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Hot Topic
Origins
Extreme Life
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Deliquescence in the Atacama
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
07/06/06 |
| After years of searching for evidence of microbial life in the driest region of Chile´s Atacama Desert, chemist Jacek Wierzchos finally found it. Living inside rocks made of salt. But how it manages to eke out a living there is still a bit of a mystery. |
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The Last Time It Rained
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/25/06 |
| Astrobiology Magazine´s managing editor, Henry Bortman, is hanging out with a group of astrobiologists in the driest place on Earth, Chile´s Atacama Desert. Yungay, an abandoned mining settlement in the Atacama, was until recently thought to be completely devoid of life. But new evidence hints at the possibility that even here, where rainfall is an event that occurs once a decade, microbial life can eke out an existence. |
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Flying in Space
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/24/06 |
| Thousands of tiny fruit flies soon will journey into space to help NASA scientists better understand changes in the human immune system caused by space flight. |
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Journey to Yungay
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/22/06 |
| The Yungay region in Chile´s Atacama Desert is the driest place on Earth. It rains perhaps once every 10 years. It is so dry that not even microbial life can survive there. Almost as dry as Mars. That makes it an interesting place for astrobiologists to study. Later this month, Astrobiology Magazine will begin a series of field reports from Yungay. |
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Exploring an Alien Glacier
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/14/06 |
| A scientific expedition to a remote glacier field in Canada's High Arctic may help researchers unlock the secrets about the beginning of life and provide insights for future exploration of our solar system. |
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Surviving Snow
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/09/06 |
| It has been 2.3 billion years since Earth's atmosphere became infused with enough oxygen to support life as we know it. About the same time, the planet became encased in ice that some scientists speculate was more than a half-mile deep. |
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Viruses and Astrobiology
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
06/05/06 |
| Astrobiology Magazine interviewed Dr. Blumberg about hepatitis B, his current research, and the role of viruses in the evolution of life on Earth. In this second and final part of the interview, Dr. Blumberg discusses the worldwide effort to vaccinate children against hepatitis B. |
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DNA Diet
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
05/30/06 |
| The ubiquitous bacteria E. coli rank among nature's most successful species for lots of reasons, to which biologists at the University of Southern California have added another: in a pinch, E. coli can feast on the DNA of their dead competitors. |
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What Lies Beneath
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
05/27/06 |
| When most people think of Louisiana as being unique, they think of Mardi Gras, crawfish and Cajun culture. Few realize that what lies beneath the Gulf of Mexico along Louisiana's coast is also unique, from the terrain and habitat to the animals living there. |
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Life at the Brimstone Pit
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| Topic: Extreme Life |
05/26/06 |
| A NOAA-led team of ocean explorers returned this month with new and dramatic video and sound recordings of a long-term deep-sea volcanic eruption first discovered in 2004 on the Mariana Arc. The site, with red lava and spewing sulphur and rocks, has been seen erupting on three visits in two years. |
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