Dr. Jack Farmer's Online Publication Reprints
http://geology.asu.edu/jfarmer/pubs/
"Currently, Jack is the Director and Principal Investigator of the NASA funded
Astrobiology Program at Arizona State University, he leads the NASA
Astrobiology Institute's Mars Focus Group and is on the Executive Board
of the NASA Astrobiology Institute. He holds appointments on various
NASA committees including ..."
http://geology.asu.edu/jfarmer/biography/pro.html
Evidence of ancient Mars sea is found
Past climate could have supported life, scientists say
"This is a profound discovery. It has profound implications for astrobiology,"
said Edward Weiler, NASA chief of space science, at a Washington, D.C.,
news conference. "If you have any interest in searching for fossils on
Mars, this is the first place you'd want to go."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/03/24/MARS.TMP&type=science
NASA Technical Memorandum
WORKSHOP ON
THE SOCIETAL IMPLICATIONS OF
ASTROBIOLOGY
"Discovering how life begins and develops, finding out whether
life exists elsewhere, and determining our future on Earth and beyond
will have a profound and fundamental effect on the human species.
Astrobiology affects our views of the universe, our science, our
culture, and ourselves-in short, every aspect of our existence."
Page 5
"...it is extremely important for us to be highly knowledgeable about the
likely reactions of different constituencies (the press, various religious
groups, political leaders, and the general public). We would be foolish
and negligent if we did not study such reactions well ahead of
time and make state-of-the art preparations for major discoveries.
Carefully prepared plans should be in place very soon, because evidence of
extraterrestrial life could be found at any time."
Page 7
http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/workshops/societal/societal_report.pdf
Normally I accept an embargo of scientific data as a benefit
to the researchers involved. But Meridiani is different.
It's different because the discovery of extraterrestrial life
effects every person on this planet in ways we can
only imagine. It is much more then a scientific
discovery, but reaches deep into profound religious
and philosophical concepts that form a basis for
our understanding of reality and each other.
Such information is owned by all of us because of
it's ...effect... on all of us and our future. In such
important issues we must insist the government follow
our most cherished and basic beliefs.
We must insist Nasa adhere to the concepts of Truth and Freedom!
The information must be fully available to all so that
a true and complete consensus can be reached. So
that no hidden agendas or politics color or delay
a discovery that holds within it...our... Truth and Freedom.
The Truth of our existence, and the Freedom
from ignorance..
An embargo is unacceptable!
There are things in this world worth fighting for and this is one of them.
This planet has suffered horribly at the hands of extreme religion
or extreme science gone wrong. This discovery can set
both on a path towards each other as it will redefine
our concepts of creation ...and...evolution
into a single view.
Our past and our future.
The daily papers drip ...as we speak... with the blood of
the conflicts over such issues. This planet deserves this
discovery, it ...needs it. The Opportunity Rover has found
life on Mars. Bacteria and stromatolites may seem unimportant
but it's the same types of life as on earth.
Life began on Mars in the ...very same way... it began on earth.
Whether a Pope, or an Administrator, no one person has
the right to determine ...for us...what we should know.
It is not for Nasa to decide how or ...if... such
discovery is released, it is up to all of us.
s
"A TRIUMPH may be of several kinds.
There 's triumph in the room
When that old imperator, Death,
By faith is overcome.
There 's triumph of the finer mind
When truth, affronted long,
Advances calm to her supreme,
Her God her only throng.
A triumph when temptation's bribe
Is slowly handed back,
One eye upon the heaven renounced
And one upon the rack.
Severer triumph, by himself
Experienced, who can pass
Acquitted from that naked bar,
Jehovah's countenance! "
By E Dickinson
Contact Elected Officials
http://www.firstgov.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
Freedom of Information Act
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/FOIA/
Opportunity: All 17,621 Raw Images
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity.html
Blueberry Bowl Mossbauer Spectra --- a Match --- for Stromatolite!
A Bowl of Hematite-Rich 'Berries'
Mar 18, 2004
"This graph shows two spectra of outcrop regions near the
Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity's landing site.
The blue line shows data for a region dubbed "Berry Bowl,"
which contains a handful of the sphere-like grains dubbed
"blueberries."
Blueberry Bowl chart
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/rover-images/mar-18-2004/captions/image-19.html
A Mossbauer investigation of iron-rich terrestrial
hydrothermal vent systems: Lessons for Mars exploration
4. Siderite as a Component of an Ancient Stromatolite
"Mossbauer spectra at two temperatures of a freshly slabbed
portion of a 2.09 Ga (Early Proterozoic) hematic chert stro-
matolite from the Gunflint Iron Formation (PPRG 2443) are
shown in Figure 26. The high-velocity ferrous peak migrates
from its position at 100 K to overlap the fifth peak of hematite
at 19 K. This behavior and the agreement of the splitting pa-
rameters with those of siderite argue that this sample contains
a small fraction of siderite. (dominant siderite peak at -1090 cm-I).
The sample investigated was freshly slabbed for the Mossbauer
transmission measurement, so the iron carbonate is interior
to the native stromatolite rock. Its occurrence in this 2.09 Ga
old rock in- dicates that long (billion-year) survival times
for siderite are possible when preserved in silica."
Stromatolite Graph
(Fig 26, page 16)
http://geology.asu.edu/jfarmer/pubs/pdfs/mossbauer.pdf
The Stromatolites of Stella Maris, Bahamas
http://www.theflyingcircus.com/stella_maris.html
Endurance Crater
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/n/119/1N138744629EFF2809P1987R0M1.JPG
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/n/111/1N138039382EFF2600P1986R0M1.HTML
Opportunity micro images
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/105/1M137503553EFF2208P2956M2M1.HTML
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m/106/1M137593860EFF2208P2956M2M1.JPG
Endurance finely layered rock
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/123/1P139114820EFF2815P2532R1M1.JPG
Morphological Biosignatures and the Search for Life on Mars
"Determining the location of potential paleobiological repositories
on Mars requires an understanding of the martian surface in
terms of elemental abundances and mineralogy. This variety
of hematite on Earth forms only in the presence of large amounts of
water, and typically at elevated (hydrothermal) temperatures
(Christensen et al., 2000)."
http://geology.asu.edu/jfarmer/pubs/pdfs/morpho.pdf
Hydrothermal Systems:
Doorways to Early Biosphere Evolution
ABSTRACT
"Hydrothermal systems may have provided favorable
environments for the prebiotic synthesis of
organic compounds necessary for life and may also
have been a site for life's origin . They could also have
provided a refuge for thermophilic (heat-loving)
microorganisms during late, giant-impact events.
Phylogenetic information encoded in the genomes of
extant thermophiles provides important clues about
this early period of biosphere development that are
broadly consistent with geological evidence for Archean
environments . Hydrothermal environments often
exhibit high rates of mineralization, which favors
microbial fossilization."
http://geology.asu.edu/jfarmer/pubs/pdfs/gsa.pdf
"It is this common association of microbes and iron
deposition on earth that has spurred hopes that robot
crafts exploring the hematite anomaly of Mars' Meridiani
Planum might find evidence for ancient life. The
hematite deposits of Meridiani Planum [7], regardless of
their exact origin, are considered to be a favorable host
for microorganisms that might have been associated
with their formation [8]."
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2004/pdf/1369.pdf
Microbolites in the Geologic Record
"Whereas internal morphology indicates the accretionary nature of stromatolite
growth, the external morphology of stromatolites can be used to infer hydrological
conditions in the environment in which the stromatolites grew. For instance, in
still-water environments, stromatolites will approximate a flat sheet, while in
more turbulent environments the stromatolites will consist of interlinked domes
or columns, with flat, linking mats between them."
http://www.geocities.com/earthhistory/newstrom.htm
Lamination as a tool for distinguishing microbial and metazoan
biosystems from inert structures
Conclusion:
"Lamination often indicates the presence of microbial or microbially
dominated biosystems. Furthermore, laminated structures are an
important borderline to distinguish micro and macroorganisms, although
such a distinction is relative. Both the presence and absence of
lamination are lawful phenomena based on the fundamental physical and
biological/biogeochemical principles."
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/scholz.pdf
Introduction
"At all scales of observation, problems often arise when trying
to distinguish between biological and inorganic features in the ancient
rock record. Stromatolites, defined as laminated biosedimentary fabrics
formed by the trapping and binding of sediments and/or
precipitation of minerals by microorganisms (Walter 1977),
are sometimes impossible to distinguish from finely laminated sediments
formed by inorganic processes"
http://geology.asu.edu/jfarmer/pubs/pdfs/taphon.pdf
Michael C. Storrie-Lombardi
NASA Astrobiology Institute
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
"The statistical analysis of stromatolites
presented here is based on the adoption of an approach
known to the Complexity research community as the
Compression and Diffusion (CD) method [1].
http://www.kinohi.org/pdf_files/NAI2003_Complexity.pdf
USING COMPLEXITY ANALYSIS TO DISTINGUISH FIELD IMAGES
OF STROMATOLOIDS FROM SURROUNDING ROCK MATRIX
"Storrie-Lombardi et al [9] recently described a method by
which the biogenicity of stromatoloids may be judged using
complexity analysis. The complexity of a digital file can be
quantified using lossless compression algorithms which reduce
file size by identifying redundant information.
At this scale the stromatolite images exhibit minimal
variance in compressibility (17.8±2.5%) and are
significantly less compressible than the images of the
surrounding rock matrix (31.9±10.2%, p<0.009, student
T-test). The ? c value computed implies variation
of a target from the surrounding matrix more than two
sigma removed from what would be expected from the
variance attributable to a random, diffusion driven
system.
This method provides a detection methodology for
automated search campaigns and a first order analysis for
the biogenicity of the structures, using the ability of
the compressibility algorithm to capture the random
nature of abiotic sediment or the regular nature of a
biogenically controlled structure."
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2004/pdf/1414.pdf
The State and Future of Mars Polar Science and Exploration
"The recent identification of putative shorelines in the northern plains
suggests that the water from these events may have contributed to one or
more ice-covered lakes or seas that may have collectively covered as
much as a third of the planet . These, and other lines of evidence, suggest
that Mars is water-rich and may store the equivalent of a global
ocean of water » 0.5-1 km deep as ground ice and
groundwater within its crust (Carr 1987)."
"Whether the early climate was warm or cold, the presence of
abundant water on the surface has profound implications for the
development of life. Indeed, given the intense impact and volcanic
activity that characterized the planet at this time, the development
of long-lived hydrothermal systems was likely widespread-
duplicating many of the important conditions that are thought
to have given rise to life on Earth (Farmer 1996)."
http://geology.asu.edu/jfarmer/pubs/pdfs/marspolarsci.pdf
Morphological Biosignatures and the Search
for Life on Mars
"In microbial communities, organisms exist in a common
EPS ("slime") matrix. These materials hold great taphonomic
importance because they can control aspects of the chemical
microenvironments that promote early diagenetic mineralization,
a key factor in microbial fossilization (Farmer, 1999). EPS
is known to bind a wide variety of metals in-
cluding Pb, Sr, Zn, Cd, Co, Cu, Mn, Mg, Fe, Ag,
and Ni (Decho, 1990, and references therein)."
"The concentration of these metals above background
levels presents an interesting possibility for the
detection of organisms even after organic mate-
rials have been degraded (Farmer, 1999; Conrad
and Nealson, 2001)."
http://geology.asu.edu/jfarmer/pubs/pdfs/morpho.pdf
TAPHONOMIC MODES IN MICROBIAL FOSSILIZATION
"In conjunction with other types of chemofossil evidence (e.g., isotopes and organic
biomarker compounds), spatial distributions of trace metals that are comparable
in pattern and scale to microbial cells and biofilms may provide additional
evidence for biogenicity .
A Mossbauer investigation of iron-rich terrestrial
hydrothermal vent systems: Lessons for Mars exploration
"While a high-temperature origin for terrestrial life is still
debatable, the high biological productivity and rapid
mineralization that are typical of thermal spring environments
make them particularly favorable places for the preservation
of a microbial fossil record. For this reason, hydrothermal
deposits are regarded as important targets in the exploration
for fossil evidence of ancient Martian life"
"Among the stated capabilities of the Mossbauer instrument is the
ability to detect "nanophase and amorphous hydrothermal Fe
minerals that could preserve biological materials" (S.W. Squyres,
http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/athena/mossbauer.html, 1998a).
Terrestrial hydrothermal springs, including deep-sea vents,
harbor complex ecosystems that have evolved based on nutri-
ents and energy supplied by the vent effluent. Importantly,
land-based spring systems also include photosynthetic (cya-
nobacterial) species. Previously, we reported results of a
Mossbauer investigation of samples (collected by J. C. Alt)
from submarine hydrothermal vents ("black smokers") in an
area of the East Pacific Rise [Agresti et al., 19941. The iron-
rich minerals were shown by scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) to be associated with bacterial filaments [Alt, 19881."
http://geology.asu.edu/jfarmer/pubs/pdfs/mossbauer.pdf
NASA-JPL May Have Cooked Their Own Goose!
"To make a long story short (I shall over-simplify for sake of
brevity), there is increasing evidence of the function of
bacteria in rock-forming and even in some sand-forming processes
(wherein bacteria serve to nucleate the growth of small silicate
crystals). On Earth, in formation of spherical concretions,
bacterial colonies and/or other organic matter infused with
bacteria nucleate crystalline silica growth. I suspect it would
likewise be the case where Mars was wet over extended periods."
"In the wet, mushy or 'muddy' environment, the resulting micro-
concretion slowly grows (sometimes incorporating or
encapsulating adjacent grains of silt or sand, sometimes simply
by crystalline growth from colloidally suspended silica
crystallizing and pushing adjacent silt ahead of its growth,
sometimes by a combination of the two processes), increasing its
diameter spherically across time. If conditions for the
bacterial colony's growth are episodic, one can sometimes see
(upon slicing the concretion) rather distinct concentric layers
of growth that formed the concretion, but where conditions for
growth are constant, the concretion may show a crystalline
pattern with virtually no concentric layering."
http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/updates/2004/mar/m03-035.shtml
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