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 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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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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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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