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Enlarge / One set of the possible stromatolites—with two slices cut out by the researchers. (credit: Allen Nutman)

In the history of life on Earth, the first chapter is still the most incomplete—and any good epic needs its origin story. The problem with finding that story is preservation. The earliest lifeforms were microscopic sacks of organic chemistry, so finding evidence for them, as far as needles in haystacks go, is not exactly equivalent to spotting a six-foot Apatosaurus bone. To make matters worse, most of the haystack has been burned to a crisp by geology since then.

Fossil evidence goes back about 3.5 billion years, with controversial isotopic signs that might signify life about 3.8 billion years ago (or perhaps even earlier). At this age, you run out of rocks. Although the planet is about 4.5 billion years old, very few rocks have survived for more than 3.5 billion years. The ones that have look their age, metamorphosed so much over the eons that signs of life might have been erased.

Still, the quest to push back the earliest evidence for life goes on. New finds are subject to rigorous debate, and researchers have to work hard to figure out whether a physical process could be responsible for a feature that has the appearance of a fossil.

Samsung announced a new smartwatch today, the Gear S3. Like the Gear S2, this is a Tizen-powered smartwatch with a stainless steel case and a rotating bezel.

Samsung is packing everything it can into its smartwatch this year. There's a bigger, 1.3-inch 360×360 display, an optional LTE version, the addition of MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission) technology for Samsung Pay, a speaker and microphone for calls, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a barometer. Bigger isn't always better in the smartwatch world, though, and the Gear S3 sounds like a behemoth—the case has grown from 44mm to 46mm. Compare that to the Apple Watch, which comes in 38mm and 42mm sizes.

For specs, the S3 has a dual-core 1GHz "Exynos" chipset (no model given), 786MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, and a 380mAh battery. The watch is IP68 rated for water and dust protection. There are two different styles to choose from this year: the traditionally styled "Classic" watch—which does not have LTE—and a more rugged-looking "Frontier" version, which comes with LTE baked in. Samsung is promising "3-4 days" on a charge, but that's probably not with LTE turned on. Both watches are 12.9mm thick and are compatible with most 22mm watch bands.

Enlarge (credit: CCAC North Library)

A local Texas judge is tossing a $1 million lawsuit brought by a Dallas pet-sitting business that sued the owners of a pet fish for giving the company a 1-star Yelp review that complained that "Gordy" was overfed.

Among other allegations, Prestigious Pets claimed (PDF) that a Plano couple violated its non-disparagement clause and defamed it on Yelp in last year's review. The Dallas County suit alleged that Michelle and Robert Duchouquette's review about the overfeeding of the tiny betta fish amounted to libel because overfeeding is akin to animal cruelty and a crime.

"I am thankful to have a ruling that supports our right to free speech. We should all have the opportunity to express our opinions without the fear of a lawsuit," Michelle Duchouquette said in a statement.

Ars was among the first news outlets to report on discussions among astronomers about observations of an intriguing "signal" that may have originated from a distant, Sun-like star. We cautioned readers that, because the signal was measured at 11Ghz, there was a "significant chance" it was of terrestrial origin, likely due to some military activity.

Well, it apparently was. First, astronomers with the search for extraterrestrial intelligence downplayed the possibility of an alien civilization. "There are many other plausible explanations for this claimed transmission, including terrestrial interference," Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer with SETI, wrote.

Now the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences has concurred, releasing a statement on the detection of a radio signal at the RATAN-600 radio astronomy observatory in southern Russia. "Subsequent processing and analysis of the signal revealed its most probable terrestrial origin," the Russian scientists said. (Maybe it was really Steve Martin and his hair dryer?)

Enlarge / Workers with massive spools of fiber optic cable. (credit: woodleywonderworks)

AT&T celebrated Google Fiber's reported struggles yesterday by publishing a blog post lecturing its competitor about the difficulties of broadband investment. AT&T also criticized Google for seeking favors from the government—something AT&T would never do, of course.

The blog post is titled "Broadband investment: Not for the faint of heart" and is written by AT&T VP Joan Marsh, who manages AT&T's regulatory interests at the federal government. It provides a timeline of Google investment in broadband infrastructure starting with a bid on spectrum in 2007, saying that the company has never lived up to its grand ambitions. The latest example is Google Fiber, which has reportedly fallen well short of subscriber goals and may be downsizing. (Google hasn't confirmed or denied the reports of impending layoffs.)

AT&T says the "moral of the story" is that "building reliable, ubiquitous high-speed broadband connectivity is tough."