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Project Reports

• Impact Frustration and Subsequent Generation of Biologically Tenable Climates on Earth and Mars

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 8.0 11.0

• Geobiology and Geochemistry of Early Earth and Mars

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0

• Benner – Self-Reproducing Molecular Systems and Darwinian Chemistry

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 12.0 13.0 14.0 16.0 17.0

• Mineral Biomarkers

  The aim of this project is the development of state-of-the-art instrumentation and accompanying protocols for analysis and detection of trace organic matter in terrestrial and astromaterials

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6.0 8.0 17.0

• Module 1A

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.0 5.0 8.0 11.0

• Studies of Organic Matter and Water in Meteorites

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.0 8.0 9.0 11.0

• Hydrothermal Organic Synthesis

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.0 2.0 3.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 11.0 13.0

• Mars Atmospheric Chemistry and Astrobiology Workshop

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 8.0

• Ellington – Self-Reproducing Molecular Systems and Darwinian Chemistry

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.0 3.0 4.0 8.0 9.0 16.0

• Morphologic Biomarkers and Microbial Ecology

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 17.0

• Indigenous Bacteria of Arctic and Antarctic Permafrost

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6.0 8.0 14.0 15.0

• The Planetary Context of Biological Evolution: Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Environmental Change and Evolution

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.0 5.0 8.0 12.0 14.0

• Exploration for Life in the Solar System

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 8.0 9.0 12.0

• Secondary Carbonate in Igneous Rocks

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6.0 8.0 12.0 17.0

• Theoretical Studies of Hydrothermal Synthesis Reactions

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.0 2.0 3.0 5.0 7.0 8.0 9.0

• Fractionation of Transition Metal Isotopes

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 7.0 8.0

• Early Microbial Ecosystems

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 13.0

• Studies in Planetary Formation and Evolution

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 8.0 9.0 11.0 12.0

• The Planetary Context of Biological Evolution: Molecular and Isotopic Approaches to Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemistry

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.0 2.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 14.0

• Microbial Fossilization Processes in Extreme Environments

  To better understand the preservation of microbial biosignatures in hydrothermal settings, I have traced the fate of epiphytic diatoms entombed in travertine spherulites.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6.0 7.0 8.0

• Evolution of Earth’s Early Life

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.0 5.0 8.0

• Eukaryotic Biodiversity and Physiology at Acidic Extremes: Spain’s Tinto River

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6.0 7.0 8.0

• Biogenic Mineral Weathering

  • Continued with our experimental project to compare biogenic weathering, sterile controls, and strictly abiogenic weathering
  • Developed new morphologic criteria that appear to be distinctive for biogenic weathering textures
  • Cataloged existing morphologic features of each type of weathering
  • Determined chemical changes on the micrometer and submicrometer level associated with each type of weathering
  • Cataloged weathering features in ancient Earth Archean samples and in Martian meteorites ALH84001, Nakhla, and others
  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6.0 8.0

• Submicroscopic Studies of Microfossils and Fossilization Processes in Ancient Cherts

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 8.0

• Laboratory/Observational Studies of Biogenic Greenhouse Gases on the Early Earth

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 8.0 12.0 13.0

• Cold Regions Microbial Ecology and Biomarkers

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 7.0 8.0 17.0

• The Planetary Context of Biological Evolution: Geobiology of Neogene Hematitic Sedimentary Rocks

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 8.0

• Resources to Support Life on Other Planets

  We are examining the availability of resources that might support life on Mars, as a way of understanding both the potential for life there and the nature of planetary habitability.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.0 5.0 8.0

• Evolution of Atmospheric O2, Climate, and Biosphere – Brian W. Stewart

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 8.0 12.0 14.0

• Hematite on Mars: Implications for Astrobiology

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 6.0 8.0 17.0

• Environmental Evolution of the Archean Earth

  We wrote 4 papers on:
  

  • Brines on Mars (In press)
  • Caliche as a target for astrobiological prospecting on Mars ( in revision following review)
  • Climatic temperature of the Archean Earth (in revision following review)
  • Brines on Mars as electrical conductors susceptible to geophysical detection (in revision following review)
    
  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 7.0 8.0

• Isotopic and Molecular Tracers of Life

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 8.0 16.0

• Connection Between Orbit, Climate and Surface Modification Processes on Mars

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 8.0 12.0

• Biological Studies of Hydrothermal Systems

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.0 2.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 12.0 14.0

• Life Beyond the Planet of Origin

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0 15.0 16.0 17.0

• Nanoscale Minerals as Biomarkers

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 8.0

• MASSE Development (Formally MILDI)

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 17.0

• Fe Isotope Biosignatures

  Our research program in Year 4 has focused on five aspects of Fe isotope geochemistry, and our findings are based on ~1,000 new high-precision Fe isotope analyses using the new NAI-funded MC-ICP-MS lab

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 10.0 12.0

• Isotopic and Molecular Tracers of Life

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.0 3.0 5.0 6.0 8.0 9.0 11.0 14.0 16.0

• Habitability of Planetary Bodies

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 8.0 12.0

• Co-Evolution of Life and Planets

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0 17.0

• New Technique Development and Application

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.0 6.0 8.0 17.0

• Rock Varnish and Microbes

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6.0 7.0 8.0 17.0

• Properties of the Ribocyte (RNA Cell)

  There are two areas of notable progress this year.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.0 3.0 8.0

• Organic Molecules as Biosignatures

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 6.0 7.0 8.0 12.0

• Plate Tectonics on the Terrestrial Planets

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 8.0 12.0 15.0

• Exploring Mars for Past or Present Life

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 8.0

• Biochemistry of Archaea and Bacteria: Enzymes of Ancient Metabolic Pathways

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.0 4.0 6.0 7.0 8.0

• Coevolution of Earth and Mars

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 5.0 8.0 12.0

• Biochemistry of Archaea and Bacteria: Biochemistry of Psychrophillic Organisms

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.0 6.0 7.0 8.0

• (S. Blair Hedges) Timescale for the Evolution of Life on Earth: Molecular Evolutionary Approach

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.0 4.0 5.0 7.0 8.0 11.0 12.0 14.0