Quest Astrobiology Chat

Featuring: Dr. Rose Grymes

November 2, 2001

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 1 - 13:45:26 ]
Please join us Monday, October 22, for a chat with Rose Grymes, an Astrobiology Institute Associate Director. This chat continues the theme featured in the three-part series of webcasts on Mysterious Microbes. Please be sure to read Rose's profile before joining us, so that your questions will be appropriate to her field.

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 2 - 13:46:13 ]
You may go ahead and place questions in the chatroom now to be answered during the webchat. Please don't post test messages or repeats -- though you may not see your question, it is in the chatroom. Again, PLEASE do not repeat your questions. Enjoy the chat :-)

[ PLEASE_NOTE - 3 - 18:11:55 ]
Due to server outage, this webchat has been rescheduled for Friday, November 2, at 10 am PT/12 pm CT/1 PM ET. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please join us then!

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 6 - 09:46:03 ]
Hello to our early arriving participants!! I have your questions & will place them in the room once the chat begins. Welcome to all the classrooms sending in the great questions!! You have certainly prepared :-)

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 7 - 10:00:00 ]
We are ready to begin our chat with Rose. Welcome Rose!!

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 8 - 10:00:54 ]
Hi, Lori! I'm here, and looking forward to visiting with everyone online; it's a beautiful sunny autumn day in California, looking out my window.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 12 - 10:03:23 ]
RE: [annie] Does astrobiology have anything to do with astrology? If so what does it mean since I'm an Aquarius that I'm ruled by Uranis?
That's an easy one, because the answer is no -- astrology isn't a science; astrobiology is. Go to the NASA Astrobiology Institute website at http://nai.arc.nasa.gov and look through the Ask an Astrobiologist section; I know that question's been asked before, and you'll find a more detailed response there.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 14 - 10:05:57 ]
RE: [MissNeilsClass] What are Astromaterials, Evolutionary Genomics, and Ecogenomics?
Those three titles are the names of three of the six 'Focus Groups' within the Institute. Focus Groups are like subcommittees; scientists originate new ideas or new approaches to research by talking with each other, and gradually develop these new ideas into a consistent picture -- a set of objectives, a hypothesis, an approach. They share this with their colleagues, and the group continues to grow, as people join who are interested. When the group is ready, they propose their ideas to the community and even more researchers join. Astromaterials is concerned with samples and theoretical discussions of materials from space; interstellar dust, meteorites, comets. Evolutionary Genomics examines the changes in hereditary information (genome) for specific groups of organisms, and is interested in correlating changes to the environmental changes happening to the planet at the same time. Ecogenomics examines communities of organisms in their environment, particularly in extreme environments, and studies how they interact with each other and with their setting; how they live in and impact the geochemistry and atmospheric chemistry of the site.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 17 - 10:09:41 ]
RE: [MrHammodsClass] Is your daughter leaning toward studying Astrobiology like you or Computer Science like her father?
Neither, right now she's thinking of international relations and business/economics -- although she's having a great time studying psychology.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 19 - 10:12:35 ]
RE: [MsReyesClass] What challenges, if any, have you faced as female representative in your field?
Women in science, and generally in professional life, continue to face challenges. The reasons behind that are controversial, and often confusing because experiences are individual and personal. Objective sociological studies are perhaps the best way to seek out and identify real trends. I would recommend that girls seek out mentors, to have someone who's interested in their progress, wants to understand them as individuals, and is in a position both to advise them and to introduce them to other supporters.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 21 - 10:13:51 ]
RE: [Janice] What kinds of things do you learn in medical microbiology?
Med Micro is primarily concerned with microbes and disease; and mainly human disease. Bacteria and viruses and their role in human disease.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 22 - 10:14:41 ]
RE: [Jeremy] Do you miss working in the lab?
No, actually, I don't anymore. I really enjoy being involved with science, and being in a position to support and influence the direction that innovative science is able to take.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 26 - 10:18:00 ]
RE: [Jeremy] Is the lab work ever dangerousz>?
Safety is a primary concern -- it's the first thing I was taught, and the first thing I taught all my students. Being educated about the materials you're working with and the situations you're working in, and being aware/paying attention, are tremendously important -- not only for safety, but for the discovery process of science itself.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 28 - 10:19:00 ]
RE: [MrsJamisonsClass] What hobbies and/or interests do you feel have helped you in your field and/or position?
Reading and writing -- whatever you read, you add to your experience, your insights, your knowledge base. Whatever you write -- poems, letters, prose, essays, term papers-- you become a better communicator.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 30 - 10:21:32 ]
RE: [MrHammodsclass] What scientific questions did you explore as a Principal Investigator?
I became in independent PI when I came to NASA 10 years ago. At that time, I was looking at how mammalian -- in fact, human -- cells perceive forces. The architecture of the animal cell, the cytoskeleton, is beautifully poised to communicate with the cell's external environment, to sense even minute physical forces, and to utilize pathways of communication within the cell. I was investigating the response of one particular gene expression pathway, the collagenase gene, in response to a growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor or PDGF, and how externally applied forces could influence that.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 31 - 10:23:34 ]
RE: [Dominique] Do you think we will ever send a person to Mars? Do you think life exists there? How would it be proved life is or was there? Thanks this is for a class project.
I believe that humans will go to Mars for scientific investigations; what grade level is your class? It's more likely that you'll go than that I will, I bet. My mind is completely open on the question of whether life exists there. The early history of Mars, as a planet, is so similar to that of the early Earth, that the question about life arising is fascinating no matter what the answer. If life didn't arise on Mars, why not? If it did, what happened?

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 34 - 10:26:47 ]
RE: [MsPearsonsClass] What mentors greatly influenced your career path besides your parents? How did you find out about the Astrobiology field?
I think I'd name three other mentors, to start with. My husband has been a tremendous mentor; he's a scientist, too, and has been supportive, encouraging, and pushed me into challenges that he believed I could handle much more than I did; and he's been right. I think that's a good definition of a mentor; it's not just about advice, it's about believing in you, and sometimes giving you the shove you need to take on something that might be too much -- but, then again, if you find it's not too much, then you've pushed your limits and gone beyond what you thought they were. A mentor is unique because after they give you the shove, you know they're still in your corner for whatever back-up you need. Another would be the woman who hired me at NASA, Joan Vernikos. She was head of the Life Sciences Division at NASA Ames, and later head of Life Sciences NASA-wide. She retired last year, and we're still good friends. She was even more avid to hand me challenges that I didn't think I was up to, but she had confidence in me. Time after time I found that she was right, and I was able to handle the opportunities she gave me. And finally, my daughter. She's much more self-confident and self-possessed at 16 than I was. I watch and learn from her.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 38 - 10:31:03 ]
RE: [Dawn] How do you use math in your job as a researcher?
Gee- math is the language of science, it's the basis. Being without math would be like being without speech or writing, you couldn't communicate. Math is quantities, it's analyses, it's statistics, it is the 'stuff' of observation and data. What DON'T we use math for?

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 40 - 10:34:47 ]
RE: [Dominique] What signs of life are looked for there -- water, carbon, etc? I am in the 10th grade.
Those are well considered suggestions; water and carbon. Water has unique properties, and all life that we know of, throughout the amazing diversity of Earth's biosphere, requires liquid water. Enough liquid water is available, although in vanishing small amounts for very limited periods of time, to permit life to thrive in even the driest place on Earth, the Atacama Desert. Liquid water is accessible to microbes even within the sea ice in the Arctic. So, looking for water is an excellent strategy for looking for life, and still enables you to look in environments very similar to those that exist on Mars and Europa. Carbon also has unique properties, and looking for organic compounds (carbon-based molecules) is another fundamental. The most similar element is silicon, but silicon can't compounds longer than 8 Si atoms in the chain; so chains of amino acids to make proteins or chains of nucleic acids for genetic information (RNA, DNA), or cyclic rings for electron transport, aren't possible.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 43 - 10:38:15 ]
RE: [Lisa] Is the Space Station Biological Research Project still going on?
Yes, although I'm not an 'inside expert' on that. Sorry.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 45 - 10:40:28 ]
RE: [Harold] What’s your favorite part of the outreach work you are doing now?
Outreach is education; education is learning; I love learning. I suppose the best part of the learning exchange is interaction -- webchats being one of those interactive pieces. I like doing chats like these, they're an opportunity to 'think fast'!

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 46 - 10:41:27 ]
RE: [Marti] Hi Dr. Grymes. I read your bio & was curious – what did Dr. Blumberg win the Nobel prize for? Did you help with that?
Barry won the prize in 1976 for his work on the Hepatitis B Virus, which led to the development of the first vaccine. No, I didn't work with him then. I first met him about two years ago, when he accepted the position of Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 51 - 10:44:58 ]
RE: [Leslie] Have you done any cancer research?
My graduate work was in cancer biology. I worked on the Radiation Leukemia Virus, which causes a lymphoma in mice. That was before viruses like HIV were discovered. Both RadLV and HIV are viruses based on RNA, ribonucleic acid, as the infecting genetic information. The laboratory in which I worked was actively working on searching for human RNA viruses, and my own work was with the mouse model. The life cycles of these viruses are similar in many ways.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 52 - 10:50:00 ]
RE: [MrWilsonsClass] How long has the Astrobiology Institute been in existence? Is this a fairly new field?
The Institute has been in operation for just over three years. It was initiated when the first 11 member teams were selected, based on a peer review of proposals submitted by over 50 groups, in 1998. Studies of the origin and evolution of life, the birth of stars and planetary systems, the limits of life in extreme environments (on Earth) and the study of our solar system neighbors and their environments; all those efforts have been underway for decades -- why, it was over 400 years ago that Giordano Bruno declared that the stars were like our sun, and might each support planetary systems. At the time, he suffered for his scientific opinions (he was burnt as a heretic). So, astrobiology is not new. The definition of the term has been expanded from the earlier use of the word exobiology -- studying the limits of life, the possible origins of life, and the potential for life on other planets.

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 53 - 10:50:08 ]
Great questions everyone!! We have about 12 minutes left for the chat. We would love to hear your comments on this chat and on the new NASA Quest re-design. Once the chat is over, please take a moment to fill out our online survey.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 57 - 10:54:38 ]
RE: [Leslie] How is space research really helping in the fight to cure diseases – like CANCER?
Understanding cancer, in its broadest sense, is about understanding how eucaryotic cells function; how they develop, how they respond to their environment, how they specialize, how they mature, how they die. Space biology contributes a new environment to this study, the environment of space. The primary features of that new environment of interest? Microgravity and radiation. On Earth, we all live at 1g, by definition, and all our investigations take place at 1g, all our observations depend on 1g, all our thinking (well, most of it -- some of us are rocket scientists!) is based on 1g experiences. In orbit, gravity can be treated as a variable, rather than as a constant. Cosmic radiation has properties that are very difficult to re-create in instruments on Earth, and observing the reaction of cells to this radiation allows us to better understand the basic functioning of cellular genetics, expression and DNA repair systems. It's another asset in the general study of how mammalian cells operate. Space biology really relates to investigations of biology in space, or studies on Earth related to, or in preparation for, using the space environment. Astrobiology is about, in part, the origins and evolution of life, and about the strategies that biology adopts in an extremely wide range of environments. That tells us a great deal about the potential of biological life, how biology 'works.'

[[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 59 - 11:02:16 ]
RE: [Rochelle] Tell me about the multi-disciplines in field of astrobiology? What are the best areas of study to prepare for this type of work?
Astrobiology relies on many scientific disciplines; biology, chemistry, astronomy, physics, geology, paleontology; and depends on tools and technologies such as those delivered through computer science, mathematics, engineering. Study what you love, and stay curious about the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 60 - 11:02:26 ]
RE: [Christopher] Do things age quicker in space? If they do, or age slower, how will that knowledge help us?
The only information that I know of that directly relates to your question is about bacteria. Bacterial growth rates have been reported higher in studies conducted in microgravity. But do bacteria 'age?' Not in the way that, I think, you mean. Higher organisms, say animals and people, haven't been living in space for enough time for us to be able to answer your question. Wanna go?

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 61 - 11:03:59 ]
I think Rose is answering the last question we have time for today. Thanks everyone for your great questions!! A special thanks to Dr. Rose Grymes for sharing her time and expertise with us today!!

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 62 - 11:05:16 ]
RE: [Ellen] What do you see as the future of Astrobiology?
I see you as the future of Astrobiology! The questions we investigate -- the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe -- are fairly broad, I think you'll agree. We live at a time when advances in technology, deepening understanding and fundamental advances in many disciplines, and the ability to explore environments like the Earth's poles and the farthest reaches of her oceans, combined with space exploration, permit us to expect real answers to those broad questions. I think it's going to be exciting, don't you?

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 63 - 11:05:37 ]
RE: [Lori/NASAChatHost] I think Rose is answering the last question we have time for today. Thanks everyone for your great questions!! A special thanks to Dr. Rose Grymes for sharing her time and expertise with us today!!
I've LOVED it -- thanks for challenging me to 'think fast!'

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 66 - 11:08:21 ]
RE: [MsPearsonsClass] Thanks so much for chatting with us today!!
You're intensely welcome, thanks for playing with me this morning.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 67 - 11:08:43 ]
RE: [MsReyesClass] Thanks!! This was awesome!!
It not only beats working, for me, it IS working!

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 70 - 11:12:20 ]
RE: [MrHammodsclass] Thanks so much for the chat. My class thoroughly enjoyed it!
You're welcome -- thanks for being interested.

[ RoseGrymes/ARC - 71 - 11:12:30 ]
RE: [Leslie] Thanks Dr. Grymes for answering my questions. I am very interested in becoming a cancer specialist.
Good luck, Leslie!

[ Lori/NASAChatHost - 73 - 11:12:47 ]
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