NASA Offers Opportunities for Biological Research on Space Station

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington                          

202-358-1100

jbuck@nasa.gov

WASHINGTON -- NASA invites scientists from around the country to submit proposals to perform biological research aboard the International Space Station. The NASA Research Announcement (NRA), "Research Opportunities in Space Biology," opened Sept. 30.

This NRA challenges scientists to propose experiments that could provide answers to questions about how life adapts and responds to microgravity. Selected investigators will have the opportunity to take advantage of new cell, plant and animal research facilities being developed for the space station. Proposals should demonstrate benefits to astronauts living and working in the harsh environment of space during long-duration missions. They also should improve medicine and health care for humans on Earth.

The NRA also focuses on ground-based research designed to lead to new space biology investigations aboard the orbiting laboratory. The investigations should use microgravity and other characteristics of the space environment effectively to enhance our understanding of basic biological processes and develop the scientific and technological foundations for a safe, productive human presence in space for extended periods in preparation for exploration beyond low Earth orbit. The investigations should apply this knowledge and technology to improve the nation's competitiveness, education and quality of life.

NASA's selection of research projects is guided by recommendations from the National Research Council's 2011 Decadal Survey Report, "Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration: Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era." The NASA-developed "Fundamental Space Biology Science Plan" provides an implementation strategy and roadmap based on available flight and fiscal resources.

To read the complete NRA, click on "Solicitations" at NASA's NSPIRES website http://nspires.nasaprs.com.

For information about the International Space Station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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Stemming the Tide of Biodiversity Loss on Earth

National Science Foundation awards new grants for studies of "Dimensions of Biodiversity"

Life on Earth is astounding in its diversity. Despite centuries of discovery, however, the vast majority of the planet's biodiversity remains unknown.

Only a few years ago, scientists shared the view that Earth's biodiversity was so vast that it might be beyond cataloging, much less understanding. That's no longer the case.

To characterize the lesser-known aspects of the diversity of life on Earth, the National Science Foundation has awarded 14 grants totaling $26.4 million in the third year of its Dimensions of Biodiversity program.

NSF's Directorates for Biological Sciences and Geosciences, and Office of International Science and Engineering support the program. Dimensions of Biodiversity is part of NSF's Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability investment.

The Dimensions program has also formed a partnership with NASA, which co-funds projects that use its remote-sensing platforms. The global importance of biodiversity is reflected in further partnerships with funding agencies in China and Brazil, which support Dimensions collaborators in those countries.

"By establishing networks of interdisciplinary, globally-engaged scientists, the Dimensions of Biodiversity program will have a lasting effect on biodiversity science," says John Wingfield, NSF assistant director for Biological Sciences. "The program has the potential to transform the way we conduct biological research."

This year's awardees will study subjects as diverse as the biota of the Amazon and its environment, how nutrient input drives biodiversity in China's extremely oxygen-deprived--or eutrophic--Lake Taihu, the components of tree biodiversity, and the lineage of species in Hawaii.

"The innovative and interdisciplinary teams of the Dimensions of Biodiversity program may accomplish in 10 years what, with a piecemeal approach, would have taken 50 years--a half-century we can no longer afford to wait," says Joann Roskoski, NSF deputy assistant director for Biological Sciences.

Advances in the ability to collect, analyze and integrate biological data have provided researchers with new tools to expand knowledge of Earth's biodiversity and to revolutionize our understanding of the living world.

The pace of discovery, however, is increasingly offset by the rapid and permanent loss of diversity. Reasons for biodiversity loss include climate change, over-exploitation of natural resources, "planetary re-engineering"--such as land-use change, water diversions, coastal development, fertilizer use--and the intentional or unintentional movements of species such that they become invasive.

With biodiversity loss, humanity is losing links in the web of life that provide ecosystem services, forfeiting opportunities to understand the history and future of the living world and giving up opportunities for future beneficial discoveries in food, fiber, fuel, pharmaceuticals and bio-inspired innovation.

Biodiversity research has often focused on a single dimension. For example, investigators have concentrated on the taxonomic diversity or phylogenetic history of a clade (an ancestor and all its descendants), the genetic diversity of a population or a species, or the functional role of a taxon (a group of one or more populations of organisms) in an ecosystem.

Although this research has yielded important advances, huge gaps exist in our understanding of biodiversity. We know little about how these various dimensions, individually and in concert, contribute to environmental health, ecosystem stability, productivity and resilience, and biological adaptation to rapid environmental change.

Dimensions of Biodiversity takes a broad view of biodiversity that ranges from genes through species to ecosystems. Its long-term goal is to develop an integrated understanding of the key dimensions of biodiversity in our ever-changing world.

By 2020, NSF's Dimensions of Biodiversity program is expected to have transformed our understanding of the scope and role of life on Earth.

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"Regulation of the Cell Cycle and DNA Damage-Induced Checkpoint Activation"

"Regulation of the Cell Cycle and DNA Damage-Induced Checkpoint Activation," by Erin Olson and her team at R&D Systems, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.

Inside a cell's nucleus, some proteins act like quality control auditors, ensuring that it's safe for the cell to copy its DNA and divide. This informational graphic from Erin Olson and her team at R&D Systems, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minn., sketches how these proteins seek out DNA damage during checkpoints as the cell moves between the four stages of its cycle. In the purple circles, they juxtapose the actions of the checkpoint proteins with the normal events inside the cell's nucleus. Some of these checkpoint proteins detect DNA damage, while others sit on the broken site and recruit new proteins to send out the call for DNA repair enzymes to fix the problem. Olson hopes the poster will serve as a quick reference for researchers and biology students.

This image won Honorable Mention in the Informational Graphics category of the 2009 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge (SciVis) competition, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the journal Science. The competition is held each year to celebrate the grand tradition of science visualization and to encourage its continued growth. The spirit of the competition is to communicate science, engineering and technology for education and journalistic purposes. To learn more about the competition and view all the winning entries, see the NSF SciVis Special Report (Date of Image: January-April 2009)

Credit: Erin Olson, Daphne Orlando and Tim Manning; R&D Systems, Inc.

"Mucus Meadows"

"Mucus Meadows," by Jerome Carpenter and Sheel Shah, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This rolling green pasture is a scene common to all of us; it's the landscaping found inside the lungs. The thickets of grass are cilia emerging from the cell membrane. The cilia seen here are in various stages of growth, from the newly sprouted stalks in the top left and bottom right to the more mature cilia on the left side of the image. The landscape is also dotted with clumps of secreted mucus and a ubiquitous field of microvilli. While some of the cell boundaries are easily spotted by fissures, the others can be traced out with careful examination. This particular image is of a ciliated cell culture that has been washed to remove most of its surface mucus. The culture was preserved with formaldehyde and imaged with an environmental scanning electron microscope.

This image was entered for judging in the Photography category of the 2009 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge (SciVis) competition, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Journal Science. The competition is held each year to celebrate the grand tradition of science visualization and to encourage its continued growth. The spirit of the competition is to communicate science, engineering and technology for education and journalistic purposes. To learn more about the competition and view all the winning entries, see the NSF SciVis Special Report (Date of Image: August 2009)

Credit: Jerome Carpenter and Sheel Shah, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Influenza & Flu Vaccines -- Science Behind The News

Every flu season, Americans battle coughs, fevers and body aches. The flu is a respiratory illness caused by a virus, a pathogen that causes disease in the human body. To understand how the flu is caught, spread and treated, Duke University's Katia Koelle explains the biology of a virus and how it is transmitted.

Credit: NBC Learn and the National Science Foundation