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Project Reports

• From Stars to Genes

  Thermal evolution of Io: The thermal equilibrium of a silicate body subject to tidal heating has been studied and applied to the thermal state of Io. The results of this work demonstrate that heat transport in Io is accomplished predominantly by melt segregation and not by convection as previously assumed.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 2.2

• Characterization of Earth’s Early Life

  hroughout biologic history, microbe-level life has been ubiquitous, abundant, metabolically diverse, and for the earliest (Precambrian) seven-eighths of geological time, biotically predominant. Understanding of this earliest stage of biologic development has progressed markedly in past decades, but problems of interpreting the preserved fossil record still remain.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: None Selected

• Genome Evolution and Innovation

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.2 3.3 3.4 4.1 4.2 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.2

• From Stars to Genes: Addition to Extrasolar Planetary Systems

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2 4.2 4.3 5.1 5.2

• Geobiology and the Geochemistry of Early Earth

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.3

• Geochemical Production of Methane on Mars

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 3.1 7.2

• Extrasolar Planetary Systems and the Potential for Terrestrial Planets

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 3.1

• Experimental and Theoretical Analysis of Mass-Independent Sulfur Isotope Effects-Part of the Geobiology and Geochemistry of Early Earth Project

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1

• Serpentinization – Part of the Geobiology and Geochemistry of Early Earth Project

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: None Selected

• Electrochemical Isotope Effects With Applications to Stable Isotope Fractionation in Transition Metals

  We have successfully begun a research program examining how electrochemical processes (e.g. electroplating, corrosion, biological metabolism) act on stable isotopes of transition metals, starting with Fe.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 4.2 4.3

• The Astrochemistry of Protoplanetary Systems and the Meteorite rRecord – Part of the Extrasolar Planetary Systems Project

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1

• Geochemical and Geochemistry of Early Earth – Isotope Stratigraphy

  C and O isotope analyses of carbonates from the Proterozoic/Phanerozoic transition of the Siberian Platform: proxy for early life evolution?

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 4.2 6.1

• Genomic Approach to Understanding of the Evolution of Sulfur Metabolisms

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: None Selected

• Extrasolar Planetary Systems

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.2

• Earth’s Early Environment and Life

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1 4.3