Nope, we haven't found life on another planet

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So, a couple of days ago, when NASA sent out a press release announcing "an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life", I went scrounging around for the embargoed details and managed to look everywhere except the one place that had the information. Having now seen what's actually being announced tomorrow, I have some good news and bad news.

Bad news first: Kottke's speculations are wrong, and this announcement has nothing to do with newly discovered life—or signs of life—on another planet.

The good news: What is being announced is still pretty interesting, if you're into astrobiology and weird life on Earth.

I'm going to go ahead and hold the embargo. I'll post something here about NASA's real news tomorrow afternoon. But I did want to clear up exaggerations that I helped spread the other day, and make sure you guys had a better picture of what was actually going on. Sometimes, I get overly excited and bite into bait I ought to leave alone. My apologies on that.

Also: Not everybody is holding the embargo. A simple Google search will turn up the news of tomorrow, today, if you want it. Frustrated by the concept of embargoes, in general? Join the club. I highly recommend the Embargo Watch blog for some in-depth discussions of what purpose embargoes serve, why journalists follow them, and how the system needs to change.

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