Dirk Schulze-Makuch

dirk schulze-makuch

Dr. Dirk Schulze-Makuch received his Ph.D. in geosciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Afterwards he took up a fellowship at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, worked as Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, and later as Associate and Full Professor at Washington State University. In 2010 he received the Friedrich-Wilhelm Bessel Award from the Humboldt Foundation for extraordinary achievements in theoretical biology. Since 2013 he is a faculty member at the Technical University Berlin in Germany and holds a professorship for planetary habitability and astrobiology, leading the Astrobiology Research Group. He still is Adjunct Professor at Washington State University and also an Associate Member of SETI. Dirk published more than 200 papers and eight books in the field of planetary habitability and astrobiology, including the 3rd edition of Life in the Universe: Expectations and Constraints and The Cosmic Zoo: Complex Life on Many Worlds, first published in 2017. Since 2016, Dirk is President of the German Astrobiological Society and Council Member of the European Astrobiology Network. He gave interviews in scientific television documentaries such as National Geographic and Discovery Channel (USA), NHK-TV (Japan), ARD and RTL (Germany), and reports about his research appeared in media and news outlets such as Science, Popular Science, Discovery Magazine, New Scientist, World Science, Natural History Magazine, BBC, CNN, MSNBC, etc. More information can be found on his website.

Everything Articles

Mars rover on rocky terrain, showing its camera mast, equipment, and six wheels against a dusty, reddish Martian landscape.

Biosignatures? Why organics on Mars don’t necessarily signal life

Organic compounds can form through simple chemistry alone — making the search for true biosignatures trickier than it seems.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

Microscopic view of a single-celled organism with a translucent body and clustered orange structures inside, set against a plain background.

What exactly is “life”? Astrobiologists still have more questions than answers

Our Earthbound definitions of life could leave us blind to the Universe’s strangest forms.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

A cratered, spherical celestial body with a bright spot on its surface floats in dark outer space dotted with stars.

Ceres: The asteroid belt’s forgotten ocean world

As the closest icy ocean world to Earth, Ceres may be a promising candidate in the search for signs of ancient life.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

Interior view of a large observatory telescope in operation at night, with orange light trails and a starry sky visible through the open roof.

The hunt for alien technosignatures is getting a high-tech upgrade

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will image the southern sky using the largest digital camera ever built.

Tony Reichhardt

Illustration of Mars being struck by an asteroid, with debris flying and Earth visible in the background.

New findings raise questions about when (and where) life began

Life may have arisen far earlier — and more rapidly — than previously thought.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

A collage of images shows microscopic views with arrows and lines depicting movement and velocity, displayed on a color scale, with a scale marker indicating 20 micrometers.

A promising (and surprisingly simple) way to detect alien life

Motility was suggested as a promising "biosignature" as early as the 1960s, but the technology was insufficient — until now.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

Three children stand under a mysterious green light in a suburban street at night, looking upward. Floating objects are illuminated around them.

Thinking

If aliens visit Earth, let’s hope they’ve overcome their savage past

Here's the dark side of first contact.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

Aerial image of a Martian landscape with rough, textured surface featuring blue and reddish-brown hues marked by undulating ridges and valleys.

“Follow the salt”: A new strategy for finding life on Mars

Scientists might be looking for Martian life in the wrong place.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

Six images of lunar craters including Centra Mare Fecunditatis, Mare Tranquillitatis, Mare Ingenii, Southweast, Schlieter Crater, Highland 1, Highland 2, and Mare Smth.

Finding caves on the Moon is great. On Mars? Even better.

The recent discovery of a large cave on the Moon highlights the importance of caves not just for future space explorers but astrobiology as well.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

Close-up of a brown beetle viewed from the side under a microscope, showing its detailed body structure against a plain white background.

Extreme dormancy helps life survive on Earth — and possibly alien planets

A long view of biological survival might point us to new possibilities for finding life elsewhere in the Universe.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

Black and white image of the moon's surface covered with numerous craters of varying sizes under a stark black sky.

How China’s Moon mission could reveal the origins of life on Earth

The Moon is the most likely place for evidence from the dawn of life on Earth to be preserved in cold storage.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

A view of Earth from space with a bright sunburst at the planet's edge. Stars and a dark expanse of space serve as the background.

The “Goldilocks zone” of habitable planets is likely outdated. Here’s why.

The number of planets that could support life may be far greater than previously thought, a recent discovery suggests.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

A collage depicting a radio telescope on the left and an abstract celestial body on the right, separated by a vertical band of black and white dashes.

The case for stopping efforts to contact aliens

Since 1962, humanity has been sending messages into space with the intent to make contact with intelligent extraterrestrials. Are those efforts worth the risks?

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

Artwork of a giant spider attacking a city, with buildings in flames and text in japanese.

Could our first alien contact be with intelligent spiders?

Aliens are often portrayed in popular culture as humanoid. But in reality, intelligent extraterrestrials might take far stranger forms.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

Nasa's curiosity rover on mars.

How to get Mars life-detection missions back on track

The case for why NASA should pivot to searching for current — not ancient — signs of life.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

A black background with the earth in the foreground.

Life in the Universe: It’s either everywhere or nowhere

Two scientists recently wagered a bottle of whiskey. The bet? Whether we'll find evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life in the next 15 years.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

An image of the Martian surface.

How AI could help the hunt for life on Mars

Sophisticated rovers have found the conditions for Martian life, as well as the building blocks of life, but never life itself. AI can help.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

A mummy inside a casket found in Mexico.

Life

How could we tell if those “alien bodies” in Mexico are legit?

Every astrobiologist wants to find an alien. But the public should be skeptical when the "aliens" look like tiny humans.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

a red planet with stars in the background.

We might have accidentally killed the only life we ever found on Mars nearly 50 years ago

In one experiment, the Viking landers added water to Martian soil samples. That might have been a very bad idea.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

a picture of a mountain with a blue circle in the middle.

A new Earth-sized, volcanic planet is a good candidate for harboring life

Exoplanet LP 791-18d is likely to have an atmosphere and liquid water.

Dirk Schulze-Makuch

Learn from the world's biggest thinkers.

© Copyright 2007-2026 & BIG THINK, BIG THINK PLUS, SMARTER FASTER trademarks owned by Freethink Media, Inc. All rights reserved.