Possible Transmission Pathways to Communicate with Aliens

http://www.space.com/searchforlife/090924-seti-weird-ways.html

"Weird Ways to Search for ET"

Despite popular view that SETI and its scientists eschew new ideas of ways of communicating with extraterrestrial life, there are many new ideas circulating--although they are sometimes considered a little 'out of this world'.

Some these include but are not limited to:

1) Neutrinos, which are ghostly particles which can go through planets; only problem is they cost a tremendous amount of energy to produce and technology to detect them has very low efficiency.

2) Quantum entanglement, which could an be inexpensive and instantaneous communication channel through entangled particles; however, Bell's theorem illustrates that they're not instruments for faster-than-light communication.

3) Gravity waves, which like neutrinos are hard to produce and detect.

4) Flashes of laser lights every month or year or decade.

5) Signals Kepler could detect; following the idea that aliens could construct large structures and sling them into orbit around their sun--anyone observing stars using techniques similar to that of the Kepler telescope could notice these light blockers.

However, none of these possible methods of transmissions are being explored by SETI at the moment; although this doesn't mean they aren't being explored by physicists and others.

Devising Habitability Index for Planets

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/09/16/2072217.aspx

"A New Equation for Life"

Astrobiologists Hagermann and Cockell are currently working on devising a mathematical equation that would create a single indicator "that combines all the factors thought to make life as we know it possible". Based on studies of life's development on Earth, scientists generally list three factors that indicate life: the presence of liquid water, chemical compounds that can be combined in organic reactions, and an energy source to fuel those reactions. If you knew a system had planets with bodies of water on them, that would be a habitability index of 1."
However, the problem of creating a habitability index is getting more and more complicated, because the more researchers learn the harder it is to draw the line between habitable and non-inhabitable zones. Also, no definitions of life work very well, and the conditions and allowed life to evolve on this planet don't necessarily have to match conditions that could very well create life on other planets. Although this mathematical equation may not be even close to 100% accurate when predicting the possibility of life in other systems and planets, it causes scientists to look more deeply into where life comes from and where we might find intelligent life elsewhere in our universe. First we have to learn more about the planets before we can give them a habitability index.

Non-Human Intelligence on Earth: The Honey Bee

http://www.space.com/searchforlife/090827-seti-bees-navigation.html

"Bee Celestial Navigation and Non-Human Intelligence"

What could the study of honey bees possibly have to do with the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence? Well, bees are a species on our very own planet which have the three main requirements for producing extraterrestrail communications. These are a communication system, advanced tool use, and astronomy; bees can demonstrate non-human skills in all three.

Bees demonstrate astronomy by polarizing light to see the Sun on a cloudy day, by knowing where the Sun is even after it sets and therefore can still forage during a full moon, and how they can understand landscape as a map and don't need to retrace the same route back to the hive which they took to leave.

Bees also have been discovered to demonstrate communication. To date, bees are in fact the only other species that have been shown to communicate with symbolic language--in this case through dance--which allows them to 'talk' about something that is not present. So far we know of three languages bees use: the DVAV Dance for discussing hive politics, the Round Dance which tells the other bees to go out and sniff around for the source of pollen that is close, and the Waggle Dance that is done when nectar is discovered far away and the bee discusses with the hive where to go.

There was even a university study done in which bees exhibited the ability to correctly locate where nectar was going to be placed next, which shows they can do math (to determine how far away the nectar location moved each day) and imagination (the ability to imagine the future of where the nectar would be outside the present). Clearly, bees are an extremely intelligent species coexisting and effectually perpetuating human life on this planet (without bees humans would only last 3 or 4 years as our food supply would disappear). All in all, we will be more prepared when looking for intelligent life on other planets when we learn more from bees and other species on Earth.