1. 1 ST WORKSHOP ON GEOETHICAL NANOTECHNOLOGY Lincoln, Vermont July 20 th, 2005 ASTROBIOLOGY: WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE? Baruch S. Blumberg

2. Hubble Ultra Deep Field Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys 9/24/04 - 1/16/04

3. Earth, Taken from Apollo 7. Courtesy of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena and National Aeronautics and Space Administration Taken from the book ‘Pale Blue Dot’ by Carl Sagan

4. Photographed on February, 1990 by Voyager 1 Courtesy of JPL and NASA Taken from the book ‘Pale Blue Dot’ by Carl Sagan EARTH

5. Astrobiology: The study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life on Earth and in the Universe. Life in space: How biology and life react with the space environment. These two subjects intersect. SPACE AND BIOLOGY

6. How did life begin? Are we alone in the Universe? What is the future of humans? What is life and how would it be recognized? What is death? How do you know life has ended? GENERAL QUESTIONS FOR ASTROBIOLOGY

7. CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE i) Science ii) Religion (creation stories are characteristics of many cultures and religions) iii) Philosophy iv) Ethics v) Law vi) Politics

10. CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE  Autonomy, or self-determination  Reproduction.  Metabolism.  Nutrition.  Complexity.  Organization.  Growth and development.  Variation and evolution.  Information.  Hardware/Software entanglement.  Permanence and change.  Chirality.  Entropy. (Adapted from Paul Davies, The Fifth Miracle, Penguin Books, 1999)

11. Antarctica (Figure 2a) contains a dry desert region (2b) with sandstone rocks (2c) serving as refuge sites for complex microbial communities. These cryptoendolithic communities, their survival strategy in a cold, dry, high UV flux environment, and their interaction with the surrounding rock matrix provide an accessible Mars analog ecosystem. Images courtesy of H. Sun. a b c Exploring Cryptoendolithic Communities with Deep UV Native Fluorescence and Raman Spectra in The Antarctic Dry Valleys

12. Grand Prismatic Spring. Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA.

13. 20 km in diameter and formed 23 million years ago Haughton Meteorite Impact Crater

14. Photomontage of a black-smoker chimney at the TAG site, Mid-Atlantic ridge

17. Jupiter’s Moon - Europa

18. Saturn’s Moon - Titan

19. Photograph of the martian meteorite ALH84001. This visible face has been sawed to expose the interior. (NASA photo)

21. Bacterial Mat, Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur

22. Stromatolites as Biosignatures? M. Storrie-Lombardi, M.D.