by Emily Harari When I think of Earth, the first thing that comes to mind is life. When I was an undergraduate student studying biology, I saw our planet as an oasis in the desert of our galaxy, where extreme conditions made life seemingly impossible. As I graduated from university, however, I realized that life maybe isn’t just an ‘Earth thing.’ Astrobiology is a field of study that brings together the studies of life on Earth with the possibility for […]
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By Rabeea Rasheed Learning about the cosmic perspective and our seemingly insignificant, yet rare and beautiful place in the universe, makes one think, are there any others out there? Are we alone in the cosmos? These questions are a matter of interest for a lot of humans, but they’ve become a lifelong passion for Julia DeMarines. She’s seeking answers to these questions with help from her extensive academic career and diligent research work. Julia is an astrobiologist, National Geographic Explorer, […]
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It’s a stormy summer afternoon as I sit down to a virtual chat with Ms. Daniella Scalice. On her side of the screen the room looks warm and inviting. There is natural sunlight spilling onto the bookshelves behind her. She takes sips of tea from a large glass in-between my questions. As the Education and Communications Lead for the NASA Astrobiology Program, enthusiastic engagement comes naturally to Daniella. She also brings passion to our discussion. It should be no surprise […]
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By Aditi Sharma From the climate crisis to the current global pandemic, our Earth faces significant threats. This has led many people to criticize space exploration, emphasizing instead that before looking to the stars we should focus on the issues on the planet we live on. It seems that many believe investing in space signifies a severe lack of commitment to improving the Earth. However, such an argument fails to address how space exploration has already benefited modern society and […]
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Dr. Rika Anderson specializes in questions concerning the evolution of microbial life with its environment. She is currently an assistant professor at Carleton College in the Biology department, but her lab collaborates with scientists across disciplines to connect biology with astronomy, geology, oceanography, and atmospheric sciences. Her current lab uses bioinformatic techniques to look at microbial and viral evolution in hydrothermal vent environments, investigating how these microbial species arise, spread, and adapt to new environments by looking at their genetic […]
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By Elisabeth Lee When I think of the Earth, I think about how it is a home for so much life — plants, microbes, fungi, animals, and humans. Technological advances discovered by humans have given us the potential to discover more about our world and uncover its past. While humans are capable of so much positive change, we have the ability to cause so much damage as well. The effects of climate change are permeating into ecosystems, the atmosphere, and […]
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Dr. Zach Adam is interested in origins of life questions, with particular regard for the origin of eukaryotic life. He is currently a staff scientist at Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona and a member of the Kacar Research Group, where he specializes in chemical and geological investigations of early life. He works mainly with Precambrian microfossils and conducts experiments with radiolysis reactions, which involve using alpha, beta, or gamma radiation to form complex molecules important for […]
Read moreWe invite you to contribute a fictional (or “artful” non-fiction) short story to the third volume of the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science (BMSIS) short story collection, “Tales from Spaceship Earth”, to be published by Habitable Press. As the world reels under the weight of the COVID outbreak, it is becoming apparent many things about society will likely change. These changes will be uneven. Some will be good, some will be bad, depending on one’s perspective. The goals of […]
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Dr. Betül Kaçar uses a unique biochemical and phylogenetic approach to study questions about the origins of life. She and her team at the University of Arizona use phylogenetic tree algorithms to infer the ancestral sequences of modern genes. They focus particularly on the genes of essential enzymes that are common across the domains of life. Once derived, they synthesize these hypothesized ancient genes and insert them in modern bacteria to observe how the ancient forms of enzymes affect the […]
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“Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.” — Carl Sandburg, from The Atlantic, March 1923. We are certainly in trying times. With the current global pandemic of COVID-19 disease driven by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, we can all use a little […]
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