Dr. Rafael Loureiro: Professor, Space Botanist, and an Ambassador of Science

By Aditi Sharma Before joining the Young Scientist Program as a Research Associate, I had never thought about the intersection of space and biology. This summer, I have had the wonderful opportunity to explore a new realm of science. I have also had the great pleasure of learning from numerous mentors and listening to their inspirational stories. Dr. Rafael Loureiro’s story is one that focuses on space, botany, and the importance of science communication. He received a B.Sc. in Marine […]

September 15, 2020

Venusian Phosphine: A Call for Further Research

Written by Sarah Treadwell If you have never heard of phosphine before, be prepared to see it as the hot new buzz word in planetary science. A press release by the Royal Astronomical Society revealed that the presence of phosphine was detected in the atmosphere of Venus by a team of researchers, including one of our scientists from BMSIS. While phosphine can be made in the laboratory and has been previously detected on Jupiter and Saturn, there’s no currently known […]

September 9, 2020 Leave a comment

Dr. Lev Horodyskyj: Science Education Gets a Virtual Makeover

by Emily Harari You’re driving and you pull up behind a car at a red light. The light switches to green, but the car sits unmoved. What do you do? Instinctively, you reach for the horn, and, after a quick blaring of sound, the car in front of you moves. You’ve just conducted a scientific experiment. You observed the car not moving, but didn’t know why, so you assumed the driver ahead of you wasn’t paying attention to the road. […]

September 6, 2020 Leave a comment

Dr. Afshin Khan: Crops on Mars

by Emily Harari Every 4th of July, many Americans turn their gaze to the night sky. From a pop of color and a quick clap like thunder, fireworks unveil themselves. In addition to gunpowder, a lesser known ingredient called perchlorates are responsible for the mesmerizing explosions. Perchlorates are salts containing an ion called perchlorate – a chlorine atom bonded to four oxygen atoms. These salts can serve as oxidants for fireworks and explosives, but also can be toxic to living […]

August 7, 2020 Leave a comment

“Science Nomad,” Dr. Daniel Angerhausen, Looks for Habitable Planets

By Emily Harari Dr. Daniel Angerhausen is an astrophysicist and astrobiologist at ETH Zürich. Ask him what the oldest question of humankind is and he’ll immediately jump to life on other planets: Are we alone, or are other planets outside our solar system similarly habitable? But Angerhausen doubles back: “That’s also a bit exaggerated. Maybe the oldest question is, ‘Can I eat this?’ But I really think [habitability] is one of the biggest scientific questions and also one that is […]

August 6, 2020

BMSIS Scientist Feature: Dr. Sanjoy Som

By Aditi Sharma On January 28th, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight. Age five at the time and living in Switzerland, Sanjoy Som was watching the news with his parents and was in awe and confusion of the fatal incident. He asked his parents what was happening and they told him that a group of people sent to space had been in a terrible accident. Sanjoy explains now, looking back, that he couldn’t believe […]

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 […]

July 30, 2019

Chemistry and biology are not separate worlds

BMSIS Scientist Omer Markovitch builds models to predict chemical speciation. (Following is an interview with Dr. Markovitch, translated from the NEMO Kennislink website) Before there was life on earth, molecules already displayed behaviour that resembles life, such as reproduction and evolution. Omer Markovitch tries to understand and predict that behaviour using computer models. How did life originate on earth? “That is far too big a question to investigate all at once,” says Omer Markovitch, a post-doctoral researcher at the University […]

February 13, 2019

Detectability of Future Earth

A cosmic perspective on the future of our world and the longevity of our civilization A new special issue of the journal Futures is now available and features papers that examine the future of Earth and civilization from an astrobiological perspective, particularly focused on the extent to which human activities could be detectable across interstellar distances. BMSIS Scientist Jacob Haqq-Misra edited this special issue and provides the introductory chapter. The issue also includes contributions from BMSIS Scientists Sanjoy Som, Brendan […]