Spoiler Alert!

Silicon-Based Life May Be More Than Just Science Fiction 

This article, published on NBC News/Space.com/Astrobiology Magazine, explores silicon-carbon bonding and features an interview with Dr. Frances Arnold, a chemical engineer at CalTech who made  a major discovery:  organo-silicon compounds can be self-generated in a test tube by mutant enzymes. She won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018 for this discovery. 

 Directed evolution of cytochrome c for carbon–silicon bond formation: Bringing silicon to life 

Dr. Arnold  and her team's findings were published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Science.

New Letters Added to the Genetic Alphabet

This article, published in Quanta Magazine/Wired.com explores what scientists are learning about the human genetic code and its potential to expand beyond the four nucleotides G, C, A and T.  Dr. Steven Benner, an organic chemist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution has found that two synthetic nucleotides called P and Z fit seamlessly into existing DNA. Findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.  

NASA

Life, Here and Beyond:

Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe

  Visit  NASA's site to learn more about how scientists are exploring the origins of life on Earth and beyond.   

 Antarctic Search for Meteorites program (ANSMET) 

   Learn more about ANSMET at Case Western Reserve University's site. Funded by NASA and the Smithsonian Institution, ANSMET sources meteorites from the Transantarctic Mountains and supplies them to scientists researching the materials that make up asteroids, planets and other bodies of the Milky Way.  

The Alien Underground: Podcast with NASA scientist and Nat Geo explorer Dr. Penny Boston 

Listen to National Geographic's interview of Dr. Penny Boston who explored The Crystal Cave in Naica, Mexico in search of microorganisms. 

Weird Life Found Trapped in Giant Underground Crystals 

  Watch Dr. Penny Boston's video presentation on National Geographic regarding the life forms she has found in The Cave of Crystals and other locations to understand what life might look like on planet beyond Earth.

Naica's Crystal Cave Captivates Chemists 

  Read about how giant gypsum crystals reveal their secrets through chemistry in Chemical & Engineering News Magazine, a publication of the American Chemical Society.  

New Spacesuit Unveiled for Starliner Astronauts 

  See NASA's article presenting the Starliner spacesuits that astronauts will wear on the Boeing Starliner capsule's first crewed flight to the International Space Station planned for June 2021.   

Celestial Mountains  

  Read Encyclopedia Britannica's description of the Tien Shan mountain range, which stretches across 386,000 square miles of Central Asia. Tien Shan means "celestial mountains" in Chinese.  

What Lies at the End of the Period Table?  

  Watch Chemical & Engineering News' video about the fabled Island of Stability, a theorized region of the periodic table where super heavy elements created by humans are stable enough to potentially have practical applications.  

Nuclear Fission Can Lead to a Nuclear Chain Reaction   

  CK-12's video and article explain the process of nuclear fission using the example of U-235.

 The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet 

For a deeper geological dive read Robert M. Hazen's book which "offers a radical new approach to Earth history in this intertwined tale of the planet's living and nonliving spheres."  Robert Hazen is Senior Research Scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Geophysical Laboratory and the Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Science at George Mason University. 

 A Big History of our Planet and Ourselves

Geologist Walter Alvarez's big history book "wields his unique expertise to give us a new appreciation for the incredible occurrences-from the Big Bang to the formation of supercontinents, the dawn of the Bronze Age, and beyond."  Walter Álvarez is a professor of geology at the University of California, Berkeley, a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and a past recipient of the Penrose Medal, the highest award given by the Geological Society of America.  

 Shaping Our Planet's Future

  Looking to the future of Earth and humanity's impact on it, astrobiologist David Grinspoon's book states, " Our challenge now is to awaken to our role as a force of planetary change, and to grow into this task. We must become graceful planetary engineers, conscious shapers of our environment and caretakers of Earth's biosphere." 

David Grinspoon is a Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and Adjunct Professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Science at the University of Colorado.  He is involved with several interplanetary spacecraft missions for NASA, the European Space Agency and the Japanese Space Agency.