"Describe the conditions thought to be present on early earth (before life) and relate these conditions to the origin of organic molecules"
-
The NASA Planetary Biology Internship Program (Year 2 funding issue...)
PI: Margulis, Lynn
We propose to continue the NASA Planetary Biology Internships for another three years, 2006-2009, to administer internships to 30 graduate students to work in the laboratories of scientists at NASA facilities and of NASA-supported scientists at universities. This program began in 1980 at NASA’s request and has been continuously funded. It is one of the few ways that graduate students access NASA research. It serves to introduce advanced students to NASA’s Astrobiology research program including all four areas of this solicitation: Planetary Conditions for Life, PreBiotic Evolution, Early Evolution of Life and the Biosphere and Evolution of Advanced Life. Past interns have become researchers at NASA centers and professors conducting NASA-funded research. Through our association with the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) we run the program at a very reasonable cost and have the service of the MBL’s expert Office of Education staff. We are able to arrange visas for international students through MBL’s world reknown summer education programs. Sponsors at the NASA centers particularly value the MBLsponsored visas as it is very difficult for them to obtain visas for foreign students to work in their labs for short periods of time. This proposal supports NASA’s Strategic Goals by training students to develop experiments in support of human and robotic exploration of the Solar System and beyond, by recruiting international students to support U.S. space exploration goals, and by recruiting students to study the Earth system.
