Astrobiology At NASA: Baruch Blumberg Centennial
Editor’s note (Keith Cowing): Barry Blumberg was one cool dude. I was in on one of the first conversations at NASA Ames when his name came up to attend an event – and then afterward to run NASA Astrobiology Institute. He came up to me in the hallway during the meeting and sheepishly – like a 10 year old kid with a secret – to tell me that he had been selected.
Barry was fun and we had some hilarious times together. He knew I was going to go to Everest. I knew he liked rocks so I said I’d get him one. I did and but I ended up giving it to his his grandson at Barry’s funeral in Philadelphia.
Barry’s selection was one of the most inspired things Dan Goldin did. The field of Astrobiology would not be what it is today – a global discipline with a truly cosmic reach. I had fun writing this piece “Astrobiology at T+5 Years“ for the NSS magazine with Barry in 2002:
“Research spawned by the ALH84001 meteorite from Mars has led to a re-examination of just how small an organism can be as well as new ways of thinking how to find evidence of life elsewhere. Research in extreme environments on Earth has further expanded the boundaries wherein Earth life can exist – thus expanding potential extraterrestrial locales where we should be looking for life elsewhere. Not bad for a 5 year old. Astrobiology has arrived. And we’ve only just started.”
Indeed, look at Astrobiology now 23 years later. Thanks Barry.
I was honored to be part of Barry’s memorial service at NASA Ames in 2011 along with Dan Goldin and others.
Keith Cowing representing the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, Quest for Stars, and the Coalition for Space Exploration speaking at the memorial service for Nobel Laureate Baruch Blumberg at NASA Ames Research Center on 21 June 2011. Cowing was presenting a photo that flew on the Senatobia-1 educational balloon to an altitude of 95,129 feet during the launch of the STS-134 Space Shuttle mission in May 2011. — Astrobiology.com
Baruch S. Blumberg’s centennial—a Nobel laureate cutting through scientific disciplines, springer.com (open access)
“In 1998, NASA founded its Astrobiology Institute at its Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, and appointed Baruch Blumberg its founding director. This did not mean abandoning his previous positions and research, it meant adding new ones. He kept his position at the cancer center and his professorial appointments at the University of Philadelphia. He welcomed the challenge, which opened a new world for him and a new life. What qualified him for the directorship, apart from his being a Nobel laureate, was his managerial skills.
Whereas NASA is a mission-oriented institution, Blumberg’s organization was a basic research institute in support of NASA’s goals. Blumberg compared those goals to the first use of the telescope when every time people looked through the tube, they discovered something new. He was particularly interested in early evolution, the very start of life, and prebiotic chemistry. He was intrigued by the information it would be possible to collect from the tremendous amounts of organic substances that falls on Earth every year in form of meteorites and other space dust.
He found the work for NASA very exciting. He wanted to encourage young people to become scientists and wanted to make high-school students and even grade-school students to become interested in this area. He knew it will take generations to get their project finished.”
Astrobiology,
