Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology

Daniel Glavin Wins 2010 Nier Prize

Daniel Glavin, winner of the 2010 Nier Prize. Photo Credit: Chris Gunn
Daniel Glavin has been selected by the international Meteoritical Society as the recipient of the 2010 Nier Prize. The prestigious Nier Prize is awarded to young scientists performing valuable research in fields related to meteoritics and planetary science.

Dr. Glavin was presented with the prize for his work on extraterrestrial organic chemistry. By examining carbonaceous meteorites, Glavin and his team have made important contributions toward understanding why life uses only left-handed versions of amino acids. It turns out that molecules delivered to Earth in meteorites may have played a role in life’s eventual bias toward...

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Source: [NASA GSFC]

November 18, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

Vatican Hosts Study Week on Astrobiology

This past week in Rome as part of the International Year of Astronomy, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences hosted a Study Week on Astrobiology, an interdisciplinary event during which “cloistered astrobiologists confronted each other’s fields of research” and dialogued about the connections. The participants included many from the extended astrobiology community, including John Baross, David Charbonneau, Roger Summons, Andy Knoll, Chris Impey, Jonathan Lunine, Jill Tarter, Sara Seager, and Giovanna Tinetti.

“The questions of life’s origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration,” said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, an...

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November 17, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Ethics of Space Exploration

Last week, the Santa Clara University Markkula Center for Applied Ethics hosted a panel to discuss Challenges Raised by Life in Space. Today on KQED’s radio show The Forum, host Michael Krasney interviews some of those panelists for a national audience. They discuss a range of topics from the value and moral standing of the diversity of potential life elsewhere in the universe, to the modification of extraterrestrial ecosystems to suit human needs, to possible forward contamination of other planets through exploration.

November 12, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Eigenbrode Earns Chief Technologist’s Top Prize

The Office of the Chief Technologist selected scientist Jennifer Eigenbrode as its 2009 “IRAD Innovator of the Year” for her work verifying that a new sample-preparation method would benefit the SAM instrument on MSL. Image Credit: Chris Gunn
NASA Goddard scientist Jennifer Eigenbrode has been selected as the recipient of the 2009 IRAD Innovator of the Year award. Her work has added important capabilities to the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, which will be included on the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Dr. Eigenbrode’s work will allow MSL to analyze large carbon molecules if they are discovered on Mars, and could play an important role in determining the potential for past or present life on the Red Planet.

When MSL reaches Mars in 2012, the rover will analyze samples...

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Source: [Link]

November 11, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

Diving Through A Microbial Landscape

Scientist Dale Andersen prepares to dive in Lake Untersee in Queen Maud Land in Antarctica. Photo: Dale Andersen
The ice-covered lakes of Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys have long been of interest to astrobiologists. These remote and extreme environments harbor unique microbial ecosystems that could provide clues about how life might survive on other worlds – such as Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. Recently, a team of scientists funded by the NASA Exobiology Program began exploring the unique habitat of the ice-crusted Lake Joyce.

Lake Joyce is of special interest, because it’s waters harbor carbonate structures known as microbialites. These unique structures are formed with layers of cyanobacteria. The research team is interested in how these organisms...

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Source: [OnOrbit]

October 29, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

NASA-Supported Researcher Shares in Nobel Prize

Jack W. Szostak, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, is among a group of three researchers who have been awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Szostak, who shares this year’s prestigious scientific award with Elizabeth H. Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco, and Carol W. Greider of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, is also a principal investigator with NASA’s Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology Program and a member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute. The award was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on...

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Source: [HHMI]

October 5, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

Dinosaur-Killer was Soft on Algae

A view of the sea cliff at Stevns Klint, Denmark. Credit: R. Summons
The asteroid impact that many researchers claim was the cause of the dinosaur die-off was bad news for marine life at the time as well. But new research funded by NASA shows that microalgae – one of the primary producers in the ocean – bounced back from the global extinction in about 100 years or less.

Source: [astrobio.net]

October 2, 2009 / Written by: Michael Schirber