astrobiology

Spark 101: Fruit Fly Surveillance

How do engineers design the scientific experiments that fly on the International Space Station? In a new Spark 101 video, Dr. Sanjoy Som gives us a guided tour of the engineering processes at the NASA Ames research center for the soon-to-launch fruit fly observation system. A free educational video suitable for a range of classroom ages, Dr. Som concludes by providing some valuable advice for students who wish to pursue science or engineering or who dream of someday working at […]

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#NoPricks Campaign by Prometheon Pharma

Prometheon Pharma is a startup biotechnology company founded by BMSIS research scientist Dr. Steve Hsu (MD/PhD), and the company launched its international Indiegogo #NoPricks campaign (July 28-Sept 8) to eliminate painful needle injections for insulin, growth hormone, other injectable drugs, as well as vaccines. Prometheon is developing simple, convenient, 7-day, and biodegradable needle-free drug patches that do not need refrigeration. The company is raising funds to support costly studies that will allow it to obtain approval to begin human clinical […]

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Podcast: Why Explore Space?

Our “Beer with BMSIS” podcast for May features a discussion between Dr. Sanjoy Som and Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra about the philosophical question “Why explore space?“. One of the questions raised by skeptics of space exploration is the particular value that this enterprise adds to human civilization. The auxiliary discoveries of space exploration often are cited as the reasons for public investment, such as technologies that resulted from investment in space exploration but now benefit everyday consumers. Other reasons for valuing […]

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Astrobiology: An Evolutionary Approach

A new astrobiology textbook is scheduled for publication in October and includes chapters written by our own Dr. Jim Cleaves and Dr. Sara Walker! The book is titled Astrobiology: An Evolutionary Approach and will be released by CRC Press on October 2, 2014. The book provides an interdisciplinary cross-section of many contemporary issues in astrobiology and could form the basis for an undergraduate or graduate course. Pre-orders can be placed now on Amazon.com!

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Iceland Photoblog

Join Dr. Sanjoy Som on a recollection of his field work in Iceland from this past June. Follow along on his SAGANet.org blog as he shares photos, memories, and strategies from exploring the basaltic rock systems in Iceland and discusses possible research applications for his collected data. [read the blog on SAGANet.org]

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Podcast: Are science appropriations appropriate?

Our “Beer with BMSIS” podcast for April features a conversation with our own Dr. Jeff Bowman titled “Dispatch from the AAAS-CAS workshop: How a bill becomes a law, what you can do about it, and are science appropriations appropriate?“. Science today is characterized by uncertain funding cycles that largely are dependent on government support, and many scientists–including professors at large state universities–will receive only partial salary at one (or many) points in their career due to a lack of available […]

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Dr. Azua-Bustos Wins Chilean Scientific Photo Contest

The Chilean National Commission for Scientific Research and Technology (CONICYT) recently sponsored a photography contest, and our own Dr. Armando Azua-Bustos has won first place! The photo (above) was taken inside a cave of the Coastal Range of the Atacama. Here, Dr. Azua-Bustos and colleagues found a very primitive microalgae of the Cyanidium genus, which was able to photosynthesize with extremely low levels of light. This finding is of astrobiological interest because if photosynthetic life exists on Mars, then it […]

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