{"id":59545,"date":"2014-11-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-geochemist-seeks-to-unearth-origins-of-life-in-universe\/"},"modified":"2014-11-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-06T00:00:00","slug":"uri-geochemist-seeks-to-unearth-origins-of-life-in-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2014\/11\/uri-geochemist-seeks-to-unearth-origins-of-life-in-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 geochemist seeks to unearth origins of life in universe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tStudy in northern California to examine \u2018rock-powered life\u2019<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 November 6, 2014 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 geochemist Dawn Cardace and a team of scientists from a dozen other institutions are collaborating on a NASA-funded project to discover the origins and evolution of life in the universe.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe researchers will work at three field sites to study what they call \u201crock-powered life,\u201d microbes that feed on the chemical energy released from the interaction of rocks and water deep beneath the Earth\u2019s surface. Their findings will help to understand the processes that fueled early life on Earth and may provide insight into the habitability of Mars and other planetary bodies.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re finding more and more evidence in the deep biosphere of microbes inhabiting pore spaces in rocks or in fluid pathways, where they aren\u2019t dependent on photosynthesis,\u201d said Cardace, 溏心vlog免费B站 assistant professor of geosciences. \u201cIt\u2019s life of a different sort\u2014surviving not on solar energy or photosynthetically-derived carbon but from the chemical energy inherent to our planet.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tLast month, NASA announced $50 million in grants to seven astrobiology research teams. Cardace\u2019s team, led by the University of Colorado at Boulder, received $7 million, of which about $400,000 will come to 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re studying part of the Earth\u2019s biosphere that is essentially undocumented,\u201d Cardace said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to define what goes on in the chemosynthetic realm, which may hold the keys to the origin of life and the stable conditions of the first cells on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tFieldwork for the project includes close study of rock cores and formation waters from unusual rocks accessed at the Coast Range Ophiolite Microbial Observatory in northern California, where Cardace led a drilling project in 2011. She documented the presence of blocks of the Earth\u2019s deep crust and uppermost mantle, which had been forced close to the surface by tectonics. Cardace will continue rock core characterization as part of the new research initiative and monitor water samples using her Microbe-Mineral Interactions Laboratory at 溏心vlog免费B站. Primary analytical tools include petrographic and electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and infrared spectroscopy to examine mineral records of the interactions between water and rock.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cOur goal is to understand how microbes harvest the energy from these rock surfaces,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be able to observe changes in the mineral surfaces at a microscopic scale.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tOther members of her research team will conduct similar studies at sites in Oman and Yellowstone National Park, and a comparison of their findings will propel forward their understanding of how rocks host microbial communities, even in extreme environments.<\/p>\n


\n\tAccording to Cardace, Mars has a deep crust and mantle that are mineralogically similar to those of Earth. Therefore, the deep biosphere habitats on Earth may have analogs on other planets, which may have sustained subsurface microbial life.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cOther planetary bodies, like some moons of the gas giant planets, could also have similar rocks and similar liquids interacting to provide energy sources for life there, too,\u201d she said. \u201cOne thing that most astrobiologists allow is that there may be more than one origin of life, even within our own solar system.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWhile conducting her research, Cardace will teach several web-based courses to students at each of the participating institutions, provide graduate and undergraduate research opportunities in her lab, and establish an astrobiology minor at 溏心vlog免费B站. \u201cIn this way, we bring the collaborative aspect of our research to our teaching mission, too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\n溏心vlog免费B站 Geosciences Professor Dawn Cardace (left) and graduate student Julie Scott examine rocks at the Coast Range Ophiolite Microbial Observatory. (Photo courtesy of Dawn Cardace.)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Study in northern California to examine \u2018rock-powered life\u2019 KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 November 6, 2014 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 geochemist Dawn Cardace and a team of scientists from a dozen other institutions are collaborating on a NASA-funded project to discover the origins and evolution of life in the universe. The researchers will work at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}