Organic Haze, Glaciations and Multiple Sulfur Isotopes in the Mid-Archean Era

Shawn D. Domagal-Goldman (NAI PSU team), J.F. Kasting (NAI PSU team), D. T. Johnson (NAI CIW team), and J. Farquhar (NAI CIW and UCLA teams) have just published an article Organic haze, glaciations and multiple sulfur isotopes in the Mid-Archean era in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The team used sulfur isotope signatures within ancient sediments and a photochemical model of sulfur dioxide photolysis to interpret the evolution of...

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May 9, 2008 / Posted by: Marco Boldt

Is There Life on Mars? Ask a Magnet.

Between three and four billion years ago, Mars was a lot like Earth. Both planets are believed to have had surface water. Those similarities make it a prime candidate for extraterrestrial life. “The assumption is that if bacterial life emerged on Earth at that time, then why not on Mars?” says Soon Sam Kim, principal member of technical staff...

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May 5, 2008 / Written by: James Kling

AbSciCon '08: Second Meeting of the Origins of Life Focus Group

The meeting took place on April 17, 2008 during the AbSciCon 2008 in Santa Clara, California. 38 scientists participated in this meeting. As previously, this report summarizes main conclusions not only from the meeting, but also from a number of conversations that I had with members of the Group during the conference.

The agenda consisted of four items:

• A brief report on the upcoming ISSOL meeting in Florence.
• Report from my presentation on our focus group to the NAI Executive...

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May 5, 2008 / Written by: Andrzej Pohorille

NAI Student Poster Competition at AbSciCon 2008

The competition was fierce! Of 37 posters representing the full gamut of astrobiology research areas, six finalists moved into second round judging, and four awards were made. Please join NAI in thanking our judges and congratulating this year’s winners:

First place, $2,000, and the Frank Drake Award goes to Tsubasa Otake of Pennsylvania State University for his poster “Theoretical investigations of equilibrium and surface adsorption effects on mass-dependent fractionation in multiple sulfur isotope systems.”

Second place, and $1,250 goes to Pamela...

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April 30, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Astrobiology Meets the Video Game: Spore

Video games and virtual worlds are a great way to inspire kids’ interest in science and technology. The President’s Commission on Implementation of US Space Exploration Policy reports that “…video and simulation games are not only a multi-billion dollar industry, they are proving to be effective as learning devices for people of all ages” … “The potential for converting hobbies and amusements to more educational pursuits is enormous.”

The soon-to-be-released Astrobiology-based...

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April 30, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

AbSciCon '08: The Astrobiology Universe

The opening speaker at the 2008 Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon), Lord Martin Rees of the University of Cambridge, said that our universe may just be one of many. Multiple universes could be stacked sideways like sheets of paper, separated by only a thin margin of space. We would never know they were there unless we could be awakened to the existence of that other dimension.

This could have been the theme...

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April 28, 2008 / Written by: Leslie Mullen

New Round of Exo-Evo Grants Awarded

NASA’s Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology Program has made 35 new grant awards for research into the origin and early evolution of life, the potential of life to adapt to different environments, and implications for life elsewhere. Areas of research emphasis in the Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology Program, one of four elements of the Astrobiology Program, are planetary conditions for life, prebiotic evolution, early evolution of life and the biosphere, and evolution of advanced life.

Planetary conditions for life will be...

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April 27, 2008 / Written by: Linda Billings