The School of Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute seeks to hire a tenure-track faculty member in Astrobiology. Applicants should have research interests and expertise that synergize with on-going research activities in the New York Center for Astrobiology. Applications received by October 31, 2012 are assured fullest consideration. Click here for further details.
Month: July 2012
Astrobiology on WAMC Northeast Public Radio – Celebrating 14 years!
The weekly WAMC public radio show The Best of Our Knowledge features a series of interviews and discussions with faculty, teachers and students associated with the New York Center for Astrobiology, and with visiting speakers in our Seminar series. These segments continue a long tradition of Astrobiology content on WAMC, which began 14 years ago in fall of 1998, sponsored by the Astrobiology Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and its predecessor, the New York Center for Studies on the Origins of Life, with support from NASA. Past segments are available for online streaming.
The 2012 Astrobiology Teachers Academy at RPI
The 4th annual Astrobiology Teachers Academy was held on the RPI campus, July 9-13, attended by 24 high school and middle school science teachers from New York State – by far the largest number we have hosted. The teachers worked with faculty from the New York Center for Astrobiology and with education experts from the Association for the Cooperative Advancement of Science Education to develop ideas, strategies and resources to integrate astrobiological themes into their classrooms. The intrinsic fascination of astrobiology and the search for life on other planets provides a highly effective means of engaging the students in the STEM disciplines.
The Astrobiology Teachers Academy has also launched its facebook page.
The 2012 Astrobiology Summer Science Camp at RPI
Forty-eight middle school students from the Capital District spent two weeks designing space suits, building rockets, and learning about astrobiology at the annual ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp at RPI. Teams of students developed proposals for missions to search for life in the Solar System that were evaluated by scientists from the NYCA. Click here for an overview of the program; click here for details of some activities.
A New Look at the Martian Blueberries
Scientists at Syracuse University – part of NAI’s team at RPI – report new information about the history of water on Mars in the current issue of Planetary and Space Science. Focused on the hematite spherules known as the “blueberries” discovered by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in 2004, the study suggests that ages measured using the relative abundances of uranium, thorium, and helium in the blueberries could yield the time that has passed since water last wetted the sediments.