"Would a bird be able to fly in zero-gravity, or does it need gravity to fly? Have any experiments been done with live birds in outer space?"
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Oxygen Production in Earth's Early Oceans Predates the Great Oxidation Event
It is widely accepted that around 2.4 billion years ago, the Earth’s atmosphere underwent a dramatic change when oxygen levels rose sharply. Called the “Great Oxidation Event” (GOE), the oxygen spike marks an important milestone in Earth’s history, the transformation from an oxygen-poor atmosphere to an oxygen-rich one paving the way for complex life to develop on the planet.
Two questions that remain unresolved in studies of the early Earth are when oxygen production via photosynthesis got started and when it began to alter the chemistry of Earth’s ocean and atmosphere.
A research team that includes members of NAI’s Arizona...
Source: [Link]
November 4, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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'Ultra-Primitive' Particles Found in Comet Dust
Scanning electron images of two dust particles E1 (panel A) and G4 (B) and secondary ion mass spectrometry isotopic ratio maps (C–D). Oxygen isotope maps of particles E1 (C) and G4 (D) show four and seven isotopically anomalous regions, indicated by circles, which have been identified as presolar grains. The scale bars are 2 microns.Dust samples collected by high-flying aircraft in the upper atmosphere have yielded an unexpectedly rich trove of relicts from the ancient cosmos, report scientists from NAI’s Carnegie Institution of Washington team in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The stratospheric dust includes minute grains that likely formed inside stars that lived and died long before the birth of our sun, as well as material from molecular clouds in interstellar space. This “ultra-primitive” material likely wafted into the atmosphere after the Earth passed through the trail of an Earth-crossing comet in 2003, giving scientists a rare opportunity to...
Source: [Link]
November 2, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Ribosomes as Ancient Molecular Fossils
Members of NAI’s team at Georgia Tech have a new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution describing an analysis of ribosomal structure and sequence. Their approach chronicles the ribosome’s evolution, effectively interpreting the ribosome as a fossil. Using the highest resolution structures available, of two species that represent disparate regions of the evolutionary tree, they have sectioned the large subunit of each ribosome into concentric shells, like an onion, using the site of peptidyl transfer as the origin. Their results suggest that the structure and interactions of both RNA and protein can...
October 28, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Ice in the Solar System...in Your Classroom
Exploring Ice in the Solar System is a series of lessons for K-5 classrooms developed by the NAI Carnegie Institution of Washington Team and the NASA MESSENGER mission. Twelve lessons span topics from ice in everyday life, to exploring ice in the polar regions of Earth, to icy places on Mars and Europa, to life in ice. Each standards-aligned lesson consists of substantive background information, inquiry-based activities, teaching tips, resources, a photo gallery, and strategies for differentiated instruction and evaluation.
October 27, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Astrobiology Teachers Academy
NAI’s New York Center for Astrobiology held its first Teachers Academy at RPI on July 13-16, 2009. Nine high school science teachers from four local school districts collaborated with six NAI scientists to learn about topics in astrobiology. The participants represent disciplines across the sciences: biology, chemistry, earth science, forensic science, and physics. The goal of the Academy was to develop a learning module infused with astrobiology and aligned with New York State standards and NASA Astrobiology Science Goals. The teachers used science lectures, existing astrobiology curriculum materials, and consistent interaction...
October 22, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Teachers from Around the World Examine Life in Extreme Environments
This summer, sixteen teachers from around the world convened with NAI’s team at Montana State University for a weeklong class called “Examining Life in Extreme Environments: Insights into Early Earth and Beyond.” Students in the course gained an understanding of the relation of extreme environments to early earth, learned about the latest research conducted in these areas, and worked on how to teach and discuss these topics within their own classrooms.
Part of the class included a field trip to Yellowstone National Park in which the teachers sampled and characterized extreme environments. Joe Deluca who...
October 22, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Battle of the Bands
Banded rocks scattered across the upper Midwest and elsewhere around the world were once mined as a source of iron. Now these rocks are providing astrobiologists with information about the environment of the early Earth. Research supported by the NASA Astrobiology Institute is helping scientists determine information about the geochemical conditions that existed on Earth more than 2 billion years ago.Source: [astrobio.net]
October 17, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal
- 11/30 NAI Director's Seminar: Andrew Pohorille, "Is Water Necessary for Life?"
- UH Team Member Tobias Owen Receives 2009 Gerard P. Kuiper Prize in Planetary Sciences
- 11/10 University of Washington Astrobiology Seminar: Kevin Hand, "Joule Heating of the South Polar Terrain on Enceladus"
- Recently Published Research from the NAI
- Astrobiology Graduate Conference (AbGradCon) 2010
- NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) Program
- Two Post-doc Positions in Astrobiology Available at JPL, Caltech
- Teachers from Around the World Examine Life in Extreme Environments
- Astrobiology Teachers Academy
- Ice in the Solar System...in Your Classroom
- Call for Nominations for the 2010 Kavli Prize
- Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) Faculty Position Openings
November 4, 2009 
