Oxygen on Mars? Don’t hold your breath.

Sarah Treadwell – BMSIS Science Writer Astrobiology asks three fundamental questions: How does life begin, could there be life beyond Earth and, if so, how can we detect it? For decades, NASA’s sights have been set towards Mars for answers. Previous research presented evidence of an oxygen-rich atmosphere in its ancient past; however a new paper released challenges this. A study from researchers at Washington University suggests that we may need to look for signs of life with a new […]

September 29, 2020

BMSIS Scientist Feature: Dr. Carl Pilcher

By Sarah Treadwell Few people can say they have the career record of Dr. Carl Pilcher. Even less can say they have had the admiration of so many mentees over the years. When it was finally my turn to sit down for a conversation with Dr. Pilcher, the accolades turned out to be justified. Dr. Pilcher is now retired from a long and exciting career, of which the last 30 years included NASA administration duties. He humorously admitted to me […]

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 […]

Photo of a network over the Earth in space

July 14, 2020 Leave a comment

Just an ‘Earth Thing’

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 […]

July 14, 2020

Julia DeMarines: A real-life Ellie Arroway who wants to “watch the stars, and see [herself] running with them”

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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