Oases for Life on the Mid-Caymen Rise

A team of oceanographers and astrobiologists is currently exploring one of the deepest points in the Caribbean Sea. The expedition is funded by NASA’s Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) program. Follow the team’s blog as they search for life in this extreme seafloor environment.

Blog by PI Chris German: http://oases-expedition.blogspot.com/
Blog by Master of R/V Cape Hatteras: http://www.sailblogs.com/member/chmaster/
An article concerning the expedition recently appeared in The Economist at: http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=14585735.

Source: [astrobio.net]

October 21, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal

Sphere

Deep-ESP. Credit: Henry Bortman
A team of researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute conducted the first field test earlier this year of a new configuration of Deep-ESP. The device is designed to perform long-term studies of how deep-sea ecosystems respond to environmental changes.

The Deep-ESP project – ESP stands for Environmental Sample Processor – will provide scientists with a view of how deep-sea ecosystems respond over time to changes in environmental conditions.

Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

June 15, 2009 / Written by: Henry Bortman

A Natural Iron Fertilization Mechanism from the Deep Sea

The amount of iron released to the ocean by hydrothermal venting at the seafloor is approximately equal to all of the iron flushed from the continents by rivers. The importance of iron to aquatic life can be compared to the importance of nitrogen to terrestrial life, yet iron remains a limiting nutrient in most parts of the oceans. A new study of iron within hydrothermal vents shows that iron emitted from the vents can bind to organic particles and be distributed within the oceans. This bound iron doesn’t oxidize, and is much more easily processed...

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February 10, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice

Life's Boiling Point

Some proteins can work above the boiling point of water, but these vital biomolecules may have a harder time evolving at high temperature. A new project is searching for the maximum temperature for protein-based life.

Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]

November 12, 2008 / Written by: Michael Schirber

Novel Proteobacteria in Microbial Mats at Loihi Seamount

With support from NAI Teams at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and UC Berkeley, researchers at the American Type Culture Collection and their colleagues have a new paper in PLOS One describing a novel lineage of proteobacteria which are dominant in iron-rich hydrothermal vent sites on the Loihi Seamount near Hawai’i. They form a unique morphological structure which could serve as a fossil biomarker.

Source: [Link]

November 14, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Astrobiology on Science Friday

On today’s edition of NPR’s Science Friday, new work from NAI’s MBL team is featured, focusing on diversity of bacteria at hydrothermal vents. The team conducted a survey of DNA from deep-sea samples, discovering thousands of new kinds of marine microbes at two deep-sea hydrothermal vents off the Oregon coast.

Source: [Link]

October 12, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Microbial Population Structures in the Deep Marine Biosphere

NAI’s Marine Biological Laboratory Team has a new paper in this week’s Science detailing aspects of population structure for microbial communities at two neighboring hydrothermal vents. Using environmental DNA sequencing techniques, they found the two populations reflect the geochemical conditions of each vent.

Source: [Link]

October 9, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Going Deep

Some of the most arresting images of life on our planet have come from the deep-sea world of hydrothermal vents. Massive chimneys belching superheated fluids, colonies of giant crimson-tipped tubeworms swaying in the current, swarms of tiny shrimp, albino crabs. These ecosystems, although isolated from life on the surface, contain a virtual zoo of creatures, thriving under conditions of heat and pressure so extreme that, until the vent communities were discovered in the late 1970s, scientists did not even imagine that they existed.

Perhaps even more fascinating – at least to biologists – has been the cataloging of the microbial...

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March 30, 2006 / Posted by: Yael Kovo

Pyruving the Origin of Life

For the origin of life, chemical synthesis of pyruvic acid is a critical step. In a difficult experiment, Carnegie Institute/NAI researchers report that the natural synthesis of such compounds would occur wherever hot ocean vents pass through iron sulfide-containing crust.

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December 18, 2000 / Posted by: Shige Abe