Astrobiology Club - LAPLACE/Steward Observatory

Astrobiology Club
Steward Observatory / LAPLACE / NASA Astrobiology Institute

Every Wednesday at 2pm in
Rm N505A, Steward Observatory
933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson

To receive our regular email-list, write to:

spam-.apai@as.arizona.edu_nospam.edu

In addition to the regular journal club, we are also planning: Mt Lemmon

- Geologic Excursion to Mt. Lemmon - study of 1.6 Gyr-old rocks

- Visit to the LPL Meteorite Collection (planned for the last week of Jan 2006)

Let Daniel know if you want to join any of them, you have other ideas,
or if you would like to help organizing these.

Sep 14	Nick Woolf: The origin of life and the RNA World - Part I	The Origin of Life
Sep 21	Nick Woolf: The origin of life and the RNA World - Part II
Sep 28	Leif Abrell: Formose Chemistry [Ricardo et al. 2004 Science 303, 196 : Borate Minerals Stabilize Ribose]

Oct 5	Catherine Nelsh: Life on Titan? [Fortes, A.D. 2000 Icarus 146, 444 : Exobiological Implications of a Possible Ammonia-Water Ocean inside Titan] [Schulze-Makuch and Grinspoon 2005 Astrobiology 5, 560 : Biologically Enhanced Energy and Carbon Cycling on Titan?]	Life in the Solar System
Oct 12	Ilaria Pascucci: Life on Mars? Powerpoint summary [Krasnopolsky, Maillard & Owen 2004 Icarus 172, 537: Detection of methane in the martian atmosphere: evidence for life?] [Formisano et al. 2004 Science 306, 1758: Detection of Methane in the Atmosphere of Mars]
Oct 19	Daniel Apai: Life inside Europa? [Dalton et al. 2003 Astrobiology 3/3, 505: Methodologies and Techniques for Detecting Extraterrestrial (Microbial) Life] [Chyba 2000 Nature 403, 381: Energy for microbial life on Europa]

Oct 26	Matt Pasek: Phosphorous biomolecules Download Matt's Handouts [Westheimer 1987 Science 235, 1173: Why Nature Chose Phosphates] [Pasek & Lauretta 2005 Astrobiology 5/4, 515: Aqueous Corrosion of Phosphide Minerals from Iron Meteorites: A Highly Reactive Source of Prebiotic Phosphorus on the Surface of the Early Earth]	Bio- molecules
Nov 2	Stefanie Milam & DeWayne Halfen: The Where's, How's and What's of Astrobiomolecules [Kuan et al. 2004 Adv. Sp. Res: Searches for interstellar molecules of potential prebiotic importance] [Despois et al. 2002 ESA SP-518: Comets and prebiotic chemistry: The volatile component]
Nov 9	Ben Cooperman: Darwin and the Pre-biotic Molecules [Perry & Kolb 2004 Int. J. AsBio. 3(1), 45: On the applicability of Darwinian principles to chemical evolution that led to life]

Nov 16	Summary of the Astrobiology School in Friday Harbor Laboratories, Washington [ Pics from Catherine ]

Nov 23	Thanksgiving: No Meeting	Evolution of life and the Earth
Nov 30	Brig Klyce (guest speaker): Panspermia [http://www.panspermia.org/abouthis.htm]
Dec 7	Wilson Liu : Beyond the Principle of Plentitude: A Review of Terrestrial Planet Habitability Download Wilson's Powerpoint Slides [Gaidos et al., Astrobiology, 5, 100, 2005: Beyond the Principle of Plentitude: A Review of Terrestrial Planet Habitability]

Dec 14	Nick Woolf: Discussion of the panspermia talk
	After the break, we will meet again in the 2nd week of January.

Page maintained by D. Apai