MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 8, Number 29, 30 July 2001. Editors: Dr. David J. Thomas, Science Division, Lyon College, Batesville, AR 72503-2317, USA. dthomas@lyon.edu Dr. Julian A. Hiscox, School of Animal and Microbial Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AJ, United Kingdom. J.A.Hiscox@reading.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 Adobe Acrobat PDF files suitable for printing may be obtained from the official Marsbugs web page at http://welcome.to/marsbugs. 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 from 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, the biology of terrestrial extreme environments, planetary biology, primordial evolution, space physiology, biological life support systems, and human habitation of space and other planets. _____________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS 1) SCIENTISTS HUNT FOR LIGHT FLASHES FROM EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE SETI Insitute release 2) LIFE ON MARS: SWIMMING RIGHT UNDER THE SURFACE? By Robert Roy Britt 3) NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT 01-OBPR-04 NASA release 4) CALLISTO'S WATERY SECRET--ONE OF JUPITER'S MOONS MAY HOLD AN UNDERGROUND OCEAN By Erica Klarreich 5) UB STUDENTS PURSUE EVOLUTIONARY EVIDENCE IN ALASKA AS PART OF NEW COURSE ON ARCTIC MOLECULAR ECOLOGY University of Buffalo release 6) SIGNATURE OF LIFE ON MARS FOUND IN DECADES-OLD DATA University of Southern California release 7) NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas _____________________________________________________________________ SCIENTISTS HUNT FOR LIGHT FLASHES FROM EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE SETI Insitute release 24 July 2001 California astronomers are broadening the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) with a new experiment to look for powerful light pulses beamed our way from other star systems. Scientists from the University of California's Lick Observatory, the SETI Institute (Mountain View, California), UC Santa Cruz, and UC Berkeley are coupling the Lick Observatory's 40-inch Nickel Telescope with a new pulse-detection system capable of finding laser beacons from civilizations many light-years distant. Unlike other optical SETI searches, this new experiment is largely immune to false alarms that slow the reconnaissance of target stars. "This is perhaps the most sensitive optical SETI search yet undertaken," said Frank Drake, Chairman of the Board of the SETI Institute and a co-investigator on the new experiment. Drake, who in 1960 conducted the first modern hunt for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, is usually associated with radio SETI, an approach in which large antennas are connected to specialized, multi-million channel receivers. "This is different," noted Drake. "We are looking for very brief but powerful pulses of laser light from other planetary systems, rather than the steady whine of a radio transmitter." While optical SETI has been undertaken before, it is only recently that major experiments, scrutinizing hundreds or even thousands of star systems, have been initiated. This is largely the consequence of a study conducted by the SETI Institute during the years 1997- 1999, which showed that new technology has made optical SETI an appealing approach for finding technologically sophisticated civilizations. However, unlike its radio counterpart, optical SETI requires that any extraterrestrial civilization be deliberately signaling in the direction of our solar system. The new experiment is unique in exploiting three light detectors (photomultipliers) to search for bright pulses that arrive in a short period of time (less than a billionth of a second). Of course, light from the central star will trigger the detectors as well, but seldom will all three photomultipliers be hit by photons within a billionth of a second time frame. The expected number of false alarms for the stars being looked at is about one per year. Other optical SETI experiments use only one or two detectors and have been plagued by false alarms occurring on a daily basis. Starlight, cosmic rays, muon showers, and radioactive decays in the glass of photomultiplier tubes can all contribute confusing "events" to optical SETI searches. Dan Werthimer and Richard Treffers of UC Berkeley designed the hardware and software for the new, three-tube system. It was built by Shelley Wright, an undergraduate physics student at UC Santa Cruz, under the direction of principal investigator Remington Stone, a research astronomer at Lick Observatory. The astronomers expect that the new approach will produce a clean experiment that can be run automatically, and for which the results will be far less ambiguous. So far, the experiment at Lick Observatory has examined about 300 individual star systems, as well as a few star clusters. The intention is to continue the search at least on a weekly basis for the coming year. The SETI Institute is sponsoring the project. "One great advantage of optical SETI is that there's no terrestrial interference," comments Drake. "It's an exciting new field." Contacts: Frank Drake SETI Institute and University of California Santa Cruz Phone: 650-961-6633 Seth Shostak SETI Institute Phone: 650-960-4530 seth@seti.org Tim Stephens UC Santa Cruz Phone: 831-459-2495 stephens@cats.ucsc.edu Additional information on this article is available at http://www.seti.org/science/oseti_2001.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1455000/1455115.stm http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/07/25/space.seti.reut/index.html http://dsc.discovery.com/news/reu/20010723/alien.html http://www.space.com/searchforlife/optical_seti_010724.html _____________________________________________________________________ LIFE ON MARS: SWIMMING RIGHT UNDER THE SURFACE? By Robert Roy Britt 24 July 2001 As NASA struggles to refocus its Mars program on the heels of two failed missions, one supremely logical mantra has emerged to guide the search for Martian life: follow the water... there are two places where water is known to exist in mass quantities, right at the surface: the polar caps. Though summer melts a thin layer of carbon dioxide frost at the poles, a thick layer of mostly water ice remains. At the north pole, the permanent ice cap is larger than Texas and more than a half-mile (1 kilometer) thick. Little critters, lathered in natural sunscreen and swathed in biological antifreeze, could be lurking just a few feet under the ice, scientists say. These microscopic Martians might hibernate for months or even thousands of years, waiting for a brief thaw, a personal spring vacation, a chance to go forth and make more Martians. Other life could be doing the backstroke, or whatever microbes do in their spare time, in languid pools of water melted by subsurface volcanic activity, all just a few yards down. Get the full story at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/glacial_volcanoes_0 10724-1.html. _____________________________________________________________________ NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT 01-OBPR-04 NASA release 24 July 2001 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Office of Biological and Physical Research (OBPR) solicits proposals in support of the Advanced Life Support (ALS) Project within the Advanced Human Support Technology (AHST) Program. Proposals are solicited for a NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) whose research goals are relevant to the research goals of the ALS Project and are consistent with strategic goals of NASA's Biological and Physical Research (BPR) Enterprise. The NSCORT program is funded to conduct basic and applied ground-based research and analysis and will not support any space flight experimentation. All categories of U.S. institutions are eligible to submit proposals in response to this NRA. This solicitation and other relevant information is currently available electronically via the Internet at http://research.hq.nasa.gov/code_u/nra/current/NRA-01-OBPR- 04/index.html The solicitation will be open for the period through October 16, 2001; proposals may be submitted at any time throughout the period. Paper copies of the Announcement are available to those who do not have access to the Internet by calling 202-479-9030 x239 and leaving a voice mail message. Please leave your full name, address with zip code, telephone number with area code, and the Announcement Number (NRA-01-OBPR-04). The technical point of contact for this effort is Dr. Charles Barnes (cbarnes@mail.hq.nasa.gov), Enterprise Scientist and Acting Lead for the Advanced Human Support Technology Program, Bioastronautics Research Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546. _____________________________________________________________________ CALLISTO'S WATERY SECRET--ONE OF JUPITER'S MOONS MAY HOLD AN UNDERGROUND OCEAN By Erica Klarreich Nature Science Update 26 July 2001 One of Jupiter's largest moons, Callisto, may hold watery secrets beneath its surface, suggests a new analysis. The satellite's icy crust may be the planetary equivalent of a blanket, insulating an underground ocean. Radioactivity at Callisto's core provides ample heat to keep water from freezing. But scientists believed that the heat would escape through the satellite's crust of ice and rock. The first hints of Callisto's watery secret emerged in 1998. Data collected by sensors on the spacecraft Galileo revealed that the moon's magnetic field fluctuates as Jupiter turns. An underground ocean of salt water seemed the most plausible explanation, as salt water conducts electrical current, which could interact with Jupiter's magnetic field to produce the fluctuations. Get the full story at http://www.nature.com/nsu/010726/010726- 12.html. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1458000/1458241.stm http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/callisto_water_0107 26.html _____________________________________________________________________ UB STUDENTS PURSUE EVOLUTIONARY EVIDENCE IN ALASKA AS PART OF NEW COURSE ON ARCTIC MOLECULAR ECOLOGY University of Buffalo release http://www.buffalo.edu/news/fast-execute.cgi/article- page.html?article=52820009 27 July 2001 In search of evidence that could help explain how certain species were created and how their genome has changed with evolution, a University at Buffalo evolutionary biologist and nine of his students enrolled in a new course on arctic molecular ecology are participating in a two-week research expedition to the arctic climes of Alaska. The trip, which ends August 1, is providing a rare opportunity for the students--particularly the three undergraduates-- to do research in the field 4,000 miles away from campus. And indications are that the results of their work will be scientifically groundbreaking. "We think we've identified the parent species for a common, arctic micro-crustacean," said Derek Taylor, UB assistant professor of biological sciences. "It's going to be one of the few cases where you can actually say how an animal species is formed." The fact that students are close to uncovering the origin of a particular polyploid species, Taylor added, is remarkable, given the difficulty in the details of speciation. The student researchers, based in Nome, are focusing on marine organisms, or aquatic invertebrates that, explained Derek Taylor, UB assistant professor of biological sciences, "tend to grow faster and larger" in the arctic environment. "We really don't know much about them in nature, but what we do know is they do well in extreme environments, such as the tops of mountains and polar environments," he added. The organisms being studied by the students, Taylor noted, "have both given up sexual reproduction and increased their chromosome complement." Called polyploids, they have a chromosome number more than double the normal complement. The students are using methods such as DNA fingerprinting to identify and analyze the species. "Nobody will have addressed these questions before, so they are truly exploring and advancing science," said Taylor, who last year received a $478,000 Early Career Development Grant from the National Science Foundation. One part of that grant involved developing an educational component, and the work in Alaska fulfills the NSF's mission of integrating research and education. "I think that's a very positive experience for students," Taylor added. And a somewhat unique one to the field, as the UB students are among just a handful throughout the country for whom this type of research is a possibility. The trip is part of a new course, arctic molecular ecology, that Taylor's students will complete in the fall with a mini-conference. A pilot project that Taylor and two graduate students conducted at the same location last year went well, with the trio collecting from more than 120 ponds and lakes aquatic specimens on which they conducted genetic analysis. The area is a particularly interesting one for field research, Taylor said, because it served as a kind of hideout--or refugium--for a number of plants and animals during the last ice age. While the rest of North America was blanketed under thick ice, Alaska remained ice- free. Many of those species, he said, colonized the continent by migration via the Bering land bridge thousands of years ago. "The area is more diverse because it was a refugium, and also because you get these Asian species that aren't found anywhere else in North America," he added, explaining that Nome boasts unique fauna akin to some of what is present in Asia--largely due to the land bridge. During periods of glaciation, Taylor noted, many animals and plants could have been distributed via the bridge, which was broken some 10,000 years ago. "You can see things you can't see anywhere else on the planet," he said. Contact: Ellen Goldbaum E-mail: goldbaum@buffalo.edu Phone: 716-645-5000 x1415 Fax: 716-645-3765 _____________________________________________________________________ SIGNATURE OF LIFE ON MARS FOUND IN DECADES-OLD DATA University of Southern California release From Spaceflight Now 29 July 2001 Experiments done more than two decades ago on Martian soil collected by the Viking Landers 1 and 2 provided evidence that life might exist on the Red Planet, says Joseph Miller, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Cell and Neurobiology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Miller recently did a re-analysis of data collected by the landers, and found that something in the collected soil was apparently metabolizing nutrients--and doing so with a distinct biological rhythm that, he says, can only be found in a living cell. Miller presented his findings this weekend at an astrobiology symposium held during the International Society for Optical Engineering's 46th Annual Meeting. In August and September of 1975, the Viking spacecraft were launched from Cape Canaveral. After travelling for nearly a year, each reached the atmosphere of Mars and the landers were deployed to the planet's surface. Once there, they performed a series of experiments--including one in which a robotic arm scooped up samples of soil and deposited them in petri dishes, along with a drop of a nutrient solution that had been labeled with radioactive carbon. The idea, explains Miller, was that if there were any living organisms in the sample, they would take up the carbon-labeled nutrients and process them, eventually releasing the radioactive carbon in a gas form. A radiation detector was set up near the covered dish, connected to it by a tube through which any released gases would travel. And travel they did, says Miller. When the data were collected, the original researchers involved with the Viking expedition--Patricia Straat and Gilbert Levin--found definite evidence of gas release. It seemed they had indeed found life on Mars--but other scientists suggested that the release might be better explained as the result of chemical reactions with highly reactive compounds like superoxides and peroxides. Unable to prove that the gas was definitely being released by living organisms, the NASA scientists let the matter drop. And so those tantalizing data sat, more or less undisturbed, until 1999. Miller, who had worked for NASA in the early 1980s, studying the effects of zero gravity on circadian rhythms in squirrel monkeys, began writing a proposal to NASA to do biology on future Mars expeditions. It was then that he saw a figure in a geophysical journal taken from the data from the Viking Lander 2 experiment--a figure that showed highly periodic gas release in Levin and Straat's experiment. Although the science of biological clocks hadn't been advanced enough at the time of the Viking experiments to help the researchers make their case, it had come a long way in the intervening years. And Miller immediately knew he had something potentially exciting on his hands. "I immediately got interested," says Miller. "So I asked NASA if I could look at the data." It took a number of calls--and a good four months--to uncover what Miller was looking for. And when NASA found it, there was a problem. "The data were on magnetic tapes, and written in a format so old that the programmers who knew it had died," Miller said. Eventually, NASA was able to recover the data from printouts, luckily preserved by Levin and Straat--and so, Miller was able to pore over the numbers. There were a lot of them--in fact, their analysis is still underway. But even after having crunched just 30 percent of the experiment's data, Miller was able to find something remarkable-- something, he says, that went unremarked-upon in the original papers. "The signal itself not only had a circadian rhythm," declares Miller, "but it had a precise circadian rhythm of 24.66 hours, which is particularly significant, because it's the length of a Martian day." More specifically, says Miller, the fluctuations in gas emissions seem to be entrained to a 2 degrees C fluctuation inside the lander, which in turn reflected not-quite-total shielding from the 50 degrees C fluctuation in temperature that occurs daily on the surface of Mars. Temperature-entrained circadian rhythms, even to a mere 2- degree C fluctuation, have been observed repeatedly on earth. As for the original concerns of the dubious chemists, who thought the same sort of signal could simply be coming from highly reactive, non- organic compounds in the soil, Miller says such a scenario would be almost impossible to imagine. "For one thing," he explains, "there has since been research that shows that superoxides exposed to an aqueous solution--like the nutrient solution in the experiment--will quickly be destroyed. And yet, the circadian rhythms from the Martian soil persisted for nine straight weeks." "There is no reason for a purely chemical reaction to be so strongly synchronized to such a small temperature fluctuation," he adds. "We think that in conjunction with the strong indications from Mars Observer images that show water flowed on the surface in the recent past, a lot of the necessary characteristics of life are there. I think back in 1976, the Viking researchers had an excellent reason to believe they'd discovered life; I'd say it was a good 75 percent certain. Now, with this discovery, I'd say it's over 90 percent. And I think there are a lot of biologists who would agree with me." Additional information on this article is available at http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/29marslife/. _____________________________________________________________________ NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/astrobiology.h tml 30 July 2001 Articles about astrobiology, exobiology and terraformation http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s1.html R. R. Britt, 2001. Life on Mars: swimming right under the surface? Space.com. University of Southern California, 2001. Signature of life on Mars found in decades-old data. Spaceflight Now. Articles about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/astrobiology/online_article s4.html BBC, 2001. Alien hunters see the light. BBC News. CNN/Reuters, 2001. Astronomers search for alien lasers. CNN. S. Shostak, 2001. Optical SETI hunts for bursts of alien data. Space.com. _____________________________________________________________________ End Marsbugs, Volume 8, Number 29.