Get ready for a fascinating deep dive into one of the biggest questions in astrobiology: How common are biological extraterrestrial intelligences in the Milky Way? Host Simon Steel, Deputy Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research, is joined by Manuel Scherf and Helmut Lammer (Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences) to explore new research that challenges long-held assumptions about “Earth-like” planets and what it really takes for a world to support complex life. Recent wor

105 reactions · 12 comments | The SETI Institute is the only organization fully dedicated to finding intelligent life beyond Earth. We're less than $4k away from meeting our funding goal for the year, and all gifts made through 11:59 p.m. TODAY will be doubled! With limited federal funding, YOUR SUPPORT is the only way we'll answer the age-old question, "Are we alone?" Support the search: https://bit.ly/3Jsog97 | SETI Institute | Facebook

8.5K views · 42 reactions | Our latest #SETILive podcast is available on Spotify (and other platforms). This week, we talked with Dr. Rebecca Charbonneau about her new book, "Mixed Signals," which looks at the cooperation of US and Soviet scientists in SETI research during the Cold War. And we start with a book co-authored by Carl Sagan. Listen here: https://buff.ly/4iQ9ZVc | SETI Institute | Facebook

Whales have been on this planet for longer than humans have walked upright. Are they intelligent? Linguists contend that even the most intelligent non-human animals lack a communication system that could be called language. But could whales prove an exception? Biologists have studied whales for decades and quickly realized that they lead complex social lives. For example, sperm whales have the animal kingdom’s biggest brains, six times larger than ours. They live in female-dominated social netwo