Resurrecting Ancient Proteins and Simulating Evolution in the Lab
How does a cell stay alive? How do molecules in a cell “know” how to react with one another? Does this chemistry become more…
Category: Big Questions
A space-age rat cage helps NASA study health in low gravity
When the NASA Space Shuttle was flying, it carried a variety of scientific equipment for running experiments. One of these devices was an…
Could Life Thrive on Radiation? Scientists Say It’s Possible
All life on Earth survives because of the sun. Plants use a process called photosynthesis to transfer energy from the Sun’s rays into the…
Computer techniques allow scientists to understand how bacteria work together
Single celled prokaryotic microbes, such as bacteria and archaea, control almost every aspect of our daily lives, from our individual health…
An Expedition to Collect Fish in Africa for a Gene Archive
It was no ordinary fishing trip. In May 2011, Denis Tweddle, a research associate of the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity…
Kepler discovers the first planet believed to be very similar to Earth
1992 First exoplanet to orbit a main sequence star is discovered by Aleksander Wolszczan. The first confirmed exoplanet is a ‘hot…
Are We Alone In the Universe?
Astrobiology is asking three fundamental questions: 1. What is life? 2. Are we alone out there? 3. What is the future of humankind? “Are…
How do we define life – or, in fact, can it be defined?
So far, we cannot be sure that this question has been properly answered. Even so, NASA has proposed that life be taken as a self-sustained…
Expedition to find rare pipefish in Queensland Australia
My research interests are centered on the evolutionary relationships among species of seahorse and pipefish in the family Syngnathidae…
The First Warm-Blooded Fish Ever Discovered
New research by NOAA Fisheries has revealed the opah, or moonfish, as the first fully warm-blooded fish that circulates heated blood…