1. Martin Fisk College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences Oregon State University Corvallis, Oregon Astrobiology - the study of the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the Universe The Ultimate Questions: How did life start? Is there life elsewhere? Are we alone? And why is astrobiology relevant to workshop on microbial oceanography? EARTH 2008 MBARI/C-MORE/ASTEP Microbial Oceanography Workshop July 20 - 25, 2008

2. Microorganisms live in extreme environments hot cold acid no oxygen no light high salt very dry starvation diet live by consuming chemicals Some marine microbial habitats hot cold acid no oxygen no light salty low food supply but plenty of chemical food Why Oceanography and Why Microbiology?

3. Marine geology Volcanoes and volcanic rocks in the oceans Why Oceanography

4. Video footage from the movie "Pele Meets the Sea" courtesy of Richard Pyle

12. ALH84001 EETA79001 Nakhla Shergotty Images from NASA

13. Nakhla Observations in a Martian Meteorite 20  m

14. Why Teachers? Integrated science instruction instilling wonderment physics chemistry astronomy biology microbiology oceanography geology math sociology Reference: J. T. Staley (2003) Astrobiology, the transcendent science: the promise of astrobiology as an integrative approach for science and engineering education and research, Current Opinion in Biotechnology 14:347-354.

15. NASA Solar System Exploration, Planets http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/index.cfm

17. 300,000,000,000 stars Artist’s image of the Milky Way Galaxy Image source unknown

18. http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Front/tofc.html

20. What do you think is the probability of life in our galaxy other than on Earth? Probability of rolling a 6 on a die twice in a row: Equals the probability of the first number being a 6 times the probability that the second number is a 6. 1/6 x 1/6 = 1/36 What we need to know to answer the question. (1) The number of stars in our galaxy. (300 billion) (2) Probability that a star has planets. (guess 1/100) (3) Number of planets in the habitable zone. (guess 1/10) (4) Probability that life develops on habitable planets (guess 1/1,000,000) Number of planets with life = 300 billion x 1/100 x 1/10 x 1/1,000,000 = 300.

21. www.ta3.sk/docasne/ ESTW/08_extrasolar.html