nai

Project Reports

• Project 7. Astrobiotechnology

  Co-Investigator Steele and colleagues have continued to develop the Modular Assays for Solar System Exploration (MASSE) concept, which uses microfluidic technology to incubate a DNA or protein microarray.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 4.2 5.3 6.2 7.1

• Project 5. Life in Extreme Environments

  The behavior of H₂O under pressure underlies the work of Co-Investigator Hemley and his colleagues in prebiotic chemistry and high-pressure microbiology. Collaborator Yukihiro Yoshimura documented new transformations in ice by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 5.1 5.3 6.2

• Project 3. Prebiotic Chemical and Isotopic Evolution on Earth

  In the past year Doctoral Student David Johnston and Co-I Farquhar determined for the first time the different types of isotopic signatures produced by different sulfur metabolisms. including sulfate-reducing bacteria, sulfite-disproportionating bacteria, and sulfur-disproportionating bacteria. These observations permitted calibration of the first global sulfur isotope models.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 4.1 4.2 7.1

• Project 2. Extraterrestrial Materials: Origin and Evolution of Organic Matter and Water in the Solar System

  The abundant organic compounds in primitive meteorites and interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) are thought to originate largely in the interstellar medium. However, this material may have been modified in the protoplanetary disk and has been modified to varying extents in the asteroidal parent bodies.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 2.1 3.1

• Project 4. Prebiotic Molecular Selection and Organization

  Studies in molecular self-organization continued to focus on amphiphilic molecules, which are molecules that possess both hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions. These molecules tend to self-organize spontaneously in an aqueous environment.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 3.1 3.2 3.4 4.1 7.1

• Project 1. From Molecular Clouds to Habitable Planetary Systems

  The work this year of Co-Investigator Chambers involved the development of a model for the oligarchic growth stage of planet formation, a key stage that determines many of the final characteristics of a planetary system

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 1.1 1.2 2.1 3.1 7.2

• Project 6. Molecular and Isotopic Biosignatures

  Co-Investigator Steele and Postdoctoral Fellow Marc Fries used the new WiTec Raman imaging system to begin the examination of in situ carbon formation in a variety of samples, including Precambrian rocks and samples from a Mars analog site in Svalbard.

  ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1 3.1 4.1 4.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2