Research Article

The Hunt for Life Beyond Earth

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Abstract

Astrobiology is a bright new field of science, concerned with the possibility of existing life beyond the Earth – of extraterrestrial life. Thus, my research here at University College London is quite literally engaged in the hunt for aliens. I am funded on a research fellowship with the UCL Institute of Origins, and split my time between desks at the Centre for Planetary Sciences and the microbiology lab run by Professor John Ward. My own research is focusing on our next-door neighbour planet, Mars, and the likelihood of any bacterial life - Martian microbes - surviving in the dusty surface soils of the red planet.

Keywords: bacteria, Europa, Mars, alien life

How to Cite:

Dartnell, L., (2010) “The Hunt for Life Beyond Earth”, Opticon1826 8(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/opt.081008