When the going get tough… or: observation and laboratory work for life searching in other worlds

“…if we never search, the chance of success is zero”. This was the conclusion in the seminal paper of G. Cocconi and P. Morrison in 1959 about the search for life. Since then, a lot of progress in technology and a lot of exciting results in astrophysics have been reached. Today, we know that, out of there, there are more than 4000 new worlds showing a large diversity in their size and orbital characteristics. In the midst of all these strange new worlds, a very promising type of them, the super Earths, seems to be ubiquitous in the Galaxy. Moreover, in fashion there are super Earths orbiting M stars. But, such an odd couple could host life? And if it can, how to find it?