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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
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Signs of Life

A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques

Committee on the Origins and Evolution of Life

Space Studies Board

Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences

Board on Life Sciences

Division on Earth and Life Studies

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C. www.nap.edu

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

Support for this project was provided by Contract NASW 96013 between the National Academy of Sciences and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project.

International Standard Book Number 0-309-08306-0

Cover design by Penny Margolskee

Copies of this report are available free of charge from:

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Copyright 2002 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Wm. A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. Wm. A. Wulf are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.

www.national-academies.org

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
×

COMMITTEE ON THE ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF LIFE

JOHN BAROSS,

University of Washington,

Co-chair

JONATHAN I. LUNINE,

University of Arizona,

Co-chair

LUANN BECKER,

University of California, Santa Barbara

SHERWOOD CHANG,

* SETI Institute

DAVID W. DEAMER,

University of California, Santa Cruz

MARILYN L. FOGEL,

Carnegie Institution of Washington

NORMAN R. PACE,

University of Colorado

DAVID A. STAHL,

University of Washington

Staff

JOAN ESNAYRA, Study Director

(Board on Life Sciences)

DAVID H. SMITH, Study Director

(Space Studies Board)

CARMELA CHAMBERLAIN, Senior Program Assistant

KIRSTEN ARMSTRONG, Research Associate

BRIAN DEWHURST, Research Associate

ACHEL BHATT, Research Assistant

CRAIG CORNELIUS, Research Assistant

*

Term ended in 2000.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
×

SPACE STUDIES BOARD

JOHN H. McELROY,

University of Texas at Arlington (retired),

Chair

ROGER P. ANGEL,

University of Arizona

JAMES P. BAGIAN,

Veterans Health Administration's National Center for Patient Safety

JAMES L. BURCH,

Southwest Research Institute

RADFORD BYERLY, JR.,

University of Colorado

ROBERT E. CLELAND,

University of Washington

HOWARD M. EINSPAHR,

Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute

STEVEN H. FLAJSER,

Loral Space and Communications Ltd.

MICHAEL FREILICH,

Oregon State University

DON P. GIDDENS,

Georgia Institute of Technology/Emory University

RALPH H. JACOBSON,

The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory

CONWAY LEOVY,

University of Washington

JONATHAN I. LUNINE,

University of Arizona

BRUCE D. MARCUS,

TRW (retired)

RICHARD A. McCRAY,

University of Colorado

HARRY Y. McSWEEN, JR.,

University of Tennessee

GARY J. OLSEN,

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

GEORGE A. PAULIKAS,

The Aerospace Corporation (retired)

ROBERT ROSNER,

University of Chicago

ROBERT J. SERAFIN,

National Center for Atmospheric Research

EUGENE B. SKOLNIKOFF,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MITCHELL SOGIN,

Marine Biological Laboratory

C. MEGAN URRY,

Yale University

PETER W. VOORHEES,

Northwestern University

JOSEPH K. ALEXANDER, Director

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
×

BOARD ON LIFE SCIENCES

COREY S. GOODMAN,

University of California, Berkeley,

Chair

R. ALTA CHARO,

University of Wisconsin, Madison

JOANNE CHORY,

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies

DAVID J. GALAS,

Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Science

BARBARA GASTEL,

Texas A&M University

JAMES M. GENTILE,

Hope College

LINDA E. GREER,

Natural Resources Defense Council

ED HARLOW,

Harvard Medical School

ELLIOT M. MEYEROWITZ,

California Institute of Technology

ROBERT T. PAINE,

University of Washington, Seattle

GREGORY A. PETSKO,

Brandeis University

STUART L. PIMM,

Columbia University

JOAN B. ROSE,

University of South Florida

GERALD M. RUBIN,

Howard Hughes Biomedical Research

BARBARA A. SCHAAL,

Washington University

RAYMOND L. WHITE,

DNA Sciences, Inc.

FRANCES SHARPLES, Director

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
×

Preface

At the close of the 20th century the direct exploration of our cosmic neighborhood had left unanswered one of humanity's oldest questions: Does the universe play host to life on multiple worlds, or is Earth unique in this regard? Both scientific and popular interest in this question have peaked in the last 5 years in response to the discovery of planets beyond our solar system and the controversy over possible signs of biological activity in a meteorite that likely was once a piece of the crust of Mars. NASA has responded to this interest through a partial realignment of its science program in the form of a new interdisciplinary effort called astrobiology. Among astrobiology 's goals are the understanding of life's origin(s) and the detection of life, extant or extinct, beyond Earth. To search for life requires that samples of extraterrestrial material be acquired and then analyzed either in situ on a planetary body or in Earth-based laboratories. To fully address the question of earthly life's origin may require going beyond the terrestrial laboratory, where time and sample volumes are limited, to organic-rich environments elsewhere in the solar system where steps toward biology may also have occurred.

Attempts to detect life in material from beyond planet Earth extend back some four decades, including the study of meteorites and the in situ analysis of martian soil by the Viking landers. Although broad physical arguments have been made in support of the notion that life is a natural outcome of the process of cosmic evolution, earthly life remains the singular example. In recent years, the discovery of life in extreme terrestrial environments—namely, ecosystems at extremes of temperature, salinity, and acidity—has bolstered the expectation that extraterrestrial material may hold evidence of past or present life. It has also strengthened the concept, supported by computer calculations and the existence on Earth of meteorites bearing trapped gases of martian atmospheric composition, that life might hitch a ride on impact debris and hence travel in viable form from Mars to Earth or vice versa. This in turn imposes the additional challenge of determining whether life discovered in an extraterrestrial sample had a common or separate origin from that of Earth.

The detection of non-earthly life is a difficult and unsolved problem. Most techniques for detecting contamination of supposedly sterile surfaces are based on the properties of known organisms and on the remarkable uniformity of terrestrial biochemical processes. Yet even small variations in structure, metabolism, or information-encoding mechanisms could yield organisms capable of eluding such techniques. A combination of techniques is therefore required to maximize the chances of finding life, yet in situ packages must be severely limited in mass, power, size, and complexity given the present realities of planetary exploration. The first such package to be deployed on another planet, the Viking Mars landers, produced ambiguous results that failed to establish the presence of life, identified unusual oxidative soil chemistry not anticipated during the experiment design, and left

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
×

a lingering controversy over some of the results. Detection schemes in ground-based laboratories are not limited by weight, power, or size and can be heavily reliant on human intervention; yet even such systems may yield ambiguous results. The experience with the ALH84001 meteorite, where the claim of evidence for biological processes remains controversial and unresolved, is an important lesson in the fundamental complexity of identifying the faint traces of extant or extinct life. Perhaps even more difficult, if life or its remains is detected in a sample, will be the determination of whether it is a terrestrial contaminant from Earth, and if so, whether it was delivered by the spacecraft or in the natural process of cross-contamination via asteroidal or cometary impact.

Returned samples could pose a biohazard to life on Earth. The need for elaborate containment facilities, the prospects of sample destruction or alteration prior to release for general study, or even the deferral of sample return until extensive in situ analysis is complete will complicate the use of laboratory facilities to search for life. Conversely, the assurance that spacecraft launched from Earth will not contaminate astrobiologically interesting targets with viable organisms requires that sensitive techniques to assess the efficacy of sterilization processes be applied in the final stages of payload preparation prior to launch.

Given the active interest in the astrobiological exploration of Mars, Europa, Titan, and other targets, it is timely to assess the state of life detection techniques. The Space Studies Board (SSB) charged the Committee on the Origins and Evolution of Life (COEL)—which reports to both the SSB and the Board on Life Sciences—to organize a scientific workshop to explore advances in biology, biotechnology, medicine, and the environmental sciences likely to lead to new approaches to detecting life or its remnants. In response to the charge, the committee held a workshop at the Carnegie Institution's headquarters in Washington, D.C., on April 25-26, 2000. The workshop's goal was to address the following questions:

  1. How does one determine if living organisms are on a spacecraft before launch?

  2. How does one determine if there are living organisms in a returned sample?

  3. How does one determine if living organisms have been present at some earlier epoch and have left fossil remnants behind in a returned sample?

  4. How does one determine whether there are living organisms or fossils in samples examined robotically on another solar system body?

COEL was responsible for structuring the workshop, inviting speakers, summarizing the workshop in the form of this report, and drafting appropriate findings based on the presentations and discussions at the workshop and the committee's subsequent deliberations. Organization of the workshop followed from a series of discussions on topics related to life detection held by COEL at the National Academies' Beckman Center on January 27-29, 2000. The deliberations at this organizational meeting resulted in a guest list containing a balanced cross section of the community of scientists interested in life detection. The workshop was designed to review promising detection techniques that are currently available and areas for future research.

To facilitate a logical flow of papers and discussion, the workshop was organized in a fashion somewhat different from the list of questions given above. The workshop program is provided in Appendix B. The workshop opened with an introduction to the history of the search for life and the question of the generality of terrestrial biochemistry. The next session enumerated current understanding of solar system targets for sample return, including meteorites and interplanetary dust particles for which samples are available at present. The final two sessions dealt with techniques for detecting viable (including spore-forming) organisms and fossil remnants of life, respectively. Panel discussions followed the talks in the sessions on detection of extant and extinct life. After the workshop, COEL met on April 27 and again on August 21-23, 2000, to discuss the presentations, deliberate, and formulate its findings.

What is presented in this volume, a report based on a workshop, is but a preliminary step in the effort to develop a sound set of scientific strategies for the detection of life and its remains in samples on or from planetary bodies. To more fully capture the material presented at the workshop, speakers were asked to provide contributed papers derived from their talks. These papers are listed in Appendix C and are reproduced on the CD-ROM that contains the full report. No attempt was made to extensively rewrite or standardize the papers, although

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
×

grammatical and stylistic errors were corrected to improve clarity. The papers stand on their own as a detailed record of the workshop presentations.

The main body of the report was written by COEL and was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council's Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. The committee thanks the following individuals for their review of this report: Carl Agee (Johnson Space Center), Robert A. Frosch (Harvard University), David Galas (Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences), Joseph L. Kirshvink (California Institute of Technology), and Eugene H. Levy (Rice University). Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Mary J. Osborn, University of Connecticut Health Center. Appointed by the National Research Council, she was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
×
This page in the original is blank.
Page xiii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
×
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
×
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
×

This book is dedicated to Dr. Gerald A. Soffen (1926-2000), who led the very first expedition to search for life on Mars and who fathered the interdisciplinary field of astrobiology.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2002. Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10265.
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A workshop to assess the science and technology of life detection techniques was organized by the Committee on the Origins and Evolution of Life (COEL) of the Board on Life Sciences (BLS) and the Space Studies Board (SSB). Topics discussed in the workshop included the search for extraterrestrial life in situ and in the laboratory, extant life and the signature of extinct life, and determination of the point of origin (terrestrial or not) of detected organisms.

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