PSU scientists receive NASA grant

A team of scientists from Portland State and two Montana-based universities have been awarded a $142,000 grant from NASA to study how life on other planets could live in extreme environments, such as a volcano on Mars.

Kenneth Stedman, an assistant professor of Biology at PSU, said the three-year, $142,084 grant study on “Biomolecular Substrates for Extraterrestrial Life” is specifically interested in studying extreme environments on Earth, such as natural hot springs, in order to better understand how life is able to survive an environment that would be deadly to most organisms.

NASA awarded the grant to Stedman and his PSU team, as well as researchers at the University of Montana and Montana State University, Jan. 1.

The environments the study focuses on are particularly high-acidity environments such as hot springs, which are what Stedman refers to as, “life in boiling acid.”

These areas are of particular interest to NASA, Stedman said, because they may be the link to finding life on Mars, which was once covered in acidic oceans and is home to the largest volcano in the solar system.

Researchers are working with environments such as Yellowstone National Park and Lassen Volcanic National Park in the Southern Cascades, Stedman said. The hot springs are over 170 degrees Fahrenheit, with readings between two and three on the pH scale, which measures acids and bases in substances. A pH reading of less than seven is considered acidic.

“This one’s kind of a double whammy,” said Stedman.

The hot springs are “loaded with life,” said Stedman, though all the organisms that they have found are microbial, or too small to be seen with the naked eye.

After collecting the samples, Stedman and his team have been observing the organisms under controlled conditions.

Stedman and his team have gathered several samples of archaea bacteria from areas across the United States, while researchers in Montana are working in environments in Costa Rica, Honduras and other Central American nations.

Stedman also specializes in biology and virology, which contributes to research of the study, and his colleagues are studying the molecular basis of the organisms by introducing viruses and observing the results.

“We use the virus as a tool to see how the organism works,” Stedman said.

Stedman said other points of interest are Titan and Europa, which are moons of the planets Saturn and Jupiter, respectively. Stedman said it is believed that there could be undersea volcanoes on Europa, though it is unknown.

“There’s so much to learn there that we know so little about,” Stedman said.