Assessment of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (2008) / Chapter Skim
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2 Interdisciplinary Research
2 Interdisciplinary Research
Pages 17-34
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From page 17... ...
Scientific Contributions Although the committee was not charged to undertake a review of the NAI's scientific contributions, it is not possible to evaluate the NAI's success in conducting, supporting, and catalyzing collaborative interdisciplinary research without some brief mention of the NAI's scientific achievements. Fortunately for the committee, the NAI has compiled a list of what it believes to be its top research accomplishments.
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• Microbial mat ecology. In situ studies, led by the NAI team at NASA's Ames Research Center, of the Guerrero Negro hypersaline microbial mats (modern representatives of one of Earth's earliest and most pervasive BOX 2.1 EARLY HABITABILITY OF EARTH Direct information concerning the first 500 million years of Earth history -- the Hadean Eon, approxi mately 4.0 billion to 4.5 billion years ago -- is very limited, since practically no crustal rocks from that time have survived.
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13-16 For additional details see Box 2.4. • Discovery of the "rare biosphere." Using novel biotechnology that permits detection of almost all members in a microbial community, the NAI team at the Marine Biological Laboratory have discovered that the microbial diversity in the deep ocean is up to 100 times greater than expected within a population that is more than a millionfold depleted relative to the primary microbiota.
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• Life without the Sun. NAI scientists from Princeton University and Indiana University have discovered deeply buried life in a South Africa gold mine that appears to thrive independent of the familiar surface biosphere, which is powered by sunlight.
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D.J. Des Marais, "The Biogeochemistry of Hypersaline Microbial Mats Illustrates the Dynamics of Modern Microbial Ecosystems and the Early Evolution of the Biosphere," The Biological Bulletin 204: 160-167, 2003.
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• Modeling exoplanet biospheres. The NAI's Virtual Planetary Laboratory, led by Victoria Meadows, has organized a highly multidisciplinary team to undertake research focusing on habitability, extrasolar terrestrial planets, and biosignatures.
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. Collaborations involving the NAI teams at the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania State University have helped to advance understanding of microbial diversity in this remote environment.
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methodology chosen to achieve it, the committee determined that the NAI has been successful in conducting, supporting, and catalyzing collaborative interdisciplinary research. RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER ASTROBIOLOGY PROGRAMS NAI programs appear to complement the other elements of NASA's Science Mission Directorate Astrobiology program: i.e., the Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology grants to individual scientists, the technology development activities of the Astrobiology Science and Technology Instrument Development (ASTID)
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would not have been realized without the catalytic role of the NAI in prompting a tightly knitted international community of astrobiologists with similar scientific goals. The level of distributed, collaborative, interdisciplinary research performed by active NAI science teams varies, ranging from some truly interdisciplinary work that demands expertise, collaboration, and contributions from the many fields within astrobiology, to cases that are best described as multidisciplinary, performed by groups of researchers with limited collaborative interactions among members of the same node or with other NAI nodes.
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One metric of NAI influence on Mars-mission science is the participation of NAI members in the competitively selected mission teams: • Mars Exploration Rover -- David Des Marais, Andrew Knoll, Ronald Greeley, John Grotzinger, Phillip Christensen, and Jack Farmer; • Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter -- David Des Marais and John Grotzinger; • Mars Science Laboratory -- Paul Mahaffy, Wesley Huntress, James Scott, Andrew Steele, Edward Vicenzi, John Grotzinger, and David Blake; and • Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (Mars Scout Proposal) -- Bruce Jakosky.
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involved collaborations between individuals who categorize themselves primarily as Earth scientists and life scientists (e.g., the work on microbial mats, metal isotopes, and subsurface biospheres) or as Earth scientists and physicists (e.g., the work on Snowball Earth)
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Two NAI teams, those based at Harvard University and the Scripps Research Institute, decided to forgo re-competing for additional NAI funds when their 5-year funding term expired and obtained more substantial funding from other sources. Former members of the Harvard team and others are now developing a major origins-of-life initiative independent of NAI funding.
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The first, the Archean Biosphere Drilling Project, involved an international collaboration linking Japan's Kagoshima University, the Geological Survey of Western Australia, the University of Western Australia, and the NAI team at Pennsylvania State University. The second, the Deep Time Drilling Project, was an NAI-wide activity involving members of the NAI teams at the University of Washington, University of Colorado, and Harvard University.
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At a time when direct observa tions of extrasolar terrestrial planets are not yet possible, theoretical research has been used to constrain the likely prevalence of habitable planets and the nature and detectability of biosignatures. Working with NAI colleagues on the Pennsylvania State University, University of Colorado, University of Arizona, Ames, Arizona State University, and University of Washington teams, the VPL's highly interdisciplinary team used planet formation models to understand the likelihood of habitability and water content for terrestrial planets around M stars, or those formed in the wake of a migrating Jupiter.
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• Contributed to the establishment of new astrobiology programs worldwide. There are now astrobiology institutes, centers, and programs in many countries.
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Furthermore, NAI Central could develop and maintain the procedures and tools needed to analyze the impact, relevance to astrobiology, originality, and interdisciplinary character of publications, with feedback to individual NAI members, individual NAI nodes, and the NAI as a whole. Although computerized techniques and the expertise of information-technology specialists will play an essential role in this effort, scientists with broad experience must be involved in the evaluation of individual publications.
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D.J. Des Marais, "The Biogeochemistry of Hypersaline Microbial Mats Illustrates the Dynamics of Modern Microbial Ecosystems and the Early Evolution of the Biosphere," The Biological Bulletin 204: 160-167, 2003.
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57. Information from the NAI's disciplinary database is courtesy of Shige Abe, NASA Astrobiology Institute.
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