Welcome to our first edition of the Science Weekend Warrior! This is the place where we talk about the cutting edge of science, from the latest technological advancements, to the latest discoveries on Mars. Though sometimes we just like to talk about something interesting, like how Mars (the chocolate company, not the planet) wants to decode the DNA of chocolate. Basically, stuff to geek over.

Now, personally, my knowledge of Japan looking for aliens is basically limited to that line of toys which eventually gave birth to Optimus Prime and the rest of his Transformers crew. All that might change though, if Japan's little project bears any fruit. Don't look now, but a team of astronomers in Japan are actually planning to scan around the cosmos for aliens. [cue "You Got the Touch" theme song]

Star Trek fans, here's something you might get a hoot out of: NASA has developed its own Tricorder. Ok, it's not exactly like the Tricorder, but it could be its ancestor. Details in the full article.

It looks like the best chances for the Solar System to produce life other than on the planet Earth isn't on a planet at all, but a moon. What makes it more interesting is that it's not just on any moon, but on Charon, the moon of our very own ex-planet, Pluto.

Scientists down at Hawaii's Gemini Telescope have discovered patches of ice crystals mixed with ammonia hydrates on the surface of Charon. Researchers, ruling out many theories on how the ice got there, concluded that the ice came from inside Charon itself, seeping out of cracks from the surface.

The process is known as cryo-volcanism, where liquid from below erupts to the surface and instantly freezes. Scientists believe that the cryo-volcanism in Charon is the result of a nuclear material inside it, causing the phenomenon. They also believe the ammonia hydrates acts as an antifreeze agent. Jason Cook, who led the research team that studied Charon's surface, explains:

Charon's surface is almost entirely water ice. So it must have a vast amount of water under the surface, and much of that should be frozen as well. Only deep inside Charon could water be a liquid. Yet, there is fresh ice on the surface, meaning that some liquid water must somehow reach the surface. The ammonia sitting on the surface provides the clue. It's the ammonia that helps keep some material liquid. It makes it all feasible. Without ammonia the water could not get out there.

Scientists are now speculating that Charon may hold life in her underbelly, with alien fish swimming its underground waters. The nuclear reactions would make this possible inside Charon, but the surface is a different matter, as it is far too cold (around -230 degrees Celsius.) It's funny to think that Pluto was named after the Roman god of the underworld, and Charon was the ferryman who took the dead to the underworld.

NASA's New Horizons probe, currently on the way to Pluto, will help scientists investigate Charon further when the probe arrives in July, 2015 to take a closer look and find more evidence.

It's very probable that alien life exists out there. But when we finally encounter such life forms, how do we know that the figure we're staring at is indeed an alien?

The US National Academy of Sciences is convinced that trying to search for any life forms similar to those on Earth would cause us to easily miss the actual aliens that take on a more bizarre appearance.

NASA commissioned a report from the National Research Council regarding the search of alien life forms. The resulting report's gist can be summed up as thus: "Nothing is quite as it seems."

Space experts said that those looking for aliens should be searching with an open mind. "The purpose of this whole report was to be able to look for life on other planets and moons with an open mind ... and not maybe miss some other life form because we are looking for some obvious life form", said John Baross, a professor of oceanography for the University of Washington.

Recent discoveries of organisms lurking in places where life shouldn't be possible under normal circumstances (called extremophiles) are changing the scientists' perception on where and how life exists in outer space. Prof. Baross also added that the existence or non-existence of water is not necessary critical in the search of alien life.

With so many concepts cropping up with each new discovery in outer space, it's entirely possible that strange chemicals such as methane and ammonia are being used by other organisms in the same way as humans and most Earth-dwelling creatures use oxygen. "There are so many theories about what life is and what could be a living system," Prof. Baross said.

For the meantime, NASA as well as other groups are still on the search for alien life forms. Robots dropped off in Mars are hard at work looking for water, or traces of water. Telescopes scan the outer space for planets with bodies of water.

NASA has been advised to look within our own solar system again for clues of life, such as Venus or even Saturn's moons, Titan and Enceladus. Baross said that it would be best to try and think out of the box for a bit, and find other ways or possibilities on how life exists on other planets besides water.

There are lots of stuff science can't explain. Supernatural phenomena, the Bermuda Triangle, and aliens have ever since been among the favorite subjects of tinfoil conspiracy theorists everywhere. But what about the things that really turn scientists heads?

We're pretty sure you've heard of the placebo effect unless you've lived under a rock for the last couple of decades. It works like this: for example a person experiencing pain is given a blue painkiller for a few days then on the last day, you fill a blue pill with sugar and the pain still goes away. Does the mind override the body's biochemistry?

Next up is the cosmologists' double jeopardy question. Why is temperature uniform in the entire universe? You see the universe' edges are 28 billion light years apart, and it's approximated to be 14 billion years old. With that said, it's baffling to think that the temperature would equalize on both edges (and the stuff in between) when light - or heat radiation - from both edges haven't even met.

Comic book fans would know cosmic rays since they caused the Fantastic 4's superpowers. Cosmic rays do exist, but that isn't the question. Cosmic rays are superpowered protons (sometimes heavy atomic nuclei) that travel through space at almost the speed of light. According to Einstein, cosmic rays that reach the Earth should have slowed down and lost most of their energy so their maximum possible energy is just at 5 × 1019 electronvolts (Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin limit). Scientists have detected cosmic rays over that limit but couldn't find any sources within our galaxy.

Homeopathy is basically treating an illness with an ultra diluted solution of something that would produce the same symptoms as the illness itself. Practitioners of this sort of alternative medicine use natural stuff like charcoal, spider venom and the like to produce healing results. Scientists argue that the solutions have been diluted with water so much that there probably aren't any molecules of the original cure left. During a Belfast study, they had positive results but still couldn't explain how.

These are just four of the things that science couldn't (at least for now) explain. For the rest of the unexplainables like dark matter and tetraneutrons, click the Read link below.

Each vial contains hundreds of these creatures. On release, they home in on their unsuspecting prey and plant eggs that, upon hatching, eat their victims from the inside. A scene out of "Aliens"? Not really.

For Louisiana horticulturists (Layman's term: Plant specialists), it's biological warfare of microscopic proportions, and their draftees are of the winged, six-legged variety.

Imported from facilities in California and Puerto Rico by the thousands, these gnat-sized wasps are being used to combat a threat that's recurred not only in Louisiana, but in neighbors Florida and California: the Maconellicoccus hirsutus.

More commonly known as the hibiscus mealybug, it normally occurs in tropical areas such as Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia, the bugs feeds on 10,000 kinds of plants, including agricultural crops, which has gotten agricultural officials concerned regarding the Louisiana infestation. Recent tests in the Jefferson Parish area have revealed almost 40 plant infestations in Metairie, Kenner and Marrero.

"They can attack sugarcane. They can attack citrus crops. They can do a lot of damage," said state Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom, who was present when he and a team of Louisiana horticulturists released two vials of the wasps in the the Metairie home of Jan Gourgues. The person who first noticed the infestation when her hibiscus plant failed to bloom a few months ago and the leaves began to curl up and fall prematurely; and she noticed a white lumpy white coating on the stems and branches - clear signs of the bug's presence.

The wasps, which lack stingers, are relatively harmless to humans, hence their choice for the current bug problem. Odom has advised residents in the areas where the wasps are being released not to use pesticides for the time, which will occur on a weekly basis for several weeks.

Some of you guys out there may see a resemblance between this and the way farmers have traditionally used ladybugs to get rid aphid infestations.

After almost half a century of intergalactic eavesdropping, Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has yet to report any signs of contact. Does this mean we're truly alone? Or is SETI aiming at a dead spot in the universe? SETI senior astronomer Seth Shostak says a 46-year long search is not the same as a thorough one and, no, he doesn't think we're alone.

"The number of star systems we’ve carefully examined is only about a thousand. That’s a trifling sample compared with the several hundred billion suns that stud the Milky Way, and of little statistical significance. It’s comparable to initiating a quest for Americans who play the oboe, but considering the search meaningful after interrogating only two people," is how he described it.

It's no surprise Shostak gets a lot of email from folks with their own ideas on why SETI has turned up empty handed after all these years. He took the top four reasons and added his opinion to each:

1. "You’re counting on the aliens using communication technology (radio, light) that’s oh-so-last century. They will be far beyond this."

In other words, SETI’s technical approach is wrong. Some have suggested looking for gamma rays, gravity waves, or taking advantage of "hyperdimensional physics." Shostak says gamma rays are wasteful since they require enormous amount of energy per bit. Gravity waves are difficult to produce produce ("You need to shake planets or something similar") and hard to detect. In addition gravity waves is not known to move faster than the speed of light.

As for "hyperdimensional physics" Shostak says that might work if they knew what it was. He is not discounting using methods based on undiscovered laws of the universe that will allow sending of bits from one place to another more cheaply than light and radio, or faster. But they're waiting for someone to discover these new laws first before they adjust their experiment accordingly.

2. "If hi-tech societies or thinking machines were out there, they’d have colonized the Galaxy by now. Clearly, we’re alone… lone… lone."

The Fermi Paradox assumes that if sophisticated societies are common, they should also be ubiquitous. But if you look out the window and don't see large animals with long, prehensile noses does that mean elephants don’t exist on this Earth? "To use the Fermi Paradox as a reason for the lack of a SETI signal is to make a very big extrapolation from a very local observation. Seems chancy to me," say Shostak.

3. "The aliens don’t want to communicate with us. Look at what we’re doing to the planet!"

Shostak says this is a self-centered view to think that what we do to our planet would matter to them.

4. "You SETI types are just looking in the wrong places. We know where the extraterrestrials are: on a planet in the Zeta Reticuli system."

According to Shostak he likes this explanation the best, even though it’s the worst. Zeta Reticuli is the star system that was the supposed hometown of aliens who reportedly abducted social worker Betty Hill and her husband in 1961. The system’s identification is based on a "star map" Betty drew after their release. But Shostak clarifies that, as a matter of fact SETI did look at both of Z. Reticuli’s stellar components during SETI's observing run in Australia ten years ago and "the aliens, for their part, remained coy."

And here they are: the top ten Close Encounters of the Third Kind, disproved, debunked and refuted:

Myth 10: Aliens Constructed the Great Pyramids

Fact: Construction methods used by the ancient Egyptians are well documented in National Geographic, as well as other places. Those ancients had a lot more on the ball than we often give them credit for.

Myth 9: - Cattle Mutilations Are The Work Of Extra-Terrestrials

Fact: These types of predation been going on for thousands of years. It is only in the last thirty that people have thought to attribute them to extra-terrestrials. In fact, close and objective study shows that these "mysterious" features can be attributed to natural decay and scavengers.

Myth 8: The U.S. Government is Hiding Alien Bodies and Technology In Area 51

Fact: The U.S. Government - especially recently - is secretive by nature. This is near the site of several old nuclear tests, and media reporter Leslie Stahl suggests it may be a dumping ground for toxic waste as well - a good enough reason to stay away.

Myth 7: The Mysterious "Crop Circles" Are Actually Alien Spacecraft Landing Sites

Fact: Like the Pacific Northwest's bigfoot, this has been proven to be a hoax perpetrated by people with too much time on their hands.

Myth 6: The Face On Mars Was Built By an Alien Civilization

Fact: Close-up photos from different angles show that it is no more than a natural rock formation. Geology and wishful thinking can play strange tricks on the eyes.

Myth 5: The Alien Autopsy Film

Fact: See #7. The Special Effects artist who created this film confessed earlier this year.

Myth 4: Flying Saucers Are Alien Space Vehicles

Fact: This is the result of a misprint. The original reporter described what he saw as a "crescent shaped" that "flew erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across the water"—not that what he saw resembled an actual saucer. Unfortunately, the description stuck, and (see #6) people see what they want to see...

Myth 3: Alien Implants

Fact: According to Joe Nickell, who writes for the Skeptical Inquirer: “Since 1994 alleged implants have been surgically recovered but they’ve become remarkably diverse: one looks like a shard of glass, another a triangular piece of metal, still another a carbon fiber, and so on. " See #6.

Myth 2: Alien Abductions

Fact: False memories are sometimes created in therapy by psychologists who are careless. Other research have shown that a psychological process called "sleep paralysis" can also lead to strange delusions.

Myth 1: The Roswell Incident

Fact: In the years between the end of World War II and the 40-year period of paranoia known as the "Cold War," there was a spy program called Project Mogul. The scraps recovered by the Air Force were that of a weather balloon, and eyewitness descriptions are consistent with this. The stories of alien bodies appeared much later, and seem to be related to local folklore going back a century.

Ian Crawford, a researcher from University of London’s Birkbeck College in the UK recently told a SETI specialist meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) in London last week that astronauts returning to the Moon should keep their eyes peeled for extraterrestrial artifacts. Although the chances of such a find are small, it's still worth a shot.

“This is not a primary reason to go back to the Moon – there are very strong scientific reasons for going back. But if we go back to the Moon in the next 20 or 30 years, then amongst those things we might like to keep our eyes open for are alien artefacts,” Crawford said.

The main topic of discussion was the history and status of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Thus far, the search has relied on large radio telescopes listening for electromagnetic signals from other technological civilisations.

Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, thinks the possibility of finding alien artifacts makes the small additional effort required to sift through lunar soil worthy of consideration.  "On the Moon, I think it’s certainly worthwhile taking a couple hundred square feet or so of material and looking it over," he says.

The idea of finding small artifacts, probes or time capsules in our solar system is not a new one in the SETI community, Shostak notes. In fact, it has been the basis of much science fiction, and our own civilization has taken this approach as well. Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft carry metal plaques showing the spacecraft's time and place of origin.  The Voyager 1 and 2 probes carry gold-plated records bearing messages, images and sounds depicting life on Earth for any extraterrestrials who might one day find them.

Two years ago, a paper in Nature suggested that a "message in a bottle" - a physical artifact to tell other intelligent life forms something about their existence - might be an excellent method for extraterrestrials with lots of time to spare. Crawford believes the moon would be a good target for such "inscribed matter", given its lack of geologic activity and airless environment. Even if extra-terrestrial civilizations never travelled beyond their own solar systems, they may have produced enough space debris to make it possible that micron-sized particles traveled to our own solar system. Such material may lie a mere 10 or 15 meters (10-14 yards) beneath the lunar surface.

Skepticism remains, however: Apollo astronauts brought a total of 842 pounds (382 kilograms) of lunar material to Earth, and the samples are still being studied.  Gary Lofgren, curator of the Johnson Space Center Museum in Houston says, "People have gone through the samples in excruciating detail and haven't found anything that would suggest extraterrestrial activity."