life

Thanks to a surface covered in liquid water, Jupiter's moon Europa serves as the prime suspect for bodies in our solar system harboring extraterrestrial life. For the most part though, speculation has assumed the life on Europa would be microscopic, similar to the chemical and rock-eating microbes found atop undersea volcanic vents on Earth. However, a new study estimates the level of oxygen in Europa's seas may be high enough to support fish-sized life. Hello, alien sushi.

Nearly four billion years ago, the Earth was pummeled by asteroids -- some as large as the state of Kansas -- during an episode known as the "Late Heavy Bombardment." Now, scientists believe that bombardment phase may have jump-started early microbial life. The results also lend support to the possibility of extreme microbial life on other planets like Mars, and perhaps even on Earth-like planets in other solar systems that may have undergone similar bombardment phases.

In space, no one can hear a tardigrade scream. They can, however see the tiny organisms (also called water bears) survive a trip through that icy, radiation filled void relatively unscathed.

Although it's only one part of the answer, we have come another step closer to solving the question of how life originated. Two necessary molecular ingredients of DNA and RNA have been confirmed to have originated from outer space. They join the handful of amino acids we have discovered to have been delivered to Earth on the backs of asteroids and comets.

First, way back in 2002, we reported on this crazy new kind of movie-making, called â€machinima,†that uses videogames and virtual worlds as platforms for creating animated films.

Celebrity guests, zombies, nudity, endearing pop ballads, giant squids-our Second Life concert featuring Jonathan Coulton had it all. Relive all the virtual memories of a night of virtual rock in this gallery of highlights. Or see what you missed spending your Thursday night in the "real" world. Suckers!

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For an exclusive photo tour of Second Life, click here.

Humans naturally have the power to remember almost two bits of information per second, or a few hundred megabytes over a lifetime. Compared with a DVD movie, which holds up to 17 gigabytes, that´s nothing. Worse, you might easily recall the 40-year-old dialogue from Hogan´s Heroes yet forget your mom´s birthday. Or memorize reams of sports stats while spacing out on work you completed just last week.

It´s a problem that´s been bothering Gordon Bell for almost as long as he can remember.