"Someone once told me a Velociraptor was found frozen in ice in Russia. Is this true?"
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NAI Launches FAR Seminar Series on October 6th
NAI is excited to announce the launch of the “Forum for Astrobiology Research” (FAR), a virtual seminar series given by graduate students, postdocs and early-career astrobiologists that will be broadcast to the entire astrobiology community.
The first seminar will be held on Monday, October 6th at 11:00am PDT (12:00pm MDT, 1:00pm CDT and 2:00pm EDT). The topic is prebiotic chemistry and the presenters are Catherine Neish of the University of Arizona and William Brazelton...
September 19, 2008 / Written by: Estelle Dodson
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Early Earth Primed for Later RNA and DNA Production
Researchers from NAI’s University of Arizona team and their colleagues at the University of Leeds have a new paper in Angewandte Chemie International Edition dealing with prebiotic chemistry and the early Earth. Work both experimentally and with models of the early atmosphere, the team shows that the Hadean and early Archaean Earth was primed with an abundance of condensed phosphates, enabling the formation of the necessary precursors of RNA and...
September 19, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Molecules in the Atmospheres of Extrasolar Planets - A Workshop in Paris
Where Salle Cassini, Observatoire Paris, Paris, France
Exoplanets are being discovered at an ever accelerating pace, and planetary scientists and astronomers are increasingly called upon to make the transition from discovery to characterization. This workshop aims at bringing together different scientific communities: solar system planetary scientists, brown dwarf and exoplanet modellers and observers, molecular spectroscopy and instrument development experts. We will cover different topics: radiative transfer, line lists, photochemical models, dynamics, and observations using space- and ground-based facilities. ...
September 19, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Cyanobacterial Biomarkers in Ancient Rocks
Members of NAI’s Penn State, Carnegie Institution, and MIT teams report in a recent issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters, the distribution of biomarkers in 2.72–2.56 billion-year-old, Neoarchean rocks from the Hamersley Province on the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia. Their observations are consistent with a cyanobacterial source for 2-methylhopanes, in which cyanobacteria were likely the cornerstone of microbial communities in shallow-water ecosystems providing molecular oxygen, fixed carbon, and possibly...
September 19, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Evolution of the Gut
Researchers from NAI’s University of Hawai’i team have a paper in this week’s Nature about the evolution of the animal gut. For more than 100 years zoologists have speculated about scenarios of how the bilaterally symmetrical animals (animals that have a left and a right side, like flies, fish, and humans) evolved from a simple circular (radially symmetric) ancestor that looked similar to jelly fish or corals. In the commonly presented...
September 19, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Jill Tarter and Will Wright Talk Gaming, Education, and Evolution in Seed Magazine's Video 'Salon'
While developing his new game SPORE, Will Wright indulged in his lifelong interest in astrobiology and drew from the work of Jill Tarter over numerous visits to the SETI Institute. In this video, Wright and Tarter meet to ask each other questions about gaming and science, the value of scientific revolutions, and advanced life in the universe.
September 16, 2008 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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NASA Chooses MAVEN as the Next Mars Scout Mission
NASA has selected a Mars robotic mission that will provide information about the Red Planet’s atmosphere, climate history and potential habitability in greater detail than ever before.
Called the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft, the $485 million mission is scheduled for launch in late 2013. The selection was evaluated to have the best science value and lowest implementation risk from 20 mission investigation proposals submitted in response to a
September 15, 2008 / Written by: NASA Press Release
Astrobiology Field Work
Rollover map to explore Astrobiology field sites around the world.
