----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2002 4:35 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Latest News from the Astrobiology Magazine Tracking the Path of Green Slime
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article259.html
Most life on Earth owes its existence to tiny organisms called cyanobacteria. Whatever ecological catastrophes fate has thrown at the Earth - be it another Ice Age, a large asteroid impact, or changes in the atmosphere - through it all cyanobacteria have survived. "Like fantastic aliens of a class B movie," Schopf writes in his book, 'Cradle of Life,' "they've proven impossible to wipe out, surviving on and on as life around them has gone extinct." And, even more extraordinarily, cyanobacteria appear to have survived relatively unchanged.
Gravity's Telescope
http://www.astrobio.net/news/article258.html
Nearly 70 years ago, Albert Einstein published an article in which he predicted that a star's gravity could function as a lens to focus distant light, much as a curved glass lens does. As it turned out, he was right. But Einstein didn't think that this effect would ever be observed. On that score, he was wrong. Today, the effect not only has been observed, but is being intensively monitored. "Gravitational microlensing," as it is known, is one of the exciting new techniques astronomers are using in their search for extrasolar planets.
Find our more from Astrobiology Magazine @ www.astrobio.net
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