BMSIS Scientist Feature: Dr. Betül Kaçar

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 […]

March 26, 2020

A little poetry and prose from the Blue Marble Space family

“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 […]

February 14, 2020

State of the Infrastructure for SETI/METI Research

BMSIS researchers Anamaria Berea, Dimitra Atri, and Haritina Mogoșanu consider the current state of infrastructure for research in the areas of searching for and messaging extraterrestrial intelligences Abstract In this paper we are outlining the current existing infrastructure for conducting SETI and METI experiments and projects, the needs for future infrastructure in these fields, what is possible given the current technology and what we expect to be developed in the future. Additionally, we also highlight how economics has shaped the […]

January 7, 2020

2020 – Looking Back, Looking Forward

2019 was a big year for us! Blue Marble Space and the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science marked 10 years of activity in promoting the cooperative exploration of space, examining life as a planetary process, and enabling a sustainable future on Earth. Our BMSIS Scientists and Blue Marble Space’s initiatives and their wonderful affiliates made huge contributions to the betterment of our world through exploration, education, research, and more. As we look forward to 2020 and what the future […]

A silhouette of a child on a swing looking at the stars

December 17, 2019

One Small Step for Education

Brooke Carruthers is a student at the University of Arizona (UA) and a member of the Kaçar Research Group, headed by BMSIS Scientist Dr. Betül Kaçar. In this guest post, taken from an essay that Carruthers wrote for an advanced course on the foundations of writing at UA, she explores the potential of space sciences education for developing critical thinking and inspiring students. If you are a student, the guardian of a student, or if you have even glanced at […]

December 2, 2019

BMSIS Scientist and NASA Take a Cue from Silicon Valley to Hatch Artificial Intelligence Technologies

Could the same computer algorithms that teach autonomous cars to drive safely help identify nearby asteroids or discover life in the universe? NASA scientists are trying to figure that out by partnering with pioneers in artificial intelligence (AI) — companies such as Intel, IBM and Google — to apply advanced computer algorithms to problems in space science. Machine learning is a type of AI. It describes the most widely used algorithms and other tools that allow computers to learn from […]

November 27, 2019

Studying the Climate History of Mars – a new Habitable Worlds grant to BMSIS Scientist Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra

Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra of the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science was recently awarded a grant by the NASA Habitable Worlds program to study the climate history of early Mars. This project will draw upon recent geologic discoveries from the ongoing exploration of Mars to understand how Mars was once able to sustain an unfrozen ocean. Dr. Haqq-Misra will collaborate with Dr. Michael Way of NASA GISS in this project, which uses computational models of the Martian climate to calculate […]

October 6, 2019

Announcing the Biennial European Astrobiology Conference (BEACON)

Our friends at the European Astrobiology Institute have announced the first Biennial European Astrobiology Conference (BEACON)! The conference will take place on La Palma Island, in the Canaries, Spain, from 20 through 24 April 2020. Registration, abstract submission, and accommodation booking are now open for this meeting. It will take place at La Palma & Teneguia Princess Hotel on La Palma Island. The scientific sessions are currently planned to cover the following themes: Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems and Detection […]

October 1, 2019

Dinosaurs in The Delta Quadrant?

Star Trek: Voyager, Science, and Catholicism Guest post by Rebecca Salcedo, one of our current Young Scientist Program (YSP) participants. Rebecca has an undergraduate degree in molecular environmental biology from UC Berkeley and is currently a Masters student in microbiology at San Francisco State University. She’s a current BMSIS YSP at NASA Ames where she’s working with Dr. Alfonso Davila and Dr. Paul Wilburn on a project considering how life could develop and thrive on Mars by studying microbes from the […]

September 14, 2019

Astronomy and Space School in Mardin

Guest post by Berfin Dağ, one of our current Young Scientist Program (YSP) participants. This summer, Berfin put together and ran a workshop to teach astronomy in her hometown of Mardin, Turkey. Among their activities were lectures on astronomical topics, a hands-on activity to create a star atlas, and public observing nights. I was very excited to teach astronomy this summer in Mardin, the city where I was born and raised, in the heart of Mesopotamia. This idea has been […]

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