Nobel winner, NASA astrobiologist Blumberg dies
Baruch Blumberg, who won the Nobel Prize for helping identify the Hepatitis B virus and who served as the first chief of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, has died at the age of 85, NASA said Wednesday.
View ArticleIn search of virus fossils
Here's a theory for a comedian to consider: dinosaurs done-in by avian flu. Silly as that may be, we imagine that viruses have been infecting organisms since life first appeared on Earth, but this is...
View ArticleOn early Earth, iron may have performed magnesium's RNA folding job
On the periodic table of the elements, iron and magnesium are far apart. But new evidence suggests that 3 billion years ago, iron did the chemical work now done by magnesium in helping RNA fold and...
View ArticleAstrobiology research: Life possible on extrasolar moons
(Phys.org)—In their search for habitable worlds, astronomers have started to consider exomoons, or those likely orbiting planets outside the solar system. In a new study, a pair of researchers has...
View ArticleBubbling up organics in an ocean vent simulator
(Phys.org)—This week, fizzy ocean water and the alkaline fluid that bubbles up from deep ocean vents are coursing through a structure at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. that is...
View ArticleThe 'habitable edge' of exomoons
Astronomers have their fingers crossed that within the haul of data collected by NASA's Kepler mission, which has already detected nearly three thousand possible exoplanets, hide the signatures of the...
View ArticleNASA team investigates complex chemistry at Titan
(Phys.org) —A laboratory experiment at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., simulating the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan suggests complex organic chemistry that could eventually lead...
View ArticleAstrobiologists find Martian clay contains chemical implicated in the origin...
(Phys.org) —Researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa NASA Astrobiology Institute (UHNAI) have discovered high concentrations of boron in a Martian meteorite. When present in its oxidized form...
View ArticleStudy shows size matters in prehistoric seas
Why did life forms first begin to get larger and what advantage did this increase in size provide? UCLA biologists working with an international team of scientists examined the earliest communities of...
View ArticleBacteria get new badge as planet's detoxifier
A study published recently in PLOS ONE authored by Dr. Henry Sun and his postdoctoral student Dr. Gaosen Zhang of Nevada based research institute DRI provides new evidence that Earth bacteria can do...
View Article55-year old dark side of the Moon mystery solved
(Phys.org) —The Man in the Moon appeared when meteoroids struck the Earth-facing side of the moon creating large flat seas of basalt that we see as dark areas called maria. But no "face" exists on...
View ArticleFingerprints of life on Mars
NASA's Astrobiology Institute (NAI) announced that the SETI Institute has been selected as a new member of the NAI for a 5-year research program, "Changing Planetary Environments and the Fingerprints...
View ArticlePreparing for alien life
At a recent event sponsored by NASA and the Library of Congress, a group of scientists and scholars explored how we might prepare for the inevitable discovery of life beyond Earth.
View ArticleHow can we search for life on icy moons such as Europa?
Our solar system is host to a wealth of icy worlds that may have water beneath the surface. The Cassini spacecraft recently uncovered evidence of a possible ocean under the surface of Saturn's moon,...
View ArticleHow did life become complex, and could it happen beyond Earth?
When astrobiologists contemplate life on nearby planets or moons, they often suggest such life would be simple. Instead of there being some kind of multicellular organism on, say, Jupiter's moon...
View ArticleExotic microbe discovered in undersea aquifer
Two miles below the surface of the ocean, researchers have discovered new microbes that "breathe" sulfate.
View ArticleCould 'green rust' be a catalyst for Martian life?
Mars is a large enough planet that astrobiologists looking for life need to narrow the parameters of the search to those environments most conducive to habitability.
View ArticleAdvances in robots needed to explore icy moons
In December 2013, researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope announced they had found evidence of a water plume emanating from Europa's surface.
View Article'Bathtub rings' suggest Titan's dynamic seas
Saturn's moon, Titan, is the only object in the Solar System other than Earth known to have liquid on its surface. While most of the lakes are found around the poles, the dry regions near the equator...
View ArticleAncient rocks record first evidence for photosynthesis that made oxygen
A new study shows that iron-bearing rocks that formed at the ocean floor 3.2 billion years ago carry unmistakable evidence of oxygen. The only logical source for that oxygen is the earliest known...
View ArticleStraight up, with a twist: New model derives homochirality from basic life...
Life is quirky. Although the molecules that make up all living things obey physical and chemical laws, they do so with a puzzling twist. How did the distinctive molecular features of life emerge, and...
View ArticleLooking back 3.8 billion years into the root of the 'Tree of Life'
NASA-funded researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are tapping information found in the cells of all life on Earth, and using it to trace life's evolution. They have learned that life is a...
View ArticleNitrogen may be a sign of habitability
We might commonly think of Earth as having an oxygen-dominated atmosphere, but in reality the molecule makes up only a fifth of our air. Most of what surrounds us is nitrogen, at 78 percent....
View ArticleA new Goldilocks for habitable planets
The search for habitable, alien worlds needs to make room for a second "Goldilocks," according to a Yale University researcher.
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