HABITABLE WORLDS AND THE FUTURE OF CIVILIZATIONS
Humans have gazed up at the sky in wonder since before the dawn of civilization, and the age-old question of “are we alone?” has occupied philosophers and priests for centuries on end. Today the interdisciplinary field of astrobiology strives toward an answer to this mystery by examining this history of life on Earth in an effort to search for life elsewhere and better understand our future. Astrobiology is a collaborative effort among scientists of different fields to examine the origin, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Earth is the only known example of an inhabited planet, but this at least provides astrobiologists with a rich geological and biological history to examine the conditions that led to the formation of life. Investigation into the interplay between life and climate can lead toward a more fundamental understanding of exactly what is needed for an environment to be “habitable”. This in…
MEET AN ASTROBIOLOGIST: DR. SANJOY SOM
Geologist, Astrobiologist, Engineer – NASA Ames Research Centre Research Scientist, Director – Blue Marble Space Institute of Science Dr. Sanjoy Som is a research scientist at the Exobiology Branch of NASA Ames Research Center. His is also a systems engineer for Fruit Fly Lab, a scientific program to study fruit flies on the International Space Station. Fruit Fly Lab – 1 launched in December 2014. Broadly, his research involves investigating the connection between geology, geochemistry, and microbiology in geological systems that involve the reaction of water with sea-floor rocks, through a combination of field, laboratory and theoretical studies. His work on investigation of fossil raindrop imprints to study the ancient Earth atmosphere was published in Nature. He is also the CEO of Blue Marble Space, a non-profit organization whose mission is to enable and promote international unity through space exploration. Blue Marble Space has started several outstanding initiatives including…
India joins an international initiative to build world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
Transmission of radio waves or optical light is the most plausible mechanism of communication between us and any intelligent civilization, if existent in the Milky Way. Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is largely dependent on tapping the radio signals coming from other worlds which are several light years away from us. International community of scientists involved in SETI research have been employing huge radio telescopes like the Arecibo radio telescope, the National Radio Astronomy 140 foot radio telescope, the Big Ear telescope and others, to search for radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations since 1960s. Indian astrophysicists are now all set to make significant contributions in establishment of the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope – the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The SKA radio telescope project will be built in sparsely populated and remote areas of Australia and South Africa, with a total collecting area of approximately one square kilometre,…
MEET AN ASTROBIOLOGIST: DR. PARAG A. VAISHAMPAYAN
Microbiologist, Astrobiologist Jet Propulsion Laboratory – NASA Dr. Parag Vaishampayan is a scientist in the Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in Pasadena, California. In this role, he is responsible for the characterization of the microbial diversity associated with spacecrafts outbound from Earth and the clean-room facilities in which they are assembled. Being the key bioinformatician of his group, he is also involved in the generation and curation of a comprehensive microbial sequence database at JPL. Dr. Vaishampayan has over 15 years of research experience in microbial ecology of diverse and extreme environmental niches, encompassing spacecraft assembly clean rooms, ocean, stratospheric air samples, high altitude caves, hydrothermal vents, and the human gut to name a few. His research has been showcased in more than 35 peer-reviewed publications, a book chapter and multiple presentations. A complete list of his publications can be…
Australian Centre for Astrobiology “Grand Tour” 15 – 25 July 2015
Following the success of the first Grand Tour during 2013 the Australian Center for Astrobiology will repeat the exercise on 15-25 July 2015. As a contribution to the astrobiology community the Australian Centre for Astrobiology will run a field trip to sites that every astrobiologist or geobiologist should see at least once in their lives. It will be a high level educational experience that will enrich the research and teaching programs of the participants. Included will be the extant stromatolites of Shark Bay, the 2.5Ga banded iron formations and an associated iron ore mine of the Hamersley Basin, the putatively cyanobacterial stromatolites of the 2.7 Ga Fortescue Group, and the 3.35-3.49 Ga fossiliferous and other units of the Pilbara Craton with what is arguably the oldest convincing evidence of life on Earth. Expect intense discussions about such topics as the timing of the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis and the composition of…
Is the mind algorithmic? Confusing science speak with layman language
“Evolution is just a theory.” This claim, often made by creationists, is clearly based on a confusion of the scientific meaning of the word “theory” with its meaning in common language. We can forgive confused creationists, though, as most of them unfortunately know very little about science (all the more important it is for us to explain our research in a clear way). However, when scientists themselves make such mistakes, perhaps we should be less forgiving. In science, a theory is a well-established body of knowledge about a certain subject, supported by observable facts, repeatable experiments, and logical reasoning. However, in common language the word “theory” is often used to mean “hypothesis”, “proposition”, or even “speculation” (indeed, these synonyms are all listed in the dictionary). Darwin’s theory of evolution is scientifically well-established (it has been so for more than a century), and is definitely more than “just a hypothesis.” It…
Can cold-loving bacteria help to clean up oil spills?
For several decades scientists have been interested in the ability of psychrophilic (cold- loving) microbial communities to degrade the various components of crude oil, which is a process known as bioremediation. Because temperature has a direct impact on enzyme activity there is a concern that, at very low temperatures, the microbial community might be inhibited in its ability to undertake bioremediation. The benefits of bioremediation were seen in the response of the microbial community during the infamous Deepwater Horizon event in the Gulf of Mexico. Indigenous bacteria deep in the water column consumed much of the escaping oil before it had the opportunity to reach the surface, lowering (but not eliminating) the ecological impact of that disaster. Despite the subtropical location of the Deepwater Horizon, the water temperature where much of this bioremediation took place is only 5 degrees Celsius. This is not much warmer than summertime Arctic surface waters…
Combining fields of sustainability and astrobiology to probe human civilization longevity
Human-caused climate change, ocean acidification and species extinctions may eventually threaten the collapse of civilization, according to some scientists, while other people argue that for political or economic reasons we should allow industrial development to continue without restrictions. In a new paper, two astrophysicists argue that these questions may soon be resolvable scientifically, thanks to new data about the Earth and about other planets in our galaxy, and by combining the earth-based science of sustainability with the space-oriented field of astrobiology. “We have no idea how long a technological civilization like our own can last,” says University of Rochester astrophysicist Adam Frank. “Is it 200 years, 500 years or 50,000 years? Answering this question is at the root of all our concerns about the sustainability of human society.” “Are we the first and only technologically-intensive civilization in the entire history of the universe?” asks Frank. “If not, shouldn’t we stand…
Stray stars between galaxies add to the cosmic light in the universe
Using an experiment carried into space on a NASA suborbital rocket, astronomers at Caltech and their colleagues have detected a diffuse cosmic glow that appears to represent more light than that produced by known galaxies in the universe. The researchers, including Caltech Professor of Physics Jamie Bock and Caltech Senior Postdoctoral Fellow Michael Zemcov, say that the best explanation is that the cosmic light — described in a paper published November 7 in the journal Science — originates from stars that were stripped away from their parent galaxies and flung out into space as those galaxies collided and merged with other galaxies. The discovery suggests that many such previously undetected stars permeate what had been thought to be dark spaces between galaxies, forming an interconnected sea of stars. “Measuring such large fluctuations surprised us, but we carried out many tests to show the results are reliable,” says Zemcov, who led…
Geothermal heating increases the habitability of planets orbiting red dwarfs
Small red stars, known by astronomers as “M-dwarfs”, are the most abundant type of star in the sky and are also the most long-lived of all stars. This means there are plenty nearby of M-dwarfs to search for possible habitable planets, and many current and planned exoplanet surveys emphasize the search for potential worlds orbiting within the habitable zone of these low-mass stars. Astrobiologists often use the term “habitability” to indicate a planet’s ability to sustain liquid water on its surface, thereby providing conditions where life might be able to develop and thrive. The corresponding “habitable zone” describes the range of orbital distances that can support these clement conditions and not lose the water to a rapid runaway greenhouse (from too close an orbit) or a cool condensing atmosphere (from too far an orbit). The problem with planets orbiting M-dwarfs is that they are prone to fall into “synchronous rotation”…
When the Bangladesh people think the monsoon starts
You might expect that a term like “monsoon” has an agreed definition and that scientists can explain when it starts and ends. Defining the monsoon is actually quite contentious, leading to the publication of many different definitions. Some define the monsoon onset according to rainfall, wind change, cloud top temperatures, or a combination of these and other factors. Most of these different methods give results that are similar over Bangladesh. They explain that the monsoon starts in the south east part of the country and sweeps northwestward over a couple of weeks around the beginning of June. However, a couple of publications say something quite different. These publications reveal that the monsoon starts considerably –over 1 month- earlier in northeast Bangladesh. These varying results present us with a challenge. If we want to inform the people of Bangladesh about the monsoon onset, how can we decide which definition to use…
Winter birds are more diverse thanks to warming climate
Climate change alters cast of winter birds MADISON — Over the past two decades, the resident communities of birds that attend eastern North America’s backyard bird feeders in winter have quietly been remade, most likely as a result of a warming climate. Writing this week in the journal Global Change Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison wildlife biologists Benjamin Zuckerberg and Karine Princé document that once rare wintering bird species are now commonplace in the American Northeast. Using more than two decades of data on 38 species of birds gathered by thousands of “citizen scientists” through the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch, the Wisconsin researchers show that birds typically found in more southerly regions are gradually pushing north, restructuring the communities of birds that spend their winters in northern latitudes. To the causal observer of backyard birds, the list of species becoming more common includes the readily familiar: cardinals, chipping…
First direct detection and identification of elusive dark matter particles
Cutting-edge paper by Professor George Fraser — who tragically died in March this year — and colleagues at the University of Leicester provides first potential indication of direct detection of Dark Matter — something that has been a mystery in physics for over 30 years. Space scientists at the University of Leicester have detected a curious signal in the X-ray sky — one that provides a tantalising insight into the nature of mysterious Dark Matter. The Leicester team has found what appears to be a signature of ‘axions’, predicted ‘Dark Matter’ particle candidates — something that has been a puzzle to science for years. In a study being published on Monday 20 October in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the University of Leicester scientists describe their finding of a signal which has no conventional explanation. As first author Professor George Fraser, who sadly died in March of…
Competition between related species of lizards can drive evolution really fast
Scientists working on islands in Florida have documented the rapid evolution of a native lizard species — in as little as 15 years — as a result of pressure from an invading lizard species, introduced from Cuba. After contact with the invasive species, the native lizards began perching higher in trees, and, generation after generation, their feet evolved to become better at gripping the thinner, smoother branches found higher up. The change occurred at an astonishing pace: Within a few months, native lizards had begun shifting to higher perches, and over the course of 15 years and 20 generations, their toe pads had become larger, with more sticky scales on their feet. “We did predict that we’d see a change, but the degree and quickness with which they evolved was surprising,” said Yoel Stuart, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Integrative Biology at The University of Texas at Austin…
Diving birds at risk due to decline in fish stocks in Puget Sound
Birds that dive for fish while wintering in the Salish Sea, located between British Columbia and Washington, are more likely to be in decline than nondiving birds with less specialized diets, according to a study led by the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis. Diving birds were 11 times more likely to be in decline than nondiving birds, according to the study, published in the journal Conservation Biology. Also, populations of diving birds that rely on forage fish, such as Pacific herring, are 16 times more likely to decline than those with more varied diets. The study lends credence to what scientists have long suspected: “If you want to recover birds, you need to recover the food that they’re eating,” said co-author Joe Gaydos, a UC Davis wildlife veterinarian and director of the SeaDoc Society, a program of the UC Davis Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health…