LIFE RCN is featured in Forbes!
Cells in a petri dish. Credits: GETTY
To find life on other planets, scientists have to know what they’re looking for. To know what they’re looking for, they have to unravel the mystery of how life originated and evolved in the first place. For answers, NASA is delving into Earth’s ancient past.
A worldwide network of astrobiologists, scientists who study the origins and evolution of life in the universe, will be brought together to research how life evolved on the early Earth from single-celled organisms, like bacteria, to complex organisms.
“This is the only planet known to harbor life,” said Betül Kaçar, an assistant professor in the department of bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “If we cannot understand it here, how can we find it elsewhere?”
Kaçar will lead LIFE along with Frank Rosenzweig at Georgia Tech, Ariel Anbar at Arizona State University, and Mary Droser at the University of California, Riverside. The purpose of a research coordination network, said Anbar, is to bring together people in the wider international science community to participate in new research.
“There’s a place for everybody here. As long as you’re fascinated by life, there are many different ways to chase these questions and we want everyone to be excited and join us in this effort.”