The conference on Comparative Climatology of Terrestrial Planets will be held June 25-28, 2012, at the Hotel Boulderado, located at 2115 Thirteenth Street, Boulder CO 80302.

Comparative Climatology of Terrestrial Planets will explore the differences and similarities between the climates of terrestrial planets in the solar system and beyond. With an emphasis on experimental methods and models, the synergies between Earth science, planetary science, heliophysics, and exoplanet studies will be exploited to identify objectives for future research and missions.

The goal of this conference is to look at climate in the broadest sense possible -- by comparing the processes at work on the four terrestrial bodies, Earth, Venus, Mars, and Titan (Titan is included because it hosts many terrestrial processes), and on terrestrial planets around other stars. These processes include the interactions of shortwave and thermal radiation with the atmosphere, condensation and vaporization of volatiles, atmospheric dynamics and chemistry, and the role of the surface and interior in the long-term evolution of climate. Conference talks will compare the scientific questions, methods, numerical models, and spacecraft remote sensing experiments for Earth and the other planets, with the goal of identifying objectives for future research and missions. The conference is an opportunity for planetary scientists to survey current work on the best-studied terrestrial planet, and for climate scientists to reflect on how familiar processes on Earth produce such different outcomes in other "laboratories."

For more information: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/climatology2012/

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Arthropod expansion in morphological disparity following the Cambrian Explosion of Bilateria, as demonstrated by the Burgess Shale trilobite Olenoides and stem-Chelicerate Sidneyia. Image Credit: Smithsonian Institution, courtesy of Douglas Erwin.

A team of researchers including members of NAI's MIT team have married fossil records with molecular clock studies to reveal a new interpretation of the Cambrian explosion. Collectively these data allow an understanding of the environmental potential, genetic and developmental possibility, and ecological opportunity that existed before and during the Cambrian. The study compares the times of origin of major animal groups (from the molecular clock) with the times of their first appearance in the fossil record. The team shows that the major animal groups first diverged during the Cryogenian, roughly 300 million years prior to their appearance in the fossil record, and acquired the key components of their developmental toolkits early in their history. After a long lag, the groups' major ecological successes are reflected in the records of the Ediacaran and Cambrian. Their paper appears in the current issue of Science.

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scientists from NAI's New York Center for Astrobiology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have used the oldest minerals on Earth to reconstruct the atmospheric conditions present on Earth very soon after its birth. The findings, which appear in the December 1, 2011 issue of Nature, are the first direct evidence of what the ancient atmosphere of the planet was like soon after its formation and directly challenge years of research on the type of atmosphere out of which life arose on the planet.

The scientists show that the atmosphere of Earth just 500 million years after its creation was not a methane-filled wasteland as previously proposed, but instead was much closer to the conditions of our current atmosphere. The findings, in a paper titled "The oxidation state of Hadean magmas and implications for early Earth's atmosphere," have implications for our understanding of how and when life began on this planet and could begin elsewhere in the universe.

For more information: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/articles/earth-s-early-atmosphere-an-update/

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The Conference on Life Detection in Extraterrestrial Samples will be held February 13-15, 2012, at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, California.

Purpose and Scope

The return of samples from Mars was the highest-priority flagship in the U.S. Planetary Decadal Survey. It is also a key element in the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Robotic Exploration Preparatory Program to prepare Europe's contribution to the international exploration of Mars. Part of planning for a Mars sample return mission includes planning for what will happen to the samples after they have returned to Earth. One of the major scientific questions that will be asked in the analysis of returned martian samples is whether they contain indications of past or present martian life. In addition, international guidelines and agency policies dictate that Mars samples must be subjected to a program of life detection and biohazard analysis before they can be released from strict containment, to protect the environment of the Earth. A better understanding of current and possible investigation strategies and capabilities, including controls and measurements related to life detection in returned martian samples, is important to address both these concerns.

An understanding of planned or possible life detection strategies and measurements has major implications for several decisions related to requirements for the 2018 sampling rover, including strategies and requirements for avoiding contamination of the samples, and sample size needed to carry out the returned sample measurements.

Life detection strategies and capabilities are relevant to a range of scientific activities beyond Mars sample return, including origin of life investigations of both terrestrial and planetary materials. The search for fossils and remnants of early life on Earth benefits greatly from a variety of analytical techniques, and can inform efforts to detect life in planetary materials. Strategies and technologies for life detection can effectively be applied to meteorite studies, addressing questions regarding the organic constituents present in the early solar system as well as possibly shedding light on reports of possible life in meteorites that remain highly controversial.

For more information: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lifedetection2012/

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Anyone who has taken high school biology has likely come into contact with a ciliate. The much-studied paramecium is one of 7,000 species of ciliates, a vast group of microorganisms that share a common morphology: single-celled blobs covered in tiny hairs, or cilia. These cilia -- Greek for "eyelash" -- are used to propel a microbe through water and catch prey.

Today these hairy microbes are ubiquitous in marine environments. However, it's unclear how long ciliates have inhabited Earth: After they die, members of most species simply disintegrate in their watery environs, leaving behind no fossilized remains.

Now, geologists at NAI's MIT Team and Harvard University have unearthed rare, flask-shaped microfossils dating back 635 to 715 million years, representing the oldest known ciliates in the fossil record. The remains are more than 100 million years older than any previously identified ciliate fossils, and the researchers say the discovery suggests early life on Earth may have been more complex than previously thought. What's more, they say such prehistoric microbes may have helped trigger multicellular life, and the evolution of the first animals.

"These massive changes in biology and chemistry during this time led to the evolution of animals," says Tanja Bosak, the Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Assistant Professor in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. "We don't know how fast these changes occurred, and now we are finding evidence of an increase in complexity."

Bosak and her colleagues have published the study in the October 21, 2011 issue of the journal Geology.

For more information: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/articles/early-life-more-complex-than-previously-thought/

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Based on studies of rock cores, a team of geoscientists that include members of NAI's Penn State Team have determined that oxygen did not appear in Earth's atmosphere in a single event. Instead, atmospheric oxygen came about in a long series of starts and stops.

The research was conducted using samples collected in the summer of 2007 during the Fennoscandia Arctic Russia - Drilling Early Earth Project (FAR DEEP). Scientists drilled a series of shallow, two-inch diameter cores and overlapped them to create a record of the Proterozoic Eon--2,500 million to 542 million years ago.

"We've always thought that oxygen came into the atmosphere really quickly during an event," said Lee Kump, a geoscientist at Penn State University. "We are no longer looking for an event. Now we're looking for when and why oxygen became a stable part of the Earth's atmosphere."

The research was published in the December 1, 2011 issue of Science Express under lead author Lee Kump.

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Study challenges existence of arsenic-based life, Nature

"A group of scientists, led by microbiologist Rosie Redfield at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, have posted data on Redfield's blog that, she says, present a "clear refutation" of key findings from the paper. But after Redfield and others raised numerous concerns, many of which were published as technical comments in Science, Redfield put the results to the test, documenting her progress on her blog to advance the cause of open science ... Redfield and her collaborators hope to submit their work to Science by the end of the month. She says that if Science refuses to publish the work because it has been discussed on blogs, it will become an important test case for open science."

- Arsenic, Astrobiology, NASA, and the Media, earlier post
- NASA Researchers Start To Backtrack on Earlier Claims, earlier post
- Snarky NASA SMD Response to Snarky Public Astrobiology Discussion, earlier post
- Weird Arsenic-Eating Microbes Discovered? Yes. Finding E.T.? No, earlier post
- Arsenic-Based Life Found on Earth, earlier post
- NASA's Astrobiology News: Arsenic Biochemistry Anyone? (Update), earlier post

Posted by Keith Cowing at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Volcanic-hydrothermal flow channels offer a chemically unique environment, which at first glance appears hostile to life. It is defined by cracks in the crust of the earth, through which water flows, laden with volcanic gases are contacting a diversity of minerals. And yet - it is precisely this extreme environment, where the two mechanisms could have emerged, which are at the root of all life: The multiplication of biomolecules (reproduction) and the emergence of new biomolecules on the basis of previously formed biomolecules (evolution).

At the outset of this concatenation of reactions that led eventually to the formation of cellular forms of life there are only a few amino acids, which are formed from volcanic gases by mineral catalysis. Akin to a domino stone that triggers a whole avalanche, these first biomolecules stimulate not only their own further synthesis but also the production of wholly new biomolecules. "In this manner life begins by necessity in accordance with pre-established laws of chemistry and in a pre-determined direction", declares Guenter Waechtershaeuser, honorary professor for evolutionary biochemistry at the University of Regensburg. He developed the mechanism of a self-generating metabolism - theoretically, alas, an experimental demonstration has been lacking so far.

Continue reading "Mechanism of Evolution of the Primordial Metabolism Discovered" »

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In the chemistry of the living world, a pair of nucleic acids--DNA and RNA--reign supreme. As carrier molecules of the genetic code, they provide all organisms with a mechanism for faithfully reproducing themselves as well as generating the myriad proteins vital to living systems.

Yet according to John Chaput, a researcher at the Center for Evolutionary Medicine and Informatics, at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute(R), it may not always have been so.

Chaput and other researchers studying the first tentative flickering of life on earth have investigated various alternatives to familiar genetic molecules. These chemical candidates are attractive to those seeking to unlock the still-elusive secret of how the first life began, as primitive molecular forms may have more readily emerged during the planet's prebiotic era. One approach to identifying molecules that may have acted as genetic precursors to RNA and DNA is to examine other nucleic acids that differ slightly in their chemical composition, yet still possess critical properties of self-assembly and replication as well as the ability to fold into shapes useful for biological function.

According to Chaput, one interesting contender for the role of early genetic carrier is a molecule known as TNA, whose arrival on the primordial scene may have predated its more familiar kin. A nucleic acid similar in form to both DNA and RNA, TNA differs in the sugar component of its structure, using threose rather than deoxyribose (as in DNA) or ribose (as in RNA) to compose its backbone.

In an article released online today in the journal Nature Chemistry, Chaput and his group describe the Darwinian evolution of functional TNA molecules from a large pool of random sequences. This is the first case where such methods have been applied to molecules other than DNA and RNA, or very close structural analogues thereof. Chaput says "the most important finding to come from this work is that TNA can fold into complex shapes that can bind to a desired target with high affinity and specificity". This feature suggests that in the future it may be possible to evolve TNA enzymes with functions required to sustain early life forms.

Continue reading "Did an Earlier Genetic Molecule Predate DNA and RNA?" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 3:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The 2012 Gordon Research Conference on the Origin of Life will take place at the Hotel Galvez in Galveston, TX from January 8-13, 2012. This unique interdisciplinary meeting includes chemists, biologists, geologists, astronomers, physicists as well as scientists in related disciplines interested in the origin, and early evolution of Life on Earth and its possible distribution throughout the universe. The 2012 conference will feature recent and cutting-edge results, and sessions will address attempts to fabricate life or life-like systems in the laboratory, the search for extra-solar Earth like planets, recent developments in our understanding of the early history of Earth, Mars, and Titan, prebiotic and organic chemistry on the early Earth and elsewhere in the solar system, and reconstruction of early life forms and genomes, among other exciting topics.

We encourage young scientists, including graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, to attend. Special efforts will be made to promote interactions between invited speakers and junior participants and we expect to be able to provide some financial support to facilitate the latter's participation.
Applications for this meeting must be submitted by December 11, 2011. Please apply early, as we expect the meeting to become oversubscribed (full) before this deadline.

More information, including a full conference program, can be found on the conference website: http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2012&program=originlife.

Source: NAI Newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Applications are currently being accepted for the Origin of Life Gordon Research Seminar (GRS). The Origin of Life GRS is a unique forum for graduate students, post-docs, and other scientists with comparable levels of experience and education to present and exchange new data and cutting edge ideas on origin of life research. The meeting will be held January 7th-8th at Hotel Galvez in Galveston TX, immediately preceding the Origin of Life Gordon Research Conference to be held January 8th - 13th at the same location. Participants in the Origin of Life Gordon Research Seminar are encouraged to participate in the associated Origin of Life Gordon Research Conference.

For more information please visit: http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2012&program=grs_origin

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Comparative Survival Analysis of Deinococcus Radiodurans and the Haloarchaea Natrialba Magadii and Haloferax Volcanii, Exposed to Vacuum Ultraviolet Irradiation

Ximena C. Abrevaya, Ivan G. Paulino-Lima, Douglas Galante, Fabio Rodrigues, Pablo J.D. Mauas, Eduardo Corton, Claudia de Alencar Santos Lage
(Submitted on 29 Sep 2011)

The haloarchaea Natrialba magadii and Haloferax volcanii, as well as the radiation-resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans, were exposed to vacuum-UV (V-UV) radiation at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS). Cell monolayers (containing 10⁵ - 10⁶ cells per sample) were prepared over polycarbonate filters and irradiated under high vacuum (10^-5 Pa) with polychromatic synchrotron radiation. N. magadii was remarkably resistant to high vacuum with a survival fraction of ((3.77 ± 0.76) x 10^-2), larger than the one of D. radiodurans ((1.13 ± 0.23) x 10^-2). The survival fraction of the haloarchaea H. volcanii, of ((3.60 ± 1.80) x 10^-4), was much smaller. Radiation resistance profiles were similar between the haloarchaea and D. radiodurans for fluencies up to 150 J m^-2. For fluencies larger than 150 J ^-2 there was a significant decrease in the survival of haloarchaea, and in particular H. volcanii did not survive. Survival for D. radiodurans was 1% after exposure to the higher V-UV fluency (1350 J m^-2) while N. magadii had a survival lower than 0.1%. Such survival fractions are discussed regarding the possibility of interplanetary transfer of viable micro-organisms and the possible existence of microbial life in extraterrestrial salty environments such as the planet Mars and the Jupiter's moon Europa. This is the first work reporting survival of haloarchaea under simulated interplanetary conditions.

Full paper

Comments: Draft version (without figures), Accepted for publication in Astrobiology
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:1109.6590v1 [astro-ph.EP]
Submission history
From: Ximena Celeste Abrevaya [view email]
[v1] Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:02:52 GMT (131kb)

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Applications are currently being accepted for the Origin of Life Gordon Research Seminar (GRS). The Origin of Life GRS is a unique forum for graduate students, post-docs, and other scientists with comparable levels of experience and education to present and exchange new data and cutting edge ideas on origin of life research. The meeting will be held January 7th-8th at Hotel Galvez in Galveston TX, immediately preceding the Origin of Life Gordon Research Conference to be held January 8th - 13th at the same location. Participants in the Origin of Life Gordon Research Seminar are encouraged to participate in the associated Origin of Life Gordon Research Conference.

For more information please visit: http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2012&program=grs_origin

Source: NAI newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Institute for Astronomy (IfA) invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellowship with interests in the origin of Earth's water to work with the University of Hawai'i's NASA Astrobiology Institute lead team (see http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/UHNAI/). The UH lead team maintains an innovative and multi-disciplinary research environment linking astronomical, biological, microbiological, chemical, and geological sciences to investigate the origin, history, distribution and role of water as it relates to life in the universe. The program centers around interactions with an interdisciplinary group of postdoctoral fellows. We have a particular need for an individual interested in the origin of Earth's water, and, by analogy, terrestrial planetary volatiles. The work involves geological field work to sample primitive, deep-mantle-plume materials, preparation of samples of melt inclusions in olivines from Hawaiian and Icelandic basalts for isotopic measurements using the petrographic microscope, scanning electron microscope, and electron microprobe, and measurements of D/H ratios and hydrogen abundances in the melt inclusions using the UH Cameca ims 1280 ion microprobe. The Fellowship is for one year and may be renewable up to a total of 3 years assuming satisfactory progress and continued availability of funds. The fellow will receive a stipend of approximately $5,000 per month, a small relocation allowance and basic research costs.

Continue reading "Origin of Earth's Water - Astrobiology Postdoctoral Fellow - Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai'i Manoa" »

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

Join us for the next NAI Director's Seminar! Please RSVP if your site will be joining.

Date/Time: Monday, September 26, 2011 11:00AM Pacific

Presenter: David Deamer (University of California, Santa Cruz)

Abstract: Although the physical environment that fostered primitive cellular life is still largely unconstrained, we can be reasonably confident that liquid water was required, together with a source of organic compounds and energy to drive polymerization reactions. There must also have been a process by which the compounds were sufficiently concentrated to undergo physical and chemical interactions. We are exploring self-assembly processes and polymerization reactions of organic compounds in natural hydrothermal environments and related laboratory simulations. We have found that macromolecules such as nucleic acids and proteins are readily encapsulated in membranous boundaries during wet-dry cycles such as those that would occur at the edges of hydrothermal springs in volcanic environments. The resulting structures are referred to as protocells, in that they exhibit certain properties of living cells and are models of the kinds of encapsulated macromolecular systems that would have led toward the first forms of cellular life. We have also determined that RNA-like polymers can be synthesized non-enzymatically from ordered arrays of mononucleotides in lipid microenvironments. We are now extending this approach to template-directed synthesis of DNA and RNA in which lipid-assisted polymerization serves as a model of an early stage of evolution toward an RNA World.

For more information and participation instructions: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/seminars/detail/194

Source: NAI newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The 2012 Gordon Research Conference on Origin of Life will take place at the Hotel Galvez in Galveston, TX from January 8-13, 2012. This unique interdisciplinary meeting includes chemists, biologists, geologists, astronomers, physicists as well as scientists in related disciplines interested in the origin, and early evolution of Life on Earth and its possible distribution throughout the universe. The 2012 conference will feature recent and cutting-edge results, and sessions will address attempts to fabricate life or life-like systems in the laboratory, the search for extra-solar Earth like planets, recent developments in our understanding of the early history of Earth, Mars, and Titan, prebiotic and organic chemistry on the early Earth and elsewhere in the solar system, and reconstruction of early life forms and genomes, among other exciting topics.

We encourage young scientists, including graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, to attend. Special efforts will be made to promote interactions between invited speakers and junior participants and we expect to be able to provide some financial support to facilitate the latter's participation. Applications for this meeting must be submitted by December 11, 2011. Please apply early, as we expect the meeting to become oversubscribed (full) before this deadline. More information, including afullconferenceprogram,can be found on the conference website: http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2012&program=originlife.

Continue reading "2012 Gordon Research Conference on Origin of Life" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A case study of last year's Workshop without Walls on "Molecular Paleontology and Resurrection: Rewinding the Tape of Life." appears in the July 2011 issue of PLoS Biology. Authors include Betuel Arslan of the Georgia Tech team, Eric Boyd of the Montana State University team, and members of NAI Central.

Abstract:

The NASA Astrobiology Institute conducted two "Workshops Without Walls" during 2010 that enabled global scientific exchange--with no travel required. The second of these was on the topic "Molecular Paleontology and Resurrection: Rewinding the Tape of Life." Scientists from diverse disciplines and locations around the world were joined through an integrated suite of collaborative technologies to exchange information on the latest developments in this area of origin of life research. Through social media outlets and popular science blogs, participation in the workshop was broadened to include educators, science writers, and members of the general public. In total, over 560 people from 31 US states and 30 other nations were registered. Among the scientific disciplines represented were geochemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology and evolution, and microbial ecology. We present this workshop as a case study in how interdisciplinary collaborative research may be fostered, with substantial public engagement, without sustaining the deleterious environmental and economic impacts of travel.

For more information: http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001118

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In recent years, scientists have found evidence that a 'near complete' biological nitrogen cycle existed in the oceans during the late Archean to early Proterozoic (from 2.5 to 2 billion years ago). Modern bacteria use an enzyme called nitrogenase to cycle nitrogen from one form to another. This enzyme is dependent on the presence of metallic elements like iron (Fe), vanadium (V) and, most often, molybdenum (Mo). However, ancient oceans didn't contain much molybdenum. Could Fe-nitrogenase or V-nitrogenase have played a larger role in the archaean oceans than they do today?

To answer this question, a team of researchers at NAI's Montana State University and Arizona State University teams studied the phylogenetic relationships between the proteins that allow nitrogenase to interact with each of the three elements. Their results suggest that the protein (known as Nif protein) actually developed in methanogenic microorganisms, and was then incorporated into bacteria by lateral gene transfer around 1.5-2.2 billion years ago.

Ultimately, if Mo-nitrogenase originated under anoxic conditions in the Archaean, it would have likely happened in an environment where both methanogens and bacteria coexisted, and where molybdenum was present for at least part of the time.

The emergence of enzymes like Mo-nitrogenase was a significant step in the evolution of life, and had powerful repercussions for planet Earth and its biosphere as a whole. This research can help answer important questions about the environmental conditions that were present on the early Earth, and the interactions that occurred between life and the ancient planet.

The results were published in the May edition of the journal Geobiology

Posted by Keith Cowing at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some asteroids may have been like "molecular factories" cranking out life's ingredients and shipping them to Earth via meteorite impacts. Now it appears that at least one asteroid may have been less like a rigid assembly line and more like a flexible diner that doesn't mind making changes to the menu.

Astrobiologists at NAI's Goddard Space Flight Center and Carnegie Institution of Washington teams studying the carbon-rich Tagish Lake meteorite have discovered that different pieces of it have greatly differing amounts of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins and essential ingredients to life as we know it.

In January, 2000, a large meteoroid exploded in the atmosphere over northern British Columbia, Canada, and rained fragments across the frozen surface of Tagish Lake. Because many people witnessed the fireball, pieces were collected within days and kept preserved in their frozen state. This ensured that there was very little contamination from terrestrial life.

"The Tagish Lake meteorite fell on a frozen lake in the middle of winter and was collected in a way to make it the best preserved meteorite in the world," said Dr. Christopher Herd of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, lead author of a paper about the analysis of the meteorite fragments published June 10 in the journal Science.

"The first Tagish Lake samples -- the ones we used in our study that were collected within days of the fall -- are the closest we have to an asteroid sample return mission in terms of cleanliness," adds Dr. Michael Callahan of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., a co-author on the paper.

Continue reading "Asteroid Served Up "Custom Orders" of Life's Ingredients" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An award of $50,000 is being offered for the best original proposal pertaining to the study of the origin of life on Earth. Multiple awards may be made. "Life" is defined as a self-sustained chemical system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution. The proposal should take into account the conditions, materials, and energy sources believed to have existed on the prebiotic Earth. Submissions should provide a cogent hypothesis for how life first arose, including its plausible chemistry, and for how primitive life could have evolved to modern biological cells, including the present genetic material and metabolism. Submitters are encouraged to offer unconventional hypotheses that nonetheless can be subject to experimental validation. Submissions will be accepted through December 31, 2011.

For further information and instructions on how to submit a proposal see http://www.originlife.org/ .

Posted by Keith Cowing at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ancient rocks are shedding new light on the timeline for life's emergence on Earth. The rocks from the Nuvvuagittuq Supracrustal Belt in Quebec, Canada, are believed to be some of the oldest on Earth. They contain carbon-based minerals that had been interpreted as evidence of the Earth's early biosphere, however, new research tells a different story. By applying cutting-edge technology to the rock samples, a team of scientists have revealed that the carbon minerals found in the rocks may be much younger than the rocks themselves.

"The characteristics of the poorly crystalline graphite within the samples are not consistent with the metamorphic history of the rock," said co-author Dominic Papineau in a news release from Boston College. "The carbon in the graphite is not as old as the rock. That can only ring a bell and require us to ask if we need to reconsider earlier studies."

The results were reported in the May 15, 2011 edition of the journal Nature Geoscience. Funding organizations for this work included the NASA Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology Program (Exo/Evo), the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), the W.M. Keck Foundation, the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Carnegie of Canada, the Naval Research Laboratory, the NRC Research Associateship Program, Boston College, and the Fond Quebecois pour la recherche sur la nature et les technologies (FQRNT).

Posted by Keith Cowing at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A two-day workshop using NAI remote communications tools will be held on May 12th and 13th, 2011. Real-time participation requires only an internet connection and is available to interested scientists from around the world. More details, including connection and registration information, is available at the meeting website given below.

Synopsis

Over the past 4 billion years, the Earth and its biosphere have undergone a series of linked transitions in redox state, biochemical plasticity, and biological diversity. In order to study this evolution, diverse scientific disciplines (including inorganic and organic geochemistry, microbiology, and genomics) must overcome traditional disciplinary barriers and integrate their tools and perspectives. In recent years, numerous technological advances have resulted in rapid advances in each of these fields. One of the most striking has been the development of cheaper and more efficient sequencing technologies, along with attendant advances in genetics and the computational techniques to leverage the resulting data. To facilitate interactions between paleobiologists and scientists using the latest techniques in molecular biology and genomics, a symposium will be held at the J. Craig Venter Institute in San Diego, California. The primary objective is the exchange of knowledge and the development of a dialog that might yield cutting-edge ideas for future work.

Confirmed Speakers

* Tim Lyons, University of California, Riverside
* Gordon Love, University of California, Riverside
* James Lake, University of California, Los Angeles
* Gustavo Caetano-Anolles, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
* Lawrence David, Harvard University
* Trinity Hamilton, Montana State University
* Ziming Zhao, Georgia Tech
* Clyde Hutchison, J. Craig Venter Institute
* Kate Freeman, Pennsylvania State University
* Dave Doughty, California Institute of Technology
* Jason Raymond, Arizona State University
* Andrew Allen, J. Craig Venter Institute
* Jack Bailey, University of Minnesota
* Frank Stewart, Georgia Tech

The workshop will consist of talks and discussion. Each presentation will allow ample time for questions and answers afterwards. We encourage researchers to attend in real time to engage in what we expect will be a lively exchange of ideas during the workshop.

Workshop Organizing Committee

* Chris Dupont, J. Craig Venter Institute
* Ariel Anbar, Arizona State University
* John Peters, Montana State University

For more information and participation instructions, visit: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/geobiology2011

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Date/Time: Monday, May 23, 2011 11:00AM Pacific
Presenter: Mark Allen (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech)

Abstract:

The ESA/NASA ExoMars/Trace Gas Orbiter (EMTGO) mission, with a planned launch in 2016, is based on a concept that can be traced back to the NAI. EMTGO is also the first truly international mission in which NASA is a participant; the contributions from ESA and NASA are closely intertwined.

The primary objective of EMTGO is to characterize the chemical composition of the Martian atmosphere, particularly trace species that may be signatures of extant biological and/or geological processes, and its variability in space and time. It is hoped that these measurements, along with a good understanding of the contemporaneous atmospheric state, may allow localization of the surface source(s) of the "exotic" trace gases.

The international science payload selected for this mission has the capability to inventory the atmospheric composition with more sensitivity than has flown on previous deep space planetary missions. One measure of this capability is the ability to detect three cows on Mars belching methane.

Several of the NAI principal investigators and co-investigators are members of the payload science teams.

For more information and participation instructions: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/seminars/detail/192

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy 41st Saas-Fee Advanced Course "From Planets to Life" 3-9 April 2011, Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland

This astrobiology course consists of 28 lectures organized in three parts as follow:

- Astrophysical conditions for development of life Prof. Jonathan Lunine (University of Arizona)
- Earth geology and climatology history Prof. James Kasting (Pennsylvania State University)
- Origin and critical steps of life development on Earth

Prof. John Baross (University of Washington) In addition to the formal course, the setting of this event provides ample time for informal discussions during the meals and other social events. are approaching our maximum hosting capacity, however, we can still accommodate for about a dozen additional participants. The regular registration deadline is JANUARY 28th, 2011. After this date the registration fee will raise from CHF450.- to CHF500.-. For more information please visit: http://www.isdc.unige.ch/sf2011/

We look forward to seeing you soon, Pierre Dubath, for the organizing committee

[Source: Planetary Science Institute]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The next meeting of the Committee on the Origins and Evolution of Life (COEL) will be held March 2-4, 2011 at the Keck Center in Washington, D.C. COEL is the standing committee of the Space Studies Board that organizes and provides oversight of studies on research opportunities and programs on the origin and evolution of life in the universe, including NASA's astrobiology program. As usual, most of the committee's sessions are open to the community.

For more information, see http://sites.nationalacademies.org/SSB/ssb_052326 or contact COEL's Senior Program Officer, David H. Smith (DSmith@nas.edu). [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In this new podcast produced through the NAI MIT team, journey back in time to learn about Ediacaran Fauna, a diverse group of organisms that lived in the world's oceans about 580 million years ago. We'll meet Dickinsonia rex, a sort of living bathmat without eyes or a mouth, and other strange denizens of the primordial slimebed. Paleontologists Mary Droser and Jim Gehling explain how they're working to reconstruct this ancient ecosystem by studying fossils, and shed light on the enduring evolutionary puzzle of how the first complex life forms arose. Listen to the podcast here: http://education.eol.org/podcast/ediacaran [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Date/Time: Monday, February 7, 2011 11:00AM Pacific
Burckhard Seelig (University of Minnesota)

Abstract: Life on Earth today crucially depends on the workings of proteins. Current proteins are highly sophisticated polypeptides that exhibit intricate structures and facilitate a multitude of complex functions. Although the level of protein sophistication can be explained as a result of continuing Darwinian evolution from simpler predecessors, the origin of those early functional proteins is not well understood.

We are interested in studying potential scenarios of the emergence of those first primordial proteins. This presentation will describe an experimental approach to investigate the probability of finding functional proteins in mixtures of naive random peptides. Towards this goal, collections of several trillion different protein mutants are subjected to a procedure of selection and evolution in a test tube to isolate functional proteins. In one example, novel ATP binding proteins were identified that appear to be unrelated to any known ATP binding proteins. In a second study, novel enzymes were generated that can join two pieces of RNA together in a reaction for which no natural enzymes are known.

These results not only allow us to measure the occurrence of function in random protein assemblies but also provide experimental evidence for the possibility of alternative protein worlds. Extant proteins might simply represent a 'frozen accident' in the world of possible proteins. Alternative collections of proteins, even with similar functions, could originate alternative evolutionary paths.

For more information and participation instructions: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/seminars/detail/188 [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Keith's note: Multiple, reliable sources within the Astrobiology community tell me that NASA's Astrobiology announcement tomorrow concerns Arsenic-based biochemistry and the implications for the origin of life on Earth, how it may have happened more than once on our planet, and the implications for life arising elsewhere in the universe. NASA has not found life on any other world.

That said, as a biologist, I have to say that this is exciting stuff. It shows that other biochemistries are possible - more than just "life as we know it" and that the possible places where "life" could exist in the universe are now much more numerous as a result. What other biochemistries are possible? I am certain we'll be hearing much more about this.

Posted by Keith Cowing at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NAI collaborative tools were used to link people from around the globe

Using a suite of NAI collaborative tools, an NAI Workshop Without Walls on "Molecular Paleontology and Resurrection: Rewinding the Tape of Life" was held on November 8-10, 2010. Organized by scientists from the NAI teams at Georgia Institute of Technology and Montana State University, the workshop drew over 550 registrants from 31 US states and 30 other countries. Twenty-nine talks were presented using 21 different video conferencing rooms, Adobe Connect and phone. The presentations were recorded and are available online.

For more information: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/articles/nai-hosts-second-workshop-without-walls [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

5 December 2010
Rehovot, Israel

The Israel Society for Astrobiology and the Study of the Origin of Life (ILASOL) holds an annual meeting that will take place, this year, during the Hannuka holiday at the Botnar Auditorium in the Weizmann Institute of Science. For information and abstract submission, please contact ilasolw@weizmann.ac.il. [Source: NAI]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Researchers that include members of NAI's Arizona State University Team and NASA's Exobiology program are using the isotopic composition and concentration of molybdenum in sedimentary rocks to explore how the evolution of Earth's biota is intimately linked to the oxygenation of the oceans and atmosphere. Their results, published in PNAS, indicate two episodes of global ocean oxygenation. The first coincides with the emergence of the Ediacaran fauna ~550 million years ago, including large, motile bilaterian animals. The second, perhaps larger, oxygenation took place ~400 million years ago, well after the initial rise of animals, therefore suggesting that early metazoans evolved in a relatively low oxygen environment. [Source: NAI]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A three-day workshop using NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) remote communications tools, on "Molecular Paleontology and Resurrection: Rewinding the Tape of Life," will be held on 8, 9 & 10 November 2010. Real-time participation requires only an internet connection and is available to interested scientists from around the world. Participants will discuss "top down" origin of life research, which will ultimately allow us to rewind the evolutionary record of biochemical processes and assemblies.

Organized by John Peters and Loren Williams, PIs of the NAI's Montana State University and Georgia Tech teams, a primary goal of the workshop is to foster new interdisciplinary collaborations across the community.

Session topics will include

* Phylogenetic Studies on Key Enzymes Involved in Information Pathways and Metabolism
* The Evolutionary History of Protein Synthesis
* Minerals to Enzymes, Bridging the Gap Between Metal-Based Abiotic and Biological Chemistry
* Phylogenetic Reconstruction/Resurrection, A Glimpse into Extinct Biochemistry
* What Can Modern Biological Energy Transformation Systems Tell Us About Conditions on the Early Earth?
* Linking the Evolutionary Record to the Geological Record

The workshop is open to the worldwide science community and is accessible via internet browser. To receive information on how to connect to the workshop, register on the NAI website: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/ool-www/ . [Source: NAI]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The NAI scientists who put an innovative "tree of life" online last year now have made that same resource available -- for free -- for iPhone users. The new "TimeTree" application lets anyone with an Apple iPhone harness a vast Internet storehouse of data about the diversity of life, from bacteria to humans. The intuitive interface is designed to answer a simple question, quickly and authoritatively: how long ago did species A and species B share a common ancestor? For more information: http://live.psu.edu/story/48526#nw63 [Source: NAI]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Abstract Submission Deadline: August 10, 2010

2010 Geological Society of America National Meeting: T110, Mountain Formation and Landscape Evolution in the Solar System: Implications for the Origin of Life.

Organizers: Joseph Kula, Suzanne L. Baldwin

Session Summary: Terrestrial mountain formation in the solar system is related to thermal decay, tectonics, and impact events. The processes and timescales of landscape evolution will be explored with implications for the origin and search for life.

For more information: http://geosociety.org/meetings/2010/sessions/topical.asp?SponsorID=GSA+Planetary+Geology+Division

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A NASA Astrobiology Institute-funded study led by Chris Dupont of the J. Craig Venter Institute indicates that environmental availability of trace elements over Earth's history influenced the selection of elements used by life as biological evolution progressed. Their results show that environmental concentrations of trace metals influenced which types of metal-binding proteins evolved, and the relative timing of their evolution.

The study implies that the geochemistry of the Archean ocean (>2.5 billion years ago) influenced both the evolution of metal-binding protein architectures and the selection of elements by the ancestors of modern Archaea and Bacteria (simple single cell organisms). Specifically, low Zn, Mo, and Cu concentrations in the Archean ocean likely prevented the widespread emergence and diversification of Eukaryotic life (including plants, animals, and fungi) until the oceans became oxic, relatively late in Earth's history. The study also revealed that although modern Archaea and Bacteria still predominantly use ancient metal-binding protein structures, most Eukaryotes use both early- and late- evolving structures. The paper appears in the May 24 Early Edition of PNAS.

Source: NAI Newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Join us for the second in a series of NASA Astrobiology Postdoctoral Program (NPP) seminars!

Date/Time: Monday, July 12th, 11am Pacific Time
Title: "Impact Bombardments on Early Earth and Mars: Implications for Habitability"
Speaker: Oleg Abramov, University of Colorado, Boulder

Abstract: Lunar rocks and impact melts, lunar and asteroidal meteorites, and an ancient martian meteorite record thermal metamorphic events with ages that group around and/or do not exceed 3.9 Gyr. That such a diverse suite of solar system materials share this feature is interpreted to be the result of a post-primary-accretion cataclysmic spike in the number of impacts commonly referred to as the late heavy bombardment (LHB). We report numerical models constructed to probe the degree of thermal metamorphism in the crust in the effort to recreate the effect of the LHB on the Earth and Mars; outputs were used to assess habitable volumes of crust for possible near-surface and subsurface primordial microbial biospheres. Our analysis shows that there is no plausible situation in which the habitable zone was fully sterilized on Earth and Mars, at least since the termination of primary accretion of the planets and the postulated impact origin of the Moon. Our results explain the root location of hyperthermophilic bacteria in the phylogenetic tree for 16S small-subunit ribosomal RNA, and bode well for the persistence of microbial biospheres even on planetary bodies strongly reworked by impacts. In fact, on Mars, the LHB may have been very beneficial for habitability by generating widespread hydrothermal activity, releasing water vapor into atmosphere, and likely temporarily changing global climate to a warmer and wetter state.

For more information and connection information: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/seminars/detail/178

Source: NAI Newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Workshop Dates: October 11-13, 2010

NAI, together with the Agouron Institute and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, are again sponsoring a field workshop of the Early Earth Focus Group following upon the very successful BAR (Biosignatures in Ancient Rocks) workshop of 2007. The topic of this workshop is Anoxygenic Phototrophic Ecosystems (APE): Ancient and Modern. This workshop will bring together approximately 40 microbial ecologists, astro- and geobiologists; including ~10 senior scientists who have made significant contributions to our understanding of modern and ancient anaerobic ecosystems and of the chemistry of ancient oceans, ~15 early career researchers (assistant professors and postdocs) who have been actively conducting forefront research, and ~15 future leaders (current graduate students) in this field. The workshop is scheduled for Oct. 11-13 in Fayetteville, New York, at the scenic and biogeochemically stratified Green Lake. Travel awards are available. Please contact Linda Altamura (Penn State Astrobiology Research Center: lxg2@psu.edu) for further information.

For more information about the Early Earth Focus Group, visit: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/focus-groups/current/early-earth/intro/ [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Date/Time: Monday, June 21, 2010 11:00AM Pacific Speaker: Lee Kump (Pennsylvania State University) Title: "Evolution of the Oceans: Pale Pink Dot"

Although uniformitarian views dominated early thinking of ocean chemical evolution over geologic time, today we recognize that the composition of seawater has varied significantly over Earth's history. Some changes are ingrained in our thinking (for example, that the Archean ocean was anoxic and iron-rich) while others are rarely considered. For example, if sulfate was a trace constituent of the Archean ocean, then the chemistry of hydrothermal fluids would have been significantly different (more reduced, with high hydrogen partial pressures and iron concentrations but low concentrations of hydrogen sulfide); this may be of significance to those considering such environments as the locus for the origin of life and for early ecosystems. Refinement of radiometric ages of banded iron formations suggest that their deposition was episodic, not continuous, and this may require us to rethink the notion of a persistently Fe-replete Archean ocean. The rise of atmospheric oxygen in the earliest Proterozoic ironically created the potential for highly reducing marine conditions with free hydrogen sulfide in the upper water column supporting anoxygenic phototrophs. The persistence of these conditions through the Proterozoic is uncertain, but when they occurred, the "pale blue dot" may have been pink. Strategies for life detection on distant planets is based in part on our interpretation of Earth's oceanic and atmospheric evolution, and we have some way to go before we can confidently describe the evolutionary history and persistence of particular conditions on Earth.

For more information and participation instructions: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/seminars/detail/174 [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Ediacaran Period (635-542 million years ago) was a time of fundamental environmental and evolutionary change, culminating in the first appearance of macroscopic animals. A new study from NAI's Arizona State University Team outlines a detailed record of Ediacaran ocean chemistry for the Doushantuo Formation in the Nanhua Basin, South China. Their results suggest a stratified ocean was maintained dynamically throughout the Ediacaran Period. Their model reconciles seemingly conflicting geochemical conditions proposed previously for Ediacaran deep oceans, and helps explain the patchy fossil record of early metazoans. Their paper appears in the April 2nd issue of Science.

[Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 5:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Studies of modern sedimentary analogs to ancient rock precursors are critical to gain insight into the biogeochemical processes responsible for generating unique chemical or isotopic compositions in ancient rocks. A recent study published by the University of Wisconsin NAI Team in Geobiology provides an example of such a modern analog study in the context of Archean and Paleoproterozoic Banded Iron Formations (BIFs). Sediments downstream of the Iron Mountain acid mine drainage site in northern California were examined for their chemical and Fe isotope composition, as well as the presence and activity of iron-reducing microorganisms. The results link dissimilatory microbial iron reduction (DIR) to the generation of large quantities of aqueous (mobile) ferrous iron, and provide the first demonstration of Fe isotope fractionation in an environment where DIR has been shown by microbiological methods to be active in sediment metabolism. These findings provide insight into pathways whereby DIR could have led to the formation of isotopically-light Fe-bearing minerals in BIFs.

[Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 5:53 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, June 7, 2010 11:00AM Pacific
Speaker: Katrina Edwards (University of Southern California)
Title: "Intraterrestrial Life on Earth"

In 1986, scientists sailing in the Pacific Ocean made an astonishing discovery. In sediments collected from 850m below the seafloor, they identified that microbes were living and thriving in an environment not previously known to contain life. This discovery has spawned a new field of research on the "deep biosphere" with researchers exploring how life persists and evolves at hostile temperatures and pressures. With estimates that the sub-seafloor may contain as much two-thirds of the Earth's microbial population, research today focuses on understanding the importance, or lack thereof, of this community to the Earth's systems. This presentation will focus on the current state of knowledge with respect to the deep biosphere and the major questions being addressed in this field, such as what are the nature and extent of life on Earth? What are the physico-chemical limits of life on Earth? How metabolically active is the deep biosphere, and what are the most important redox processes? What are the dispersal mechanisms for life in the deep biosphere? How does life evolve in deeply buried geological deposits that can occur more than a km beneath the ocean floor? What is the influence of the deep biosphere on global-scale biogeochemical processes?

For more information and participation instructions: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/seminars/detail/174

[Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Researchers from NAI's University of Wisconsin Team studied carbon and iron isotopes in core samples from 2.7-2.5 billion year old rocks in Western Australia. New iron isotope data integrated with previously collected carbon isotope data on the same samples document the sophisticated metabolic diversity of microbial communities that once lived in the region, showing that methane and iron cycling were likely coupled. Their results are published in a recent issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters. [Source NAI newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

TO: NAI Newsletter distribution list
FROM: George Cody (NAI CIW team) and Douglas Whittet (NAI RPI team)
SUBJECT: Announcement and invitation to attend NAI "Workshop Without Walls": The Organic Continuum from the ISM to the Early Solar System

DATES: March 11-12, 2010

Workshop Website: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/2010vcworkshop

A two-day workshop using NAI remote communications tools will be held on March 11 and 12, 2010 to present topics spanning the cosmic evolution of organic complexity, from small molecule formation in interstellar clouds to organic synthesis and inventories in protoplanetary disks, the solar nebula, and primitive bodies such as comets and asteroids in our solar system.

Workshop topic areas include

* Interstellar Dust and the Organic Inventory of Protostellar Envelopes
* Organic Astrochemistry of Protoplanetary Disks
* Laboratory Studies of analog ISM and outer Solar System Materials
* Organics and Volatiles in Comets
* Organic matter in Interplanetary Dust particles.
* The Organic Inventory in Asteroids and Primitive Meteorites

This workshop is also a test of how to best use the advanced virtual communications capabilities of NAI to initiate greater cross-team awareness and dialog on a focused research area well represented across the NAI. What we learn from this will inform the greater NAI community.  

The workshop is open to all and will be accessible via internet browser- no special software or equipment is required. To receive connection details, please register on the NAI website: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/2010vcworkshop

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

30 January - 4 February 2011 at the Ventura Beach Marriott Hotel, Ventura, CA

Microbial Ecology in the Early Fossil Record of Earth and Modern Analogues

Convenors: Nora Noffke & John Stolz

This GRC will discuss the latest research highlights in geobiology and will invite exciting case studies that demonstrate the potential of this interdisciplinary research field. The aim is to involve geoscientists as well as bioscientists into this discussion and to initiate collaboration between the disciplines. Geobiology involves the study of both modern and ancient environments and life therein. It is not only relevant to the appearance and evolution of life and habitats on Earth, but has implications for the detection of life on other planetary systems. The main themes of this conference are: i) Biofilms and microbial mats; ii) Biologically controlled sedimentary processes in modern environments; iii) Products of biologically controlled sedimentary processes in fossil environments: biogenic sedimentary structures; (iv) The geobiological approach for the search for life on other planets; and (v) Perspectives and outlook.

For more information: http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2011&program=geobiology

Source: NAI newsletter

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

A new paper in Science from NAI's Arizona State University team indicates that a trusted equation for calculating the age of the solar system may need rewriting. The team's measurements show that one of the equation's assumptions -- that certain kinds of uranium always appear in the same relative quantities in meteorites -- is wrong.

The differences in the quantities of uranium could mean that current estimates of the age of the solar system overshoot that age by 1 million years or more. Historical estimates place the age at about 4.5 billion years--a number that is not precise enough to show a difference of one million--but more finely honed recent calculations place the age at more like 4.5672 billion years. One million years is still an eyeblink at this scale, representing the difference between 4.566 and 4.567, but this difference is important in understanding the infant solar system. [Source NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NASA astrobiologists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, a key component of RNA, in the laboratory. They discovered that an ice sample containing pyrimidines exposed to ultraviolet radiation under space-like conditions produces this essential ingredient of life. The study appears in the September issue of Astrobiology.

"We have demonstrated for the first time that we can make uracil, a component of RNA, non-biologically in a laboratory under conditions found in space," said Michel Nuevo, research scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center. "We are showing that these laboratory processes, which simulate occurrences in outer space, can make a fundamental building block used by living organisms on Earth."

[Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 5:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Loren Williams, "Where Did Protein Come From?"

Date/Time: Tuesday December 8, 2009 2:30PM Pacific

Speaker: Loren Williams (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Abstract: Ribosomes are RNA-based macromolecular machines responsible for the synthesis of all proteins in all living organisms. Ribosomes are the most ancient of life's macromolecules and are our most direct link to the deep evolutionary past, beyond the base of the phyologenetic tree. The recent availability of high resolution 3D structures of ribosomes provides us with new methods of detection and inference. We will discuss methods for resurrection and biochemical characterization of aboriginal ribosomes.

For more information and participation instructions: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/seminars/detail/166

[Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Appearing in the Nov. 27, 2009, issue (Vol. 284, No. 48) of JBC: A key question in the origin of biological molecules like RNA and DNA is how they first came together billions of years ago from simple precursors. Now, in a study appearing in this week's JBC, researchers in Italy have reconstructed one of the earliest evolutionary steps yet: generating long chains of RNA from individual subunits using nothing but warm water.

Many researchers believe that RNA was one of the first biological molecules present, before DNA and proteins; however, there has been little success in recreating the formation on RNA from simple "prebiotic" molecules that likely were present on primordial earth billions of years ago.
Now, Ernesto Di Mauro and colleagues found that ancient molecules called cyclic nucleotides can merge together in water and form polymers over 100 nucleotides long in water ranging from 40-90 *C -similar to water temperatures on ancient Earth.

Continue reading "Just like old times: Generating RNA molecules in water" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Members of NAI's team at Georgia Tech have a new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution describing an analysis of ribosomal structure and sequence. Their approach chronicles the ribosome's evolution, effectively interpreting the ribosome as a fossil. Using the highest resolution structures available, of two species that represent disparate regions of the evolutionary tree, they have sectioned the large subunit of each ribosome into concentric shells, like an onion, using the site of peptidyl transfer as the origin. Their results suggest that the structure and interactions of both RNA and protein can be described as changing, in an observable manner, over evolutionary time. [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is widely accepted that around 2.4 billion years ago, the Earth's atmosphere underwent a dramatic change when oxygen levels rose sharply. Called the "Great Oxidation Event" (GOE), the oxygen spike marks an important milestone in Earth's history, the transformation from an oxygen-poor atmosphere to an oxygen-rich one paving the way for complex life to develop on the planet.

Two questions that remain unresolved in studies of the early Earth are when oxygen production via photosynthesis got started and when it began to alter the chemistry of Earth's ocean and atmosphere.

Continue reading "Oxygen Production in Earth's Early Oceans Predates the Great Oxidation Event" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Date/Time: Monday, November 30, 2009 11:00AM Pacific Speaker: Andrew Pohorille (NASA Ames Research Center)

Abstract: "Follow the water" is the canonical strategy in searching for life in the universe. Conventionally, discussion of this topic is focused on the ability of a solvent to support organic chemistry sufficiently rich to seed life. Although this is a necessary condition for the emergence of life it is far from being sufficient. Perhaps more importantly, solvent must promote self-organization of organic matter into functional structures capable of responding to environmental changes. In biology, they are mostly based on non-covalent interactions (interactions that do not involve making or breaking chemical bonds), strength of which must be properly tuned. If non-covalent interactions were too weak, the system would exhibit undesired, uncontrolled response to natural fluctuations of physical and chemical parameters. If they were too strong kinetics of biological processes would be slow and energetics costly.

Continue reading "NAI Director's Seminar: Andrew Pohorille, "Is Water Necessary for Life?"" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This new book, edited by Constance M. Bertka is now available. From the publisher: Where did we come from? Are we alone? Where are we going? These are the questions that define the field of astrobiology. New discoveries about life on Earth, the increasing numbers of extrasolar planets being identified, and the technologies being developed to locate and characterize Earth-like planets around other stars are continually challenging our views of nature and our connection to the rest of the universe. In this book, philosophers, historians, ethicists, and theologians provide the perspectives of their fields on the research and discoveries of astrobiology. A valuable resource for graduate students and researchers, the book provides an introduction to astrobiology, and explores subjects such as the implications of current origin of life research, the possible discovery of extraterrestrial microbial life, and the possibility of altering the environment of Mars.

* An introduction to astrobiology exploring the origin of life, the extent of life, and the possibility of life on Mars * Provides philosophical, historical, ethical and theological perspectives on astrobiology * No prior knowledge of the subject is needed as each chapter has been written to be understood by readers new to the field

For more information: http://www.cup.es/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521863636 [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Humans might not be walking on Earth today if not for the ancient fusing of two microscopic, single-celled organisms called prokaryotes, NASA-funded research has found.

By comparing proteins present in more than 3000 different prokaryotes - a type of single-celled organism without a nucleus - molecular biologist James A. Lake from the University of California at Los Angeles' Center for Astrobiology showed that two major classes of relatively simple microbes fused together more than 2.5 billion years ago. Lake's research reveals a new pathway for the evolution of life on Earth. These insights are published in the Aug. 20 online edition of the journal Nature.

This endosymbiosis, or merging of two cells, enabled the evolution of a highly stable and successful organism with the capacity to use energy from sunlight via photosynthesis. Further evolution led to photosynthetic organisms producing oxygen as a byproduct. The resulting oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere profoundly affected the evolution of life, leading to more complex organisms that consumed oxygen, which were the ancestors of modern oxygen-breathing creatures including humans.

Continue reading "NAI Research Reveals Major Insight into Evolution of Life on Earth" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 21 - 23, 2010 Denver, Colorado and Dinosaur Ridge, Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone, Denver

The conference presents an important and novel review on microbial mats and the sedimentary structures they form in siliciclastic settings through Earth times, from the early Archean to the present. The meeting brings together the expertise and knowledge of an international panel of leading researchers to provide a state-of-the art overview of the field. The participants give a timely review of the current and most topical areas of research, essential for all scientists interested in this rapidly growing field. For more information: http://www.sepm.org/activities/researchconferences/microbial/microbial_home.htm Source: NAI Newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Session Abstract: During most of the geologic past, life and the surface environments on Earth were profoundly different than they are today. In particular, it is generally accepted that the atmosphere was devoid of O2, or nearly so, until the "Great Oxidation Event" approximately 2.4 billion years ago. However, considerable uncertainty remains about the abundances of O2 and other oxidants during the first half of Earth history, as well as processes that constrained these abundances to seemingly trace levels. Emerging data should allow tighter constraints on Archean free oxygen concentrations, the variability of redox conditions at high temporal resolution, and the evolutionary and biogeochemical consequences of oxygenation. At the same time there is a need to refine existing proxies, assess their limitations, and develop new ones. This session will explore these issues. We encourage abstracts from a variety of areas ranging from analytical and theoretical geochemistry to genomics. For more information see
http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm09/program/scientific_session_search.php?show=detail&sessid=219 Source: NAI Newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A central question of astrobiology concerns the origin and distribution of life in the Universe. For this reason, astrobiology can be considered to fall within the science called transitional biology. If we accept that life originated by a process of prebiotic chemical evolution, the next question concerns the nature of the transitional pathway from inanimate chemical systems to the first forms of life on Earth. These possible transitional states are the subject matter of transitional biology as a discipline.

Continue reading "Why Is the Definition of Life So Elusive? Epistemological Considerations" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the assumption that future attempts to explore our Solar System for life will be limited by economic constraints, we have formulated a series of principles to guide future searches: (1) the discovery of life that has originated independently of our own would have greater significance than evidence for panspermia; (2) an unambiguous identification of living beings (or the fully preserved, intact remains of such beings) is more desirable than the discovery of markers or fossils that would inform us of the presence of life but not its composition; (3) we should initially seek carbon-based life that employs a set of monomers and polymers substantially different than our own, which would effectively balance the need for ease of detection with that of establishing a separate origin; (4) a "follow-the-carbon" strategy appears optimal for locating such alternative carbon-based life.

Continue reading "The Search for Alien Life in Our Solar System: Strategies and Priorities" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scientists and non-scientists now have easy access to information about when living species and their ancestors originated, information that previously was difficult to find or inaccessible. Free access to the information is part of the new Timetree of Life initiative developed by NAI's Blair Hedges, professor of biology with the Penn State Astrobiology Research Center, and Sudhir Kumar, a professor of life sciences at Arizona State University.

The Timetree of Life project debuted with the simultaneous release of a book titled The Timetree of Life (Oxford University Press), which is written by a consortium of 105 experts on specific groups of organisms and is edited by Hedges and Kumar.

"The TimeTree of Life web tool belongs to a new genre of resources that lets anyone easily mine knowledge previously locked up in technical research articles, without needing to know the jargon of the field," said Kumar. "For example, if you type in 'cat' and 'dog,'" Hedges said, "the program will navigate through the timetree of life to the point where the cat and dog species split, and it will find all the studies bearing on that divergence. Within a few seconds, you will learn that your pet cat and dog diverged in evolutionary time about 50 to 60 million years ago." For more information: http://www.timetree.org/

[Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Pier-Luigi Luisi

The 2009 San Sebastian meeting on OQOL was the follow-up to an analogous meeting held in Erice, Sicily three years ago. The general idea was to identify and discuss the areas in the field that are still "in the darkness", i.e. remain poorly understood despite their importance. We asked what were the reasons of our persisting ignorance, and what could we do to shed light on the "dark" areas. The meeting was not organized as a series of standard lectures (the usual "talk-and-run-away" format). Instead, it was centered on several selected questions, one per half-day, which were first discussed by a panel of experts and then by all participants. The questions had been previously chosen through worldwide polling of researchers in the field. It was a very intense meeting - in four days we covered eight questions.

Continue reading "Impressions from the San Sebastian meeting Open Questions in the Origin of Life (OQOL)" »

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

By Michael Wilson

The NAI held a strategic science initiative workshop in Tempe, AZ on May 13-15, to identify areas where increased collaboration between the funded NAI teams could lead to greater scientific insights and productivity. One of the initiative areas focused on origins of life research; the origins initiative was chaired by George Cody (Carnegie team) and John Peters (Montana State team) and Stephen Freeland (University of Hawaii team).By Michael Wilson

The NAI held a strategic science initiative workshop in Tempe, AZ on May 13-15, to identify areas where increased collaboration between the funded NAI teams could lead to greater scientific insights and productivity. One of the initiative areas focused on origins of life research; the origins initiative was chaired by George Cody (Carnegie team) and John Peters (Montana State team) and Stephen Freeland (University of Hawaii team).

Continue reading "Strategic Science Initiatives in the Origins of Life Report from the NAI meeting" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NAI'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.

Continue reading "New Evidence for an Earlier Origin of Oxygenic Photosynthesis" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Members of NAI's Team at Montana State University have provided a Perspectives piece in Dalton Transactions reviewing the organo-metallic chemistry of the active sites of hydrogenase enzymes. Since hydrogen metabolism is presumed to be an early feature in the energetics of life, and hydrogen metabolizing organisms can be traced very early in molecular phylogeny, studying the metal clusters at hydrogenase active sites can reveal potential conditions in which early life arose. Efforts in this field also could have significant impacts on alternative and renewable energy solutions.

[Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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 a panel on the Origins and Evolution of Life composed of Peter Ward, Ariel Anbar, Baruch Blumberg and Paul Davies.

Listen to the archive here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102715278

[Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ames is proud to announce the first lecture in a series on the Evolution of Science and Technology. On Thursday, March 12 at 7:00 PM at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, Dr. James Strick of Franklin & Marshall College will talk about Charles Darwin and his thoughts on the origins of life. Employees and members of the public are invited to attend this free public lecture sponsored by Ames and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. Additional lectures in the series, which honors the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth among other significant anniversaries, will be announced at a later date.

Continue reading "Lecture on Darwin and the Origin of Life" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:15 AM | 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)

Bacteria are not usually thought of as having a natural habitat like a mammal or insect, but indirect evidence has suggested that, if anything, most of the early evolution of bacteria was in the marine environment (oceans) and not on land. Surprisingly, NAI researchers from Penn State, Fabia Battistuzzi (now at Arizona State University) and Blair Hedges, found evidence that a large group of bacteria--two-thirds of all ~10,000 described species--trace their ancestry back to a life on land, not in the oceans. These bacteria have many useful adaptations, including the production of oxygen, which now may be tied to their land-loving lifestyle. Their article appeared in the February issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Continue reading "Most Prokaryotes Trace to an Ancient Origin on Land" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:58 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)

Workshop: OPEN QUESTIONS ON THE ORIGINS OF LIFE
SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN, MAY 20-23, 2009
Organizers: Pier Luigi Luisi and Kepa Ruiz-Mirazo

The overall idea behind this workshop is to tackle a number of key questions about the origin of life that still remain unanswered, attempt to clarify why it is so, and to discuss how to progress in our efforts to answer these questions.

In the field of the origins of life, as in many other fields, there is a tendency and a danger for all of us to keep working in our own, fairly narrow areas of expertise and ignore "the big picture". Thus, from time to time, it is important to ask "where are we in the field and what are the main stumbling blocks on the road?" A similar meeting was already held, in a preliminary form, in Erice, Sicily, in 2006. It created a considerable interest so many researchers asked that we continue the experiment in a more developed form. In fact, one conclusion of the Erice meeting was that it should be repeated, possibly on regular basis (every 2-3 years) and involved more countries and a larger number of young researchers.

Continue reading "Astrobiology Workshop: Open Questions on the Origins of Life" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NAI - Nordic Summer School: "Water, Ice and the Origin of Life in the Universe"

Iceland, 29 June to 13 July 2009

The NASA Astrobiology Institute and the Nordic Astrobiology Network will conduct a summer school on the role of water in the evolution of life in the cosmos - in Iceland on the above dates. The school is intended for students and post-docs in astrobiology-related subjects (biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, geosciences etc.) The school will be organized in three sections:

* An introductory lecture course
* Excursions to several places in Iceland of astrobiological interest (hot springs, glaciers, geysers, Mars-like environments)
* A lab course on the geochemistry and extremophile community of hot springs (no previous experience in microbiological lab work and field research needed)

Continue reading "Nordic Summer School: "Water, Ice and the Origin of Life in the Universe"" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Members of NAI's Carnegie Institution of Washington, Indiana University, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Teams and their colleagues have revisited the Miller-Urey experiments, and found some surprising results.

A classic experiment proving amino acids are created when inorganic molecules are exposed to electricity isn't the whole story, it turns out. The 1953 Miller-Urey Synthesis had two sibling studies, neither of which was published. Vials containing the products from those experiments were recently recovered and reanalyzed using modern technology. The results are reported in Science.

Continue reading "Miller-Urey Revisited" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Starting January 1, 2009, a new 4-year program will investigate hydrothermal systems on the Mid-Cayman Spreading Center (MCSC) under NASA's ASTEP program - a joint collaboration between Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and Duke University Marine Laboratory (DUML). The results of the work will be used to plan astrobiological exploration of any planetary body that can host hydrothermal circulation (for example, Europa).

Continue reading "2 PhD Student and 2 Postdoctoral Researcher Positions- Hydrothermal Activity on the Mid-Cayman Spreading Center" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to an article published in the Washington Post, scientists studying the Murchison meteorite have found that it contains clues to the origin of chirality. Amino acids in nature have two forms, referred to as right- and left-handed, that are mirror images of each other. The proteins in living organisms, however, are only made from left-handed amino acids. The reason for this chirality is not understood, but this new research suggests it may stem from meteorites that rained down on the young Earth.

Source; NAI Newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An ecosystem discovered 2.8 kilometers underground in the Mponeng Gold Mine near Johannesburg, South Africa two years ago has now been shown to comprise only a single species of microbe, existing on energy from radioactivity, completely independently of the Sun. The community of rod-shaped bacteria of the species Desulforudis audaxviator was discovered in 2005-06 by members of the NAI's Indiana-Princeton-Tennessee Astrobiology Initiative (IPTAI) Team. Their current results are presented in the October 10th issue of Science.

Continue reading "Life Without the Sun" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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. Working 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 DNA. This research removes one of the large stumbling blocks in prebiotic chemistry- that the early Earth lacked a low-temperature reservoir of activated phosphate compounds capable of eventually leading to the origin of life.

Source: NAI Newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 7:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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 fixed nitrogen.

Their data, revealing relative abundances of 3-methylhopanes, but not 2-methylhopanes, strongly correlate to stable carbon isotopic composition of insoluble particulate organic matter (kerogen). The unanticipated nature of this relationship provides evidence for a shallow-water locus of carbon cycling through aerobic oxidation of methane and, coincidentally, a means to demonstrate biomarker syngenicity.

Source: NAI Newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 7:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Astrophysicists from the NAI's Carnegie Institution of Washington team and their colleagues have shown for the first time that a supernova could have triggered the solar system's formation under conditions of rapid heating and cooling. For several decades, scientists have thought that the solar system formed as a result of a shock wave from an exploding star--a supernova--that triggered the collapse of a dense, dusty gas cloud that contracted to form the sun and the planets. But detailed models of this formation process have only worked under the simplifying assumption that the temperatures during the violent events remained constant. The results, published in the October 20, 2008, issue of the Astrophysical Journal, have resolved this long-standing debate.

Source: NAI Newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 7:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The NASA Exoplanet Science Institute announces the introduction of the Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowship Program and solicits applications for fellowships to begin in the fall of 2009.

The Sagan Fellowships support outstanding recent postdoctoral scientists to conduct independent research that is broadly related to the science goals of the NASA Exoplanet Exploration area. The primary goal of missions within this program is to discover and characterize planetary systems and Earth-like planets around nearby stars.

Continue reading "Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships in Exoplanet Exploration" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 6:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NAI's University of Wisconsin team presents a review of iron isotope fingerprints created through biogeochemical cycling in the May, 2008 issue of The Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. This landmark paper brings together for the first time the co-evolution records of photosynthesis, bacterial sulfate reduction, and bacterial iron reduction in the early Earth. They review data on natural systems and experiments, looking at both abiological and biological processes, and conclude that the temporal carbon, sulfur, and iron isotope record reflects the interplay of changing microbial metabolisms over Earth's history. [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 6:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Date/Time: Monday, September 29, 2008 11:00AM Pacific
Speaker: Norm Sleep, Stanford University

Abstract: Silicate super-earths are rocky planets with masses up to ~10 that of the Earth. They are of astrobiological interest because they are relatively easy to detect around other stars. Tectonics enhances habitability on the Earth by exhuming biologically important elements. Plate tectonics are too poorly understood on the Earth to tell whether this process should occur on larger planets. Still the Gauss' law relationship that surface heat flow scales with surface gravity provides some insight and yields that the geotherm expressed in terms of pressure is to the first order invariant to planetary size.

Continue reading "NAI Director's Seminar: Norm Sleep, "Habitability of Superearths"" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 5:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Members of NAI's University of Wisconsin, Madison team have a new paper in Earth and Planetary Science Letters presenting their analyses of 4.35 - 3.36 billion year old detrital zircons from the Jack Hills, Western Australia. Their data reveal relatively high lithium abundances compared to other zircons, as well as lithium isotope ratios that are similar to continental crust weathering products rather than ocean floor basalts. The results support the hypothesis that continental-type crust and oceans existed by 4.3 billion years ago, and suggest that weathering was extensive in the early Archean.

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Astrobiologists hypothesize that shallow water, not deep water, may have cradled the planet's first life; that the dark, carbon-poor depths offered little energy to emerging life. But the newfound abundance of seafloor microbes makes it theoretically possible that early life thrived - and maybe even began - on the seafloor. "Some might even favor the deep ocean for the emergence of life since it was a bastion of stability compared with the surface, which was constantly being blasted by comets and other objects," suggests study author and NAI member Katrina Edwards in the University of Southern California press release. For images and resources, see NSF's press page. [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 3:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Researchers from NAI's Marine Biological Laboratory Team continue their study of the deep biosphere, reporting the latest results in Nature. This new study reveals that bacterial communities dwelling on ocean-bottom rocks are more abundant and diverse than previously thought, especially relative to the overlying water column. The microbes appear to ?feed? on the oceanic crust through seawater-rock alteration reactions involving the oxidation and hydration of glassy basalt. [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 3:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dear Colleague, The National Science Foundation's Assembling the Tree of Life (AToL) solicitation has recently been renewed and updated (see the program solicitation, NSF 08-515; http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf08515). As in the past, the AToL competition will support creative and innovative research to resolve evolutionary relationships for large groups of organisms. The program also supports research on theory and methods and tool development for these large scale phylogenetic investigations. With this letter we wish to draw your attention to several new and/or enhanced areas of interest. Proposals in the following areas are especially encouraged:

Continue reading "NSF Dear Colleague Letter - Assembling the Tree of Life Solicitation" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 819-823

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2007.0207

A key challenge in Astrobiology is to comprehend life and its interaction with the environment at a level sufficiently fundamental to embrace the alternative biochemistries that may be encountered in a search for life elsewhere (Baross et al., 2007).

Continue reading "A "Follow the Energy" Approach for Astrobiology" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 1023-1032

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2006.0091

The shallow habitable region of cratonal crust deforms with a strain rate on the order of 1019 s1. This is rapid enough that small seismic events are expected on one-kilometer spatial scales and one-million-year timescales. Rock faulting has the potential to release batches of biological substrate, such as dissolved H2, permitting transient blooms.

Continue reading "Did Earthquakes Keep the Early Crust Habitable?" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 1006-1022

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2007.0156

Europa is a prime target for astrobiology. The presence of a global subsurface liquid water ocean and a composition likely to contain a suite of biogenic elements make it a compelling world in the search for a second origin of life. Critical to these factors, however, may be the availability of energy for biological processes on Europa.

Continue reading "Energy, Chemical Disequilibrium, and Geological Constraints on Europa" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 987-1005

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2007.0075

We examine means for driving hydrothermal activity in extraterrestrial oceans on planets and satellites of less than one Earth mass, with implications for sustaining a low level of biological activity over geological timescales. Assuming ocean planets have olivine-dominated lithospheres, a model for cooling-induced thermal cracking shows how variation in planet size and internal thermal energy may drive variation in the dominant type of hydrothermal system--for example, high or low temperature system or chemically driven system.

Continue reading "Hydrothermal Systems in Small Ocean Planets" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 873-890

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2007.0127

Formate, a simple organic acid known to support chemotrophic hyperthermophiles, is found in hot springs of varying temperature and pH. However, it is not yet known how metabolic strategies that use formate could contribute to primary productivity in hydrothermal ecosystems. In an effort to provide a quantitative framework for assessing the role of formate metabolism, concentration data for dissolved formate and many other solutes in samples from Yellowstone hot springs were used, together with data for coexisting gas compositions, to evaluate the overall Gibbs energy for many reactions involving formate oxidation or reduction.

Continue reading "Formate as an Energy Source for Microbial Metabolism in Chemosynthetic Zones of Hydrothermal Ecosystems" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Astrobiology December 2007, 7(6): 852-872

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/ast.2006.0066

There are growing indications that life began in a radioactive beach environment. A geologic framework for the origin or support of life in a Hadean heavy mineral placer beach has been developed, based on the unique chemical properties of the lower-electronic actinides, which act as nuclear fissile and fertile fuels, radiolytic energy sources, oligomer catalysts, and coordinating ions (along with mineralogically associated lanthanides) for prototypical prebiotic homonuclear and dinuclear metalloenzymes.

Continue reading "Actinides and Life's Origins" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Researchers from NAI's University of Hawai'i Team and their colleagues have a new paper in Geobiology reviewing recent work on the climatic, geochemical, and ecological events that preceded animal fossils, considering their portent for metazoan evolution. They also consider recent published research on the nature and chronology of the earliest fossil record of metazoans, and on the molecular-based analysis that yielded dates older than the last 35 million years of the Precambrian for the appearance of major animal groups.

[Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NAI's Astrobiology Drilling Program supported researchers in 2004 to obtain subsurface core samples from the Hamersley Basin in Western Australia. Those samples, representing the time just before the Great Oxidation Event, have been analyzed, and two research papers detailing the results (Anbar, et al. and Kaufman, et al.) appear in September 28, 2007 issue of Science. Both groups found unexpected, correlated changes that reveal the presence of small but significant amounts of O2 in the environment 2.5 billion years ago, ~50-100 milion years before the Great Oxidation Event, and a shift from lower O2 abundance prior to that time. [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: Ariel Anbar (Arizona State University)
Date/Time: Monday, November 5, 2007 11:00 AM PST

Abstract: Many lines of evidence point to a rapid rise of atmospheric O2 between 2.45 - 2.22 billion years ago (Ga), a transition often referred to as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). The cause of the GOE is unknown. It could have been an immediate consequence of the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. Alternatively, O2 biogenesis may be ancient and the GOE a consequence of an abiotic shift in the balance of oxidants and reductants at the Earth's surface that crossed a critical threshold at that time. In the latter case, oxygenic photosynthesis could have evolved long before the GOE. This debate can be addressed by looking for evidence of localized or short-lived concentrations of O2 before 2.45 Ga.

Continue reading "NAI Director's Seminar: "A Whiff of Oxygen before the Great Oxidation Event"" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Researchers from NAI's Carnegie Institution of Washington Team have a paper in Nature describing evidence that Earth's Mesoarchean atmosphere (3.2 and 2.8 Gya) possessed very low amounts oxygen. These findings contrast with prior claims that Earth's atmosphere underwent its first rise in oxygen during the Mesoarchean, and indicate that oxygen first rose above parts per million levels sometime between 2.45 and 2.4 billion years ago. [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Biomarkers in rocks prior to the rise in Earth's atmospheric oxygen 2.5 billion years ago show cyanobacteria released oxygen at the same levels as today. What was happening to that oxygen? A new paper in Nature from NAI's Penn State Team proposes that the rise of atmospheric oxygen occurred because the predominant sink for oxygen--enhanced submarine volcanism--was abruptly and permanently diminished during the Archaean-Proterozoic transition by a shift from predominantly submarine volcanism to a mix of subaerial and submarine volcanism.

Source: NAI Newsletter

Posted by Keith Cowing at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speaker: Norman Pace (University of Colorado, Boulder), Date/Time: Monday, September 24, 2007 11AM PDT

Abstract: Life anywhere in the universe is likely to be based on carbon and to have a basic biochemistry similar to our own. The fundamental demands of life anywhere thus are the same: to capture energy in order to transform organic chemistry into more of self. In order to accomplish these tasks and thrive, terrestrial life has penetrated all permissible thermodynamic and physical niches offered by planet Earth. Consequently, it is likely that terrestrial life offers models for life in almost any habitable niche in the Universe. Knowledge of terrestrial diversity thus informs us about possible life anywhere.

Continue reading "NAI Director's Seminar: "Life in the Universe: The Expanding World of Microbial Diversity"" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 7:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This new video from JPL shows how NASA astrobiologists are gathering exciting clues that will help them pick the best spots to search for possible signs of life beyond Earth. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/phoenix/phx20070724/ [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 6, 2007 to August 10, 2007

Each summer, NAI's Marine Biological Laboratory Team offers a one-week workshop for middle and high school teachers focusing on activities that can be incorporated into existing classroom curricula. Resident and visiting scientists from the Woods Hole community present teachers with background information and updates on current research developments on a variety of topics related to the importance of microbes and microbial processes in the biosphere.

Posted by Keith Cowing at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

THE LIMITS OF ORGANIC LIFE IN PLANETARY SYSTEMS, a new report from the National Research Council, examines the search for life elsewhere in the universe and whether the fundamental requirements for life as we generally know it are the only ways phenomena recognized as "life" could be supported beyond our planet.

Continue reading "The National Academies Search for 'weird' life" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 11:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NAI scientists from the Carnegie Institution of Washington Team and their colleagues have a new paper in Geology outlining their process in resolving the mysterious identity of the Devonian fossil organism Prototaxities as a fungus. The team analyzed carbon isotopic ratios of the fossil relative to plants that lived in the same environment 400 million years ago. [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

UW Seminar: Four Billion Years of Climate Change (Lessons from the Precambrian): From Oxygen Poisoning to Snowballs & True Polar Wander Presenter: Joe Kirschvink

Date/Time: 5/29/2007 02:30 PM PDT

Continue reading "Seminar" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Multidisciplinary work from members of NAI's SETI Institute Team and a host of collaborators across the NAI re-examines what is known at present about the potential for a terrestrial planet forming within, or migrating into, the classic liquid–surface–water habitable zone close to an M dwarf star. Their new paper, published in the current issue of Astrobiology, presents the summary conclusions of an interdisciplinary workshop sponsored by NAI and convened at the SETI Institute in 2005. [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Differently colored plants may live on extra-solar planets, according to two new papers in the current issue of Astrobiology authored by members of NAI's Virtual Planetary Laboratory Alumni Team and their colleagues. They took previously simulated planetary atmospheric compositions for Earth-like planets orbiting various star types (including M stars), generated spectra, and found that photosynthetic pigments may peak in absorbance in the blue for some star types, and red-orange and near-infrared for others. Their results also suggest that, under water, organisms would still be able to survive ultraviolet flares from young M stars and acquire adequate light for growth - which greatly increases the scope for habitability in these systems. [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:57 PM | 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)

Special session at the 210th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu, Hawaii
Thursday May 31 (Morning) Convenors: Nader Haghighipour and Eric Gaidos (University of Hawaii NAI Lead Team)

Continue reading "Hot Earths: Formation, Detection and Structure" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NAI's Marine Biological Laboratory and Carnegie Institution of Washington Teams are contributing authors on a new paper in Earth and Planetary Science Letters presenting a new model for the evolution of Proterozoic deep seawater composition based on rare earth elements. Their data suggest transitional, suboxic conditions in the deep ocean (vs. sulfidic), which likely limited nutrient concentrations in seawater and, consequently, may have constrained biological evolution. [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Special Session "Microbially mediated processes governing the redox cycling of metals" at the 2007 Goldschmidt Conference, Cologne (Germany) Session Organizers: Colleen Hansel, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University Andreas Kappler, Center for Applied Geoscience, University of Tübingen

Continue reading "Microbially mediated processes governing the redox cycling of metals" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 8:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dr. Joshua Lederberg, a Nobel-winning microbiolgist whose advice helped create NASA's early biology programs, will receive the Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor.

Continue reading "NASA Advisor on the Search for Life to Receive Medal of Freedom" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Robert Hazen, from NAI's Carnegie Institution of Washington Team, published his 2005 Presidential Address to the Mineralogical Society of America in this month's American Mineralogist.

Continue reading "Mineral Surfaces and Life" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The December 2006 issue of Geobiology is a collection of papers focusing on the history of Earth's biogeochemistry, from the earliest sedimentary rocks in Greenland to the late Proterozoic. The rise of atmospheric oxygen provides a thematic link.

Continue reading "Oxygen and Life in the Precambrian" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NAI has approved funding for the development of a new, state-of-the-art facility capable of recreating past atmospheric and oceanic conditions, to be called VAL, the Variable Atmospheres Laboratory. Capable of simulating various combinations of oxygen, carbon dioxide, temperature, and hydrogen sulfide levels, this facility will be able to test new hypotheses for the cause of some of the Earth's major mass extinction events - such as the Permian and Triassic mass extinctions.

Continue reading "NAI Researchers to Recreate Conditions of the Early Earth" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scientists from NAI's Penn State Team have contributed to a new book entitled "Neoproterozoic Geobiology and Paleobiology," Xiao, Shuhai; Kaufman, Alan J. (Eds.). Their article, entitled "Molecular Timescale of Evolution in the Proterozoic," is one of many sections exploring topics from the rise in complexity of life, to phylogeny and timing of prokaryotes and eukaryotes, the colonization of land by plants and fungi, global glaciations, and "oxygen and the Cambrian explosion."

Continue reading "New Book on the Neoproterozoic" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (B). Organised and edited by Charles Cockell, Sydney Leach and Ian Smith Published August 2006

Continue reading "Conditions for the Emergence of Life on the Early Earth: Special Issue Special Issue" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Speakers: Sean Raymond (University of Colorado) and Avi Mandell (Goddard Space Flight Center) Date/Time: Monday, November 27, 2006 11AM PST

Continue reading "NAI Director's Seminar 11/27: Formation of Habitable Planetary Systems: Are We Normal?" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 9:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Peter Ward from NAI's Alumni Team at the University of Washington and his collaborators have a new paper out in PNAS providing supportive evidence for Romer's Gap. Their results link this gap in vertebrate terrestrialization with a low atmospheric oxygen interval. This paper supports Ward's new book on the evolution of effective respiratory systems, entitled "Out of Thin Air." [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Join us for the next University of Washington Astrobiology Seminar! David Deamer of U.C. Santa Cruz will be speaking on the topic "Self-assembly Processes in the Prebiotic Environment"

Continue reading "University of Washington Seminar: Self-assembly Processes in the Prebiotic Environment" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Join us for the next University of Washington Astrobiology Seminar! George Shaw of Union College will be speaking on the topic "A (not so) Brief History of Carbon on Earth." Date/Time: Tuesday, October 24, 2:30PM PDT (11:30am HT/3:30pm MDT/4:30pm CDT/5:30pm EDT)

Continue reading "University of Washington Seminar: A (not so) Brief History of Carbon on Earth" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 1:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) are providing matching support towards the study of the ancient rock record of the early Earth, between 2.0 and 2.5 billion years ago. This period represents one of the critical transitions in the Earth's history as it reflects the emergence of the modern aerobic, or oxygen-rich Earth system.

Continue reading "NAI and NSF Provide Joint Funding to Understand the Environment of the Earth More Than 2 Billion Years Ago" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 1:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With NAI support, the Evolutionary Genomics Focus Group hosted a one-day symposium on Friday, May 26th, at Arizona State University. Blair Hedges (Penn State) organized the event, which featured 15 speakers from the U.S. and Europe and more than 100 participants, during the annual meeting for the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Continue reading "Discovering the Timetree of Life Symposium" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 12:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In conjunction with the 2006 GRC Origin of Life conference, organizers are offering the first Origin of Life Graduate Research Seminar. The Graduate Research Seminar is designed to identify top young talent in diverse fields and encourage them to present cutting edge research in origin of life contexts.

Continue reading "Graduate Research Seminar - Origin of Life (Gordon Research Conference)" »

Posted by Keith Cowing at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reviewed this week in Science, Robert Hazen's new work, "Genesis: The Search for Life's Origin" was published recently with Joseph Henry Press. Hazen, from NAI's Carnegie Institution of Washington Team, has woven together a look at life in the Geophysical Laboratory and the history of origin of life theory and debate for an "...engaging, sometimes dramatic tale." To read the review, go here. [Source: NAI Newsletter]

Posted by Keith Cowing at 11:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Applications are now being accepted for the 2006 Gordon Research Conference on the Origin of Life, at Bates College, Maine, July 23-28. Please visit http://www.grc.org/programs/2006/origin.htm for more information. Due to the the first Origin of Life Graduate Research Seminar being held in conjunction with the regular GRC OOL, a significant response is anticipated. Applicants are encouraged to apply early.

Posted by Keith Cowing at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

20 - 21 June, 2006, Shine Dome, Australian Academy of Science, Gordon Street, Acton, ACT

This conference is convened to pay tribute to the work of Paul Davies, following the occasion of his 60th birthday (4.22.2006). Davies' publications explore pathways starting from the Big Bang, subatomic particles, atoms and molecules, through to the origin of life and intelligence, realms of human consciousness and spiritual dimensions, and leading to the motto "We were meant to be here." (Davies, 1998). For more information: http://www.manningclark.org.au/events/stars/index.html

Posted by Keith Cowing at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)