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 […]
Origin & Evolution of Life
Posted inAstrobiology (general), Education and Outreach, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Origin & Evolution of Life
Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships in Exoplanet Exploration
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 […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life
Iron Isotope Record Reflects Microbial Metabolism Through Time
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. […]
Posted inConferences and Meetings, NASA Astrobiology Program, Origin & Evolution of Life
NAI Director's Seminar: Norm Sleep, "Habitability of Superearths"
Date/Time: Monday, September 29, 2008 11:00AM PacificSpeaker: Norm Sleep, Stanford University Abstract: Silicate super-earths are rocky planets with masses up to ~10 that of the Earth. They are of astrobiological […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Jack Hills Zircons: New Information About Earth's Earliest Crust
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 […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
Shallow Water Origin of Life?
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 […]
Posted inNASA Astrobiology Program, Origin & Evolution of Life, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Seafloor Microbes Abundant and Thriving … An Alternative Cradle for Life?
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 […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Origin & Evolution of Life
NSF Dear Colleague Letter – Assembling the Tree of Life Solicitation
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, […]
Posted inGenomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Journal articles, Origin & Evolution of Life
A "Follow the Energy" Approach for Astrobiology
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 […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Journal articles, Origin & Evolution of Life
Did Earthquakes Keep the Early Crust Habitable?
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 […]