UK Centre for Astrobiology

News

Here you can find the latest news from the UK Centre for Astrobiology.

Funding success expands Planetary Palaeobiology Group 

November 2024

UKCA co-director Sean McMahon has received two major grants, which will enable new lines of research and fund the recruitment of two new postdoctoral research assistants and a PhD student in the UKCA’s Planetary Palaeobiology Group (PPG). Taken together, the grants will bring nearly £1 million in new research funding to Edinburgh. The successful proposals concern fundamental questions about microbial palaeontology and the search for life in the universe.

The first project has been funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, as part of their “Pushing the Frontiers” programme. This project, “The Hidden Majority: Reading and Writing the Fossil Record of Bacteria”, will use sophisticated analytical methods and novel experimental protocols to discover how microorganisms have fossilized throughout Earth history, with implications for the search for life on Mars. McMahon is Project Lead and Prof Bryne Ngwenya, head of the School of GeoSciences, is Co-Lead. An advertisement for a related postdoctoral position will be circulated in the near future.

The second project, “Unambiguous Biosignatures for Life Detection”, has been awarded $1.2 million US by the International Human Frontiers Science Program Organization (HFSP), to be split between three investigators. The Principal Investigator is Henderson Cleaves (Howard University, USA). Sean McMahon and Mark van Zuilen (Naturalis Biodiversity Centre) are Co-Investigators. This project will use a “big data”, algorithmic approach to identify what is distinctive about living systems in quantitative terms. While helping to discover what makes life “special”, the new research will also provide fundamental methods for defining and detecting life in the universe. The project will begin in December 2024 with the appointment a new postdoctoral research assistant (Niall Rodgers) and a PhD student (Beilei Hua). Niall Rodgers holds a PhD in  mathematics from the University of Birmingham, while Beilei Hua completed the UKCA’s MSc in Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences in 2024 and conducted her MSc dissertation research in the PPG.

 

PhD student nominated for the Vox Awards 2024

October 2024

Mia Frothingham, PhD student in the Planetary Palaeobiology Group at the UKCA, dedicated amateur science communicator, and volunteer with SpaceTV, was nominated for the prestigious Vox Awards 2024 in the category Best Human Performance in E-Learning/Medical Narration. Mia’s nominated work, “New Method for Finding Worlds Outside Our Solar System”, produced by SpaceTV, showcases her talent for making complex astronomical topics engaging and accessible. Congratulations, Mia!

Check out the other nominees and winners for the Vox Awards 2024, celebrating excellence in e-learning and medical narration.

 

Students aim for a high score with video game collaboration

August 2024

Students on the MSc degree in Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences have been sharing their knowledge and understanding about life on other planets with a video games company.

Auroch Digital, an independent game development company based in Bristol, is creating the video game ‘Mars Horizon 2: The Search for Life’, whose players will run a space agency, investigate the solar system and collect evidence of life.

The collaboration, which also involved astrobiology staff, included a number of online meetings and a visit from game developers to the University. Students carried out research and made scientific suggestions to inform in-game scenarios.

A  tour of lab facilities conducted during the visit involved a demonstration of chemical reactions, the viewing of samples including rocks, minerals, organisms and fossils, and a guide to the ‘Mars chamber’, which reproduces the pressure, temperature and atmospheric composition of Mars to see how various materials and processes behave under those conditions.

Students on the interdisciplinary MSc degree in Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences work to understand the nature of life and whether we might find it elsewhere in the universe. They build on their knowledge of  physics, chemistry, biology and geosciences to answer fundamental questions about living matter, how it forms, varies and evolves in concert with planets and stars, and how it is distributed across time and space.

An estimated 3.2 billion people worldwide play video games, making this one of the most popular forms of entertainment. With the steady rise in popularity of gaming over the past few years, there may be further opportunities for collaboration with scientists.

Madeleine Landell, a student on the MSc Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences degree commented:

Collaborating with Auroch on Mars Horizon 2 has been an incredible opportunity. It has both given us astrobiology students a glimpse into the creative and meticulously researched process that goes into videogame development, as well as allowing us to think differently about advances in space science. The Auroch team's dedication to preserving as much real science as possible in the video game was really impressive. They weren't afraid to get into the semantics of molecular biology and geochemistry in their pursuit of a scientifically accurate yet exciting game. We've left this collaboration with renewed excitement about how our current astrobiological research could contribute to the future of space exploration. We really look forward to the release of Mars Horizon 2.

John O’Donnell, Lead Game Designer on Mars Horizon 2 said:

We had so much fun collaborating with the students of the MSc programme. It was a privilege to see and hear about their work and have their influence on the game’s vision and authenticity. The students helped us research many what-if scenarios of life in our solar system and because of their diverse backgrounds this took the game in interesting new directions.

 

UKCA fellow scores RSE grant for understanding cold-tolerant bacteria

July 2024

Congratulations to Dr Stewart Gault who has received a Royal Society of Edinburgh grant to support his research in understanding how bacteria survive at low temperatures. The Small Research Grant from the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) covers the costs arising from a defined research project and encourages high-quality research and academic innovation.

One of the major goals in astrobiology is discerning the limits to life and how life has adapted to extreme environments, thereby informing us as to whether extreme environments found beyond Earth are potentially capable of supporting life. Understanding the habitability of subzero temperature environments is particularly important as the icy moons Europa and Enceladus contain vast quantities of liquid water. However, we do not know what the low temperature limit for life is, or whether it is set by one factor or a combination of factors.

The current record holder for low temperature growth and metabolism is Planococcus halocryophilus (P. halocryophilus), which can replicate at -15°C, while maintaining metabolic activity down to -25°C. The mechanisms which facilitate this low temperature activity are currently unknown. This RSE Grant will enable Dr Gault to investigate whether it is the onset of intracellular vitrification that enforces a limit for P. halocryophilus’ low temperature activity and whether P. halocryophilus has adaptations which can modulate its intracellular vitrification.

In addition, he will be exploring whether the presence of extracellular ions found in the natural environment and the growth medium confer any depression of P. halocryophilus’ intracellular vitrification, thereby permitting low temperature metabolic activity without the need for specific vitrification oriented adaptions.

Postdoctoral fellow success for PhD student

April 2024

Congratulations to UKCA PhD student Annemiek Waajen who has been selected as a Schmidt Science Fellow.

PhD student Annemiek Waajenhas been selected as one of the 32 researchers in this year’s cohort of Schmidt Science Fellows.

This prestigious postdoctoral program harnesses an interdisciplinary approach as a way to break down silos among scientific fields in order to solve the world’s biggest challenges and support future leaders in STEM. The 2024 fellows consist of 17 nationalities across North America, Europe, and Asia. 

Annemiek’s postdoctoral research will focus on permafrost thawing and its impact on climate change.

The increasing temperatures in the Arctic, resulting from climate change, will lead to the thawing of currently frozen (permafrost) soils, soils that store large amounts of carbon. To what extent this will contribute to climate change is not well understood due to research limitations. 

As a 2024 Schmidt Science Fellow, Annemiek plans to build a holistic perspective on permafrost thawing, comparing single-site and single-method studies in a global, multi-omics meta-analysis. This insight will help address this issue and support policymakers in limiting its impact.

The Schmidt Science Fellows program provides the world’s best emerging scientists with new skills and perspectives to develop novel solutions to society’s challenges, become scientific and societal thought leaders, and accelerate ground-breaking discoveries.

Each Fellow will undertake a year-long Science Leadership Program to develop the skills, experience and networks necessary to become the next generation of interdisciplinary science leaders alongside a one- to two-year research placement at an internationally-renowned lab.

Schmidt Science Fellows is an initiative of Schmidt Sciences, delivered in partnership with the Rhodes Trust.

 

Start of the new MSc in Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences  

September 2023

We are excited and pleased to welcome the students of the first year of the MSc Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences at the University of Edinburgh.

On this programme they will develop critical thinking about astrobiology and planetary science in their social contexts, research methods and how different scientific approaches address fundamental questions about life in the universe.

Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences MSc | The University of Edinburgh

 

The Tartan Tardigrade podcast is back 

September 2023

UKCA student Mia Frothingham speaks to PhD candidate Caprice Phillips from The Ohio State University. 

The Tartan Tardigrade - Episode 11: Caprice Phillips 

UKCA members participate to ASB9

September 2023

Wide representation of the UKCA at the 9th  Astrobiology Society of Britain conference.

The conference celebrates the first 20 years of the Astrobiology Society of Britain. Among the keynote speakers, the organising commission invited Rosa Santomartino from UKCA.

UKCA welcomes new Senior Astrobiology Technician Nim Felton to Edinburgh 

August 2023

We are pleased to welcome Miss Nim Felton to the UKCA.

Nim Felton joined the UKCA this week as our new Senior Astrobiology Technician. Nim joined us from the Edge Hill University, were she worked as a biology technician, and has a deep fascination with Astrobiology and extremophilic life.

New UK Centre for Astrobiology logo 

LogoNEW

August 2023

We are pleased to announce our new UK Centre for Astrobiology logo, developed to celebrate our first 10 years of research and science activities in the astrobiology and space biology field!

The new logo, designed by Dr Sean McMahon, reinterprets the three-colour motif of the former one by adding further details and improving its graphics. Colours of the logo summarises the main objects of interests in astrobiology and space biology: blue represents Earth and space, red represents Mars as a prominent example of the whole spectrum of extraterrestrial planetary bodies, green indicates life and biology.

UKCA strengthens link with Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell through Joint Research and Education Seed Grant

June 2023

CSI visit

UKCA co-director Sean McMahon and MScR student in Palaeontology and Geobiology Mia Belle Frothingham travelled to Ithaca, NY between 3-8 June 2023 to pursue a new collaboration between the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell (CSI) and the UKCA, two of the world’s leading hubs for astrobiological research. The collaboration is funded by the Global Cornell Joint Research and Education Seed Grant.

PI Lisa Kaltenegger at Cornell has previously pioneered using hemispherical reflectance measurements to catalogue the colours of organisms as comparisons for the biosignatures that may be resolvable on exoplanets. PI McMahon at Edinburgh has led the study of false biosignatures and how we can accurately identify non-biological processes mimicking the evidence of life.

In this new collaboration, we are testing the novel hypothesis that combinations of minerals, organic matter, and atmospheric conditions may lead to false biosignatures in exoplanet reflectance spectra obtained by next-generation telescopes. We anticipate crucial publishable results that will pave the way for significant further collaboration between the CSI and the UKCA.

Dr Corentin Loron is awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellowship

May 2023

Congratulations to Dr Corentin Loron, member of the Planetary Paleobiology Group of UKCA, for winning a competitive Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. Starting from February 2024, Dr Loron will work on his own research project, aiming to identify fossil life on Mars using spectroscopy and machine-learning.

2022-2023 University of Edinburgh Changemaker Award

April 2023

UKCA co-director Rosa Santomartino, together with colleagues Patricia Gonzalez, Tracy Scott and Neil Corsie, has been awarded for her commitment to establishing the JCMB Biolab Sustainability group. The group has the aim to reduce the environmental impact of research practices by appropriate laboratory waste disposal and recycling, reducing single-use plastics, and implementing energy-saving initiatives. 

Have a look at all the excellent people and groups awarded this year: 2022-23 Changemaker Award recipients | The University of Edinburgh

Youtube interview: Early Earth Microbes May Have Eaten Raw Meteorites.

April 2023

Annemiek Waajen and Rebecca Prescott from the UKCA have been interviewed by the YouTube channel “SciShow Space” about their research on microbes and meteorites. The channel made an episode on how microbes may have eaten meteorites on Early Earth, a research project we are currently working on at the UKCA.

Have a look at the episode to find out more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BexmYmcW-Hs

UKCA research features on BBC's The Sky at Night

April 2023

UKCA co-director Sean McMahon and MScR student Mia Frothingham were featured on the BBC's flagship astronomy programme, The Sky at Night. The episode was entitled, "The Search for Alien Life" and broadcast on the 10th of April. UK TV license-holders can watch the episode here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001kytj/the-sky-at-night-the-search-for-alien-life.

UKCA research features on BBC Radio 4 Inside Science programme

March 2023

UKCA co-director Rosa Santomartino was featured on episode the BBC Radio 4 Inside Science programme. In this episode, Dr Santomartino discussed how microorganisms could support space exploration in a sustainable way, and how this could enhance our capacity to tackle environmental issues on Earth: 

BBC Radio 4 - BBC Inside Science, Covid – missing link found?

UKCA welcomes new postdoctoral fellow Pamela Knoll to Edinburgh 

January 2023

We are pleased to welcome Dr Pamela Knoll to the UKCA for two years.

Pamela Knoll joined the UKCA this week on a Human Frontiers Science Program Postdoctoral Fellowship. Pamela is a physical chemist with a PhD from Florida State University and postdoctoral experience at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Granada, where she held a Fulbright Award. Her interests focus on nonlinear dynamics, self-organization in inorganic materials, and biomineralization. In Edinburgh, her research will explore biomineral selection by extremophilic microorganisms.

UKCA launches new MSc programme in Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences

December 2022

Video: MSc Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences
MSc Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences

The UK Centre for Astrobiology (UKCA) in the University of Edinburgh's School of Physics & Astronomy is launching a new MSc in Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences. The MSc in Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences is the UK’s first Masters in astrobiology. The programme builds on Edinburgh’s substantial and leading role in astrobiology, geobiology and planetary sciences, including cometary studies and exoplanet science. Students will be fully embedded in the UKCA.

Click here to apply for applications for September 2023 entry.

Information on funded Scholarships is coming soon.

It’s an incredibly exciting time to be working in these fields and we very much look forward to welcoming the next generation of astrobiologists and planetary scientists to Edinburgh to participate in our programme.

Dr Sean McMahonProgramme Director, MSc in Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences
Astronaut

Astrobiology and the planetary sciences are interdisciplinary subjects that build on physics, chemistry, biology and geosciences to answer fundamental questions. Astrobiologists seek to understand life in an astronomical context: how it forms, varies and evolves in concert with planets and stars, and how it is distributed across time and space. Planetary scientists investigate the origin, diversity and behaviour of planets, moons, rings, asteroids, comets, and solar systems. Together, these sciences offer a distinctive and mind-expanding perspective on our own place in the universe. 

The MSc programme will provide graduates with an exciting foundation in the rapidly advancing interdisciplinary science of life in the universe while offering methodological training for further technical or academic work in the planetary, life, or space sciences.

The key features of the programme are:

  • Full-time programme, 12 months
  • Taught components in astrobiology (theory and methods), planetary sciences, and a range of optional courses from environmental geochemistry to space law
  • A research dissertation

Click here for more information.

New popular science book: Taxi From Another Planet

Taxi From Another Planet

UKCA co-director Charles Cockell has published a new popular science book with Harvard University Press. "Taxi from Another Planet" is designed to make the cosmos accessible to any reader on Earth.

We all know cabbies like to talk - and when Charles Cockell is in the back seat, topics like the potential for alien life and the benefits of space exploration often come up. Each essay in this convivial collection takes questions like, Will we understand aliens?, What if there isn't life out in the Universe?, and Why is the government spending tax dollars on space programs anyway? as a jumping-off point for discussion. Taxi from Another Planet is available now. Get your copy here on Amazon.

Science, society, and history are woven together throughout this delightful book, resembling the many intertwining streets of Cockell's journeys, and ours.

Kevin Peter HandAuthor of Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space