Post-doc: ‘Designing an extraterrestrial sample curation facility’ at the Vienna NHM
This via Dr. Ludovic Ferrière at the NHM Vienna: This 2-year Post-Doctoral position available at the Natural History Museum Vienna is part of the Horizon 2020 European Commission Research and Innovation programme, call COMPET-8-2014: “Science in context: sample curation facility and scientific exploitation of data from Mars missions”. The plan of EURO-CARES is to create a roadmap for the implementation of a European Extra-terrestrial Sample Curation Facility (ESCF). Our aim is to improve European competitiveness in this field by road-mapping the required steps and highlighting...
Read More4th UK in the Aurora Programme Meeting
We have received the following meeting notice from the UK Space Agency: The 4th UK in Aurora meeting will take place on May 15th in Burlington House, London with the aim of providing a meeting for researchers to show the results of their research into Mars and other planetary science topics. A theme of this meeting is water-rock interaction on Mars. Subjects will include results from Gale Crater, ExoMars landing sites and meteorite research. Other topics are welcome. There will also be an opportunity to discuss planetary science and exploration strategy with UKSA. If you wish to give a...
Read More‘Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History’ by Donald E. Canfield
Donald E. Canfield, a Professor in ecology and originator of the Canfield Ocean Model, offers an excellent multidisciplinary introduction to how oxygen became so irrevocably intertwined with the history of life on our planet, and also how it has been shaping the geology and atmosphere of Earth. The first chapters cover a wide range of topics connecting oxygen to life on Earth and comparing Earth’s atmosphere and geology to those of several other planets and moons in the Solar System. Canfield explains how oxygen had become tied in with the evolution of life on Earth, but also how life was...
Read MorePhD position: Primitive life on Earth and Mars and the signature of organic prebiotic molecules
We have received the following notice from Dr. Frances Westall at Centre de biophysique Moléculaire, Orléans, France. Exobiology: Primitive life on Earth and Mars and the signature of organic prebiotic molecules Organic chemistry/Prebiotic chemistry/Geo-organochemistry 36 month contract (PhD) from the Région Centre, starting in Septembre 2015 The Exobiology group of the Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire, CNRS, UPR 4301 in Orléans (France) is proposing a doctoral bursary financed by the Région Centre in organic chemistry/prebiotic chemistry/geo-organochemistry. The PhD...
Read More‘Lucky Planet: Why Earth is Exceptional, and What That Means for Life in the Universe’ by Dave Waltham
In Lucky Planet, David Waltham argues that Earth’s teeming, complex biosphere is a rare anomaly in an almost sterile cosmos. From the start, he acknowledges that many of us have strong intuitions to the contrary: isn’t Earth just another planet orbiting just another star? There are trillions of stars; most have planets, many of them in the so-called habitable zone. Why should the one planet on which we happen to find ourselves be special? The answer to this, Waltham explains, is that we find ourselves on it. Wherever intelligent observers arise, they will necessarily find conditions just...
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