1ST WORKSHOP ON GEOETHICAL NANOTECHNOLOGY

Lincoln, Vermont July 20th, 2005

ASTROBIOLOGY: WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE?

Baruch S. Blumberg

Hubble Ultra Deep FieldHubble Space Telescope • Advanced Camera for Surveys

9/24/04 - 1/16/04

Earth,Taken from Apollo 7.Courtesy of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena and National Aeronautics and Space Administration Taken from the book ‘Pale Blue Dot’ by Carl Sagan

Photographed on February, 1990 by Voyager 1

Courtesy of JPL and NASA

Taken from the book ‘Pale Blue Dot’ by Carl Sagan

EARTH

Astrobiology: The study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life on Earth and in the Universe.

Life in space: How biology and life react with the space environment.

These two subjects intersect.

SPACE AND BIOLOGY

How did life begin?

Are we alone in the Universe?

What is the future of humans?

What is life and how would it be recognized?

What is death? How do you know life has ended?

GENERAL QUESTIONSFOR ASTROBIOLOGY

CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE

i) Scienceii) Religion (creation stories are

characteristics of many cultures

and religions)iii) Philosophyiv) Ethics v) Lawvi) Politics

CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE

Autonomy, or self-determination Reproduction. Metabolism. Nutrition. Complexity. Organization. Growth and development. Variation and evolution. Information. Hardware/Software entanglement. Permanence and change. Chirality. Entropy.

(Adapted from Paul Davies, The Fifth Miracle, Penguin Books, 1999)

Antarctica (Figure 2a) contains a dry desert region (2b) with sandstone rocks (2c) serving as refuge sites for complex microbial communities. These cryptoendolithic communities, their survival strategy in a cold, dry, high UV flux environment, and their interaction with the surrounding rock matrix provide an accessible Mars analog ecosystem. Images courtesy of H. Sun.

a b

c

Exploring Cryptoendolithic Communities with Deep UV Native Fluorescence and Raman Spectra in The Antarctic Dry Valleys

Grand Prismatic Spring. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA.

20 km in diameter and formed 23 million years ago

Haughton Meteorite Impact Crater

Photomontage of a black-smoker chimney at the TAG site, Mid-Atlantic ridge

Jupiter’s Moon - Europa

Saturn’s Moon - Titan

Photograph of the martian meteorite ALH84001. This visible face has been sawed to expose the interior. (NASA photo)

Bacterial Mat, Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur

Stromatolites as Biosignatures?

M. Storrie-Lombardi, M.D.