This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
It is completely shocking to me that seven years have gone by since starting to write Life, Unbounded at Scientific American. Even more shocking is the tally of pieces: we've just hit 350 (plus this one).
By way of a modest celebration I thought I'd reflect on just a few of those writings. The slightly surprising thing about it all is the range of topics that have bubbled up over the years. We've had the reconnaissance of exoplanetary systems using direct images, galactic flybys, black holes everywhere, billion year old seawater, and the eight-limbed aliens that are octopuses. And that's just the start, we've also dealt with exomoons, the failure of Phobos, where you might leave a message in the solar system (I like the Pluto option), and whether complex life owes its existence to ancient parasites.
Sifting through this many pieces to find the best ones is pretty challenging, but I thought I'd list a few here that I particularly enjoyed writing and that (sometimes) seemed to also resonate with readers. Not exactly a 'best of', but certainly a set of material worth a revisit.
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