(Updated June 17)

It isn’t every day that a new mineral is discovered. But, I recently read a NASA press release about a new mineral discovered in some comet dust. The mineral is being named brownleeite in honor of University of Washington astronomer Donald Brownlee. He is a pioneer in the study of comet dust. But, he is best known to many people as one of the authors of the book Rare Earth: Why complex life is uncommon in the universe, in which the authors make a case for Earth being...