Crushing Rocks and Records – IODP Expedition 399

“Core on deck!” The call, which normally would have elicited a flurry of excitement and urgency from scientists to get ready to receive a new core, instead brought about a groan of fatigue from the scientists sitting around me trying to catch a small break at the picnic table. We were well underway on IODP Expedition 399, aboard the ocean drilling research vessel JOIDES Resolution. Our research team, composed of 51 scientists and technicians, had been selected from around the […]

December 27, 2022

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, […]

July 10, 2020

BMSIS Scientist Feature: An Interview with Daniella Scalice

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 […]

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 […]

June 4, 2018

Outreach: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence in Astronomy

BMSIS Young Scientist Sumeet Kulkami gave a talk at the British Council’s “Cafe Scientifique.” Read his reflections below. I started with a brief history of the development of Artificial intelligence, and highlighted the difference in how a regular computer algorithm works as opposed to a machine learning algorithm, using the popular Towers of Hanoi toy. I also talked about how the development of computing power and AI was best reflected in how they conquered two games: chess and GO respectively. […]

June 4, 2018

Outreach: Inspiring the Younger Generation

Blue Marble Space Institute of Science Young Scientist Participants at NASA Ames, Genesis Berlanga and Stephanie Meursing, conducted an outreach workshop with four and five-year-old students at Stanford Madera Grove Childcare Center which was facilitated by their instructor, Vanya Chandra. We spoke about planetary science, geology, our X-ray diffraction work, and spectroscopy work at NASA, in support of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover and the CheMin instrument. The activity included talking about rocks, rover instruments, and passing around various […]

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