News

Poison-Based Bacteria Redefines Life As We Know It

Arsenic is an element that is deadly to most living creatures, but bacteria living in California’s Lake Mono thrive on it. Today NASA explains how those poison-eating organisms are changing the way we search for extraterrestrial life.


News

NASA Discovers Alien Life In California

Today NASA will hold a press conference revealing to the world the discovery of a form of life unlike any other on Earth. What twisted alien landscape gave birth to such a life form? Try California.


December 1, 2010
News

Has NASA Discovered Life On Saturn’s Moon?

This Thursday NASA is holding a press conference to discuss an astrobiology finding that will “impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life”. Have we discovered alien life within our own solar system?


November 13, 2010
News

Why Male Spiders Prefer Virgins

It’s the weekend, so I picked something lighthearted and fun for the daily Kotaku science post. Did you know male wasp spiders snap their genitalia off inside the female during sex? Don’t worry, they have two sets.


July 15, 2010
News

Science Answers One Of Life’s Greatest Questions

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Thanks to a brave group of British researchers, the age-old question finally has an answer.


July 3, 2010
In Real Life

Multicellular Life: It Might Be Older Than You Think

Remember when all of those scientist people told us that multicellular life on Earth began about 1.9 billion years ago? New evidence suggests they might have been off by a few hundred million. Is it time for a Spore patch?


November 10, 2008
Uncategorized

Sunday Timewaster: the irRegular Game of Life

The irRegular Game of Life is a weird but fun little game (by irRegular Games) based on mathematician John Horton Conway’s ‘Game of Life’ theory. In this iteration, you are given puzzles to solve and must set the little cells into motion to meet the goals of each level. It’s surprisingly hypnotic at times — after getting past the initial introductory levels, you watch the cells shuffle back and forth, creating a variety of patterns and interacting with each other. There’s also a sandbox mode and some other features; the regular puzzle mode was plenty fun for me.


September 8, 2008
Uncategorized

The Astrobiologist and the Game Designer

Reader Denis F. sent us a heads up about an interesting chat between Will Wright and Jill Tarter, noted astrobiologist and director of SETI whose research helped inspire Spore. As you can probably guess, the discussion is pretty abstract at times and goes from gaming to the value of science to where we’ll be in 10,000 years. It’s pretty interesting, and there’s a transcript of the interview: