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Dr. Laurie Barge
Research Scientist in Astrobiology at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Abstract

To search for biology on other worlds, it is important to have working definitions of what constitutes “life” and “non-life”. However, the distinction between biotic and abiotic is often unclear, since we are still learning about the limits of life, and also because abiotic systems can become highly complex when devoid of biological influence. Although Earth provides a variety of examples of what biology can look like, examples of the critical steps between abiotic and biotic systems are lacking because the prevalence of life on our planet has contaminated / erased its record of prebiotic conditions. However, prebiotic chemistry may still be a current or formerly active process on other worlds with detected chemical gradients and organics, such as Enceladus, Ceres, or Mars. I will discuss how astrobiologists approach the search for life on other planets, and will describe some of the difficulties in distinguishing living and non-living systems. In particular I will share some of our lab work on simulating gradients in hydrothermal vents that could support life or its origin, and prebiotic chemistry experiments that aim to bridge the gap between geochemistry and the emergence of biochemistry.

Bio

Dr. Laurie Barge is a Research Scientist in Astrobiology at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She co-leads the JPL Origins and Habitability Laboratory which studies the origin of life and how life can be detected on other planets, and she is the Investigation Scientist for the HiRISE instrument on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Dr. Barge’s research interests include the emergence of life on Earth, and organic chemistry on Mars and ocean worlds such as Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. She is also interested in hydrothermal vents as planetary analogs, and is the science lead for an underwater laser divebot that will be deployed to a vent in the Pacific in 2020. Dr. Barge received her Bachelor’s degree (2004) in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Villanova University, and her Ph.D. (2009) in Geological Sciences from the University of Southern California. After graduate school she was a Caltech postdoc and then NASA Astrobiology Institute postdoctoral fellow. For her astrobiology research Barge has received the JPL Lew Allen Award, the NASA Early Career Public Achievement Medal, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.