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NPR's Science Friday on Origins of Life and the Universe
National Public Radio’s Science Friday broadcasted live from Arizona State University on Friday, April 3rd as part of their Origins Symposium. The symposium, which inaugurated ASU’s new Origins Initiative, featured world renowned scientists Stephen Hawking, Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins, and Craig Venter. The Science Friday broadcast included two panels: Physicists and the Origin of the Universe, and Origins and Evolution of Life. Listen to the archive here.
April 7, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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How Life Shatters Chemistry's Mirror
Handedness, or “chirality,” is when molecules come in two forms that are mirror images of each other, like right- and left-handed gloves. Even though chiral molecules are produced equally in nature, life seems to prefer one hand over the other. The reason for this is a mystery that scientists are struggling to answer.
Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]
April 6, 2009 / Written by: Michael Schirber
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NASA's 21st Annual Planetary Science Summer School
NASA is accepting applications from science and engineering post-docs, recent PhDs, and doctoral students for its 21st Annual Planetary Science Summer School, which will hold two separate sessions this summer (20-24 July and 3-7 August 2009) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Applications are due 1 May 2009.
During the program, student teams will carry out the equivalent of an early mission concept study, prepare a proposal authorization review presentation, present it to a review board, and receive feedback. At the end of the week, students will have a clearer understanding of the life cycle...
April 3, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
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Early Oxygen
Cores retrieved from layers of deep-sea rocks that are 3.46 billion years old suggest that oceans contained abundant oxygen and that the atmosphere of the Earth was as rich in oxygen as it is today. The cores were obtained in northwestern Western Australia, and contain evidence that the deep ocean 3.46 billion years ago was so rich in oxygen that oxygen-producing organisms must have been actively producing it. This means that oxygen-producing organisms like cyanobacteria were present much earlier in Earth’s history than previously believed.Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]
March 28, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal
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"The State of Astrobiology, 2009" A report from Mary A. Voytek, Senior Scientist for Astrobiology (Interim), NASA Headquarters
March 27, 2009 – The Astrobiology Program is in good health for program year 2009, with a budget of $49.5 million dollars and a full slate of ongoing and new initiatives promising a continuing stream of discoveries. We have two 50th anniversaries to celebrate over the next year: NASA funding of its first exobiology experiment in 1959, and the establishment of the Agency’s Exobiology Program – progenitor of the Astrobiology Program – in 1960. These anniversaries provide good opportunities to reflect on the accomplishments of exobiology and astrobiology at NASA and the future of our rapidly growing field...
March 27, 2009 / Written by: Mary A. Voytek
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Too Salty to Freeze
Liquid water has been detected and photographed for the first time on Mars. Researchers have identified salty, liquid water on a leg of NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander. The discovery means that previous assumptions that water could only exist as ice and vapor on Mars due to the planet’s surface temperature and pressure may be incorrect.
The team from the University of Michigan believes that the droplets are highly salty water that splashed onto Phoenix’s leg when the spacecraft’s landing jets melted ice just below the martian surface. The mud droplets appeared to grow over time as they absorbed...Source: [Astrobiology Magazine]
March 20, 2009 / Posted by: Aaron Gronstal
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New Evidence for an Earlier Origin of Oxygenic Photosynthesis
Outcroppings of ancient ocean sediments show deposits of the iron oxide, hematite. CREDIT: HIROSHI OHMOTONAI’s Archean Biosphere Drilling Project supported the acquisition of pristine drill core samples obtained from ancient rocks in Western Australia. New results from those studies, published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience, point toward an earlier start for oxygenic photosynthesis on the early Earth than previously thought.
An international team of researchers, including members of NAI’s Penn State Team, found hematite crystals and associated minerals preserved in a jasper formation within ancient marine sedimentary rocks. Their interpretation is that the rocks formed in an oxygenated water body 3.46 billion years ago. Because the findings imply the presence...
March 17, 2009 / Posted by: Daniella Scalice
