“I am interested in Astrobiology”. When they hear that phrase, some people look amused, like I was trying to be funny. Others look at me like I’m crazy, a poor misled scientist, interested in a non-existent field and a disturbed mind (soon to use tax dollars for alien research). Sure, astrobiology sounds as far out as E.T., more like science fiction than science progress. However, scientists in universities all over the world are working on some aspect of astrobiology. The words some aspect are the keys in that sentence. Before we get any further, let me define what astrobiology is and what all it encompasses.
            Astrobiology is also known as exobiology. The main goal of this discipline is to explore the possibility of life on other planets, how life evolved on our planet or on other planetary bodies, whether humans might be able to reach and colonize other planets, and whether terrestrial life can be sustained on other planets. If you think about it, this is really an interdisciplinary field that requires knowledge about astronomy, chemistry, biology, evolution, statistics, genetics, mathematics, engineering, space flight, and… the list could go on. So really, most scientists are studying something that could be applied to the field of astrobiology, they may just not have thought about it that way yet.
            I can almost see most people’s eyes gloss over at the mention of things like “chemistry” and “statistics”. In fact I think my eyes glossed over a little, so maybe I’m just projecting. The thing is, taken separately, these fields are not all that interesting to me. I admit, I don’t really care about this chemical or that element… but it suddenly becomes more interesting to me when applied to astrobiology. When I think of astrobiology, the likelihood that statistically there has got to be life on some other planets, suddenly all these disciplines (even chemistry) seem a lot more interesting. Suddenly, I want to know what kind of biology could possibly survive in the harsh nooks and crannies of a space, what kind of space engineering would it require for humans to get to that life, what instrument could detect it, and what chemical soup did it evolve in? It’s the equivalent of wearing academic beer goggles. Everything looks a lot sexier to me when viewed through the lens of astrobiology. It even makes me a little giddy at night when I stare up at the sky and imagine what microbes might be thriving in our solar system!
            Speculating further about life on other planets, astrobiologists grudgingly acknowledge that it probably won’t be little green men that we find. We are most likely to find microbial life hidden in subterranean permafrost or thriving near hot vents of a vast alien ocean. Mars has plenty of permafrost and used to be like Earth once. No reason it couldn’t harbor life. Europa is known to have a vast ocean covered with ice; it even has thermal energy to keep that water in liquid form. Not a bad habitat for emerging life on a planetoid. Titan has geysers and pools of liquid organic materials, prime environment for a primordial soup. Saturn and Jupiter are massive, who is to say that life couldn’t exist in a small pocket somewhere? The appeal of astrobiology is not in finding E.T. (although that is pretty sexy), but in just being open to the possibilities and allowing the mind to stretch far beyond the immediate science. Astrobiology is a discipline that brings together scientists and citizen enthusiasts from all fields to bond and work towards a common goal.  

Yesterday I participated in a fun day of microbial outreach organized by the fabulous students of the Rutgers ASM (American Society for Microbiology) Graduate Student Chapter. The outreach event included about 40 students from grades 5-8, the perfect time to be exposed to real-live microbes! We started with a short Introduction to Microbes lecture by my engaging postdoctoral adviser, Dr. Max Häggbloom. He spoke about “What are microbes?” (clever single-celled organisms, unseen by the naked eye) and touched on several very interesting things bacteria and archaea can do (survive high radiation, live in icy climates, make us sick, make us healthy, generate vaccines and antibiotics).

When he asked for questions at the end of his 30 minute talk, the caliber of the questions asked blew me away! A female student asked whether microbes evolved. Another male student asked whether there were microbes in space (Go, go astrobiology!). I was thrilled to see their interest.

We then broke the group into two sections of 20 students- one section headed for the laboratory upstairs, the other to the classroom where I was volunteering. In the laboratory activity, graduate student volunteers helped the students prepare slides from pure microbial cultures and from yogurt, and to stain the cells in order to observe them under the microscope. Apparently (and I say this because I wasn’t volunteering there myself but heard feedback from the students and volunteers) it was a big fun mess and the students loved seeing the microscopic critters they ate in yogurt and had heard about in the news as well as from parents and teachers!

In the classroom activity, students were separated into four groups of five students and each team got a fancy name: Bacteriawesome, Viralicious, Archaeamazing, and the Funguys. We played a “Microbial Jeopardy” game, with five categories (Microbes in Food, Environment, Medical and Biomedicine, Biomolecules, and Famous Scientists) where the judge went through all 26 questions, starting with easier ones from all categories at $100 points to the most difficult at $500. The Final Jeopardy question allowed teams to bid it all on and double their points if they got the answer right!

Particularly tricky questions merited a discussion, allowing the Rutgers volunteers to showcase their knowledge and talent for explaining concepts simply. All involved had a great time and the members of the winning team got to choose their very own Giant Plush Microbe toy! During the game, some teams were alert and engaged, while others needed a little encouragement. However, with seven enthusiastic student and postdoc volunteers cheering the teams on, winning took backstage to learning something new.

At the end of the classroom activity, we lined the kids up and gave them a little GloGerm gel to rub on their hands. This stuff mimics distribution of bacteria on hands which they can observe under a black light. We then asked them to wash their hands with soap as they normally would at home or school. Then we checked the thoroughness of their washing under a black light again. Students were shocked to discover that their hands were still dirty, especially around the fingernails! The activity taught them that a quick handwashing doesn’t actually accomplish much and they really need to wash for longer in order to get them clean and prevent sickness.

After lunch, we switched groups so that all students participated in both the classroom and laboratory activities. At the end of the day, feedback from parents and students was overwhelming, they all had such a great time and the students all seemed to have their favorite microbial fun-fact. All in all, a productive Saturday reaching out to enthusiastic students and facilitating first “face-to-face” contact with microbes!

Can’t wait to do this again in the summer. Thanks Rutgers ASM Grad Students for organizing the event!

I admit, I lied. When explaining to family and friends the reason I loved Interstellar and why they should go see it too, I stated that it was the science in the movie that I loved most. I sang praises of the reimagined black holes, wormholes, and exoplanets based on theoretical equations of Dr. Kip Thorne in conjunction with the awesome graphics design team for the movie. Those amazing visuals inspired deep sentiment in me, and it’s really the sentiment through the whole movie that made me love it so much and see it twice.

Human exploration of space is very important to me. Ever since high school and reading the book Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, I have felt a longing for human space travel and colonization of other planets. When I was even younger than that, it wasn’t dinosaur books that I was reading, it was astronomy books with pictures of galaxies, quasars, nebulas, strange planets, and billions of bright stars scattered across a black sky. I would lay in the grass in our front yard and look up into the night sky, searching for streaking meteors and imagining alien races far away, looking back. For a long time science itself didn’t interest me, although space did. It wasn’t until reading of above mentioned book that I realized, human space colonization may be possible and science can get us there. Hence my love of space science was born and I have been pursuing it since by way of astrobiology.   

Sure, there were many scientifically inaccurate parts to Interstellar and many reasons why the entire plot was dubious. But other blogs and articles have addressed those critiques of the movie so I’ll leave those complaints to those less starry eyed obviously lacking in vision. There has been a dearth of space movies over the past decades, many with aliens, addressing the challenges of traveling through space, and each with ever-astounding special effects. The Aliens series and Independence Day, among others, show battles against hostile aliens come to take our planet and resources. Mission to Mars and other movies exploring the Red Planet, always show the planet in a menacing light, as it seeks to kill any humans who dare walk upon it. Moon, Sunshine, and Gravity, all address the perils of space phenomena and space travel taking its toll on humans. Basically none of these movies show human space travel in a positive light whatsoever, encouraging us to be cautious, think small, and stay on Earth. Space is a scary place, these movies say, everything in it will always work against you and try to kill you.

Well I say, so what? Here on Earth, we are killing ourselves, so what’s the difference?

Yes, space travel for humans represents challenges. Interstellar addresses those: planets that have water but gravity causes massive waves, humans losing their psychological control due to stresses of space, black holes and wormholes trying to rip the space-ship apart, etc. But the message of Interstellar, in my opinion, was clearly one of prevalence of the human species and spirit. Sure, we evolved on Earth, and we are muddling our way through the ages here, generating toxic greenhouse gases and using up limited freshwater and fossil fuels at mind-boggling rates. We could probably survive on this planet hundreds more years, though we are clearly ruining our chances of surviving many millennia. I’m an environmentalist, and we will do our best to save the planet. But just in case, I say we should probably start looking elsewhere.

Interstellar, unlike other space exploration movies, sends a different kind of message. Sure, space exploration represents challenges, but space is not actively evil, only powerful and majestic (Anne Hathaway’s character even says this). Challenges are not new to our species and can be overcome if we put our minds to it. Many humans have lost vision due to problems here on Earth, we have lost our connection to each other. But maybe if we found inspiration in a common goal, by all looking up and pointing into the sky together, we could be like the people in the movie: Looking for new options elsewhere (which Anne Hathaway’s character finds) while also trying to save Earth’s people and humanity (Jessica Chastain’s character). All-in-all it’s a decently made space movie that represents the majesty of space and perils of life on Earth if we continue this way.

I myself will keep dreaming of the scenes inspired in me by Interstellar. Like when their tiny space ship flies by majestic Saturn, and of Gargantua contorting light and time. I’ll dream of exploring the icy exoplanet with solid ice clouds and maybe starting a human colony on a balmy new planet, galaxies away. I can’t help myself, some of us find inspiration by looking up.