Early Scientific Influences Hayden Planetarium Alley Pond Park Backyard and camping Star gazing.

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Early Scientific Influences Hayden Planetarium Alley Pond Park Backyard and camping Star gazing

Transcript of Early Scientific Influences Hayden Planetarium Alley Pond Park Backyard and camping Star gazing.

Page 1: Early Scientific Influences Hayden Planetarium Alley Pond Park Backyard and camping Star gazing.

Early Scientific Influences

Hayden Planetarium

Alley Pond Park

Backyard and campingStar gazing

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Growing up in NYC in 1950’s-1960’s

Hollis, Queens: Hollis, Queens: -3 min for blast to -3 min for blast to arrivearrive-slow roasting zone.-slow roasting zone.

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Major Influence: Science Fiction

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The Plan

Major in physics, get Ph.D.

Become an astronomer

Discover the answer to the big questions:

How did the universe begin, what came before and what will come after?

Assuming that there are other life forms out there – how can we make contact (or have we already)?

Is our “universe” the only universe, or is there really a parallel universe where there is a weak Captain Kirk and an emotional Mr. Spock?

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What really happened

Went to SUNY Stony Brook in 1970 at age of 16

Failed Physics (see above)

Spent two years studying marine invertebrate zoology

Transferred to SUNY Buffalo and chemistry major

Went to grad school at Univ of Washington in analytical chemistry

At age of 25 began academic career

Fast forward 3 decades – joined astrobiology team at RPI and returned to those questions that motivated me to become a scientist

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What I Learned

Don’t be afraid to fail

Don’t be deterred by failure

There are NO musical, poetical, metaphysical, pharmceutical or other short cuts to finding answers to scientific questions

There ARE many career paths that allow us to explore the fundamental questions that led us to become scientists in the first place

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Analytical Chemistry – the science of measurements

How can we answer questions about the nature of matter in all forms, its behavior, interactions, origins, fate......... ?

Design techniques to probe matter:

Spectroscopy (interactions of light with matter)Mass spectrometryElectrochemistry

Radioactivity

Of these, spectroscopy is best suited to remote studying extraterrestrial matter

- light penetrates space, is readily detected, travels quickly (!)

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Key Concepts in Analytical Chemistry

Detectability – how low can you go?What does it mean if a signal is NOT detectable?

Sensitivity – how small a change can be detected?

Precision – how reproducible is a measurement?

Accuracy – how close is the experimental value to the “true value”

These concepts are fundamental to all scientific inquiries!

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Astrobiology poses enormous analytical challenges!

Measurements of distant objects using remote observations to isolate signals of interest from large background signals

Collection and analysis of extraterrestrial samples without contamination

Analysis of ancient terrestrial samples that have experienced the history of Earth

Theories of origins based only on what we can observe today, without physicochemical context

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Goal 1: Understand how life arose on the Earth.

Goal 2: Determine the general principles governing the organization of matter into living systems.

Goal 3: Explore how life evolves on the molecular, organism, and ecosystem levels.

Goal 4: Determine how the terrestrial biosphere has co-evolved with the Earth.

Goal 5: Establish limits for life in environments that provide analogues for conditions on other worlds.

Goal 6: Determine what makes a planet habitable and how common these worlds are in the universe.

Goal 7: Determine how to recognize the signature of life on other worlds.

Goal 8: Determine whether there is (or once was) life elsewhere in our solar system, particularly on Mars and Europa.

Goal 9: Determine how ecosystems respond to environmental change on time-scales relevant to human life on Earth.

Goal 10: Understand the response of terrestrial life to conditions in space or on other planets.

Astrobiology Roadmap

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Origins of Life on Earth: Some Key Questions

Did earliest life involve biomolecules as they exist now, or earlier “proto” versions?

Work backward from life as we know it (e.g., abiotic synthesis of RNA) AND work forward:

What molecules were in greatest abundance?

How/why did they assemble? Random chain extension or templated?

Why “cells”? Why compartmentalize in earliest life?

Why is chirality intrinsic to (all?) life on earth and how was one enantiomer selected over the other?

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Current Projects

G/C/A/U or T - Why guanosine?

What are the effects of amino acids, sugars, other molecules on RNA oligomerization and chirality?

How can we template formation of RNA using particulates as well as small molecules?

Future Directions

Primitive precursors to RNA and other modern day molecules of life

Common ancestor/single source based on DNA which came much later

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Watson-Crick G-Tetrad

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Guanosine Self-Association Leads to Gel Formation

Mezzina, E. etc. Chem. Eur. J. 2001, 7(2), 388-395 Pieraccini, S. etc. Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. (2003), 398 57-73

H-bonded “G-tetrads” self-assemble (aided by metals cations) into CHIRAL “G-wires” that further assemble into liquid crystalline

phases at higher monomer concentrations

G. Gottarelli et.al, Liquid Crystals 1997, 22, 563.

P. Mariani et.al, Biophys. J. 1998, 74, 430.

Cholesteric Phase Hexagonal Phase

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Microbes and microbial communities are often studied and classified using 16S rDNA gene sequencing – highly sensitive to subtle differences

We are working on improved approaches that will separate DNA fragments based not only on length but also sequence – greatly facilitate rapid acquisition of data reflecting true diversity of these complex systems