The emergence of eukaryotes from a merger between an archaeon and a bacterial cell ~two billion years ago involved a profound change in cellular organisation.
Away Teams & Field Reports
Posted inAnalog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Meteorites & Asteroids, Sample Return, Status Report
Antarctic Search for Meteorites Program (ANSMET) 2025-26 Field Season Cancellation
Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter – Volume 48 No. 2 November 2025
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports, Exploration Gear & Tech, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs
NASA Tests Future Mars Droids In Death Valley
Next-generation drone flight software is just one of 25 technologies for the Red Planet that the space agency funded for development this year.
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Newly Discovered Hydrothermal Fields Off The Island Of Milos
The study identifies three major vent areas — Aghia Kiriaki, Paleochori–Thiorychia, and Vani — all located along active fault zones that run across the Milos shelf.
Posted inAnalog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Cryobiology, Dale Andersen's Field Reports, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Microbiology & Virology, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Tricorders & Sensors, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Astrobiologist Dale Andersen’s Antarctic Field Report: Preview: 2026 Lake Untersee Field Season
Keith’s note: Astrobiologist Dale Andersen will be back in Antarctica at Lake Untersee from early January through the end of February 2026 for another field season of research, leading an […]
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Microbiology & Virology, Sample Return, Status Report
Genome Sequence And Methylome Of The Extremely Halophilic Bacterium Salinibacter Ruber Strain M31T Isolated From A Crystallizer Pond In Mallorca, Spain
Salinibacter ruber strain M31T, an extremely halophilic bacterium, was isolated from a saltern crystallizer pond in Spain. Single-molecule real-time sequencing revealed a 3.6-Mbp genome with a single 3.55-Mbp circular chromosome […]
Posted inAnalog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Cryobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Microbiology & Virology, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Sample Return, Status Report
Subzero Cell Division, Respiration, And Genomic Traits Of Cryophilic Arthrobacter agilis Ant-EH-1 Isolated From Cold-arid Antarctic Mineral Soils
Arthrobacter are commonly isolated from cold soil environments globally, including those that regularly reach sub-freezing temperatures, suggesting that Arthrobacter have significant potential for growth and activity under temperature and stress […]
Posted inArtemis & Lunar Exploration, Away Teams & Field Reports, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Status Report
Mars-Bench: A Benchmark for Evaluating Foundation Models for Mars Science Tasks
Foundation models have enabled rapid progress across many specialized domains by leveraging large-scale pre-training on unlabeled data, demonstrating strong generalization to a variety of downstream tasks.
Posted inAnalog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
International Research Team Discovers A Potential Source Of Abiotic Methane In The Arctic Ocean
An international team of scientists and students, led by the Arctic University of Norway, and including chemists and engineers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), has announced a remarkable discovery […]
Posted inAway Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Sample Return
Ancient Chemical Clues Reveal Earth’s Earliest Life 3.3 Billion Years Ago
A new study uncovered fresh chemical evidence of life in rocks more than 3.3 billion years old, along with molecular traces showing that oxygen-producing photosynthesis emerged nearly a billion years […]