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 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 […]

July 20, 2020

Patience is a Virtue

By Kurt Ger Almost every major technological advance throughout history originated from basic research that was conducted as its own goal, and seemingly offered no short-term benefit. For example, studies about the atom have led to computers as we use them today, and much of modern anatomy and medicine stems from dissections on dead bodies performed centuries ago. Humanity’s relationship with space is much more than just building rockets and sending them somewhere. As expanding our reach into the far […]

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 […]

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 […]

February 13, 2018

The Ethics of Reproducibility in Computational Research

Sumeet Kulkarni shares his ethics & society case study, which he completed as part of our Young Scientist Program. I was motivated to choose this topic for study since my own BMSIS YSP project involved the computational modelling of bubbles growing in lava. The vesicles they leave behind when the lava solidifies into rock are important proxies in determining the atmospheric pressures at that epoch. This method has already been put into use in field studies of vesicle size distributions in […]

November 20, 2017

Afshin Khan & SustainSpace Win Overall Prize at ESA Contest

BMSIS scientist Dr. Afshin Khan, along with her team member Mark Ciotola, was selected as the overall winner for the 2017 Space Exploration Masters competition. The contest was initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA) as well as other government and private space organizations. The team’s project was titled “Plant germination during spaceflight to test for adaptability of crops in long term space missions.” Dr. Khan and colleagues plan to continue developing their idea for improving plant yield through space […]

October 4, 2017

Count Down To The Future

A new article and podcast by Scientia features five of our young scientists working at the NASA Ames Research Center. Meg Cheng Campbell, Ryan T. Scott, Samantha Torres, Matthew Murray, and Eric Moyer have all worked in the space biosciences division with their research advisors to understand the effects of long-term spaceflight on humans. Congratulations to this outstanding team of scientists! [Read the Scientia article] [Listen to the SciPod podcast]

September 22, 2017

TED Talk by Armando Azua-Bustos

How can Earth teach us about extraterrestrial life? In his TED Talk, The most Martian place on Earth, Dr. Armando Azua-Bustos takes us on a tour of the Atacama Desert, his childhood home now turned into his astrobiological laboratory. Searching for signs of life on Mars, or other planets, requires careful understanding of how organisms can survive in dry and extreme environments, and Dr. Azua-Bustos’ research helps to reveal the conditions that we might find life both there and elsewhere. […]

July 19, 2017

Ryan Scott Receives ASBMR Young Investigator Award

Young Scientist Ryan Scott and his team were awarded the 2017 ASBMR (American Society for Bone Mineral Research) “Young Investigator Award.” Other team members who worked on our research with Ryan at NASA Ames Research Center include Mohit Nalavadi, Sulekha Anand, Yasaman Shirazi, and Josh Alwood. Ryan will give a presentation of his results, titled “Zoledronate and Mechanical Loading Treatments During Simulated Weightlessness: Cancellous Structure and Osteocellular Responses” at the 2017 ASBMR Annual Meeting in Denver this September. Congratulations to […]

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