MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 5, Number 22, 25 September 1998. Editors: Dr. David Thomas, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844-3051, USA. Marsbugs@aol.com or davidt@uidaho.edu. Dr. Julian Hiscox, Division of Molecular Biology, IAH Compton Laboratory, Berkshire, RG20 7NN, UK. Julian.Hiscox@bbsrc.ac.uk Marsbugs is published on a weekly to quarterly basis as warranted by the number of articles and announcements. Copyright of this compilation exists with the editors, except for specific articles, in which instance copyright exists with the author/authors. While we cannot copyright our mailing list, our readers would appreciate it if others would not send unsolicited e-mail using the Marsbugs mailing list. The editors do not condone "spamming" of our subscribers. Persons who have information that may be of interest to subscribers of Marsbugs should send that information to the editors. E-mail subscriptions are free, and may be obtained by contacting either of the editors. Article contributions are welcome, and should be submitted to either of the two editors. Contributions should include a short biographical statement about the author(s) along with the author(s)' correspondence address. Subscribers are advised to make appropriate inquiries before joining societies, ordering goods etc. Back issues and Word97 files suitable for printing may be obtained via anonymous FTP at ftp.uidaho.edu/pub/mmbb/marsbugs or at the official Marsbugs web page at http://members.aol.com/marsbugs/marsbugs.html. The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a channel of information for scientists, educators and other persons interested in exobiology and related fields. This newsletter is not intended to replace peer-reviewed journals, but to supplement them. We, the editors, envision Marsbugs as a medium in which people can informally present ideas for investigation, questions about exobiology, and announcements of upcoming events. Astrobiology is still a relatively young field, and new ideas may come out of the most unexpected places. Subjects may include, but are not limited to: exobiology and astrobiology (life on other planets), the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), ecopoeisis and terraformation, Earth from space, planetary biology, primordial evolution, space physiology, biological life support systems, and human habitation of space and other planets. ------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS 1) PENN STATE RESEARCHERS TO EXPLORE ORIGINS OF LIFE PSU release 2) NEW RESEARCH PLACES MARS BULK COMPOSITION IN QUESTION-- RETHINKING THE C1 CARBONACEOUS CHONDRITE STANDARD Carnegie Institution release 3) AS SPACE MISSIONS BECOME LONGER, EFFECTS ON BODY AND MIND NEED STUDY National Academy of Sciences release 4) HEALTH RESEARCH IN SPACE FOR THE BENEFIT OF CANADIANS CSA release 5) A PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE DEDICATED TO EXTRASOLAR PLANETS AND EXOBIOLOGY By Jean Schneider, Paris Observatory 6) ANOTHER NEW ASTROBIOLOGY WEB SITE By David J. Thomas ------------------------------------------------------------------ PENN STATE RESEARCHERS TO EXPLORE ORIGINS OF LIFE PSU release 21 September 1998 This summer, a Penn State researcher, three of his graduate students, a colleague from Scotland and five from Japan met in Africa to collect 2.7 billion-year-old rocks as part of their research into the origins of life on Earth and in the Universe. The researchers are investigating the evolution of atmospheric oxygen and of organisms in oceans and on land. Recently, they brought back 2.7 billion-year-old rocks from South Africa and 800 to 500 million-year-old rocks from Namibia to the United States for chemical analyses. The scientists are part of the Penn State Astrobiology Research Center, a member institution of the NASA Astrobiology Institute. Penn State was one of 11 academic and research institutes selected by NASA as initial members of the Institute. "We went to Africa because that is where very old rocks can be collected from the surface," says Dr. Hiroshi Ohmoto, professor of geochemistry in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and director of the PSARC. The origins of oxygen and evolution of marine and terrestrial organisms are only some of the areas covered by a five-year, $4.5 million grant from NASA. One project at PSARC will try to characterize the environment before there was life on Earth and use a theoretical and experimental approach to understanding the origins of life. Another will work on deciphering the time scale for the early evolution of life using a molecular evolutionary approach. Still another project will try to determine the role of metals in the origin and evolution of life. Researchers at the PSARC are not just interested in the origins of life, but they also want to know what made some life forms disappear. One group will look at the diversification and extinction of early life forms including six Cambrian and Ordovician extinction events and the organisms existing 850 to 520 million years ago. The question of the origin of oxygen in the atmosphere takes on added interest because advocates of two mutually exclusive theories are both on the project. Ohmoto of Penn State believes that oxygen in the atmosphere has been at steady levels through time, while James F. Kasting, Penn State professor of geosciences and meteorology, believes that oxygen levels in the early atmosphere were very low, less than 1 millionth of the present atmospheric level, and increased rapidly to nearly present levels 2.2 billion years ago. "It will take many different lines of evidence to prove this one way or the other," says Ohmoto. This is where the African rocks come in. Chemical studies of these rocks are one part of determining if oxygen levels were continuously high or suddenly increased around 2.2 billion years ago. The PSARC is an interdisciplinary center with Penn State representatives from the Departments of Geosciences, Meteorology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biology and Chemistry. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the State University of New York, Stony Brook are also members of the center. Associate members come from across the U.S. and around the world. The Penn State Astrobiology Research Center will celebrate its formation on September 24 from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum on the ground floor of the Steidle Building. ------------------------------------------------------------------ NEW RESEARCH PLACES MARS BULK COMPOSITION IN QUESTION--RETHINKING THE C1 CARBONACEOUS CHONDRITE STANDARD Carnegie Institution release 17 September 1998 New analysis of data from the Mars Pathfinder Mission has revived a nagging question that was first posed nearly 50 years ago: why do the inner planets exhibit different mean densities when presumably they formed from the same material? The new analysis, performed at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, suggests that one current theory explaining density variations is wrong, and that future modelers of inner solar system accretion must account for a set of inner planets with differing elemental compositions. Connie Bertka and Yingwei Fei of Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory and Center for High Pressure Research report in this week's Science magazine that the bulk elemental composition of Mars does not match the composition of a type of primitive meteorite called a C1 carbonaceous chondrite. The abundance ratios of non-volatile elements in C1 chondrites, especially the iron/silica (Fe/Si) ratio, has long been believed to be a standard for the terrestrial planets. C1 chondrites evidence refractory element abundance ratios similar not only to those of the sun's atmosphere, but to lunar and terrestrial samples as well. Because of this, scientists for over forty years have assumed that C1 chondrites represent the original parent material from which the inner solar system accreted, and that the terrestrial planets (with the exception of Mercury) evidence the same basic non-volatile element composition. The differences in mean densities were thought to arise from differences in the amount of reduction that the originally oxidized C1 material experienced. (Some elements in their reduced form favor the formation of denser mineral phases than in their oxidized form. For example, metallic iron, Fe, is much denser than a Fe+2- or Fe+3-bearing silicate mineral phase.) Previous studies had suggested that the C1 model might not work for Mars, but those studies were based on questionable assumptions. Bertka and Fei entered the fray last year, after the Mars Pathfinder mission brought home a definitive value for Mars's moment of inertia, designated C. C describes the mass distribution within a planet's interior; essentially it tells how the elements may be partitioned into a silicate mantle and a denser metallic core. C is one of the factors necessary to determine a planet's bulk composition. Before the Mars data were derived from Pathfinder results, C was known only for the Earth and Moon. That value for Earth, combined with knowledge of the Earth's mean density and an understanding of high-pressure mineral phase transitions in its interior, can indeed lead to a calculated non-volatile element bulk composition equivalent to that of a C1 chondrite. Bertka and Fei did their best to come up with similar results for Mars. However, they could not make Mars fit a C1 composition and still conform to known geophysical and geochemical constraints (including the new value for C and a bulk composition derived from a set of martian meteorites). The problem arises in the martian core. In order to conform to C1 and other constraints, the core cannot be made only of iron, sulfur, and nickel, as many previous models had assumed. That combination is much too dense. Therefore, Bertka and Fei mixed in the lighter elements carbon and hydrogen. They calculated core densities resulting from a variety of element combinations as functions of pressure and temperature all with the final elemental end product of C1. However, the core remained too dense. The C1 model had failed. The elemental composition of Mars was clearly different from that of C1--and of Earth. If the C1 model doesn't work with Mars, says Bertka, then it can't be assumed as a standard for the other terrestrial planets, and the variations in mean density of the inner planets must be explained some other way not by the oxidation and reduction of a common bulk elemental composition. "In our heart of hearts, we suspected that the C1 model was an oversimplification," Bertka says. "But it was the best we had." The Bertka-Fei results suggest that a variation in bulk Fe/Si ratios among the terrestrial planets is possible. At first appearances, this would mean that Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars all accreted from different materials that they had their own local "feeding zones." However, Carnegie's George Wetherill, who has developed a widely accepted accretion model based on the assumption that the planets accreted from material contributed from a common area, has suggested a scenario that would explain the discrepancy, at least for Venus, Earth, and Mars. (The high density of Mercury is owed to something else.) He sees a correlation between the final distance of a planet from the sun and the location of the average area, or "provenance," from which the material that accreted to form the planet originated. Thus, if the original planetesimal swarm orbiting the sun was not entirely homogeneous, that is, if it evidenced fluctuations in its elemental composition, then it might be possible that the resulting planets would reflect those fluctuations and evidence the differences in bulk composition and density we see today. The work was partially supported by a grant from NASA. The Geophysical Laboratory is one of five science research departments of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, a nonprofit organization devoted to advanced research and education in the physical and biological sciences. It's new director, Wesley T. Huntress, Jr., assumes his responsibilities at the end of the month. The Carnegie Institution is led by its president, the biologist Maxine F. Singer. ------------------------------------------------------------------ AS SPACE MISSIONS BECOME LONGER, EFFECTS ON BODY AND MIND NEED STUDY National Academy of Sciences release Construction of the International Space Station scheduled to start later this year marks another milestone in space exploration. Research missions that once lasted only a few weeks, could routinely last many months, even years. But health effects of the space environment observed during short flights raise concerns about the safety and performance of astronauts during longer missions. Because these detrimental effects could be intensified by extended missions, NASA should support additional research into the consequences of space flight on the biology and behavior of humans and other organisms, says a new report from a committee of the National Research Council. The report provides a comprehensive review of the findings to date from a wide range of life sciences research for space. It also outlines the areas of research on humans and other organisms that NASA should pursue if it is to successfully achieve such long-term goals as operating the International Space Station, colonizing the moon, and sending humans to Mars. NASA should mount at least one more Spacelab-type mission to continue the momentum of life sciences research in space and generate additional data on the biological and psychological effects of space travel, the committee said. It recommended specific research priorities to ensure the safety and optimal performance of crews on future extended missions. NASA should concentrate on fully understanding how weightlessness affects bone and muscle mass, blood pressure, sensory orientation, and movement, in order to devise effective countermeasures, the committee said. Losses in bone and muscle mass pose two of the greatest obstacles to health and safety on long missions. Crew members on the Russian space station Mir showed an average loss in bone mass density of up to 1 percent a month in weight-bearing bones, the report notes. Significant muscle atrophy has been recorded after only five days in space. In-flight exercise programs proved helpful, but did not fully prevent deterioration. Changes in cardiovascular and pulmonary function have not yet been a hindrance during space flight. However, two-thirds of the astronauts tested after flights showed an impaired ability to maintain adequate blood pressure. This condition could have more serious consequences during docking and landing maneuvers involving rapid transitions between gravitational force levels. The agency should use the latest advances in molecular and cellular biology to explore the underlying processes by which humans respond to changes in gravity, the report says. Low gravity alters the body's ability to sense direction and control motion, sometimes impairing astronauts' ability to walk when they first return to Earth. This condition could be exacerbated, the committee observed, and could undermine the crew's abilities to operate the craft or disembark rapidly in an emergency. While space-based research will be crucial for advancing knowledge in these areas, most research funding should be directed to ground-based experiments--which are less costly to conduct--to answer fundamental questions and frame hypotheses for testing in outer space. For example, self-supporting colonies in outer space will require the cultivation of plants in completely contained environments for food and an oxygen source. So far this has not been successfully achieved either on Earth or in space, the report notes. The report emphasizes the need for more research on the impact of the space environment's isolating and confining nature on astronauts' behavior and performance. This is one of the least- studied effects of space flight, yet the compatibility of crewmembers and their mental well-being can greatly influence the ultimate success of a mission. NASA also should improve its collection of data from astronauts to answer fundamental questions about the effects of space travel on the human body and mind. This process thus far has been arbitrary and often hindered by astronauts' concerns about confidentiality. The agency should revise its policies and practices to create a more systematic approach to collecting and disseminating such information, and encourage full cooperation and compliance from the astronauts. In addition, NASA should encourage more timely publication of results of experiments in peer-reviewed journals, and the agency should provide the funding necessary to analyze and archive data so that it is readily accessible to the scientific community. NASA funded the study. The National Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. It is a private, non-profit institution that provides science advice under a congressional charter. A committee roster follows. Copies of A Strategy for Research in Space Biology and Medicine In the New Century are available from the National Academy Press for $49.00 (prepaid) plus shipping charges of $4.00 for the first copy and $.50 for each additional copy; tel. (202) 334-3313 or 1-800- 624-6242. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above). [The full report is available for online viewing at http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/enter2.cgi?0309060478.html] ------------------------------------------------------------------ HEALTH RESEARCH IN SPACE FOR THE BENEFIT OF CANADIANS CSA release 23 September 1998 The Canadian Space Agency announced today the launch of the Canadian experiments on board the NASA space shuttle Discovery mission STS-95 scheduled for October 29, 1998. In a mission that has been dedicated to the study of aging, the Canadian experiments will impact health care and medical science issues such as osteoporosis, protein crystallization and bone marrow transplant procedures. Support of these experiments illustrates the Canadian Space Agency's commitment to the development and application of space knowledge for the benefit of Canadians and humanity. The three experiments are important studies involving Canadian research and development. The first is OSTEO (Osteoporosis Experiments in Orbit). It will study the underlying processes of bone loss from osteoporosis and evaluate a treatment for the condition. Osteoporosis affects 1.4 million painful fractures, drastically impacting a person's life. The other experiments will study how microgravity can enhance biological separation techniques and protein crystallization. The research will contribute to bone marrow transplant procedures and possibly to treatments for breast cancer, diabetes and meningitis. "We are going to be seeing more and more outcomes from research done in space," said CSA Astronaut Dr. Dave Williams. "Canadian experiments on this mission are expected to influence health care and medical science issues that affect Canadians and people around the world." The potential of the OSTEO experiment has attracted much attention from Canada's scientific, health, economic and government audiences. The Canadian Space Agency is working in a joint venture with Allelix Biopharmaceuticals, and supporting the participation of Millenium Biologix Inc., Mount Sinai Hospital, University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto to ensure the success of the scientific research. Also involved are the Ontario Science Centre and the Osteoporosis Society of Canada. These partnerships enhance the Canadian Space Agency's commitment to the development of a knowledge-based economy. This year will be Canada's most ambitious year in space in the past 15 years. Space Science '98 saw ten major missions on shuttles, Mir space station, satellites, rockets and high-altitude balloons. Canadian scientists and engineers are working on experiments that could find solutions to ozone depletion, global warming, atmospheric pollution and osteoporosis--while also developing technical and medical innovations. The Canadian experiments, including OSTEO, will confirm Canada's leading position in international space science research and support the private sector in their pursuit of a premium competitive position in the health care markets. We also invite the media to visit the CSA's Newsroom from our web site at www.space.gc.ca to obtain additional information. ------------------------------------------------------------------ A PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE DEDICATED TO EXTRASOLAR PLANETS AND EXOBIOLOGY By Jean Schneider, Paris Observatory The Extrasolar Planets Encyclpopaedia (http://www.obspm.fr/planets) is a professional website dedicated to extrasolar planets and to the search for Life outside the Solar System. It contains: - the latest news - a complete bibliography (800 references) - the catalog of confirmed extrasolar planets - a complete list of meetings - links to other relevant websites It is updated almost every day and is referenced in all major astronomy and exobiology websites (400: NASA, etc.) and journals (Nature, Science, Scientific American, New York Times, etc.). ------------------------------------------------------------------ ANOTHER NEW ASTROBIOLOGY WEB SITE By David J. Thomas I have created a new astrobiology web site, which is linked to the Marsbugs web site. The new site contains links to online articles and other sites of interest pertaining to astrobiology, exobiology, ecopoeisis, terraformation, early evolution and extreme environments. The site can be found at http://members.aol.com/Marsbugs/Terraformation/exobiology.html. ------------------------------------------------------------------ End Marsbugs Vol. 5, No. 21