Winner of the 2022 Barrie Jones Memorial Award – Dr Áine O’Brien.
Pig vomitoxin and the story of the Lafayette meteorite Dr Áine O’Brien was awarded the 2022 Barrie Jones Memorial Award for her outstanding contribution to communicating research related to astrobiology. Áine delivered an award lecture at the recent British and Planetary Science Conference, hosted at The Open University in June 2022, in which she shared her work on the Lafayette meteorite. Lafayette was ejected from Mars millions of years ago and landed on Earth in the early 20th century. As an organic geochemist, studying the Lafayette meteorite was an incredible opportunity to study the...
Read MoreNews: The toxic surface of Mars
The ASB’s Jennifer Wadsworth, along with Charles Cockell, at the UK Centre for Astrobiology have found that the surface of Mars may be even less hospitable than previously thought. When they exposed perchlorates (common compounds on the Martian surface) to high levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation similar to the flux at the surface of Mars, they became bacteriocidal. This suggests that the surface of Mars would be even less suitable for life than previously thought. However, life may still find a home a few metres beneath the surface, where it would be shielded from UV radiation. The...
Read MoreInterview with Charles Cockell
ASB’s Adam Stevens has recently recorded an interview with Charles Cockell, Professor of Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh and one of the founders of the Astrobiology Society of Britain. In the interview Charles describes his personal journey into astrobiology research and shares advice for getting involved in the field. Link to interview: https://soundcloud.com/astrobiologysociety/charles-cockell-asb-interview
Read MoreVodafone Foundation Portugal – Design The Future
ASB’s Zita Martins has recorded an interview about astrobiology for Vodafone Foundation Portugal’s Design The Future campaign. Design The Future is an online platform containing interviews from professionals in a variety of fields, which aims to raise awareness among Portugal’s young people of the range of professional career options that are open to them. Source: http://www.designthefuture.pt/discover_job.aspx?e=astrobiologa#bio
Read MoreASB in the Media: ExoMars
On Wednesday 19th October the ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) successfully entered into orbit around Mars. There are many links between the ASB community and the ExoMars missions, either directly, or through related research into the possibility of life on Mars. So, it comes as no surprise that some of ASB’s committee members have been out on the media circuit recently, talking all about the Red Planet. This week’s Mars-themed episode of the BBC’s The Sky At Night featured ASB’s Louisa Preston and Manish Patel. Louisa talked about the Mars Utah Rover Field...
Read MoreNew Scientist Live Festival
At the recent New Scientist Live Festival, ASB’s Zita Martins has been speaking astrobiology and the search for life in the Universe. On the opening day of the festival Zita joined astronaut Tim Peake and oceanographer Helen Czerski for BBC Radio 4’s Inside Science show – the full broadcast can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07vjx9d Additionally, Zita spoke to the Microbiology Society about the beginnings of life on earth, and the search for life elsewhere in the universe. Watch the full interview below:
Read More