "Tree Climber's Moon".

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting #painting #scifi #scifiart #sciencefictionart #sciencefiction #spaceart #galaxy #nightsky #alienlife #tree #forest #sky #skyscape

Are Aliens Harvesting the Spin of Stars? https://www.universetoday.com/articles/are-aliens-harvesting-the-spin-of-stars 🪐 #Exoplanet #Exoplanets #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #Astrobiology

In search of life beyond our solar system: Atmosphere detected on a habitable-zone rocky world https://phys.org/news/2026-07-life-solar-atmosphere-habitable-zone.html 🪐 #Exoplanet #Exoplanets #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #Astrobiology

What if we've been looking for aliens the wrong way?

Join us LIVE at 2:30 PM PDT as Dr. Lauren Sgro talks with UCLA astronomer Dr. Ben Zuckerman about a new strategy for finding nearby technological civilizations.

👽 Bring your questions: https://youtube.com/live/B375iCf7F3A

#SETILive #SETI #AlienLife

Astronomers find nearby planets to be small, strange, and utterly uninhabitable https://phys.org/news/2026-07-astronomers-nearby-planets-small-strange.html 🪐 #Exoplanet #Exoplanets #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #Astrobiology

Alien world chemistry found inside meteorite that struck New Jersey home https://phys.org/news/2026-07-alien-world-chemistry-meteorite-struck.html 🪐 #Exoplanet #Exoplanets #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #Astrobiology

Distant exoplanets may be hiding water beyond Webb Telescope's reach, study finds https://phys.org/news/2026-07-distant-exoplanets-webb-telescope.html 🪐 #Exoplanet #Exoplanets #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #Astrobiology

Space jam: astronomers detect ‘raspberry sugar’ on dust cloud in Milky Way
By Ian Sample Science editor

Detection of erythrulose shows compounds that are key to life can form in expanse between stars

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jul/13/natural-sugar-cloud-dust-gas-milky-way-erythrulose

#Science #Astronomy #Alienlife #Space #Worldnews #TheGuardian #IanSampleScienceeditor

Natural sugar discovered in cloud of dust and gas near centre of Milky Way https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jul/13/natural-sugar-cloud-dust-gas-milky-way-erythrulose #Science #Astronomy #AlienLife #Space #WorldNews

Have we been looking for alien civilizations the wrong way?

Join Dr. Lauren Sgro and UCLA astronomer Dr. Ben Zuckerman as they discuss a new SETI strategy that could change how we search for extraterrestrial technology—and what existing observations already tell us about nearby civilizations. https://youtube.com/live/B375iCf7F3A

📅 July 16
⏰ 2:30 PM PDT

#SETILive #SETI #Technosignatures #AlienLife

Could exoplanets locked in eternal day and endless night support life? https://phys.org/news/2026-07-exoplanets-eternal-day-endless-night.html 🪐 #Exoplanet #Exoplanets #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #Astrobiology

Scientists discover rare 'super-Jupiter' planet with 180-day long orbit https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-rare-super-jupiter-planet.html 🪐 #Exoplanet #Exoplanets #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #Astrobiology

It's disturbingly easy to trick AI into seeing aliens, say researchers https://phys.org/news/2026-07-disturbingly-easy-ai-aliens.html 🪐
#Exoplanet #Exoplanets #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #Astrobiology #AI #ArtificialIntelligence

Astronomers find biggest super-puff planets yet that are lighter than cotton candy https://
phys.org/news/2026-06-astronomers-biggest-super-puff-planets.html 🪐
#Exoplanet #Exoplanets #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #Astrobiology

The Harvard astronomer dubbed Trump’s chief alien hunter starts by assuming UFOs human-made https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/01/trump-alien-hunter-avi-loeb #Ufos #TrumpAdministration #UsNews #AlienLife

Nearby 'Super Earth' may be a better candidate for life than previously thought https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nearby-super-earth-candidate-life.html 🪐 #Exoplanet #Exoplanets #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #Astrobiology

Spielberg’s Disclosure Day is making some wonder: will we have real disclosure soon? | Seth Shostak https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/01/stephen-spielberg-disclosure-day-aliens-extraterrestrial #DisclosureDay #AlienLife #Film #UsNews #StevenSpielberg #Culture

The rise of space AI might explain the Fermi paradox https://phys.org/news/2026-06-space-ai-fermi-paradox.html 🪐 #Exoplanet #Exoplanets #AlienWorlds #AlienLife #Extraterrestrials #Space #Science #SolarSystem #Astrobiology