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 […]

February 24, 2014

Astronomy Magazine: A new funding method for SETI?

Astronomy Magazine’s blog features a story about the SETI Lottery Bond devised by BMSIS research scientist Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra. Although this idea may be a long way from implementation, novel sources of funding will ultimately be needed if SETI is to conduct the long-term search required for its success. Written by Suzanne Jacobs, a graduate student in the MIT science writing program, the article examines the SETI Lottery Bond idea from a variety of perspectives in hopes that SETI will […]

August 26, 2013

Children’s Book Published by Armando Azua-Bustos

Are we alone among aaaaall these stars? While astrobiologists continue to ponder this question, BMSIS research scientist Armando Azua-Bustos published a children’s book to help explain the ideas and wonder of the search for life to young people (and their parents). The book is written for children in order to introduce them, in very simple terms, to astrobiology, the understanding of the origin of life on Earth and the possibility of its existence elsewhere in the Universe from the scientific […]