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CarnegieScience The Newsletter of the Carnegie Institution SPRING 2013

EMBRYOLOGY N GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY N GLOBAL ECOLOGY N THE OBSERVATORIES N PLANT BIOLOGY N TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM N CASE: CARNEGIE ACADEMY FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION

On the Inside 5 Most Distant Galaxy Discovered 7 Coping with Too Much Salt 8 AToMS Rolls Out with a Splash 9 Better Refrigeration Through Crystals CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:30 AM Page 2

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

The Carnegie Institution for Science is now over 110 years old. At the founding of the institution in 1902, U.S. government funding for fundamental scientific research was largely non-existent, and the major research university in its current incarnation had yet to be born. It is not much of an exaggeration to suggest that fundamental research in the early 1900s in some fields was completely dominated by Carnegie. Today, of course, the landscape for scientific research is very different, with many large academic and governmental research performers. Nonetheless, Carnegie has continued to play an important role in scientific research, though one that has evolved from its early days. This has been accomplished in large measure by remaining true to Andrew Carnegie’s original vision of supporting exceptional individuals and by retaining a degree of independence that is both distinctive and of great consequence. In early 2012 we embarked on a study to assess how the Carnegie Institution is per- Carnegie Institution for Science ceived to inform our planning for a major expansion of our outreach and fundraising 1530 P Street, NW activities. The study involved interviews with industry, academic, and government Washington, D.C. thought-leaders in the sciences to explore the function of fundamental scientific 20005-1910 research in our society; perceptions of Carnegie’s image and reputation; the attributes 202.387.6400 that generate enthusiasm about scientific research; and impressions of private research www.CarnegieScience.edu institutions more generally. We also sought to identify opportunities to communicate our research activities and their impact more effectively. President Richard A. Meserve Some of the key findings from the study include the following: • The Carnegie name is viewed favorably, but there is confusion about the Director, Department of Embryology relationship of the Carnegie Institution to the 22 other Carnegie non-profit Allan C. Spradling organizations.

Director, • Our research is very well regarded and our scientists remain at the forefront Geophysical Laboratory of their respective fields, but we are not well known by the public. Russell Hemley • We received high marks for our publications and news, but there is a significant Director, opportunity to raise our public profile. Department of Global Ecology • Individuals interested in scientific research connect emotionally with narrow areas of Christopher Field research that relate to their background, experience, and interests. They are more Director, interested in a particular research area and in the scientist conducting that research The Observatories Crawford H. Greenewalt Chair than in the institution as a whole or in the department in which the research takes place. Wendy L. Freedman • While Carnegie’s history is of some interest, the respondents were far more Director, excited by present and future research programs. Department of Plant Biology • Interdisciplinary research is viewed very favorably and is considered critical to Wolf Frommer solving many of humankind’s most pressing problems. Carnegie’s small size Director, and flexible approach to scientific research are conducive to this type of research. Department of Terrestrial Magnetism • Private research institutions occupy a special place in the landscape. Key Linda Elkins-Tanton attributes include institutional independence, the ability to take a long-term Director, view and pursue high-risk research, and the flexibility and creativity that these Administration and Finance Cynthia Allen attributes engender.

Chief Advancement Officer We are in the process of developing a strategy that will build on these findings as we Rick Sherman seek to enhance our impact. In the meantime, it is satisfying to receive feedback that Chief Information Officer corroborates the value of independent research and of the Carnegie Institution’s Gotthard Sághi-Szabó distinctive contributions. As we begin to implement our response to the study, we Director, welcome your feedback about the institution and our work. External Affairs Susanne Garvey Richard A. Meserve, President Editor Tina McDowell

Science Writer Natasha Metzler CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:30 AM Page 3

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Trustee News Global Ecology

Global Ecology hosted the trustees’ Hosts Trustees November meeting at Taaffe House, the Packard family home in Los Altos Hills, CA, where board members could enjoy the spectacular vistas in between meetings. The Finance and Development committees met on Thursday, November 15, followed by the first session of the board. The Audit, Nom- inating, and Governance committees met the following day, before the second session Yixian Zheng of the board. On Thursday afternoon and evening, trustees visited the Global Ecology labs. Di- Solving Stem rector Chris Field introduced the group to the department by describing the energy efficiencies of its “green building.” Then the gathering broke into four groups that Cell Mysteries toured ten different stations. The trustees learned about the scientists’ work with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II, oxygen-depleted “dead zones” in the Gulf of Mexico, carbon stocks in Peru and mbryonic stem cells differen- Panama, the imaging and mapping capabilities of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, tiate into different types of the collection of tropical plant species from the Spectranomics Project, use of cells, each with different func- atmospheric trace gases to study the biosphere, and much more. tions. This process is regu- Later that evening, the trustees and staff gathered for dinner in the Vidalakis Dining lated and maintained by a complexE series of chemical interactions Room of Stanford University’s Knight Management Center. The after-dinner program, “Climate and Energy,” featured a talk by Donald Kennedy, president emeritus of that are not well understood. Learning Stanford. Kennedy spoke about the choices and policy challenges that the U.S. faces more about this process could prove useful regarding different types of energy sources. To conclude the evening, Chris Field de- for stem cell-based therapies. A team led scribed some of the exciting work that is coming out of each of the department’s labs. by Carnegie’s Yixian Zheng zeroed in on the process by which stem cells maintain „ their proper undifferentiated state. Carnegie trustee Will Embryonic stem cells go through a Hearst (inset) listens process called self-renewal: they undergo to Asner lab’s Chris Anderson’s explanation multiple cycles of division while not dif- of the Airborne Taxonomic ferentiating into any other type of cell. Mapping System (AToMS) This process is dependent on three protein used on the Carnegie networks that guide both self-renewal and Airborne Observatory. eventual differentiation. But the integra- Launched in June 2011, AToMS combines laser tion of these three networks has remained and spectral imaging a mystery. onboard a twin-engine Using a combination of genetic, protein- aircraft to measure an oriented, and physiological approaches ecosystem’s chemistry, involving mouse embryonic stem cells, the structure, biomass, and biodiversity. In its first team—which also included current and year, AToMS mapped former Carnegie scientists Junling Jia, Xi- tens of millions of acres aobin Zheng, Junqi Zhang, Anying Zhang, in California, Panama, and Hao Jiang—uncovered a mechanism Colombia, Costa Rica, that integrates all three networks involved the Peruvian Andes, and the Amazon basin. in embryonic stem cell self-renewal and provides a critical missing link to under- Trustee John Crawford standing this process. (inset) listens while The key is a protein called UTF1, which Berry lab graduate serves three important roles. UTF1 bal- student Jen Johnson talks about analyzing ances between activating and deactivating trace gases to unravel the genes necessary to direct the cell toward the details of the nitrogen cycle. Continued on Pg 9 CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 4

Humanity uses about 18 Image courtesy George Hodan, PublicDomainPictures.net terawatts of power, which could easily be supplied by wind harvesting. More Than Enough Image courtesy AnalySwift.com Power

Turbines supported by towers on land or in the ocean can harvest power from surface winds. High-altitude winds can be accessed through turbines that work like kites. CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 5

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There is enough energy available Most Distant Galaxy Discovered in winds to meet all of the world’s demand. Atmos- A team of astronomers, including Carnegie’s Daniel Kelson, pheric turbines that con- set a new distance record for finding the farthest galaxy yet seen in vert steadier and faster the universe. The work was published by The Astrophysical Journal Ken Caldeira high-altitude winds into last November. By combining the power of NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer energy could generate even more power than Space Telescopes and one of nature’s own “zoom lenses” in space, they ground- and ocean-based units. New research found a galaxy whose light traveled 13.3 billion years to reach Earth. from Carnegie’s Ken Caldeira examined the The diminutive blob—only a tiny fraction of the size of our limits on the amount of power that could be Milky Way galaxy—offers a peek back in time to when the universe harvested from winds, as well as the effects Daniel Kelson was only three percent of its 13.7-billion-years-old age. The light high-altitude wind power could have on the from this newly discovered galaxy, named MACS0647-JD, is from climate as a whole. 420 million years after the Big Bang. The team used models to quantify the Redshift, a measure of cosmological distance, is a consequence of the expansion of space amount of power that could be generated over cosmic time. The astronomers estimate that MACS0647-JD has a redshift of 11, the high- from both surface and atmospheric winds. est redshift ever observed. The wavelengths of near-ultraviolet light from the galaxy have Surface winds were defined as those that can been stretched into the near-infrared part of the spectrum as the light traveled through an be accessed by turbines supported by towers expanding universe. on land or rising out of the sea. High-altitude The first galaxies probably formed somewhere between 100 million and 500 million years af- winds were defined as those that can be ac- ter the Big Bang. Galaxies that formed at such an early time are more pristine than those formed cessed by technology that merges turbines later; they are relatively free of the heavy elements generated by later generation of supernovae. and kites. The study looked only at the geo- MACS0647-JD’s size indicates it might have been in the first embryonic steps of forming physical limitations of these techniques, not an entire galaxy. An analysis shows that the galaxy is less than 600 light-years wide. Based on at technical or economic factors. observations of somewhat closer galaxies, astronomers estimate that a typical galaxy of that Turbines create drag, or resistance, which epoch should be about 2,000 light-years wide. For comparison, our Milky Way is 150,000 light- removes momentum from the winds and years across. The estimated total mass of the stars in this baby galaxy is roughly equal to just tends to slow them. As the number of wind 100 million to a billion suns, or about 0.1% to 1% of the mass of the Milky Way’s stars. turbines increase, the amount of energy that This small galaxy may be too far away for any current telescope to confirm its distance is extracted increases. But at some point, the using the usual methods. Nevertheless, the team is confident the fledgling galaxy is the new winds would be slowed so much that adding distance champion based on its unique colors and on their extensive analysis. By measuring more turbines will not generate more electric- how bright the object is at various wavelengths, the team determined a reasonably accurate ity. This study focused on finding the point at estimate of the object’s distance. „

which energy extraction is highest. Image courtesy NASA/ESA/STScI/CLASH This image is a composite of Using models, the team was able to deter- observations taken with Hubble’s mine that more than 400 terawatts of power Wide Field Camera 3 and the could be extracted from surface winds and Advanced Camera for Surveys on more than 1,800 terawatts could be generated October 5 and November 29, 2011. from winds extracted throughout the atmos- Astronomers used the massive galaxy cluster MACS J0647+7015 as phere. Today, civilization uses about 18 ter- a giant cosmic telescope. The bright awatts of power. Near-surface winds could yellow galaxies near the center of provide more than 20 times today’s global the image are cluster members. The power demand, and wind turbines on kites cluster's gravity serves as a lens, boosting the light from the faraway could potentially capture 100 times current galaxy MACS0647-JD and making its global power demand. image appear approximately eight At maximum levels of power extraction, times brighter than it otherwise wind harvesting would substantially affect the would. The gravitational lensing climate. But the study found that the climate technique allowed astronomers to detect the galaxy more efficiently effects of extracting wind energy at the level of and with greater confidence. Without current global demand would be small, as long the cluster’s magnification powers, as the turbines are spread out and not clustered astronomers would not have seen in just a few regions. At the level of global en- this remote galaxy. ergy demand, wind turbines might affect sur- face temperatures by about 0.1°C and affect The CLASH Multi-Cycle Treasury Program is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy operates the Space Telescope Science Institute under a NASA contract. precipitation by about 1%. Overall, the envi- This work is also based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory under a contract with NASA. The Danish National Research Foundation ronmental impacts would not be substantial. funds the Dark Cosmology Centre. Internationale Spitzenforschung II-1 of the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, Deutsche Their work was published in September Forschungsgemeinschaft’s (DFG’s) Origin and Structure of the Universe Cluster of Excellence, and Michigan State University’s High Performance Computing Center and Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research supported the research in this paper. by Nature Climate Change. „ CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 6 Images courtesy NASA/JPL/NIMA

This Landsat image shows basalt cliffs near Sierra Colorada, Argentina. Landsat bands in blue, green, and red were used.

Frances Jenner Image courtesy the U.S. Forest Service

Un-Muddling a Magma Mystery

Oceanic crust covers two-thirds of the magma as they were in the Earth’s solid surface, but scientists still don’t original magma before cooling. entirely understand the process by which it If this is true, trace-element ra- is made. Analysis of more than 600 samples tios in magmas erupting at of oceanic crust by a team including mid-ocean ridges should rep- Erupted magma cools to Carnegie’s Frances Jenner revealed a sys- resent those of the original parental magma form basalt, the planet’s most-common rock and the temic pattern that alters long-held beliefs that formed deep in the Earth’s mantle. basis for oceanic crust. about Earth’s deep geological processes. However, this process doesn’t account for Magmas generated by the melting of the the high abundance of trace elements found Earth’s mantle rise up below the oceanic in samples of basalt from mid-ocean ridges magma erupts onto the ocean floor. Follow- crust and erupt onto the Earth’s surface at around the world, so the reality of the situ- ing the influx of new magma and eruption, mid-ocean ridge systems, the longest moun- ation is more complicated than previous the remaining magma undergoes fractional tain ranges in the world. When the magma theories indicated. crystallization, and minerals are separated out cools, it forms basalt—the planet’s most- Using the extensive array of samples and from the magma as it cools. However, these common rock and the basis for oceanic advanced modeling, Jenner and her research minerals contain only minor amounts of the crust. It has long been assumed that the partner demonstrated that the concentra- trace elements. To account for the high abun- composition of magmas erupting out of tion of trace elements is due to the process dance of trace elements, the researchers find mid-ocean ridges is altered when minerals by which the magma is cycled through the that they build up in the magma over time, that form during cooling sink out of the re- oceanic crust prior to erupting on the seafloor as the magma chamber is continually re- maining liquid, a process called fractional at the mid-ocean ridges. plenished by new magma coming into crystallization. Magma collects under the Earth’s surface in the system. The work was published in In theory, trace elements that are not in- a pool of liquid rock called a magma chamber. November in Nature. „ cluded in the crystallizing minerals should Each chamber is frequently flushed with new be little affected by this process, and their ra- magma, which mixes with the old magma This work was funded by the Australian National University. tios should be the same in the erupting that was already there, and then this blended CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 7

This is a root from a pepper plant. The researchers 7 discovered that an inner layer of tissue in branching roots is sensitive to salt and can activate a stress hormone, which stops root growth.

Coping with Image courtesy Scott Bauer, USDA Agricultural Research Service Too Much Salt ntil now it change, soil salt levels will rise, a stress hormone produced in the This means that, in addition to has not been clear how salt, a so understanding how plants, plant when it is exposed to acting as a filter for substances in the scourge to agriculture, halts the particularly crops, react to salt drought or salty environments, is soil, the endodermis—with ab- growth of the plant-root system. might allow us to develop plant important in controlling the scisic acid—also acts as a guard, UA team of researchers, led by varieties that can grow in the plant equivalent of a fight-or- preventing a plant from grow- Carnegie’s José Dinneny and saltier soils that will likely occur flight mechanism, determining ing in dangerous environments. Lina Duan, found that not all in coastal zones. how far a plant grows into a dan- „

types of roots are equally inhib- The scientists grew seedlings gerous territory. The investiga- Image courtesy José Dinneny ited. They discovered that an in- and measured the dynamic tors devised a strategy to inhibit ner layer of tissue in the branch- process of root growth through- the response to this hormone in ing roots that anchor the plant is out the salt response. Roots are different tissue layers of the root. sensitive to salt and can activate intimately associated with their Live imaging allowed them to a stress hormone, which stops environment and develop highly watch what happened to root root growth. The study, pub- intricate branched networks that growth in these mutant plants. lished in January in The Plant enable them to explore the soil. They found that a significant Cell, is a boon for understand- The branching roots grow hori- portion of the salt response was ing the stress response and for zontally off the main root and dependent upon how a single developing salt-resistant crops. are important for water and nu- cell layer sensed the hormone. An important missing piece trient uptake. The ability to track The “inner-skin” of the root, of the puzzle to understanding root growth in real time led the the endodermis, was most crit- how plants cope with stressful scientists to observe that branch- ical for this process. This tissue This is a confocal microscope image of a branching lateral environments is to know when ing roots entered a dormant layer acts like a semipermeable root. Red marks the cell and where stressors such as salt phase of growth as salt was intro- barrier, limiting which sub- boundaries, and the green act to affect growth. Irrigation duced. To determine how dor- stances can enter the root sys- fluorescent protein signal of agricultural land is a major mancy might be regulated, they tem from the soil environment. (green) marks the endodermis. contributor to soil salinity—salt surveyed the roles of different accumulates in irrigated soils plant hormones in this process This study was conducted in collaboration with Malcolm Bennett at The University of due to the evaporation of water, and found that abscisic acid was Nottingham, U.K. Singapore National Research Foundation provided funding of the portion the key signaling molecule. of this work performed at Temasek Lifesciences Laboratory. Carnegie Institution for which leaves the salt behind. Science supported the research performed at the Carnegie Institution. And as sea levels rise with climate It turns out that abscisic acid, CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 8 Images courtesy Greg Asner

8

Greg Asner A forest seen through the eyes of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory.

This landscape image was created from measurements from instrumentation aboard the Carnegie Airborne Observatory. Another CAO study led by Mark Carnegie researchers, led by Higgins considered how Pana- Global Ecology’s Greg Asner, rolled manian forests are patterned by the out results from the new Airborne unique geology of the region. The Taxonomic Mapping System (AToMS) results help to explain why Pana- at December’s American Geophysi- manian ecosystems remain some cal Union (AGU) meetings in San of the most biologically diverse in Francisco. The groundbreaking tech- Central America. Stanford gradu- nology and the scientists’ observa- ate student Dana Chadwick’s re- tions are uncovering a previously in- port explained how she used visible ecological world. AToMS to examine the terrain hid- AToMS, which launched in June den beneath the Amazonian rain- 2011, uniquely combines laser and forest canopy. Three-dimensional spectral imaging instrumentation on- mapping revealed how the Ama- board a twin-engine aircraft for si- zonian environment promotes the multaneous measurements of an coexistence of so many rainforest ecosystem’s chemistry, structure, bio- species. mass, and biodiversity. AToMS in- Claire Baldeck and Jean-Baptiste cludes a unique imaging spectrometer Féret, Carnegie scientists working implemented by Carnegie scientists, AToMS with the airborne technology to in close collaboration with en- map plant diversity in gineers at NASA’s Jet Propul- Rolls Out With a Splash African savannas and in sion Laboratory. In its inaugu- Amazonian rainforests, led ral year of operation, AToMS two other reports. Baldeck mapped tens of millions of “In its inaugural year of operation, reported on the holy grail acres of ecosystems in Califor- AToMS mapped tens of millions of ecology—finding how nia, Panama, Colombia, Costa landscapes evolve to sup- Rica, the Peruvian Andes, and of acres of ecosystems...” port different assemblages the Amazon basin. The results of plants. Féret, meanwhile, presented at AGU have appli- showed that subtle variation cations ranging from mitigating climate changed the forest is critically important to in Amazonian forest soils and terrain impart change to forest conservation and ecosystem predicting the future of the region. Using the huge differences in overall biological diver- management. Carnegie Airborne Observatory’s (CAO) sity—a measurement made possible for the The team assessed the impacts of the 2010 AToMS system, Asner and his team revealed first time by the CAO. Amazon basin megadrought on the forest’s huge areas of drought-stressed vegetation Other topics presented at the AGU ranged structure, carbon stocks, and biodiversity. in the Amazon basin, finding previously un- from how Mediterranean ecosystems in Cal- Because the frequency of Amazonian known impacts ranging in scale from indi- ifornia are assembled to how streams play an droughts is predicted to increase in the fu- vidual branches to whole canopies among important role helping forests store global- ture, understanding how the 2010 drought millions of rainforest trees. warming gases, such as carbon dioxide. „

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the W. M. Keck Foundation, the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, Mary Anne Nyburg Baker and G. Leonard Baker, Jr., William R. Hearst III, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Avatar Alliance Foundation, and the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 9

Carnegie Science | Spring 2013 9

Better Refrigeration Continued from Pg 3 Solving Stem Cell Mysteries

Through Crystals Image courtesy Yixian Zheng

A team led by Carnegie’s Ronald Cohen has discovered a new efficient way to use crystals to pump or extract heat. The crystals even work on the nanoscale, so they could be used on computer chips to prevent overheating or even meltdown, which is currently a major limit to higher computer speeds. The research is published by Physical Review Letters. Cohen’s team performed simulations on ferroelectric crystals—materials that have electrical polarization in the absence of an electric field, which can be re- versed by applying an external electrical field. The scientists found that the in- troduction of an electric field caused a giant temperature change in the material, dubbed the electrocaloric effect. Ferroelectrics can become paraelectric, meaning that they have no polarization under zero electric field, above a so-called transition temperature. The elec- trocaloric effect has been known since the 1930s, but it has not been exploited be- cause people were using materials with high transition temperatures. Cohen and his co-author Maimon Rose, who was an intern at the time of the research, found that low transition temperature materials are preferable. Rose and Cohen used atomic-scale molecular dynamics simulations, where they followed the behavior of atoms in the ferroelectric lithium niobate as functions of temperature and an electrical field. „

The image shows a Image courtesy Ronald Cohen molecular dynamics simulation of lithium A subunit of the complex in charge of niobate under a time decapping mRNA, thus preventing it varying electric field, from being translated into protein, is which changes the shown in the cytoplasm in green and in sign of polarization. the nucleus in blue in this embryonic Niobium (red), oxygen stem cell. Decapping mRNA is an (green), and lithium important part of UTF1’s regulation show a range of colors of the genes that direct a stem cell for different time steps. toward differentiation. Niobium and oxygen are shown only for one time step for clarity. The image shows a differentiation. At the same time, UTF1 small part of the acts on the messenger RNA (mRNA) that actual simulation. is the transcription product of these genes when they are activated; it tags the mRNA Image courtesy Petr Kratochvil, PublicDomainPhotos.net for degradation, rather than allowing the mRNA to continue to serve its cellular function. Lastly, UTF1 blocks a genetic feedback loop that normally inhibits cellu- lar proliferation, allowing proliferation to occur in the rapid nature characteristic Cohen’s crystals could be of embryonic stem cells. used on computer chips The results were published in October to prevent overheating or by Cell. „ even meltdown, currently a major limit to higher computer speeds. This research was supported by NIH, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Division of Intramural Research, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics, Inc. The Center for Energy Frontier Research in Extreme Environments (EFree) at Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory supported this work. CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 10

10 Over the years, meteorites from Mars, found MARTIAN on Earth, have given scientists key insights into the evolution of the Red Planet. Recently, two teams analyzing different meteorites

METEORITEBONANZA have made some discoveries that are expand- ing our understanding of the formation and evolution of Earth’s close cousin. Image courtesy NASA

First Linked to Martian Crust

xtensive analyses of a meteoric sample by a team of scien- crust. The Carnegie team’s carbon analysis tists, including Carnegie’s Andrew Steele, Marilyn Fogel, also showed the presence of macromolecular Roxane Bowden, and Mihaela Glamoclija, have identified a organic carbon in feldspar grains associated Enew class of Martian meteorite, one that likely originated with iron oxides, hinting that perhaps there from Mars’s crust. It is also the only meteoritic sample dated to 2.1 is a different non-biological process at work billion years ago, the early era of the most recent geologic epoch on than that which explains the presence of Mars—an epoch called the Amazonian. The meteorite was found to macromolecular carbon in other Martian contain an order of magnitude more water than any other Martian meteorites. meteorite, as well as macromolecular organic carbon. The research Further analysis of the oxygen isotopes was published in January by Science Express. showed that NWA 7034 is not like other me- The unique meteorite, dubbed Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, teorites or planetary samples. Its chemistry is has some similarities to—but is very different from—other Martian consistent with a surface origin and an in- meteorites, known as SNC (named for the shergottite, nakhlite, and teraction with the Martian atmosphere. The chassigny types). There are currently 110 known SNC meteorites, and abundance of water, some 6,000 parts per so far they are the only Martian meteoritic samples that scientists million, suggests that the meteorite inter- have been able to study. However, their point of origin on the Red acted with the Martian surface some 2.1 bil- Planet is not known. In fact, recent data from lander and orbiter mis- lion years ago. sions suggest that they are a mismatch for the Martian crust. Perhaps most exciting is that the high wa- The texture of the NWA meteorite is not like any of the SNC me- ter content could mean there was an inter- teorites. NWA 7034 is made of cemented fragments of basalt, rock action of the rocks with surface water, either NASA’s Cosmochemistry that forms from rapidly cooled lava, dominated with feldspar and py- from volcanic magma or from fluids from Program, a NASA ASTEP and NAI grant to Steele, roxene, most likely from volcanic activity. This composition is com- impacting comets during that time. NWA the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium, and mon for lunar samples, but not from other Martian meteorites. This 7034 is geochemically the richest Martian NSF award ATM0960594 unusual chemistry suggests the meteorite came from the Martian meteorite, and further analyses are bound to supported this research. crust, and it is the first link thus far of any meteorite to the Martian unleash more surprises. „ CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 11 Image courtesy Tomohiro Usui and T. Imai Martian Atmosphere 5000 Martian crustal water 2000

1000 Comets (Outer Solar Sys.) D (SMOW) δ D

Image courtesy Carl Agee, University of New Mexico Martian mantle

(Far left) This is an image of 0 Chondrite Olympus Mons, the largest Earth volcano on Mars, some 370 miles (600 km) across and 17 miles (27 km) high. The high water content of the meteorite the researchers studied could mean there was an interaction of the rocks with surface water, either from volcanic magma or from comet fluids.

(Left) The unusual Martian meteorite, Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, is the first meteorite that scientists have found linked to the Martian crust.

What About the Water?

uch controversy surrounds the origin, abundance, and history of water on Conel Alexander Mars. The sculpted channels of the Martian southern hemisphere speak loudly of flowing water, but this terrain is ancient. Consequently, planetary scientists Moften describe early Mars as “warm and wet” and current Mars as “cold and dry.” Scientists have observed the signatures of Martian surface Debate in the scientific community focuses on how the interior and crust of Mars formed, water (green square) and primordial and how these formative processes differ from those that took place on Earth. water (red triangle) in the Martian A team of scientists, including Carnegie’s Conel Alexander and Jianhua Wang, studied wa- meteorites LAR06319 and Yamato ter concentrations and hydrogen isotopic compositions trapped inside crystals within two Mar- 980459, respectively. The distinct tian meteorites. One meteorite appears to have changed little on its way up from the Martian compositions of these reservoirs, measured in tiny (less than 20 mantle to the surface of Mars. It has a hydrogen isotopic composition similar to that of Earth. micrometer-sized) melt inclusions— The other meteorite appears to have sampled Martian crust that had been in contact with the material imbedded in the rock— Martian atmosphere. Thus, the meteorites represent two very different sources of water. One are shown in parts per thousand sampled water from the deep interior and represents the water that existed when Mars formed differences in the hydrogen to heavy as a planet, whereas the other sampled water from the shallow crust and atmosphere. hydrogen (deuterium) ratio ( D). Several of the studied inclusionsδ The team’s findings imply that terrestrial planets, including Earth and Mars, have simi- hosted by the mineral olivine in lar water sources—meteorites. However, unlike on Earth, Martian rocks that contain at- Yamato 980459 are shown in a mospheric volatiles such as water do not get recycled into the planet’s deep interior. Although scanning electron microscope Mars and Earth formed from similar building blocks, there were differences in the later evo- image above. lution of the two planets. The concentration of water in the meteorites is also very different. One has a rather low

water concentration, meaning that the interior of Mars is rather dry. Conversely, the enriched This work was supported by basalt of the other meteorite has 10 times more water, suggesting that the surface of Mars a NASA Mars Fundamental Research Program grant, could have been very wet at one time. Scientists are starting to learn which meteorites can a NASA Cosmochemistry Program grant, and a NASA tell us about the Martian interior and which samples can tell us about the Martian surface. Astrobiology Institute grant. The work was published in December by Earth and Planetary Science Letters. „ CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 12

12 Carnegie Science | Spring 2013

From an ecosystem perspective, forest die-off will also likely af- What Happens with fect hydrological processes and nutrient cycles. Depending on the type of forest, soil moisture could be increased by the lack of tree- Tree Die-Offs? top interception of rainfall or decreased by evaporation due to more sun and wind exposure. Debris from fallen trees could also increase the risk of forest fire. Over the past two decades, extensive forest death triggered Forests also have an effect on the climate as a whole. Forests play by hot and dry climatic conditions has been documented on every an important role in determining the amount of heat and light that continent except Antarctica. Forest mortality due to drought and is reflected from the Earth into space and in absorbing carbon heat stress is expected to increase due to climate change. Although dioxide from the atmosphere. On one hand, forest mortality in- research has focused on isolated incidents of forest mortality, little creases the reflection of the sun’s energy back into space, produc- is known about the potential effects of widespread forest die-offs. ing a cooling effect. But, on the other hand, the decomposition of An analysis of the current literature on this topic by Carnegie’s fallen trees releases carbon into the atmosphere, producing a warm- William and Leander Anderegg was published in September by ing effect. Overall, whether forest die-offs result in local cooling or Nature Climate Change. warming is expected to depend on the type of forest, the latitude, The brothers found that heat and drought, including drought- the amount of snow cover, and other complex ecosystem factors. related insect infestation, can disproportionately affect some species Mass tree mortality would likely cause substantial losses to the of trees or can hit certain ages or sizes of trees particularly hard. This timber industry, even if saplings and seedlings were unaffected. Lit- can result in long-term shifts in an area’s dominant species, with the tle research has been conducted on the impact die-off could have potential to trigger a transition into a different ecosystem, such as on other types of forest products that humans use, such as fruits or grassland. It can also impact the understory—the layer of vegeta- nuts, but there would presumably be changes in those industries as tion under the treetops—as well as organisms living in the soil. well. Recent research has examined other benefits provided by More research on forest community impact is needed, particularly forests that would likely be negatively affected by die-off, such as on the trajectories of regrowth after forest die-off. declines in property value following widespread tree mortality. „ Image courtesy Petr Kratochvil, PublicDomainPhotos.net

William Anderegg Image courtesy Piotr Wojtkowski, PublicDomainPictures.net

Large-scale forest mortality could likely cause significant losses to the timber industry as well as changes to other businesses built around the human use of forest products, such as fruits and nuts.

The decomposition of fallen trees releases carbon into the atmosphere, producing a warming effect. This is a concern in the event of mass forest mortality. CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 13

Carnegie Science | Spring 2013 13 Magnesium Oxide and Early Earth Magnetism Image courtesy Eugene Kowaluk, Laboratory for Laser Energetics The mantles of Earth and This photo shows a experiment in progress. other rocky planets are rich in It is the center of the magnesium and oxygen. The target chamber, where mineral magnesium oxide—due a sample of material is to its simplicity—is a good model struck with several high- for studying the nature of plane- power laser pulses at once. The material is tary interiors. New work from a initially at low pressure team led by Carnegie’s Stewart and temperature, similar McWilliams studied how mag- to conditions on the nesium oxide behaves under the Earth’s surface. In one extreme conditions found deep billionth of a second, it is artificially heated and within planets. They found evi- compressed to a state dence that alters our understand- found deep within a ing of planetary evolution. planet. This extreme Magnesium oxide is particu- state is quickly studied larly resistant to changes when using probes and imaging devices pointed at under intense pressure and high the target, before it temperature. Theoretical pre- explodes into a cloud dictions claim that, under plan- of dust and vapor, as etary conditions, the mineral seen in this photo. has just three unique states, each with different structures and properties. It is solid under am- bient conditions (such as on the Earth’s surface), liquid at high temperature, and another solid structure at high pressure. The latter structure has never been observed before. McWilliams and his team ob- served magnesium oxide be- Stewart McWilliams tween pressures of about 3 mil- “Magnesium oxide is particularly resistant lion times normal atmospheric pressure (0.3 terapascals) to 14 to changes when under intense pressure million times atmospheric pres- and high temperature.” sure (1.4 terapascals) and at temperatures reaching as high that it changed from an electri- field. Likewise, the metallic, liquid The experiments were carried out at as 90,000°F (50,000 K); these are cally insulating material like state of magnesium oxide can the Omega Laser Facility of the University of Rochester, which is conditions that range from quartz (i.e., electrons do not flow exist today in the deep mantles supported by the Department of Energy those at the center of our Earth easily through the material) to a of super-Earth planets, as can (DOE)/NASA. The research involved a team of scientists from the University of to those of large exoplanet su- conductive metal similar to iron the newly observed solid state. California, Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. DOE, per-Earths. The team’s observa- (i.e., electrons flow easily). The work was published in the U.S. Army Research Laboratory’s Army Research Office, a Krell Institute tions indicated substantial Drawing from these and other November by Science Express. graduate fellowship, the DOE/NNSA changes in molecular bonding recent observations, the team The research is also notable National Laser User Facilities Program, the Miller Institute for Basic Research as the magnesium oxide re- concluded that—while magne- for taking advantage of new laser in Science, and the University of sponded to these various con- sium oxide is solid and noncon- techniques, which allow investi- California supported this work. ditions, including a transforma- ductive under conditions found gations of the behavior of the tion to a new high-pressure on present-day Earth—the early materials at pressures and tem- solid. In fact, when magnesium Earth’s magma ocean might have peratures never before explored oxide melted, there were signs been able to generate a magnetic experimentally. „ CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 14

Image courtesy NASA/ESA This NASA/ESA image of the galaxy M31 shows a pulsating Cepheid variable star. These In objects are used to measure the rate of the universe’s expansion. Image courtesy Elena Zhukova SPACE-EXPANSION Measurement Improved

A team of astronomers led by Carnegie through dust to provide better views of variable stars called Cepheids. Observatories director Wendy Freedman These pulsating stars are vital “rungs” in what astronomers call the cos- used NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to make mic distant ladder—a set of objects with known distances that, when one of the most accurate and precise meas- combined with the speeds at which the objects are moving away from urements yet of the Hubble constant, a fun- us, reveal the expansion rate of the universe. damental quantity that measures the current Cepheids are crucial to these calculations because their distances rate at which our universe is expanding. from Earth can be readily measured. These stars pulse at a rate that The Hubble constant is named after 20th- is directly related to their intrinsic brightness. To visualize why this Wendy Freedman century Carnegie astronomer Edwin P. Hub- is important, imagine somebody walking away from you while car- ble, who astonished the world by discovering rying a candle. The candle appears dimmer the farther it travels, and that our universe is not only expanding now but also that it has been its apparent brightness reveals its distance. The same principle ap- growing continuously since its inception. Determining the Hubble plies to Cepheids, standard “candles” in our cosmos. By measuring constant, a direct measurement of the rate of this continuing expansion, how bright the Cepheids appear in the sky and comparing this to is critical for gauging the age and size of our universe. their known brightness as if they were close-up, astronomers can The team’s finding agrees with an independent supernovae study calculate their distances from Earth. conducted last year and improves upon a seminal 2001 Hubble Space The Spitzer Space Telescope observed ten Cepheids in our own Telescope study by a factor of three. The newly refined value is 74.3 Milky Way galaxy and 80 in a nearby galaxy called the Large Magel- ± 2.1 kilometers per second per megaparsec (a megaparsec is roughly lanic Cloud. Without the cosmic dust blocking their view, the re- three million light-years). search team was able to obtain more precise measurements of the ap- The Spitzer Space Telescope was able to improve upon past meas- parent brightness of the stars, and thus their distances, than previous urements of the Hubble constant due to its infrared vision, which sees studies had done. With these data, the researchers could tighten up the rungs on the cosmic distant lad-

Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space der, opening the way for a new and Telescope have greatly improved the cosmic improved estimate of our universe’s distance ladder used to measure the expansion expansion rate. rate of the universe, as well as its size and age. The research team included former The cosmic distance ladder, shown here in this artist’s concept, is a series of stars and other and current Carnegie scientists Barry objects within galaxies that have known distances. Madore, Vicky Scowcroft, Andrew Monson, Chris Burns, Mark Seibert, Eric Persson, and Jane Rigby. These results were published by The Astrophysical Journal. „

This work was based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (JPL/Caltech) under a contract with NASA. NASA provided support for this work through an award issued by JPL/Caltech. A grant from The Ahmanson Foundation made possible the computing resources used for this work. This research made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED). CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 15

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TRUSTEES AND participated in a roundtable discussion ADMINISTRATION at the World Bank on the future of global energy mix in Washington, DC, ᕡ Current trustee and former Carnegie and on Jan. 17 he spoke in a seminar at postdoctoral astronomer Sandra Faber the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission InBrief received the National Medal of Science, in Rockville, MD concerning the Davis- the nation’s highest scientific honor. Besse Nuclear Power Station incident. Faber has made important contributions He spoke at an MIT Energy Initiative to understanding the structure and seminar on Feb. 12 in Cambridge, MA. history of the universe. She is a member — of the National Academy of Sciences, the CASE received a $10,000 grant from the

Image courtesy Elena Zhukova American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Association of American Medical Col- Trustee Michael Wilson and the American Philosophical Society. leges for two SciLife® science, technol- (right) traveled to ᕡ President She has received many other awards ogy, engineering, and mathematics Afghanistan to show Skyfall Obama selected and honors and has coauthored nearly (STEM) career exploration events for to US troops. This was his Sandra Faber to 250 scientific papers. Washington, DC, students in Oct. and last stop on a world tour. „ receive the National — Feb. The events—one for middle school Medal of Science. ᕢ Carnegie president Richard A. and one for high school—were held at

Meserve attended meetings of the Carnegie’s headquarters. Image courtesy Don Brown Council of the National Academy of Engineering in Washington, DC, on Sept. 28-29 and in Irvine, CA, on Feb. EMBRYOLOGY 6-7. He attended meetings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Allan Spradling attended the David and Council and Trust in Cambridge, MA, on Lucile Packard Foundation meeting, the Oct. 5-7 and the GMT board retreat in Lasker Award ceremony for Donald Washington, DC, on Oct. 13-14. He gave Brown, and the advisory meeting of the an invited talk on the future of nuclear Genetics and Developmental Biology power at the Global Nuclear Energy Department at the Institut Curie. He Summit in Atlanta, GA, on Oct. 20. was an invited speaker at the Cold John Gurdon, this year’s cowinner Meserve cochaired a meeting on the Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Germ Cell of the Nobel Prize in Physiology National Academies’ Committee on meeting, also attended by postdoc Lei or Medicine, spent six months at Science, Technology, and Law in Woods Lei. Spradling presented his work at Embryology when on sabbatical Hole, MA, on Oct. 22-23; he chaired a Yale U. and attended an HHMI scientific in 1965. Donald Brown (left) meeting of the IAEA’s International conference with postdoc Jianjun Sun. attended the Nobel events in Nuclear Safety Group in Vienna, Austria, He was also an invited speaker at the Stockholm and is shown with ᕢ (Top) President Richard Meserve on Oct. 31-Nov. 1. He visited the United Cold Spring Harbor Asia Conference on John and Jean Gurdon. „ (second from left) was inducted a Foreign Arab Emirates Nov. 3-6 and on Nov. 28 Stem Cells and Developmental Mecha- Member of the Russian Academy of spoke about the future of US energy at a nisms in Shanghai. Sciences at the National Academies on forum sponsored by Resources for the — Dec. 5 by Nikolay Laverov (left), the vice Future in Washington, DC. Meserve Joe Gall presented a seminar at U. Vir- ᕣ Steve Farber presented a seminar at president of the Russian Academy. presided at Harvard Board of Overseers’ ginia. He also attended the Lasker Vanderbilt U. about an unexpected link Meserve poses also with Boris meetings in Cambridge, MA, on Dec. 1-2 Award ceremony for Donald Brown and between fat and cholesterol absorption. Myasoyedov (third) and Yuri Shiyan and Feb. 2-3. He spoke at the opening served on a review committee at Brown He was an invited speaker at the (right) of the Russian Academy. plenary session of the American Society U. He was an after-dinner presenter at International Conference on Environmental of Mechanical Engineers’ nuclear safety (Bottom) Meserve visited the Sheikh the 13th Annual Meeting of the RiboClub Bioinorganic and Toxicology Research in workshop on Dec. 4 in Washington, DC. Zayed Grand Mosque while in Abu Dhabi. of Canada, Orford, Canada, and an in- Sao Paolo, Brazil, and was a judge for the On Dec. 6 he chaired a meeting of DOE’s vited Distinguished Lecturer at Duke U. National Siemens Competition in Math, Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee — Science, and Technology. in Washington, DC, and on Dec. 10 Marnie Halpern attended a Society for — ᕣ Steve participated in a board meeting of Farber (left) Neuroscience meeting and organized In Oct. Alex Bortvin attended the Cold Carnegie Canada in Montreal with board poses with the “Genetic Models Social: Probing Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Germ Cell member William Turner. Meserve graduate Genomes, Behavior and Disease.” She meeting with lab members Safia Malki, served on a panel of international student Rosa was an invited speaker at a Janelia Pavol Genzor, Julio Castaneda, and advisors to the newly established Miyares after Farms workshop on zebrafish. Members Diana Camerota. Japanese Nuclear Regulatory Authority her successful of her lab attended the Mid-Atlantic — on Dec. 14 in Tokyo and on Dec. 16 gave defense of her Regional Zebrafish (MARZ) meeting in the keynote speech at the Fukushima Ph.D. thesis. Philadelphia. Ministerial Conference on Nuclear — Safety in Koriyama, Japan. On Jan.10 he Maintenance associate Lloyd Allen died on Jan. 20. He worked at Marilyn Fogel (left), Farewell Marilyn and Garret Carnegie’s adminis- secretary of the Carnegie tration building from About 150 colleagues bade farewell to board Deborah Rose 1959 until his Apr. Marilyn Fogel and Garret Huntress on (center), and department 2005 retirement. Co- Nov. 30. There was a mariachi band and a director Rus Hemley workers remember series of science talks. Carnegie president (right) bid Fogel and Allen as dedicated, Huntress good-bye. cheerful, and always Richard Meserve, president emerita Max- willing to take on any ine Singer, advancement’s Susanne Gar- Garret Huntress, Andrew task. A funeral serv- vey and Rick Sherman, CASE’s Toby Horn, Steele, and Danielle ice was held on Jan. and chief information officer Gotthard Appleby (from left to right) 28, in District Heights, MD. Sághi-Szabó also attended. „ smile for the camera. CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 16

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Nick Ingolia was an invited speaker at Island on the origin of life and the Siljeström received an Astrobiology Wesleyan U., the NIH/NHLBI Biochemistry George Moore Lecture on mineral Program Travel Award to fund her trip to and Biophysics Center, Seattle BioMed, the evolution, both at Oregon State U. NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mar. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, He presented a Pardee keynote lecture and Yellowstone in the summer of 2013. and Thomas Jefferson U. on deep carbon mineralogy at the — — Geological Society of America’s annual ᕩ Postdoctoral research associate Christoph Lepper presented a poster at meeting in Charlotte, NC, and he Vincenzo Stagno was awarded the “Best the NIH Early Independence Award retreat. presented the keynote address on Ph.D. Thesis” by the Italian Society of — mineral evolution to the Virginia Mineralogy and Petrology at the First ᕤ Yixian Zheng was a session chair at Community College Science Conference European Mineralogical Conference in Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s meeting in Virginia Beach. Hazen lectured on Frankfurt, Germany, Sept. 2-6, where he “Nuclear Receptors and Disease.” She the coevolution of the geosphere and also gave a talk. He was author/coauthor attended the ELS editorial board meeting biosphere at the Coast Geological of two abstracts for poster presentations and, with her lab team, attended the Society in Ventura, CA; at U. Stockholm and was a session convener at AGU’s annual American Society for Cell Biology in Sweden; and at the American annual meeting. meeting in San Francisco. Institute of Physics in MD; and he — — cohosted the NSF Early Career HPSynC/HPCAT Gall graduate student Gaëlle Tal- Stakeholders Workshop on EarthCube Postdoc Ji Cheng joined HPSynC in Sept. houarne presented a poster at the at Carnegie’s Broad Branch Road from Texas Tech. Short-term visitors at 14th International Xenopus Conference campus, where he lectured on HPSynC were Meilan Qi, Ke Yang, Lei Liu, in the Giens Peninsula, France. computational needs in Earth science. Jun Zhu and Yufeng Peng, all from China. — Hazen coorganized a session at the Wenge Yang cochaired the session ᕤ Katie McDole (left) and Yixian Zheng ᕥ Arrivals: Frederick Tan returned to annual meeting of the AGU on the “Advanced Synchrotron Techniques on (right) toast McDole’s successful Ph.D. the department on the research faculty. coevolution of the geosphere and High-Pressure Research” at AGU’s Dec. thesis defense. He completed his graduate studies in biosphere and presented a talk on meetings. Katherine Crispin became Andy Fire’s labs at Carnegie and at mineral evolution. the new microbeam specialist in Sept. Stanford U. Tan joined the Koshland — — lab at Carnegie, before going to UC- Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao presented an µ A team of GL/DCO scientists— Berkeley for his postdoctoral training. invited talk at the international G-COE Mihaela Glamoclija, Marilyn Fogel, Lakshmi Gorrepati joined the Lepper Symposium 2012 on Sept. 25-28, Andrew Steele, Karyn Rogers and lab as a postdoc from U. Maryland. Sendai, Japan. He also delivered a ple- Roxane Bowden—participated in a David Lawrence joined the lab as nary talk on “Energy Frontier Research drilling project at the Campi Flegrei business manager. Teddi Schott joined in Extreme Environments” at the 2012 hydrothermal area near Naples, Italy. as human resources and procurement Materials Research Society meeting, The collaboration, with the International administrator. Student volunteer Nov. 25-30 in Boston. Continental Scientific Drilling Program Daifong Wong joined the Fan lab, and — and the Vesuvius Observatory of Italy’s aquatics facility technician Gregory Bjørn Mysen gave invited lectures and National Institute of Geophysics and Moore joined the fish facility. seminars on Sept. 19 and Sept. 20 at the Volcanology in Naples, provides a rare — Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing; opportunity to study deep subsurface ᕦ Retiring Susan Kern (left) chats with Pat Englar (right), who retired from the ᕦ Departures: Spradling postdoc Lucy Sept. 21 at Peking U., Beijing; Sept. 26 life and deep carbon cycling related to department in 2006. Englar returned to Morris moved to the Australian National at the G-COE Symposium 2012, Sendai, volcanic processes. In Oct. and Nov. Baltimore for Kern’s retirement reception. U., Canberra. Halpern lab’s Vanessa Japan; Oct. 10 at Seoul National U., Glamoclija, Rogers, and Bowden Matos-Cruz is now a postdoc at Yale U. Seoul; Oct. 19 at Tohoku U., Sendai, participated in the pilot hole drilling and Business manager Susan Kern retired. Japan; Oct. 22 at Ehime U., Matsuyama, brought home core samples from about Animal technician Vance Martin and Japan; Oct. 26 at Tohoku U., Sendai, 1,450 and 1,640 ft. (443 and 502 m) postdoc Mario Izaguirre-Sierra also Japan; Nov. 7 at the 53rd High Pressure down. The main hole is expected to left the lab. Conference of Japan, Osaka, Japan; and reach depths up to 2.4 miles (3.8 km) Nov. 10 at Tokyo U. deep and 930°F (500°C). — GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY Postdoctoral fellow Duck Young Kim received the Benzelius Prize from the GLOBAL ECOLOGY Russell Hemley presented talks at the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala, 50th European High Pressure Research Sweden, on Sept. 4. Chris Field and Ken Caldeira led ses- Bob Hazen ᕥ Lakshmi ᕧ Group Meeting on Sept. 17 in Thessa- — sions in the Knight Science Journalism Gorrepati loniki, Greece; the HPCAT Workshop on ᕨ Postdoctoral fellow Sandra Boot Camp at MIT on Dec. 17-19. Advances in Matter under Extreme Con- —

ditions on Oct. 11 at Advanced Photon Image courtesy C. Serio Source; and “The NIF’s Capabilities for Exploring the Physics and Chemistry of µ This photo shows the Giant Planets” workshop on Dec. 7 at drilling rig at Bagnoli Lawrence Livermore National Labora- Futura in Naples. tory. He helped lead the Deep Carbon Observatory Executive Committee meet- ing in Berlin and Potsdam, Germany, Sept. 20-21. ᕨ Sandra ᕩ Vincenzo Stagno — Siljeström ᕧ Robert Hazen was named a 2013 Linus Pauling Memorial Lecturer by the Institute for Science, Engineering and Public Policy, Portland, OR; a 2013 Nobel Symposium Lecturer, Stockholm, Sweden; the 2013 Qualline Lecturer of U. Texas. He presented the 2012 Charles and Marie Fish Lecture and the Vetlesen Distinguished Lecture at U. of Rhode CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 17

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Deep Carbon Observatory The Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) sponsored a Pardee Keynote Symposium and Town Hall Meeting at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting on Nov. 7 in Charlotte, NC. Participants included Robert Hazen, Russell Hemley, Craig Schiffries, Steven Shirey, and senior visiting investigator Dimitri Sverjensky. More than a dozen Carnegie scientists participated in several DCO workshops and sessions at the AGU in Dec. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded two grants to support comprehensive data science and engagement activities. Sloan has also awarded a grant to launch a new genre of research on diamonds. Led by DTM’s Steven Shirey, the proposal involves 20 project leaders and partners from 11 countries. DCO held an executive committee meeting Sept. 20-21 in Berlin and Potsdam, Germany. It cosponsored the Oman Drilling Workshop on Sept. 13-17 in Palisades, NY, and the Serpentine Days Workshop on Sept. 2-6 on Porquerolles Island, France. „

¸ The Intergovernmental Panel on he participated in the taping of “Dooms- tion “Drought and Tree Carbohydrates: Climate Change crew (Chris Field, Katie day Live, Part 2” for Big Picture Science Insights from Observations, Drought Ex- in Mountain View, CA, before an audi- periments, and Induced Carbon Starva- ¸ Katie Mach ¸ Mike Mastrandrea Mach, Mike Mastrandrea, Yuka Estrada, Eric Kissel, and Rob Genova) organized a ence of about 400. The radio program is tion” at Dec.’s AGU meeting. Working Group II lead author meeting for available at http://radio.seti.org. On Dec. — 350 colleagues in Buenos Aires on Oct. 6 Caldeira gave an invited overview on Arrivals: Dario Caro, a student from Italy, 22-26. Field was named “Doctor Honoris ocean acidification at the fall AGU meet- is visiting the Caldeira lab as a predoc- Causa” of U. Buenos Aires and a Foreign ing. The talk is available on YouTube. toral student. Jana Maclaren became a Correspondent of the Argentine Academy — new postdoc in the Caldeira lab in Oct. of Environmental Sciences on Oct. 25. Anna Michalak gave a keynote address at Elif Tasar joined the Asner lab in Nov. as — the Conference on Geostatistics for Envi- the project coordinator for the CLASlite ¹ Greg Asner’s Carnegie Airborne ronmental Applications in Valencia, Spain, program. In Oct. Michael Dini started in Observatory (CAO) team completed a and presented invited talks at the Statisti- the Field lab as a laboratory technician. two-month mission to map the northern cal and Applied Mathematical Sciences — ¸ Yuka Estrada ¹ Joe Mascaro Peruvian Amazon. On Sept. 13 Asner, Institute opening of the program on Departures: Lorelei Carranza returned John Clark, and Raul Tupayachi briefed methodology for massive datasets in NC to Puebla, Mexico, in Dec. John Clark the Peruvian government on and at the fall AGU meeting. Lab mem- left the Asner Lab in Sept. to work in pri- deforestation. On Sept. 25 Asner bers made six presentations and organ- vate industry. Asner lab’s Kyla Dahlin presented forest carbon monitoring ized two AGU sessions. moved to Boulder, CO, in Oct. to start a approaches to the Governors’ Climate and — postdoc at the National Center for At- Forests Task Force in Chiapas, Mexico. On Abhishek Chatterjee, in the Michalak mospheric Research. In Sept. Steve Sept. 28 he gave the keynote address at lab, defended his dissertation titled Davis became an assistant professor at

the NOAA 45th anniversary conference in “Data Assimilation for Atmospheric CO2: UC-Irvine. Shane Easter left in Oct. for a Boulder, CO. On Oct. 24 he was the Towards Improved Estimates of CO2 start-up company in Palo Alto, CA. Rob featured speaker at “WIRED Magazine Concentrations and Fluxes” on Oct. 9. Genova left at the end of the year for a 2012” in London. On Oct. 27 he gave the He was awarded a UCAR postdoctoral software engineering job. Paola Perez keynote address at the International fellowship in global and climate change left her intern position in Dec. to return Canopy Conference in Oaxaca, Mexico. and began his appointment with Jeff to her studies in Switzerland. Kenny Asner presented the state of Amazon Anderson at the National Center for Schneider left in Dec. to work for Pro- forests following the 2010 drought on Dec. Atmospheric Research in Jan. fessor Robert Dunbar at Stanford U. 7 at the AGU meeting in San Francisco. On — Oct. 11 Asner and Joe Mascaro Michalak lab’s Dorit Hammerling de- represented Carnegie at the “USAID fended her dissertation titled “Global OBSERVATORIES ¹ Kyla Dahlin SilvaCarbon” meetings in Washington, Atmospheric CO2 Distributions from DC. From Nov. 12 to 15, Asner and Robin Satellite Observations” on Aug. 15. She Luis Ho has been appointed Distin- Martin attended the annual Oxford Center was awarded a Statistical and Applied guished Visiting Professor of the for Tropical Forests conference at Oxford Mathematical Sciences Institute post- Chinese Academy of Sciences. He coor- U. Asner lab members gave ten doctoral fellowship and began her ap- ganized and gave an invited talk at the presentations at the fall meeting of the pointment with Richard Smith and “Frontiers in Radio Astronomy and FAST AGU. Among them was Mark Higgins’ Montse Fuente in Sept. Early Sciences” conference to inaugu- presentation titled “Geological Control of — rate the construction of the Five- Canopy Structure and Function in Ƹ On Oct. 23-24 Luis Fernandez hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Tele- Panamanian Forests as Identified by CAO- presented preliminary findings from the scope (FAST) in Guizhou, China. He gave AToMS,” Kyla Dahlin’s presentation titled Carnegie Amazon Mercury Ecosystem lectures at the National Astronomical Project (CAMEP) to the Blue Moon Ƹ Luis Fernandez ƹ Barry Madore “Environmental Controls on Plant Observatories and Peking U. in Beijing. Chemical Traits: Using the CAO-VSWIR to Fund’s Amazon-Andes section in Ho attended the TIARA workshop “Star Characterize Patterns in a Washington, DC. He was an invited Formation and Its Environment in the Mediterranean-Type Ecosystem,” and participant in a special session on land Center of Galaxies” at Tsinghua U. in Asner’s presentation about geological use and remote sensing at the 8th Hsinchu, Taiwan, and gave a colloquium control of canopy structure and function International Conference on Ecological at the Academia Sinica Institute of As- in Panamanian forests using CAO-AToMS. Informatics in Brasília, Brazil, Dec. 3-7. tronomy and Astrophysics in Taipei, — He was featured in a Dec. 9 Sacramento Taiwan. He attended the “Torus 2012” On Oct. 24 Ken Caldeira participated in a Bee article discussing environmental workshop at U. Texas-San Antonio. panel discussion “Campaign 2012: En- degradation in the Peruvian forest and — ergy Matters,” on the presidential candi- his work for CAMEP. ƹ In Aug. senior research associate dates and energy policy coorganized by — Barry Madore gave the invited talk the League of Women Voters. On Oct. 27 William Anderegg gave the presenta- “Cognitive Astrophysics” at the CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 18

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Vera Rubin and Kent Ford The American Physical Society’s Historic Sites selection committee designated the Depart- ment of Terrestrial Magnetism as an historic site, in recognition of Vera Rubin and Kent Ford’s pioneering research on dark matter. The duo made measurements of galactic rotations, which showed that galaxies do not behave as they should, under the laws of gravity. They concluded that something else was at work—the mysterious material dubbed dark matter. A spring ceremony will include a plaque presentation. „

ƺ Andrew Bensonn ƻ Mansi Kasliwal International Astronomical Union’s China; the 10th International Conference General Assembly in Beijing. In Nov. PLANT BIOLOGY on the Frontiers of Plant Biology in Madore served as a committee member Huangshan, China; and at the 4th Inter- on the “habilitation” defense (the Wolf Frommer spoke at the 2012 Plant national Symposium on Frontiers in highest academic qualification a scholar Protein Phosphorylation Workshop on Agriculture Proteome Research in can achieve in the French research Oct. 26 in Keystone, CO, and talked Wuhan, China. He also gave seminars at community, which includes an about membrane protein/signaling. the Institute des Sciences du Végétal on accreditation to supervise students) by He was the invited Clayton Pearson July 24 at CNRS Gif-sur-Yvette, France; former Carnegie research fellow, Lecturer on Nov. 27 at the U. British Co- on July 26 at U. Strasbourg, France; and Samuel Boissier, who is now a senior lumbia-Vancouver. On Dec. 14 he gave a on July 27 at U. Tubingen, Germany. research astronomer at the Laboratoire seminar about the conversion of an am- — Ƽ Winslow Briggs ƾ Ming-Yi Bai d’Astrophysique de Marseille, France. monium transporter into a biosensor at Eva Huala organized the conference — UC-Riverside’s Center for Plant Cell “Phenotype Research Coordination On Aug. 17 staff astronomer Joshua Biology 10th Anniversary Symposium. Network, Second Working Group Meet- Simon gave a lecture for the Ventura — ing” at Asilomar Conference Grounds County Astronomical Society. In Sept. he Ƽ On Sept. 14 Winslow Briggs spoke on Oct. 26-29 in Pacific Grove, CA. presented a talk at the meeting “Super- about guard cells at the Carnegie faculty — novae Illuminating the Universe: From seminar series. On Oct. 3 he presented ƽ Devaki Bhaya gave the invited Individuals to Populations” in Garching, a talk to the Morgan Hill Rotary Club, seminar at UC-Merced on Oct. 12, titled Germany. Morgan Hill, CA, titled “Recovery of “Thermophilic Microbial Communities: — Vegetation after a California Wildfire.” Hotbeds of Diversity and Conflict?” She ƺ Staff associate and Hale Scholar He also spoke about plant wildfire also gave a seminar on Nov. 9 at U. Andrew Benson gave a talk at the adaptation at the 10th International North Carolina-Charlotte on light and workshop “Dwarf Galaxies” on Nov. 29 at Conference on Frontiers in Plant life in microbial communities. From UCLA. He also spoke at the conference Biology: Development and Environment, Dec. 3-7 she was one of 30 participants “GALEX Fest” in Sept. at Caltech and on Nov. 5 in Huangshan, China. On Nov. invited to Ideas Lab, a NSF-BBSRC joint organized the 13th annual “Theoretical 10 he spoke about wildfires at the State workshop in Crewe, Cheshire, UK, on Astrophysics in Southern California” Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology reducing inputs of nitrogen fertilizers meeting held at the department. Retreat in Hainan, China. On Nov. 12 he to non-leguminous crops while — spoke about guard cells at the Chinese maintaining or increasing yield. Postdoctoral research associate Rik U. Hong Kong, and on Dec. 23 he gave — Williams gave an invited colloquium another guard-cell talk at U. Missouri- ƾ Ming-Yi Bai of the Wang lab gave at Universidad Católica on Oct 23 in Columbia. a talk at the First International Santiago, Chile. — Brassinosteroid Conference on — On Apr. 27 Zhiyong Wang gave a talk at June 27 in Barcelona. the symposium of “Proteomics and the — ƽ Devaki Bhaya is in Crewe, Carnegie fellow Ian Roederer gave talks Cheshire, UK for the Ideas Lab. at the “Nuclei in the Cosmos” meeting Art of Mass Spectrometry” in San Fran- Eunkyoo Oh of the Wang lab attended Image courtesy Devaki Bhaya and r-process workshop in Aug. in cisco. On May 24 he gave a talk at the “Auxin 2012” on Dec. 9-12 in Kona, HI. Cairns, Australia. In Oct. he spoke at the 29th Annual Interdisciplinary Plant — American Physical Society’s Division of Group Symposium at U. Missouri-Co- Arrivals: Visiting investigator Michael Nuclear Physics meeting in Newport lumbia. On June 27 he gave the plenary Jensen from Copenhagen U. arrived on Beach, CA. He also gave talks at U. Wis- lecture at the First International Brassi- Sept. 3 for the Frommer lab. Visiting consin-Madison, U. Utah, and UC-Santa nosteroid Conference held in Barcelona, research associate Rita Kuo joined the Cruz from Sept. to Nov. All of the talks Spain. He also gave talks on the brassi- Grossman lab in Nov. Chuangqi Wei were about r-process nucleosynthesis nosteroid signaling network at the Soci- joined the Wang lab on Sept. 1 as a visit- products in metal-poor stars. ety of Experimental Biology’s annual ing researcher from Heibei Normal U., — meeting on July 3 in Salzburg, Austria, China. Postdoctoral research associate ƻ Hubble-Carnegie-Princeton fellow and at the Plant Biology Congress 2012 Thomas Hartwig also joined the Wang Mansi Kasliwal gave a colloquium at on Aug. 3 in Freiburg, Germany. On Nov. lab on Sept. 24 from Purdue U. The Rhee 26 Wang spoke at the Plant Protein lab welcomed postdoctoral research ƿ Linda ©21 Conel Alexander McGill U. on Sept. 10-13 and at U. Chicago Elkins-Tanton on Oct. 31-Nov. 1. She attended a massive Phosphorylation Workshop held at associate Chuan Wang on Oct. 1 from star workshop in St. Paul, MN, on Oct. 1-3 Keystone, CO. He also gave talks on China Agricultural U. Postdoctoral re- and the Palomar Science Meeting in brassinosteroids at the Plant Biology search associate Jose Sebastian joined Pasadena, CA, on Nov. 15. Conference on Oct. 10-13 in Yangling, the Dinneny lab on Dec. 16 from Cornell CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 19

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U. The Jonikas lab welcomed senior lab meeting in Charlotte in Nov. and the went to Las Campanas in Oct. and Jan. manager Muh-Ching (MC) Yee on Oct. 1 AGU meeting in Dec., followed by an in- Also in Jan. she attended the 221st AAS from Stanford U. On Nov. 8 the lab was vited presentation at the Cooperative In- meeting in Long Beach, CA, where she joined by postdoctoral research associ- stitute for Dynamic Earth Research presented a poster. She also attended an ate Xiaobo Li from Michigan State U. and Workshop at UC-Berkeley. In Jan. he APOGEE Collaboration Meeting in lab technician Nina Ivanova on Dec. 10 presented a public lecture at Miami U. of Pasadena, CA, in Jan. from Aurora Algae, Inc., of Hayward, CA. Ohio on “The Age of the Earth.” — — — In Jan. research fellow Christopher Departures: Postdoc Xenie Johnson de- In Nov. Steve Shirey attended the an- Stark gave a talk titled “A Search for parted the Grossman lab on Oct. 31 for nual GSA meeting in Charlotte, NC, and Exozodis with Kepler” at the AAS CEA, a government-funded research or- delivered the talk “Diamonds and the conference in Long Beach, CA. ganization in France. Postdoc Lilyana Geology of Mantle Carbon.” He also — Chandra left the Rhee lab on Dec. 21. gave an invited talk and attended the fall ©25 Nineteen members of DTM attended Postdoctoral research associate Megan AGU meeting in San Francisco. the AGU meeting: Terry Blackburn, Paul Bergkessel left the Bhaya lab on Sept. — Byrne, Rick Carlson, Kelsey Druken, 30, and Jay Kim, an intern in the Huala Erik Hauri attended the fall AGU meet- Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Matt Fouch, Erik group, left on Oct. 16 for a local biotech ing in San Francisco and gave an invited Hauri, David James, Frances Jenner, start-up. lecture on the volatile element geo- Christian Klimczak, Marion le Voyer, chemistry of submarine volcanoes. He Alan Linde, Jared Marske, Ryan Porter, chaired a workshop of the Reservoirs Steve Shirey, Deborah Smith, Liyan and Fluxes Directorate of the Deep Car- Tian, Christelle Wauthier, and ©22 Alan Boss ©23 Alycia Weinberger TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM bon Observatory on Dec. 5 in San Fran- Shoshana Weider. Web writer Kasey ƿ In Dec. director Lindy Elkins-Tanton cisco, where Steve Shirey also attended. Cunningham covered the talks and attended the workshop “Siberian Traps — poster sessions for DTM’s web site. and the end-Permian Extinction: In Nov. Larry Nittler attended a work- — Coincidence or Causality?” in San shop on dust in supernovae in Ascona, Established in 2011, the inaugural AGU Francisco. She is president-elect for the Switzerland, and a MESSENGER Sci- Paul G. Silver Outstanding Scientific Planetary Sciences Section of the AGU; ence Team Meeting in Santa Monica, Service Award was presented on Dec. she convened a session titled “Evolution CA. In Jan. he attended a workshop on 4 at the 2012 AGU fall meeting in San of the Continental Lithosphere.” She also presolar materials at U. Chicago. Francisco. Nathalie Valette-Silver and presented an invited talk in Dec. to an — her family attended as the award was ISSI Forum on the future of exoplanet ©23 In Oct. and Jan. Alycia Weinberger presented to Andrew Nyblade, Associate research, and she convened the AGU participated in NASA’s “Exoplanet Professor of Geosciences at Pennsylvania ©24 Diana Roman session “Volcanism and Global Climate Exploration Program Analysis Group” State U. Change.” In Jan. she was a member of meetings as a member of the group’s — executive committee. Also in Jan. she Arrivals: Postdoctoral fellow Hanika

Images courtesy Kasey Cunningham the visiting committee for the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris. She also gave a talk at the 221st American Rizo arrived on Oct. 15 from Le Labora- gave an invited talk at the Applied Physics Astronomical Society’s (AAS’s) meeting toire Magmas et Volcans, Université Laboratory in Laurel, MD. In Oct. and in in Long Beach, CA. Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, Jan. she hosted visiting Merle A. Tuve — France, to collaborate with Lindy Elkins- Senior Fellow David Bercovici, Yale U. In Oct. John Chambers presented a Tanton, Rick Carlson, and Rich Walker Also in Jan. MIT EAPS graduate student talk at the 2012 annual meeting of the (U. Maryland). In Oct. Peter Baines (U. Ben Black returned to continue his AAS’s Division for Planetary Sciences Melbourne) presented a Merle A. Tuve research on the Siberian Traps flood in Reno, NV. Senior Fellow lecture and collaborated basalts with Elkins-Tanton and Erik Hauri. — with Selwyn Sacks. Senior visiting inves- — ©24 In Oct. Diana Roman attended a tigator and former postdoctoral fellow ©21 In Dec. Conel Alexander traveled to UNAVCO workshop on strainmeter Paul Rydelek returned to collaborate France and presented invited talks in science at Scripps, and in Dec. she, with Selwyn Sacks. In Jan. temporary Nancy and Paris. with students/collaborators, presented administrative assistant and seminar — research at the fall AGU meeting. Also coordinator Hayley Johnson joined DTM. ©22 In Nov. Alan Boss spoke at the in Dec. Ph.D. student Mel Rodgers — Observatories in Pasadena, CA, about visited from U. South Florida for her Departures: DTM postdoctoral fellow Zan how the results from NASA’S Kepler dissertation research. Peeters left in Oct., and Christian Miller Mission have placed new constraints — left in Dec. Temporary seminar coordina- on exoplanet formation theories. In In Jan. postdoctoral fellow Susan tor Adrienne Barnes also departed. Jan. Boss gave a colloquium about the Benecchi presented her Kuiper Belt Kepler results at the Florida Institute of object light-curve work at the AAS ©25 DTM’s Marion le Voyer (top) and Technology in Melbourne, FL, where he meeting. She observed at the Las GL/DTM Christelle Wautheir (bottom) presented also gave an evening public lecture on Campanas Observatory in Oct. and Dec. posters at the AGU. the search for habitable planets. — ©26 In Oct. Davide Novella, Ph.D. student — In Sept. postdoctoral fellow Joleen Carl- from Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Bayreuth, Rick Carlson attended the Geological berg hosted Karen Hamm (U. Virginia) Germany, arrived to collaborate with Society of America’s (GSA’s) annual and Gail Zasowski (Ohio State U.). She DTM’s Erik Hauri and GL’s Yingwei Fei. Librarian Shaun Hardy gave a presentation on open access at ©26 Last fall the directors and research the Geoscience Information staff of the Observatories, DTM, and GL Society’s annual meeting in discussed different studies that crossed Charlotte, NC, in Nov. On Oct. 3-5 department boundaries and that could the directors of the Observatories, be ripe for collaboration. The group is DTM, and GL, along with select shown here. members of their faculty, held a joint science meeting at the Broad Branch Road campus. On Oct. 26 the Broad Branch Road campus held its annual fall picnic. „ CS13_Spring_Layout 1 3/22/13 11:31 AM Page 20

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Astronomer and photographer Yuri Beletsky captured two Southern Hemisphere comets streaking across the sky just after sunset at Carnegie's Las Campanas Observatory in Chile on February 28. The comet on the upper left is the green-glowing comet Lemmon, which visits our neck of the Solar System every 50 years. Comet PANSTARRS, at right, may have come from the far-off Oort cloud.