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Director's Seminar: Application of the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) in Deep-sea and Coastal Ocean Biomes Application of the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP) in Deep-sea and Coastal Ocean Biomes
Where Virtual
Presenter: Chris Scholin (Molecular Biologist, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI))
In late April 2009, a team of MBARI researchers tested the world’s only deep-sea robotic DNA lab beneath the waters of Monterey Bay. This instrument is the latest version of the Environmental Sample Processor (ESP), which MBARI molecular biologist Chris Scholin has been developing for over 10 years. The ESP is a self-contained robotic laboratory that collects samples of seawater and tests these samples...
Posted on: June 29, 2009 / Posted by: Shige Abe -
Director's Seminar: Roger Summons, "The great mass extinction - a sudden event or a slow moving train-wreck?"
Where Virtual
Speaker: Roger Summons (Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT)
Abstract:
A great mass extinction took place 252 million years ago when approximately 90% of the existing marine taxa were lost. Both the magnitude of the extinction and the slowness of the subsequent faunal radiation are enigmatic. The event is also known for the number and diversity of theories about its cause(s) including catastrophic volcanism, sudden climate change, overturn of stagnant oceans and bolide impact. Studies of...Posted on: November 3, 2008 / Posted by: Marco Boldt -
Director's Seminar: NAI Director's Seminar: Jack Szostak, "What can we Learn About the Origin of Life from Efforts to Design an Artificial Cell?"
Where Virtual
Presenter: Jack Szostak (Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Howard Hughes Medical Institute)
The complexity of modern biological life has long made it difficult to understand how life could emerge spontaneously from the chemistry of the early earth. The key to resolving this mystery lies in the simplicity of the earliest living cells. Through our efforts to synthesize extremely simple artificial cells, we hope to discover plausible pathways for the transition from chemical evolution to Darwinian evolution. We view...
Posted on: October 27, 2008 / Posted by: Marco Boldt
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Director's Seminar: NAI Director's Seminar: Norm Sleep, "Habitability of Superearths"
Where Virtual
Silicate super-earths are rocky planets with masses up to ~10 that of the Earth. They are of astrobiological interest because they are relatively easy to detect around other stars. Tectonics enhances habitability on the Earth by exhuming biologically important elements. Plate tectonics are too poorly understood on the Earth to tell whether this process should occur on larger planets. Still the Gauss’ law relationship that surface heat flow scales with surface gravity provides some insight and yields that the geotherm...
Posted on: September 22, 2008 / Posted by: Marco Boldt
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