-- Announcements --
NAI News
New Management Structure at NAI Central
A new management approach to the NAI has been implemented at NAI Central. Based on an evaluation of their individual and joint management activities, Bruce Runnegar is now the Scientific Director of the NAI, and Rose Grymes is the Executive Director. Building on their already productive partnership, this new structure will more clearly represent their relative roles in the blend of science and management that is NAI.
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NAI Co-Sponsors Nature Reviews Microbiology Issue – Copies Available
This special issue contains two reviews from NAI members. J. Peter Gogarten, at the University of Connecticut, is a member of NAI’s Evogenomics Focus Group. Seth R. Bordenstein is a co-investigator on NAI’s Team at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. NAI has many complimentary copies to distribute to interested parties. Please contact Daniella Scalice if you would like one sent to you. dscalice@mail.arc.nasa.gov
The issue is focused on the phenomenon of horizontal gene transfer. Relevant to astrobiology, horizontal gene transfer occurred following the symbiotic events leading to the origin of eukaryotes, and at other times during the evolution of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Discovering the rules for gene transfer is important to understanding gene flow between genomes, gene flow between and within habitats, and even gene flow between Earth and other habitable systems. Evolutionary analysis of genomes will help illuminate how life originated, adapted to diverse environments, and increased in complexity on this planet. In turn, it will lead to a better understanding of life elsewhere in the Universe.
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NAI Director’s Seminar – October 24 at 11:00am
For connection information, http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/seminars/instructions.cfm
Join us for the next NAI Director's Seminar on Monday, October 24th at 11:00am when Michael A. Jura of UCLA presents, "Using White Dwarfs to Study Extrasolar Asteroids and Planets".
White dwarfs cooler than 20000 K have very thin atmospheres. Consequently, in these high gravity stars, heavy elements sink and become undetectable on a time scale of less than 1000 years. While 75% of cool white dwarfs have calcium abundances less than 10^-6 of the Sun's, about 25% of these stars have at least some detectable calcium. One model is that white dwarfs with metals are accreting them from the interstellar medium. Alternatively, the white dwarfs could be accreting from the dust produced by the disintegration of comets and the destruction of asteroids. Accretion rates as low as 3 10^6 g s^-1, the rate at which dust is manufactured to produce the zodiacal cloud in the Solar System are detectable. Infrared emission from the dust around white dwarfs can be used to study their circumstellar matter. We describe how the previous detection of an infrared excess around the white dwarf G29-38 and our recent detection of an infrared excess around GD 362 can be used to investigate systems of asteroids and planets around these stars. Back to the Table of Contents
NASA and the Navajo Nation
A proposal entitled “NASA and the Navajo Nation,” submitted to the NASA Explorer Institutes program at HQ by NAI Central, and NAI’s UCLA and University of Arizona Teams, has recently been selected for funding. The proposal is in collaboration with ASU’s Mars Education Program and ArtReach, International. The proposed activities will result in a short video and several informal education activities designed to connect astrobiology and traditional Navajo teachings. For more information, please contact Daniella Scalice. dscalice@mail.arc.nasa.gov
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NAI Collaboration Technologies Office Hours
Are you interested in the collaboration technologies available to you as an NAI member? Would you like to take them out for a test drive? If so, come to the first of our monthly collaborative tools office hours on Tuesday, October 25th at 11:00am PDT where you can; try out WebEx and the Polycom (or the NASA conference call number if you don’t have a Polycom), see demos of online tools such as Secure Workgroups and and the shared resources database and ask any question, no matter how small.
The visual part will be presented using WebEx real-time meeting software, https://nasa.webex.com, meeting number: 921 703 634
Or click on...
<https://nasa.webex.com/nasa/j.php?ED=86100782&UID=32030507>
WebEx Meeting password: 1K*Falcon
To participate in the audio portion of the meeting, you can use either the Polycom system or the NASA Conference Call number. To use your Polycom system, dial the MCU at 198.123.7.27 or contact Diane Hawks. To join by the telephone call, 877-891-6023 pw 381880. If you have questions, please contact Estelle Dodson at kdodson@mail.arc.nasa.gov
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Peter Ward Wins Book Award
Congratulations to NAI PI Peter Ward from the University of Washington Team who is a recipient of the 2005 Washington State Book Award for: "Gorgon: The Monsters That Ruled the Planet Before Dinosaurs and How They Died in the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History.” He will be honored at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, at a public ceremony at the Seattle Public Library.
AstroVenture Releases new Biology and Design-A-Planet Modules
If you could design your own planet, would it be habitable? Through NASA's Astro-Venture Web site, students can find out. AstroVenture has added two new modules to complete its interactive educational package which engages students in astrobiology. NAI Central and NAI's Virtual Planetary Laboratory Lead Team helped support and develop this product.
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Astrobiology: Science Learning Activities for Afterschool
This new resource guide from the American Museum of Natural History brings astrobiology activities to the afterschool arena. As part of an 18 month project, AMNH collected NASA materials originally developed for the formal education setting, and adapted them for use in afterschool programs for participants aged 5-12. Members of NAI's NASA Ames Research Center Team served as science advisors to the guide.
Microbial Life Educational Resources
New from NAI’s Marine Biological Laboratory Team, Microbial Life is a freely accessible digital library dedicated to the diversity, ecology, and evolution of the microbial world. It engage students with hands-on activities and other curriculum-based resources that cover topics such as astrobiology, bioinformatics, extremophiles, and the microbes of marine environments.
Alien Safari
New from NASA PlanetQuest, Alien Safari can be used in classrooms or informal education settings to help kids discover some of the most extreme organisms on our planet, and find out what they are telling astrobiologists about the search for life beyond Earth.
The UCLA AstroBiology Society Enters its 7th Year!
by Jimmy Dunn Co-President, UCLA AstroBiology Society, UCLA Astrophysics Undergraduate
Comprised of students from all disciplines who share a common interest in astrobiology, the UCLA AstroBiology Society (ABS) is beginning its seventh year as an active, innovative student organization on the UCLA campus. Founded in 1999 by two undergraduates, Laurel Methot and Jason Finley, ABS established itself on the campus and within the larger astrobiology community by engaging the interest of students and faculty alike through interactive discussions, informative lectures, and a variety of outreach activities. In the past six years, officers have attended NAI and other astrobiology meetings throughout the nation, and even presented at a few international conferences in countries such as Austria and Australia. Past ABS activities include stargazing camping trips with UCLA's Undergraduate Astronomical Society, outreach visits to bring astrobiology to local schools, participation in the NAI's Pathfinder program, and a "Life in the Universe" symposium that was attended by hundreds of UCLA students and featured Bill Nye "The Science Guy" and Dr. Jill Tarter of the SETI Institute and establishing a sister AstroBiology Society at Tennessee State University.
The typical UCLA ABS meeting features a guest speaker presenting an interesting facet of astrobiology in a non-technical way that encourages ABS members to explore the topics interactively. Many of our speakers are members of the UCLA Center for Astrobiology who discuss general aspects of the field while presenting their own current research. This formula has proven to be a great way of getting students interested in astrobiology.
Methot and Finley remain affiliated with ABS as advisors and have passed the torch of leadership along to a new body of enthusiastic students. This coming year, the society will continue to be active in exploring astrobiology topics and recruiting the interest of current and aspiring astrobiologists, as the meeting schedule already boasts an impressive speaker line-up. Future directions for the group include further outreach on campus and abroad, as well as the pioneering of an astrobiology student research program. With the continued support of our current advisors, Barbara Laval, Dr. J. William Schopf, and Dr. Edward Young, the UCLA AstroBiology Society will, in its seventh year, continue to engage students in our increasingly popular field.
UCLA AstroBiology Society website: http://www.studentgroups.ucla.edu/abs
NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) 2005 Annual Meeting
The NIAC 7th Annual Meeting will be held at the Omni Interlocken Resort located between Denver and Boulder, Colorado on October 10-11, 2005. http://www.niac.usra.edu/ This is an open meeting with no fee.
Protostars and Planets V (PP-V)
PP-V will be held at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island of Hawaii on October 24-28, 2005. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/ppv2005/ppv2005.infopage.html
The goals of the meeting are four-fold: to present an overview of the major areas of progress since PP- IV; to bring researchers together for discussions and exchanges of ideas; to strengthen future interdisciplinary research in these areas; and to encourage the participation of young researchers and advanced students in these fields of research.
Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) Meeting #14
The MEPAG Meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn in Monrovia, California on November 2-3, 2005. If you are interested in attending RSVP by October 14 to Debbie Calderón at Debbie.Calderon@jpl.nasa.gov; or (818) 354-9470.
The primary meeting objectives are to: Communicate status of the Mars program;
Review major recent scientific results from our current Mars missions, including briefings focused on results from recent scientific meetings and workshops focused on the evolving understanding of Mars and water; Discuss and initiate MEPAG analysis of updated Mars exploration plan through 2020 that responds to recent discoveries and is consistent with estimated program funding; and to Plan for MEPAG’s work over the next year.
Planetary Protection: Policies and Practices
This course will be held November 15-17, 2005 at The Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB) in Baltimore Maryland. Registration Deadline: October 31, 2005
This NASA-developed course is designed to familiarize current and future planetary protection practitioners with the NASA and COSPAR Planetary Protection Programs. The course will review all applicable policies, practices and procedures necessary to implement a successful planetary protection program and will emphasize integration of the managerial, administrative and laboratory components of planetary protection. For more information http://nai.arc.nasa.gov/coursesconferences/index.cfm
International Space University (ISU) 10th Annual International Symposium
The Symposium entitled "Space Exploration: Who, What, When, Where, Why?" will be held in Strasbourg from Wednesday 30 November to Friday 2 December 2005. The Preliminary Program is now online, linked to our Symposium page at http://www.isunet.edu/EN/191. There you will find a full listing of papers to be presented, and those to be displayed as posters, together with information on registration, accommodation and other useful information. The program is shaping up very well, offering a good range of interesting and topical titles in sessions addressing Exploration Goals, Infrastructure, Science, Technology, Human Systems and Policy.
The Symposium will bring together experts from agencies, industry and academia around the world, plus ISU's Masters 06 class and students and enthusiasts from elsewhere with special interests in future space exploration beyond Earth's frontier, by both human and robotic means.
If you wish to attend you are encouraged to register before 4 November 2005 to benefit from the 'early-bird' fee. Please also note that, as last year, the Symposium overlaps the early stage of Strasbourg's Marché de Noël, the biggest Christmas Market in Europe, when it can be very difficult to find hotel accommodation - so do book early.
We look forward to seeing many of you here later this year and would be grateful if you could forward the address of our Symposium web-page (http://www.isunet.edu/EN/191) to any of your colleagues who may also be interested in attending.
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Molecular Geomicrobiology Short Course
The Molecular Geomicrobiology Short Course sessions will be held at the University of California, Berkeley December 3-4, 2005. http://www.minsocam.org/msa/sc/MolGeoBio_descrp.html
This short course will review progress that has resulted recently from integrative molecular approaches applied to problems in environmental microbiology, geomicrobiology, and astrobiology; - and discuss areas of high potential for future research.
Senior undergraduate and graduate students are strongly encouraged to attend. The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) is providing funds for 20 students to participate in the short course and will cover their registration and accommodation costs (for non- Bay area students).
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LAPLACE 2006 Astrobiology Graduate Winter School
The Life and Planets Astrobiology Center (LAPLACE) 2006 Astrobiology Graduate Winter School “Habitable Planets around Sun-Like Stars: Common or Rare” will be held at the University of Arizona January 4-9, 2006. http://www.laplace.arizona.edu/
The School will provide graduate students from all disciplines related to astrobiology an opportunity to research and develop their own ideas about the likelihood of habitable planets surrounding sun-like stars. The school will emphasize hands-on learning techniques including day and night-time observing on research telescopes at Kitt Peak Observatory, tours of the University of Arizona’s Mirror Lab and Tree Ring Lab and activities in the Arizona Radio Observatories’ Astrochemistry Lab. Students will also have chances to explore some of the unique aspects of the Tucson area including its unique geology and clear dark skies.
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International Conference on Alpine and Polar Microbiology
The Alpine and Polar Microbiology Conference will be held in Innsbruck Austria March 27-30, 2006. http://www.alpine-polar-microbiology2006
Abstract submission deadline: November 1, 2005
Grant application deadline: November 1, 2005
Early registration deadline: December 20, 2005
Arctic, antarctic, and alpine environments are characterized by low temperatures and are thus colonized by microorganisms that have evolved a series of adaptations to survive and grow successfully in these cold ecosystems. It is the objective of this meeting to bring together scentists and professionals to discuss all aspects of psychrophilic and cold-tolerant microorganisms, to address recent developments and exchange ideas and experiences.
Graduate Research Seminar on the Origin of Life (July, 2006)
In conjunction with the 2006 Gordon Research Conference, Origin of Life conference, we are offering the first Origin of Life Graduate Research Seminar (GRS) to be held at Bates College in Lewiston, ME from July 21-23, 2006 http://www.grc.org/programs/2006/origin.htm
This is vital for the community because some of the most clever insights and inspiration are a result of junior researchers interacting among themselves, broadening their knowledge base, and interacting with the leaders of the field.
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