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20 Years Building Astrobiology

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20 Years Building Astrobiology ASTROBIOLOGY Volume 20, Number 9, 2020 Special Collection Articles Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/ast.2020.0804 Introduction—Centro de Astrobiologı´a: 20 Years Building Astrobiology Vı´ctor Parro,1 J. Miguel Mas-Hesse,1 Javier Gomez-Elvira,1,2 A´ lvaro Gime´nez,1 and Juan Pe´rez-Mercader3 The Origins example of life, and we do not know how it was generated. It would require a team of scientists with a truly scientific he Centro de AstroBiologı´a (CAB) was founded in and professional knowledge and understanding of the TNovember 1999 as a joint institute between the Spanish various components of the puzzle. National Research Council (CSIC) and the National Institute That team began to emerge in Madrid, with scientists for Aerospace Technologies (INTA). Located in Madrid working in galactic astrophysics, planetary science, evolu- (Spain), CAB became the first astrobiology organization outside tion of life and of viruses, origins-of-life chemistry, meta- the United States to be associated with the NASA Astrobiology bolic processes in biochemistry, evolution of planets, Institute (NAI)—formally becoming an associate member in bioinformatics, extremophiles, and physics, together with the year 2000. Astrobiology considers life as a natural conse- engineers to design and produce instrumentation. This group, quence of the evolution of the Universe, and CAB aims to study from a variety of universities and government research cen- the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the ters, such as INTA (Instituto Nacional de Te´cnica Aero- Universe, from an integrative transdisciplinary approach. espacial) and CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CAB’s foundation was the result of a profound interest Cientı´ficas), started informal discussions; and a passion for in applying the scientific method to life—in the sense of the subject of astrobiology began to burn. Then exoplanets looking for or making another form of ‘‘life’’ to compare it were discovered in 1995, a report of fossil-like objects in the with life on Earth—to therefore infer the principles that ancient martian meteorite ALH84001 came out in 1996, and were behind the class of phenomena we encounter in bi- NASA’s Pathfinder mission with the little rover Sojourner ology. Discussions on these topics started in Santa Fe and landed on Mars in 1997. It looked like a dream come true. Los Alamos, New Mexico. They originally (1993) focused NASA was also very interested in the resurgence of the sub- on finding a common phenomenology to self-organized ject; and conversations with the late Jerry Soffen, Carl Pilcher, phenomena from the Big Bang to biology and on estab- Michael Meyer, Scott Hubbard, and many others started. They lishing some ‘‘bridge’’ between the Big Bang and biology. all were full of inspiration, enthusiasm, and collegial ex- They involved Murray Gell-Mann, Geoffrey West, and Juan changes. They also were tremendously helpful and generous. Pe´rez-Mercader, who was to be the founding director of The NAI was formed, and by 2000 CAB was officially an CAB. They focused on looking at the ubiquitous power Associate Member. We felt a real part of it and loved the laws present at every scale in the Universe. These power institution and what it meant and represented. Collaboration laws are indicators of self-organization in collective phe- with other European groups began to form as well, and soon nomena, and they indicate collective states where the com- we were cooperating with the Beagle-2 probe to Mars. ponents somehow contribute ‘‘equally’’ to the generation of From day zero, the Centro de Astrobiologı´a had the a cooperative state, just as in phase transitions in physics. support of the Government of Spain and the European The big question could be framed as follows: Are the var- Union, with whose help the Centro began to hire new ious collective phenomena that seem to have formed in a postdocs in the areas of science where astrobiology had a ‘‘successive’’ way through the history of the Universe the more intense focus. The timing was perfect, and many good result of ‘‘phase transitions,’’ and was their coarse-graining things followed. New ideas for instruments for the detection provided by the ‘‘arrow of time’’? There are many harbin- of life in arbitrary environments began to be discussed, and gers for this. But establishing the correlation is not trivial for proposals were written. Prototypes were built and tested many reasons, including the fact that we only know one in the field. The Rı´o Tinto attracted astrobiologists from 1Centro de Astrobiologı´a (CAB, CSIC-INTA), Torrejo´n de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain. 2Department of Payloads and Space Sciences (INTA), Torrejo´n de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain. 3Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Origins of Life Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Ó Victor Parro et al., 2020; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. This Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. 1025 1026 PARRO ET AL. around the world and generated a great influx of visitors Formation and evolution of galaxies, the interstellar and collaborators. More diverse experiments and projects medium, stars, and planets: Extragalactic and stellar followed, and younger members of CAB began to see that astrophysics, comparative planetology, and molecular they could work in these topics and be immersed in a truly astrophysics. international collaboration where their ideas and those of Molecular evolution and adaptation: Prebiotic chem- their mentors were tested. With time, they began to compete istry; molecular adaptation of replicative systems; for resources and build instrumentation and do observational metabolic and environmental-dependent molecular field campaigns in many places on Earth—and eventually adaptation; molecular biomarkers. outside Earth, for example with NASA on board the Curi- Evolution and characterization of potential habitable osity and Perseverance rovers. environments in the Solar System: Geomicrobiology The main idea was to have theoreticians, working with of extreme environments, planetary geology and atmo- computer simulation experts, observational scientists, and spheres, and environmental and biological signatures. experimentalists. These represent the four pillars of the con- Development of advanced instrumentation: Astronom- temporary scientific method, all in collaboration with engi- ical instrumentation and instrumentation for in situ neers. Inspired by NASA’s outreach and education program, planetary exploration; ground simulation chambers. we also began to popularize aspects of our science programs The main CAB building and facilities are located within with that we felt could inspire the general public. These the INTA campus in Torrejo´n de Ardoz, and a second projects had ‘‘life’’ at their center, as if it was the palm of section is in ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre a hand. And persons in different disciplines, represented by (ESAC), both close to Madrid. INTA, the reference the fingers, would look at the problem in the ‘‘palm’’ with Spanish institution in aerospace technology, with nearly the tools and methods of the particular discipline. Then a 80 years of existence, offers CAB a unique environment logical discussion of what was seen in the ‘‘palm’’ would where synergies emerge easily. Similarly, the close con- take place between the ‘‘fingers.’’ The need for consensus tact with ESA’s Astronomy Centre makes the involvement and logical explanations of what the various sciences en- of our researchers in ESA’s missions a natural and fluent countered constituted our ‘‘transdisciplinary’’ experience. process. It was fantastic and still is. Currently, CAB has 155 workers that include 55 civil servants, 75 contract employees, and 25 PhD students. We are Vision and Mission functionally organized into four departments: Astrophysics, Astrobiology challenges science and the scientific com- Molecular Evolution, Planetology and Habitability, and Ad- munity to develop and apply new methods and approaches. vanced Instrumentation. Several laboratories are equipped We regard astrobiology as a scientific discipline in its own with facilities and instrumentation for multiple techniques, right that requires a transdisciplinary approach involving such as biochemistry, molecular ecology, DNA sequencing, theory, simulation, observation, instrument development, and microbiology, geology, geomineralogy, geochemistry, or- experimentation. How to apply fundamental scientific princi- ganic chemistry, stable isotope analysis, nano-dispensing and ples to answer the question (or questions) of astrobiology is microarray capabilities, facilities for meteoritic impact sim- the most important challenge for CAB. The unique transdis- ulation, high-vacuum simulation chambers, high-pressure ciplinary setting at CAB creates the appropriate atmosphere to chambers, a Mars wind tunnel and an environmental cham- allow engineers to interact with experimental, theoretical, and ber, and a cryostat for IR detector development for astro- observational scientists from various fields: astronomy and nomical applications. The highly multidisciplinary team astrophysics, geology, biogeochemistry, microbiology, genet- (astrophysicists, planetologists, geologists, geochemists, ics, remote sensing, microbial ecology, computer science, chemists,
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