Microbial Populations in Antarctic Permafrost

Members of NAI’s Michigan State University Alumni Team are part of an international team of scientists characterizing the microbial populations in Antarctic permafrost soils. Based on multiple samples, they describe the presence of diverse populations of both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, cyanobacteria, green algae, yeasts, and fungi. Based on the documented ages of the permafrost regions—perhaps more than 5 million years old—these findings represent the oldest viable microorganisms discovered in permafrost on Earth. Their paper appears in the April...

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June 5, 2007 / Posted by: Shige Abe

NAI Researchers Search for Meteorites in Antarctica

Follow along as scientists from NAI’s University of Hawai’i Team go on expedition with the NSF/NASA – sponsored Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) program. View photos, read about the team and their mission, and stay current with regular dispatches from the “Streets of McMurdo.” The ANSMET program enables researchers to collect meteorites in Antarctica first hand for scientific study. Over 75% of meteorites are recovered from Antarctica, and more than 15,000 samples have been supplied to over...

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December 5, 2006 / Posted by: Shige Abe

Arctic, Antarctic, Mars

The city of Hammerfest lies at the northern tip of Norway, well above the Arctic Circle. If you board a ship heading north from there, just before you reach the polar ice cap you run into a group of islands known as the Svalbard archipelago.

For the past two summers, a group of scientists has traveled to the largest of these islands to study an environment that sheds light on a notorious meteorite, discovered at the opposite end of the...

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