Your input is very much needed for an important study being conducted by the National Research Council's Committee on New Research Opportunities in the Earth Sciences. The committee is charged with (1) identifying high-priority new and emerging research opportunities in the Earth sciences over the next decade, including surface and deep Earth processes and interdisciplinary research within fields such as ocean and atmospheric sciences, biology, engineering, computer science, and social and behavioral sciences, and (2) identifying key instrumentation and facilities needed to support these new and emerging research opportunities. As members of this study committee, we (Isabel Montanez, Tim Lyons, Paul Olsen, and Michael Bender) would like your perspective regarding future research in the Earth sciences. Please take a few minutes to respond to the 3 questions at the following link: http://thenationalacad.nroes.sgizmo.com

The report will have the biggest impact if our community is well represented. This is an opportunity to share with a broader community and NSF the various Astrobiology-related research ideas that fit with the goals of the committee. Thank you for taking the time to participate in this very important survey.

Source: NAI Newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 2:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The evolution of complex life forms may have gotten a jump start billions of years ago, when geologic events operating over millions of years caused large quantities of phosphorus to wash into the oceans. According to this model, proposed in a new paper by Dominic Papineau of NAI's Carnegie Institution of Washington team, the higher levels of phosphorus would have caused vast algal blooms, pumping extra oxygen into the environment which allowed larger, more complex types of organisms to thrive.

"Phosphate rocks formed only sporadically during geologic history," says Papineau, a researcher at Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory, "and it is striking that their occurrences coincided with major global biogeochemical changes as well as significant leaps in biological evolution."

In his study, published in the journal Astrobiology, Papineau focused on the phosphate deposits that formed during an interval of geologic time known as the Proterozoic, from 2.5 billion years ago to about 540 million years ago. "This time period is very critical in the history of the Earth, because there are several independent lines of evidence that show that oxygen really increased during its beginning and end," says Papineau. The previous atmosphere was possibly methane-rich, which would have given the sky an orangish color. "So this is the time that the sky literally began to become blue."

For more information: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/articles/did-phosphorous-trigger-blue-skies/

[Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Date/Time: Monday, March 1, 2010 11:00AM Pacific
Speaker: Tori Hoehler, NASA Ames Research Center
Title: "Energy Flow and Life: A Thermodynamic-Kinetic View of Biology in its Relationship with the Environment"

Abstract: Life's unique and universal relationship with energy flow offers an added constraint in conceptualizing and quantifying habitability and biosignatures, the central concepts in the search for life beyond Earth. The statement, "life requires energy", is widely accepted and often invoked in astrobiology, but is of little practical use given that energy - in one form or another, and at one level or another - is present everywhere in the universe. However, qualification and constraint are introduced by considering the unique attributes of life's dependence and effect on energy flow, at physical, chemical, and biological levels of specificity. Life's relationship with energy has both thermodynamic and kinetic dimensions: how much and how fast are both important, where energy demand, availability, and transduction are concerned. When considered in concert, these two dimensions yield significant resolving power in quantifying life's need for energy (a constraint on habitability) and life's imprint on energy flow (a form of biosignature). They do so at a fundamental point of interface between life and its host environment, and in a fashion that need not be specific to Earth-type life. This approach will be described at a conceptual level, and then applied to the specific example of habitability of serpentinizing systems for methanogenic organisms.

For more information and participation instructions: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/seminars/detail/168

Source: NAI Newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 7:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Location: Palacio de Magdalena, Santander, Cantabria, Spain
Dates: June 21-25, 2010
Deadline: Closing date for NAI scholarship applications - March 31, 2010.

Overview: A week of lectures from international experts, plus round-table discussions, student projects, night-sky observations, and a field trip to a nearby site of astrobiological interest. On-site accommodation and all meals are provided at the Santander campus of the Spanish National University, UIMP. Scholarships covering travel costs, school fees, accommodation and meals are provided by NAI for approximately 10 American students. Additional opportunities are available for students of other nationalities. For more information: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/UIMP/2010

Source: NAI newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Session description:

The biogeochemical cycle of silicon, the second most abundant element of the earth's crust and a key nutrient element for numerous organisms, extends from the continents, via estuaries, to the oceans. In all environmental reservoirs (geo)physical, chemical, and biological processes affect the cycling of silicon. We invite research conducted on all aspects of the silicon cycle, at all spatial and temporal scales, using experimental, observational and modeling techniques. We particularly encourage contributions that explore the interconnections between the geological and biological roles of silicon.

For more information and abstract submission: http://www.goldschmidt2010.org

Source: NAI newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) satellite failed to reach orbit during its launch in February 2009. This mission was designed to obtain highly precise and accurate column average abundances of atmospheric CO2 on a global basis with a 16-day repeat cycle. The goal for these data was to make much improved inferences of the sources and sinks of atmospheric CO2 compared to what is available with the currently existing data sets. NASA is committed to the advancing the science behind the design of OCO in order to be prepared to maximize the use of data from a potential OCO reflight.

Continue reading "ROSES-09 Amendment 26: New proposal opportunity in Appendix A.5: Atmospheric CO2 Observations from Space" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NAI's Deep Time Drilling Project supported the drilling of several pristine cores from ancient rocks in Western Australia in 2004, and a new paper in Science, led by University of Washington astrobiologists, outlines results from the analysis of these cores. The nitrogen isotope values in the core from the 2.5-billion-year-old Mount McRae Shale vary over 30 meters, evidently recording a temporary change from an anaerobic to an aerobic nitrogen cycle, and back again to anaerobic. Other data suggest that nitrification occurred in response to a small increase in surface-ocean oxygenation. The data imply that nitrifying and denitrifying microbes had already evolved by the late Archean and were present before oxygen first began to accumulate in the atmosphere.

[Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Geological and biological evidence suggests that Earth was warm during most of its early history, despite the fainter young Sun. Upper bounds on the atmospheric CO2 concentration in the Late Archean/Paleoproterozoic (2.8–2.2 Ga) from paleosol data suggest that additional greenhouse gases must have been present.

Continue reading "A Revised, Hazy Methane Greenhouse for the Archean Earth" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our group’s work focuses on characterizing microbial ecology and biogeochemistry in natural ecosystems that are relevant in an astrobiological context. We are particularly interested in understanding how the distribution and activities of microbial populations are shaped by energy flow. http://fellowships.hq.nasa.gov/gsrp/research/detail.cfm?oppID=850 Deadline: 5:00 PM EST February 1, 2009.

Source: [NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP)]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Researchers from NAI's Penn State, MBL, and UCLA Teams have completed a study of the subseafloor marine biosphere, which may be one of the largest reservoirs of microbial biomass on Earth, and which has recently been the subject of debate in terms of the composition of its microbial inhabitants. Their metagenomic analysis indicates that the subsurface environment is the most unique studied to date, distinct in its microbial make-up from the surface waters.

Continue reading "Marine Subsurface is a Distinct Microbial Habitat" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 839-851

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2007.0137 A framework is proposed for a quantitative approach to studying habitability. Considerations of environmental supply and organismal demand of energy lead to the conclusions that power units are most appropriate and that the units for habitability become watts per organism.

Continue reading "Quantitative Habitability" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 824-838

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2006.0095

Habitability can be formulated as a balance between the biological demand for energy and the corresponding potential for meeting that demand by transduction of energy from the environment into biological process. The biological demand for energy is manifest in two requirements, analogous to the voltage and power requirements of an electrical device, which must both be met if life is to be supported.

Continue reading "An Energy Balance Concept for Habitability" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Search for Habitable Planets Outside Earth's Solar System in Astrobiology

"Which planets outside of Earth's Solar System are most likely to be capable of supporting life is a question that will be the focus of both a NASA-sponsored workshop later this year and a special collection of papers in the Spring 2007 (Volume 7, Number 1) issue of Astrobiology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc."

Posted by Keith Cowing at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 7 p.m. Astronomer David Grinspoon of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, will give a non-technical, illustrated talk on: "Comparing Worlds: Climate Catastrophes in the Solar System" as part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures in the Smithwick Theater, Foothill College, El Monte Road and Freeway 280, in Los Altos Hills, California.

Continue reading "Comparing Worlds: Climate Catastrophes in the Solar System" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Researchers from NAI's University of Rhode Island Team and their colleagues have studied the use of phosphorus vs. sulfur in the membrane lipid sythesis pathways of organisms resident in the ocean's subtropical gyres.

Continue reading "Strategies for Evolutionary Success - Sulfolipids" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NAI's Virtual Planetary Laboratory Team have explored the possibility of detecting exovegetation on terrestrial planets orbiting M stars. They estimated the red-shift of this surface feature using leaf optical property spectra with a three photon photosynthetic scheme. The authors have produced a model wherein a pigment-derived surface signature such as exovegetation could be detected, but would be dependent upon the extent of the vegetation on the surface, cloud cover, and viewing angle.

Continue reading "Exovegetation" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)