CURRENT EVENTS

BAR FIELD WORKSHOP

A public lecture by Prof. Schopf of UCLA at Science North in Sudbury, ON (September 17).

A group photo on an outcrop of the ~2.4 Ga glaciaogenic sediment with drop stones in the Huronian Supergroup during the Elliot Lake
field trip (September 19).

A group photo in front of the 2.8 Ga giant stromatolites at the Steep Rock Iron Mine in Atikokan, ON (September 27).....

RECENT NEWS

Jim Kasting was recently elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Geochemical Society.

Irene Schneider, a graduate student from Jim Kasting's group, has been selected by NASA/Mars Society as crew physicist for the upcoming expedition 61 for the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS).  MDRS Crew 61/Spaceward Bound Crew Five is a two week mission simulation carried out in the desert of Utah where NASA, in collaboration with The Mars Society, runs simulations for future manned missions to the red planet.  There she will be developing and helping implement the first EVA emergency radiation protocols.  Congratulations Irene!

Dr. Jenn Macalady, Assistant Professor of Geosciences/Astrobiology, has recently been awarded a grant from the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) to investigate "Genomics of Sulfide Cave Extremophillies". Following is a short description of Jenn's project.

Genomics of Sulfide Cave Extremophiles

Modern microbial ecosystems hold the key to understanding how geology and geochemistry interact with evolutionary forces acting on prokaryote communities. Despite a ribosomal gene-fueled revolution that has radically expanded our view of the earth's microbial biosphere, the mechanisms by which microorganisms evolve in nature are largely unknown. This is a fundamental gap in our understanding of microbial evolution and ecology. The goal of the new initiative is to use simple extremophile microbial communities in subsurface geochemical oases (sulfidic caves) to answer questions about the mechanisms of microbial evolution in the environment, and about microbial adaptations to geochemical constraints like temperature, pH, and chemical energy fluxes. The research will be facilitated by Penn State's pyrosequencer, which utilizes new technology that profoundly reduces the reagent costs, sample size, and technical difficulty of shotgun sequencing. This project will be among the first applications of pyrosequencing to environmental samples, placing NASA NAI in the forefront of change.

Dr. Lee Kump, Professor of Geosciences, has recently received joint funding from The NASA Astrobiology Institute and the National Science Foundation to Understand the Environment of the Earth More Than 2 Billion Years Ago.

FAR-DEEP: Fennoscandian Arctic Russia Drilling Early Earth Project Summer-Fall, 2007

The transition from the Archean Eon to the Proterozoic Eon (2.5 - 2.0 billion years ago) represents one of the most critical transitions in Earth's history as it reflects the emergence of the modern aerobic Earth System.  Various lines of evidence indicate that this period witnessed the establishment of an oxygen-rich atmosphere and, perhaps related, the first global glaciation in Earth history.  Critical to understanding this transitional interval are studies that integrate the various proxy datasets that document the various processing operating at this time.  The drilling project is a multidisciplinary international study of major environmental changes across the Archean-Proterozoic boundary in order to provide a better understanding of the emergence of the modern aerobic Earth System.  The aim of this project is to obtain a coherent rock-record through this transition via the acquisition of fresh drillcore material from strategic locations within Fennoscandia.  The diversity of processes and events recorded for this most important time interval in Earth history, in particular within the Fennoscandian Arctic of Russia, make this effort particularly significant.

The International Continental Drilling Program, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Astrobiology Institute (NAI) are co-funding the drilling together with European partners (Norwegian and German funding agencies).

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Organic haze, glaciations and multiple sulfur isotopes in the Mid-Archean era.  S. D. Domagal-Goldman, J. F. Kasting, D. T. Johnson, and J. Farquhar.  Earth and Planetary Science.    January 2008.

Metal limitation of cyanobacterial N2 fixation and implications for the Precambrian nitrogen cycle.  A. L. Zerkle, C. H. House, R. P. Cox and D. E. Canield.  Geobiology, Volume 4 Page 285 - December 2006.

Molecular Timescale of Evolution in the Proterozoic S. B. Hedges, F. U. Battistuzzi and J. E. Blair in Neoproterozoic Geobiology and Paleobiology, Springer, New York (S. Xiao and A. J. Kaufman, Eds.) December 2006.  

Hydrogen cyanide polymers, comets and the origin of life.   C. N. Matthews, and R. D. Minard,   Faraday Discussions.  November 2006.

Late Archean rise of aerobic microbial ecosystems.  J. L. Eigenbrode and K. H. Freeman.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.  October 24, 2006.

Exotic Earths:  Forming Habitable Worlds with Giant Planet Migration.  S.N. Raymond, A. M. Mandell, and S. Sigurdsson.  Science 8 September 2006.

Evolution of Early Earth's Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, and Biosphere - Constraints from Ore Deposits.  Edited by Stephen E. Kesler and Hiroshi Ohmoto, The Geological Society of America Memoir 198.  September 8, 2006.

Sulphur isotope evidence for an oxic Archaean atmosphere.  H Ohmoto, Y. Watanabe, H. Ikemi, S. R. Poulson, and B. E. Taylor.  Nature.  August 24, 2006.

Sulfur cycling in the aftermath of a 635-Ma snowball glaciation:  Evidence for a syn-glacial sulfidic deep ocean.  M. T. Hurtgen, G. P. Halverson, M. A. Arthur and P. F. Hoffman.  Earth and Planetary Science Letters.  May 30, 2006.

WrbA froin Escherichia coli and Archaeoglobus fulgidus Is an NAD(P)H:Quinone Oxidoreductase.  E. V. Patridge and J. G. Ferry.  Journal of Bacteriology, May 2006.

The Stepwise Evolution of Early Life Driven by Energy Conservation.  J. G. Ferry and C. H. House.  Molecular Biology and Evolution.  March 31, 2006.

Heterotrophic Archaea dominate sedimentary subsurface ecosystems off Peru.  J. F. Biddle, J. S. Lipp, M. A. Lever, K. G. Lloyd, K. B. Sørensen, R. Anderson, H. F. Fredricks. M. Elvert, T. J. Kelly, D. P. Schrag, M. L. Sogin, J. E. Brenchley, A. Teske, C. H. House, and K. Hinrichs.  PNAS.  February 27, 2006. 

Early evolution of the venom system in lizards and snakes.  B. G. Fry, N. Vidal, J. A. Norman, F. K. Vonk. H. Scheib, F. R. Ramjan, S. Kuruppu, K. Fung, S. B. Hedges, M. K. Richardson, W. C. Hodgson, V. Ignjatovic, R. Summerhayes, and E. Kochva.  Nature.  February 2, 2006.