Even if we don’t find life, we’ll finally be able to say how rare—or how common—it really might be. What if we spend decades building advanced telescopes to search for life on other planets and come up empty-handed? A recent study led by ETH Zurich researchers including corresponding author, Dr. Daniel Angerhausen (an affiliate of both BMSIS and the SETI Institute), tackled this question, exploring what we can learn about life in the universe—even if we don’t detect signs of […]

By Graham Lau (BMSIS Senior Research Investigator) Units of measurement are essential tools for understanding and navigating our place in the universe. They give us frames of reference when communicating our ideas to each other—from simple ideas like how much flour to add for a bread recipe and how fast you’re allowed to drive without getting in trouble to more complex ideas like understanding the rate of expansion of the universe or calculating how much fuel a spacecraft needs to […]

Taylor is a PhD student in Biophysics at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), where she does research in astrobiology, microbiology, and bioengineering. Her research focuses on extremophiles, particularly halophiles, and their interactions with viruses in Mars analog environments. She also investigates halophilic fungi and uses nanopores to gain insights into microbial life and potential applications for future space missions.

Dr. Roberts Kingman is interested in evolutionary genetics, the molecular mechanisms underlying adaptation to environmental challenges, and the use of synthetic biology to solve broader problems. He completed his Ph.D. at Stanford University using stickleback (a small fish with a unique natural history) as a model system, exploring the genetic changes underlying their remarkable evolution both genome-wide and for a particular trait (armor spine length). He is now working to apply similar techniques and ideas from evolutionary genetics to astrobiology, […]

A.J. Bates has been at Skyline College for over twenty years, where he teaches Chemistry courses for the science majors sequence. He has taught Chemistry at the high school and college levels for over twenty-five years. You can learn more about Dr. Bates and his work on his faculty page.

By Juan A. Ruiz High in elevation in Northern Arizona, nestled amongst a backdrop of mountains and sky, lies Lowell Observatory—a place where imagination fuels the journey of discovery. Founded in 1894 by Percival Lowell, a man whose vision was as vast as the cosmos, this observatory has become a sanctuary for those driven by the relentless quest to understand the universe. Blanketed by starry Flagstaff skies, Lowell Observatory is a living example of the imagination’s ability to advance science. […]

The race is on to discover the origins of life on Earth. I approach the question from a geological perspective – attempting to understand the early environment of our planet so that it might be recreated in the lab… hopefully along with the spontaneous emergence of life! This research naturally leads to thinking about whether or not there is life beyond Earth, as well as the ways in which our planet has been altered over its long history by life. […]