NASA astrobiology discovery news conference

[chemisttree]

The LGM hunters have something to say!

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_M10-167_Astrobiology.html

 

[waht]

This has been reported on www.space.com

Participating in the press conference will be:

* Mary Voytek, director, Astrobiology Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
* Felisa Wolfe-Simon, NASA astrobiology research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.
* Pamela Conrad, astrobiologist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
* Steven Benner, distinguished fellow, Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Gainesville, Fla.
* James Elser, professor, Arizona State University, Tempe

They might be talking about extremophiles, and how resilience of life on Earth increases the chances of life elsewhere, in inhospitable places, or they could have actually made some super discovery we've been all waiting for. Eitherway, two days is too long to wait.

 

[HeLiXe]

Xciting! Thanks for posting this chemisttree!

 

[hypatia]

I always get overly excited when these reports emerge, AND they make me wait.

 

[lisab]

This has been reported on www.space.com



They might be talking about extremophiles, and how resilience of life on Earth increases the chances of life elsewhere, in inhospitable places, or they could have actually made some super discovery we've been all waiting for. Eitherway, two days is too long to wait.

I really hope it's not that (the bolded part). That would be a huge let down, everyone knows that already.

 

[Evo]

I really hope it's not that (the bolded part). That would be a huge let down, everyone knows that already.

It's like the last time they made a huge to do and made people wait, it was something that had already been widely assumed.

 

[lisab]

It's like the last time they made a huge to do and made people wait, it was something that had already been widely assumed.

Exactly! I don't remember the specifics, though. But they really need a better PR person, IMO.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Perhaps?

Could the Mono Lake arsenic prove there is a shadow biosphere?
Do alien life forms exist in a Californian lake? Could there be a shadow biosphere? One scientist is trying to find out.

Mono Lake has a bizarre, extraterrestrial beauty. Just east of Yosemite National Park in California, the ancient lake covers about 65 square miles. Above its surface rise the twisted shapes of tufa, formed when freshwater springs bubble up through the alkaline waters.

Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a geobiologist, is interested in the lake not for its scenery but because it may be harbouring alien life forms, or “weird life”. Mono Lake, a basin with no outlet, has built up over many millennia one of the highest natural concentrations of arsenic on Earth. Dr Wolfe-Simon is investigating whether, in the mud around the lake or in the water, there exist microbes whose biological make-up is so fundamentally different from that of any known life on Earth that it may provide proof of a shadow biosphere, a second genesis for life on this planet...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/eureka/article7040864.ece

 

[waht]

I really hope it's not that (the bolded part). That would be a huge let down, everyone knows that already.

Yea, and the funny part is that some people will experience the let down twice.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Stick to this thread:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=452570