• ORGANIC ORIGINS
• ORIGINS OF EXOBIOLOGY
• NSCORT BY THE SEA
• SEASONING A THIN SOUP
• NOT-SO-DISTANT FUTURE

ORIGINS OF EXOBIOLOGY

Bada is a leader of one of NSCORT's laboratories and is part of a team of biologists and chemists who conduct research at the six NSCORT labs located at Scripps; the University of California, San Diego; the Salk Institute; and The Scripps Research Institute. Among these researchers are some of the pioneers of exobiology, a discipline defined as the study of the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the universe.

The term exobiology is only slightly older than the NSCORT program itself, coined in the late 1960s at a time when detection of extraterrestrial life seemed imminent to some individuals. The hope was not only to find life elsewhere but also to understand how it must have formed on Earth. Activity in the field hit an early peak in the mid-1970s when NASA's Viking spacecraft scanned the Martian surface. Surface samples of the red soil were taken, but no signals of the definite presence of life were found.

In the early 1990s came another surge of interest in Mars. Consequently, NASA began a different series of missions to the Red Planet. The series began with the unfortunate loss of the Mars Observer spacecraft in 1993, but rebounded four years later when Mars Pathfinder landed on the planet. At the same time, the space agency wanted to create academic ventures that would emphasize the education of a new generation of space scientists. Hence, the university-based NSCORT programs were created.

"NASA envisioned the need for more people in the relevant NASA science areas," said NSCORT investigator Gerald Joyce of The Scripps Research Institute, "so it created not just that training environment but that research environment, as well."