On our quest to find life beyond Earth, scientists first must have to ask themselves: what signs would be the most compelling evidence?M. Neveu/NASA Astrobiology Program/NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
Eight interdisciplinary teams have been awarded more than $1 million in the final year of Scialog: Signatures of Life in the Universe. In 2001, the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Kavli Foundation and NASA launched the initiative to advance fundamental science research related to the search for life beyond Earth.
The eight teams receiving 2023 Scialog Collaborative Innovation Awards include:
The Power is in the Poop: Experimental Investigation of Microbially-Generated Organics as a Biosignature for Ocean Worlds
- Morgan Cable, Planetary Science Section, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory / California Institute of Technology
Nagissa Mahmoudi, Earth & Planetary Sciences, McGill University
A Close Look at the Habitability of Water Worlds
- Jennifer Bergner, Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley
Christopher Glein, Space Science Division, Southwest Research Institute
Renyu Hu, Astrophysics & Space Sciences, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Investigating the Biological Potential of Moons in the Uranus System
- Marc Neveu, Astronomy / Planetary Environments Laboratory, University Maryland/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Malena Rice, Astronomy, Yale University
Leslie Rogers, Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago
Constraining Volatile Budgets in Small Exoplanets through Coupled Petrological and Atmospheric Modeling and Observations
- Peter Gao, Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science
Renyu Hu, Astrophysics & Space Sciences, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Chenguang Sun, Geological Sciences, University of Texas at Austin
Sulfur Assimilation: A Novel Proxy for Redox Transitions in the Early Biosphere
- Greg Fournier, EAPS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Morgan Raven, Earth Science, University of California, Santa Barbara
Constraining the Abiotic Sulfur Cycle on Temperate Terrestrial Planets
- Bradford Foley, Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University
Sukrit Ranjan, Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona
Rebecca Rapf, Chemistry, Trinity University
Morgan Raven, Earth Science, University of California, Santa Barbara
Irradiated Sea Spray Aerosol Generation and Analysis Under Early Earth Atmospheres
- Tyler Robinson, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona
Amanda Stockton, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology
Rocky Roads: Flow Pathways and Chemical Evolution in Vesicular Lava and Pumice
- Paul Bracher, Chemistry, Saint Louis University
Christopher Hamilton, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona
Scialog (short for “science + dialog) was created in 2010 to bring together early career scientists into high risk, high-reward collaborative research. Previous topics have included: Mitigating Zoonotic Threats, Advancing BioImaging, and Solar Energy Conversion.
Click here to read more about the 2023 Scialog Collaborative Innovation Awards.
Related:
Private Sector Joins NASA in Funding Astrobiology Research