Early Habitable Environments and the Evolution of Complexity Principal Investigator - David J. Des Marais

AMES TEAM NEWS AND HIGHLIGHTS


REPRODUCING A BUILDING BLOCK OF LIFE IN THE LABORATORY

By Ruth Marlaire, NASA Ames Research Center

NASA Ames astrobiologists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, a key component of our hereditary material, in the laboratory. They discovered that an ice sample containing pyrimidine exposed to ultraviolet radiation under space-like conditions produces this essential ingredient of life.

UracilPyrimidine is a ring-shaped molecule made up of carbon and nitrogen and is the basic structure for uracil, part of a genetic code found in ribonucleic acid (RNA). RNA is central to protein synthesis, but has many other roles.

"We have demonstrated for the first time that we can make uracil, a component of RNA, non-biologically in a laboratory under conditions found in space," said Michel Nuevo, research scientist on the NAI Ames Team. "We are showing that these laboratory processes, which simulate occurrences in outer space, can make a fundamental building block used by living organisms on Earth."    Read more...


NASA DAY CELEBRATED AT OHLONE COLLEGE

"Astrobiology: Looking for Life Elsewhere in the Universe," was the subject of a recent talk given by Colin Goldblatt during NASA Day at Ohlone College in Milpitas, CA. The 400-seat auditorium was filled to capacity and overflowed into the lobby with students and the general public who listened as Goldblatt discussed the following questions:

Goldblatt NASA/Ohlone PosterIs there life on other planets?

What would life be like and how would we go about finding it?

How does studying the Earth help us answer these questions?

Goldblatt is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Chemistry and Climate of a Prebiotic Atmosphere Group of the NAI Ames Team. His research focuses on the evolution of oxygen and nitrogen in Earth's atmosphere and long-term climate change. He has been involved in Antarctic oceanography, evaluating a proposed 'geoengineering' solution to climate change, and evaluating the accuracy of a model for the strength of the greenhouse effect used in a climate model. Goldblatt completed his Ph.D. in the Earth System Modeling group in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.

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