June 17th 05, 12:03 AM
ARIZONA REGENTS APPROVE UA ASTROBIOLOGY CENTER
>From Lori Stiles, UA News Services, 520-621-1877
June 16, 2005
The Arizona Board of Regents approved the creation of a center for the
study of astrobiology at The University of Arizona today.
The center, called the Life and Planets Astrobiology Center (LAPLACE),
will
bring more UA researchers from various fields together to study the
existence of life elsewhere in the universe.
"Astrobiology touches our most human desire to belong and to understand
where we came from," said UA astronomy Professor Nick Woolf, who
directs the
two-year-old Tucson "node" of the NASA Astrobiology Institute. The
Tucson
astrobiology node involves the National Optical Astronomy Observatory
(NOAO)
as well as the UA and is one of 15 such programs nationwide. It forms
the
foundation for UA's new astrobiology center.
----------------------------------------------
Contact Information
Nick Woolf 520-621-3234
Joaquin Ruiz 520-621-4090
Related Web site
http://www.laplace.arizona.edu/
----------------------------------------------------
"Astrobiology asks the questions, what is life? How does it originate?
What
is the future for human life?" Woolf said. "Since the only life we know
occurs in a planetary system, astrobiology also asks how planetary
systems
form, and what these systems and planets are like."
UA planetary sciences Professor Jonathan I. Lunine said, "The
university
astrobiology program is an effort to use the latest space technology to
understand where we came from and whether we are, as an intelligent
species,
unique in the cosmos. LAPLACE will expand the emphasis on astronomy,
chemistry and planetary sciences to include researchers from other
departments, including geology, biochemistry, molecular biophysics, and
ecology and evolutionary biology."
Regents' approval for the university's LAPLACE will significantly
expand
the study of astrobiology at the UA, said College of Science Dean
Joaquin
Ruiz. "What the new university center is all about is expanding over a
much
wider range of problems in astrobiology, to look in more detail at what
it
is that is required for early life," Ruiz said.
"Astrobiology is exciting to me personally because I'm very interested
in
knowing how you form a planet that is habitable and then how life
populates
it," Ruiz said. "But astrobiology is also very exciting to me as a dean
because it's going to produce very interesting conversations that
otherwise
wouldn't happen. Astrobiology becomes the forum in which people from
all
these different disciplines creatively talk together."
The details of how things assemble themselves and disperse, for
example, is
important in astrobiology, Ruiz said. But how life self-replicates and
spreads has long been a basic question for biology, for physics and,
more
recently, for engineering. "Self-assembly of liquids in substrates is
hugely
important for the electronics industry," Ruiz said. "Engineers would
love to
build structures that self-assemble when, say, you add a drop of
water."
In addition to new research, LAPLACE is expected to generate additional
grant funding and spark interest from private donors. The center will
also
undertake fundraising to promote research, operational and educational
outreach activities.
Woolf and Lunine will be interim directors of the university's LAPLACE,
Ruiz said. A new faculty member, an astrobiologist, will be hired and
placed
in a biology, planetary sciences, astronomy or chemistry department by
fall.
NASA awarded the Tucson astrobiologists a $5 million, 5-year research
grant
in 2003. The team includes 22 co-investigators and collaborators: 17
from
the UA, three from NOAO and one each from the University of California,
Berkeley and Ohio State University.
There are four basic parts to the NASA-funded astrobiology program:
o UA astrochemist Professor Lucy Ziurys leads research on the
prebiotic compounds and complex organic molecules in the interstellar
medium
that are the building blocks of life. The research involves studies of
prebiotic compounds and molecules already known in space, searches for
new
ones by laboratory experiments and follow-up observations, and
theoretical
modeling.
o UA Assistant Professor Michael Meyer and Stephen Strom and
Joan
Najita of NOAO study environments and conditions under which habitable
worlds form and evolve. They use such state-of-the-art facilities as
the
Spitzer Space Telescope and the Gemini and Keck telescopes in studying
gas
content and physical structure of disks in the planet forming regions
as
well as model thermal and chemical structure of the disks. Mark
Giampapa of
the Tucson-based National Solar Observatory studies how magnetic
activity
leads to variability in the luminous output of sun-like stars, from
"young
suns" to stars the age of our sun.
o UA Regents' Professor of astronomy J. Roger P. Angel and
astronomer Phil Hinz lead observations to directly detect and
characterize
extra-solar giant planets. UA astronomy Professor Adam Burrows leads
theoretical studies that aim to learn about giant planet atmospheres
that
contain water and even whether these atmospheres support some kind of
microbial life.
o UA science education Associate Professor Tim Slater leads an
education and public outreach program to incorporate astrobiology in
general
science education.
In 2004, the John Templeton Foundation and the Metanexus Institute
awarded
the UA a 3-year, $270,00 grant for a project titled "Astrobiology and
the
Sacred: Implications of Life Beyond Earth." The project, led by UA
astronomy
Professor Chris Impey, is designed to stimulate interdisciplinary
thinking
and research on the implications of life beyond Earth. More information
about the program is online at http://scienceandreligion.arizona.edu
>From Lori Stiles, UA News Services, 520-621-1877
June 16, 2005
The Arizona Board of Regents approved the creation of a center for the
study of astrobiology at The University of Arizona today.
The center, called the Life and Planets Astrobiology Center (LAPLACE),
will
bring more UA researchers from various fields together to study the
existence of life elsewhere in the universe.
"Astrobiology touches our most human desire to belong and to understand
where we came from," said UA astronomy Professor Nick Woolf, who
directs the
two-year-old Tucson "node" of the NASA Astrobiology Institute. The
Tucson
astrobiology node involves the National Optical Astronomy Observatory
(NOAO)
as well as the UA and is one of 15 such programs nationwide. It forms
the
foundation for UA's new astrobiology center.
----------------------------------------------
Contact Information
Nick Woolf 520-621-3234
Joaquin Ruiz 520-621-4090
Related Web site
http://www.laplace.arizona.edu/
----------------------------------------------------
"Astrobiology asks the questions, what is life? How does it originate?
What
is the future for human life?" Woolf said. "Since the only life we know
occurs in a planetary system, astrobiology also asks how planetary
systems
form, and what these systems and planets are like."
UA planetary sciences Professor Jonathan I. Lunine said, "The
university
astrobiology program is an effort to use the latest space technology to
understand where we came from and whether we are, as an intelligent
species,
unique in the cosmos. LAPLACE will expand the emphasis on astronomy,
chemistry and planetary sciences to include researchers from other
departments, including geology, biochemistry, molecular biophysics, and
ecology and evolutionary biology."
Regents' approval for the university's LAPLACE will significantly
expand
the study of astrobiology at the UA, said College of Science Dean
Joaquin
Ruiz. "What the new university center is all about is expanding over a
much
wider range of problems in astrobiology, to look in more detail at what
it
is that is required for early life," Ruiz said.
"Astrobiology is exciting to me personally because I'm very interested
in
knowing how you form a planet that is habitable and then how life
populates
it," Ruiz said. "But astrobiology is also very exciting to me as a dean
because it's going to produce very interesting conversations that
otherwise
wouldn't happen. Astrobiology becomes the forum in which people from
all
these different disciplines creatively talk together."
The details of how things assemble themselves and disperse, for
example, is
important in astrobiology, Ruiz said. But how life self-replicates and
spreads has long been a basic question for biology, for physics and,
more
recently, for engineering. "Self-assembly of liquids in substrates is
hugely
important for the electronics industry," Ruiz said. "Engineers would
love to
build structures that self-assemble when, say, you add a drop of
water."
In addition to new research, LAPLACE is expected to generate additional
grant funding and spark interest from private donors. The center will
also
undertake fundraising to promote research, operational and educational
outreach activities.
Woolf and Lunine will be interim directors of the university's LAPLACE,
Ruiz said. A new faculty member, an astrobiologist, will be hired and
placed
in a biology, planetary sciences, astronomy or chemistry department by
fall.
NASA awarded the Tucson astrobiologists a $5 million, 5-year research
grant
in 2003. The team includes 22 co-investigators and collaborators: 17
from
the UA, three from NOAO and one each from the University of California,
Berkeley and Ohio State University.
There are four basic parts to the NASA-funded astrobiology program:
o UA astrochemist Professor Lucy Ziurys leads research on the
prebiotic compounds and complex organic molecules in the interstellar
medium
that are the building blocks of life. The research involves studies of
prebiotic compounds and molecules already known in space, searches for
new
ones by laboratory experiments and follow-up observations, and
theoretical
modeling.
o UA Assistant Professor Michael Meyer and Stephen Strom and
Joan
Najita of NOAO study environments and conditions under which habitable
worlds form and evolve. They use such state-of-the-art facilities as
the
Spitzer Space Telescope and the Gemini and Keck telescopes in studying
gas
content and physical structure of disks in the planet forming regions
as
well as model thermal and chemical structure of the disks. Mark
Giampapa of
the Tucson-based National Solar Observatory studies how magnetic
activity
leads to variability in the luminous output of sun-like stars, from
"young
suns" to stars the age of our sun.
o UA Regents' Professor of astronomy J. Roger P. Angel and
astronomer Phil Hinz lead observations to directly detect and
characterize
extra-solar giant planets. UA astronomy Professor Adam Burrows leads
theoretical studies that aim to learn about giant planet atmospheres
that
contain water and even whether these atmospheres support some kind of
microbial life.
o UA science education Associate Professor Tim Slater leads an
education and public outreach program to incorporate astrobiology in
general
science education.
In 2004, the John Templeton Foundation and the Metanexus Institute
awarded
the UA a 3-year, $270,00 grant for a project titled "Astrobiology and
the
Sacred: Implications of Life Beyond Earth." The project, led by UA
astronomy
Professor Chris Impey, is designed to stimulate interdisciplinary
thinking
and research on the implications of life beyond Earth. More information
about the program is online at http://scienceandreligion.arizona.edu