NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)

NASA and the Navajo Nation Project Hosts Teacher Workshop

Leroy Nelson and Scott Sandford take questions about both science and culture; The inter-cultural team facilitates educators learning the classroom activities.

On January 28-29, 2010, the “NASA and the Navajo Nation” project team hosted a large-scale workshop for educators across the Navajo Nation. Over 100 teachers participated, despite the worst snow storm in 25 years, some traveling hours through severe conditions. On the first day, the teachers heard background lectures from both a cultural expert and an astrobiologist, Scott Sandford from NASA Ames Research Center. On the second day, the team trained teachers on classroom use of the six activities in the So’ Baa Hane’ booklet, inter-cultural materials developed by the project in 2006. ...

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February 3, 2010 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

NAI Scientist Delivers Sagan Lecture at AGU

Tori Hoehler of NAI’s NASA Ames Research Center team had the honor of delivering the Carl Sagan Lecture this past December at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. This lecture is given at the Fall Meeting every year and features a prominent speaker addressing issues in Astrobiology and the development of life on Earth.

Source: [AGU]

January 15, 2010 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Astrobiology Opens Pandora's Box

Lisa Kaltenegger from NAI’s MIT team discusses exoplanets and science fiction with CNN World, noting that it’s likely many moons such as Avatar’s Pandora exist, and we’re that much closer to finding them with NASA’s Kepler mission.

Source: [CNN World]

January 11, 2010 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Age of the Solar System Needs to Be Recalculated

A new paper in Science from NAI’s Arizona State University team indicates that a trusted equation for calculating the age of the solar system may need rewriting. The team’s measurements show that one of the equation’s assumptions — that certain kinds of uranium always appear in the same relative quantities in meteorites — is wrong.

The differences in the quantities of uranium could mean that current estimates of the age of the solar system overshoot that age by 1 million years or more. Historical estimates place the age at about 4.5 billion years—a number that is not...

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Source: [Wired Magazine]

January 5, 2010 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Kepler: The First Five

NASA’s Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system.

Kepler’s high sensitivity to both small and large planets enabled the discovery of the exoplanets, named Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b. The discoveries were announced Monday, Jan. 4, by the members of the Kepler science team during a news briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington.

Source: [Astrobio.net]

January 4, 2010 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Summer Workshops for Teachers in Astrobiology

Every summer, NAI teams and others host hands-on, in-the-field, in-the-lab workshops for educators. The workshops feature cutting edge astrobiology research delivered by astrobiology scientists and education professionals, as well as inquiry- and standards-based activities ready for your classroom. Below is the list of offerings for Summer 2010.

ASTROBIOLOGY SUMMER SCIENCE EXPERIENCE for TEACHERS (ASSET)
Dates: July 18 -24, 2010
Location: San Francisco, CA
Applications due: February 12, 2010
Url: http://www.seti.org/epo/ASSET
The ASSET experience will be intense and exciting, interactive and content...

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December 22, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Variety Is the Splice of Life

Mark Young from NAI’s Montana State University Team and Jill Banfield from NAI’s Emeritus Team at UC Berkeley have teamed up to study genetic exchange in bacterial and archeal populations. Their new Science paper, Variety—the Splice of Life—in Microbial Populations, describes the effects of their exchange of genetic material – from useless to critical in terms of selection. They also observed the splicing of viral material.

Source: [Link]

December 18, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice