Analog Environment Research Articles

The MARs Volatile and Ice evolutioN (MARVIN) chamber

Numerous planetary bodies express ices on their surfaces that cannot be replicated in conditions found on Earth. Robotic observations of these materials raise questions that require experimental measurements made in analogue conditions to be answered. Several labs on Earth are capable of recreating some of the conditions found on Mars, but they may be missing some capabilities that are important for the accurate recreation of ices, such as a cold sky, that influence ice behavior. To address this need, we have created the MARs Volatile and Ice evolutioN (MARVIN) Chamber at York University. MARVIN permits careful control of environmental properties with sufficient space to bring equipment into the chamber to make measurements that other labs cannot make. We also have the capacity for upgrades that can replicate conditions on colder planets with lower pressure. Plain language summaryIt is impossible to explain some of the observations that robotic probes have made at other planets using knowledge just from natural terrestrial environments or planetary analogue environments on Earth. Many questions must be answered by performing experiments in conditions similar to those found on those planetary bodies. Various labs can approximate some conditions of certain target environments on the Martian surface; however, replicating each of them simultaneously is beyond the reach for many. To address this need, we have created the MARs Volatile and Ice evolutioN (MARVIN) Chamber at York University. Inside of MARVIN, we can better approximate the conditions at the poles of Mars during winter and fit equipment for making measurements that are impossible in smaller chambers. Further, we have capacity to upgrade and eventually replicate conditions on other planets farther from the sun than Mars.

Astroecology: bridging the gap between ecology and astrobiology

Abstract Although astrobiology studies how life functions and evolves, ecology is still largely overlooked in astrobiology research. Here we present an argument for astroecology, a merger of ecology and astrobiology, a self-aware scientific endeavour. Ecology is rarely mentioned in influential documents like the NASA Astrobiology Strategy (2015), and terms such as ‘niche’ can end up being used in a less precise fashion. As ecology deals with sequential levels of organization, we suggest astrobiologically-relevant problems for each of these levels. Organismal ecology provides ecological niche modelling, which can aid in evaluating the probability that Earth-like life would survive in extraterrestrial environments. Population ecology provides a gamut of models on the consequences of dispersal, and if lithopanspermia can be validated as a form of space dispersal for life, then metabiospheres and similar astrobiological models could be developed to understand such complex structure and dynamics. From community ecology, the discussion of habitability should include the concept of true vacant habitats (a misnomer, perhaps better called ‘will-dwells’) and contributions from the blossoming field of microbial ecology. Understanding ecosystems by focusing on abiotic properties is also key to extrapolating from analogue environments on Earth to extraterrestrial ones. Energy sources and their distribution are relevant for ecological gradients, such as the biodiversity latitudinal gradient – would tropics be species-rich in other inhabited planets? Finally, biosphere ecology deals with integration and feedback between living and non-living systems, which can generate stabilized near-optimal planetary conditions (Gaia); but would this work for other inhabited planets? Are there ‘strong’ (like Earth) and ‘weak’ (perhaps like Mars) biospheres? We hope to show ecology can contribute relevant ideas to the interdisciplinary field of astrobiology, helping conceptualize further levels of integration. We encourage new partnerships and for astrobiologists to take ecology into account when studying the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the universe.

Linear Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (LITMS) Instrument Field and Laboratory Tests as Part of the ARADS Field Campaigns.

The highly compact Linear Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (LITMS), developed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, combines Mars-ambient laser desorption-mass spectrometry (LD-MS) and pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) through a single, miniaturized linear ion trap mass analyzer. The LITMS instrument is based on the Mars Organic Molecule Analyser (MOMA) investigation developed for the European Space Agency's ExoMars Rover Mission with further enhanced analytical features such as dual polarity ion detection and a dual frequency RF (radio frequency) power supply allowing for an increased mass range. The LITMS brassboard prototype underwent an extensive repackaging effort to produce a highly compact system for terrestrial field testing, allowing for molecular sample analysis in rugged planetary analog environments outside the laboratory. The LITMS instrument was successfully field tested in the Mars analog environment of the Atacama Desert in 2019 as part of the Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) project, providing the first in situ planetary analog analysis for a high-fidelity, flight-like ion trap mass spectrometer. LITMS continued to serve as a laboratory tool for continued analysis of natural Atacama samples provided by the subsequent 2019 ARADS final field campaign.

The Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) Project.

With advances in commercial space launch capabilities and reduced costs to orbit, humans may arrive on Mars within a decade. Both to preserve any signs of past (and extant) martian life and to protect the health of human crews (and Earth's biosphere), it will be necessary to assess the risk of cross-contamination on the surface, in blown dust, and into the near-subsurface (where exploration and resource-harvesting can be reasonably anticipated). Thus, evaluating for the presence of life and biosignatures may become a critical-path Mars exploration precursor in the not-so-far future, circa 2030. This Special Collection of papers from the Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies (ARADS) project describes many of the scientific, technological, and operational issues associated with searching for and identifying biosignatures in an extreme hyperarid region in Chile's Atacama Desert, a well-studied terrestrial Mars analog environment. This paper provides an overview of the ARADS project and discusses in context the five other papers in the ARADS Special Collection, as well as prior ARADS project results.

Field-test performance of an ice-melting probe in a terrestrial analogue environment

Melting probes are a proven tool for the exploration of thick ice layers and clean sampling of subglacial water on Earth. Their compact size and ease of operation also make them a key technology for the future exploration of icy moons in our Solar System, most prominently Europa and Enceladus. For both mission planning and hardware engineering, metrics such as efficiency and expected performance in terms of achievable speed, power requirements, and necessary heating power have to be known.Theoretical studies aim at describing thermal losses on the one hand, while laboratory experiments and field tests allow an empirical investigation of the true performance on the other hand. To investigate the practical value of a performance model for the operational performance in extraterrestrial environments, we first contrast measured data from terrestrial field tests on temperate and polythermal glaciers with results from basic heat loss models and a melt trajectory model. For this purpose, we propose conventions for the determination of two different efficiencies that can be applied to both measured data and models. One definition of efficiency is related to the melting head only, while the other definition considers the melting probe as a whole. We also present methods to combine several sources of heat loss for probes with a circular cross-section, and to translate the geometry of probes with a non-circular cross-section to analyse them in the same way. The models were selected in a way that minimizes the need to make assumptions about unknown parameters of the probe or the ice environment.The results indicate that currently used models do not yet reliably reproduce the performance of a probe under realistic conditions. Melting velocities and efficiencies are constantly overestimated by 15 to 50% in the models, but qualitatively agree with the field test data. Hence, losses are observed, that are not yet covered and quantified by the available loss models. We find that the deviation increases with decreasing ice temperature. We suspect that this mismatch is mainly due to the too restrictive idealization of the probe model and the fact that the probe was not operated in an efficiency-optimized manner during the field tests. With respect to space mission engineering, we find that performance and efficiency models must be used with caution in unknown ice environments, as various ice parameters have a significant effect on the melting process. Some of these are difficult to estimate from afar.

How do gravity alterations affect animal and human systems at a cellular/tissue level?

The present white paper concerns the indications and recommendations of the SciSpacE Science Community to make progress in filling the gaps of knowledge that prevent us from answering the question: “How Do Gravity Alterations Affect Animal and Human Systems at a Cellular/Tissue Level?” This is one of the five major scientific issues of the ESA roadmap “Biology in Space and Analogue Environments”. Despite the many studies conducted so far on spaceflight adaptation mechanisms and related pathophysiological alterations observed in astronauts, we are not yet able to elaborate a synthetic integrated model of the many changes occurring at different system and functional levels. Consequently, it is difficult to develop credible models for predicting long-term consequences of human adaptation to the space environment, as well as to implement medical support plans for long-term missions and a strategy for preventing the possible health risks due to prolonged exposure to spaceflight beyond the low Earth orbit (LEO). The research activities suggested by the scientific community have the aim to overcome these problems by striving to connect biological and physiological aspects in a more holistic view of space adaptation effects.

N-Alkane Biosignatures in a High Arctic Mars Analogue Gossan Deposit

If past life ever existed on Mars, what are the multiple ways it could have been preserved in the Martian geological record? This crucial question is becoming especially relevant the more we uncover about the planet’s ancient wet history. Different acidic and sulfur rich analog environments have been proposed that are comparable to the alteration environments of iron oxides and sulfate minerals on Mars. However, some authors have hypothesized that these past Martian environments might have been cold and semi-dry, similar to polar regions on Earth. As part of the T-MARS team, we studied reactive gossans in the Canadian High Arctic, on Axel Heiberg Island, as an analog environment to similar deposits on Mars. We hypothesized that n-alkane lipids could potentially be an important form of molecular fossils entombed in varying mineral assemblages of sulphates, iron oxides, and phyllosilicates in Arctic gossans, because of their excellent preservation potential relative to most other forms of organic molecules. To determine the preservation potential of lipids in mineralogically varying acidic sulfur rich gossan deposits, this study extracted and quantified n-alkane biomarkers from three different Arctic gossans with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Total organic carbon, pH, and mineralogy were also determined. Organic matter was found to be very low in all samples (<1% wt.%). N-alkane analysis also revealed preserved even-over-odd distribution patterns in short chain n-alkanes, most likely from a microbial source, along with evidence for long-chain n-alkanes with odd-over-even distribution from higher plant sources. The presence of these unique chemical biosignatures in low organic, highly acidic, and sulfur rich Mars analog gossans of varying maturity provides evidence that sulfur deposits linked to paleo hydrothermal systems on Mars can be promising targets for preserved organic biosignatures, specifically lipid n-alkanes. The significant diversity in biosignature patterns across samples of varying mineralogy, pH, and oxidation levels within each gossan suggests that n-alkane preservation varies on a small scale in these environments. These factors alone do not definitively account for the variability of n-alkane concentrations and distributions in this study, and additional investigations of these and other influencing factors are needed to determine which specific targets to choose for biosignature search on Mars in future space missions. This exploratory study provides novel insights into the lipid biosignature content in high Arctic Mars analogue gossan deposits.

Marine Cold Seeps As A Gateway Of Deep Subsurface Extremophiles To The Seafloor

In the Earth’s deep subsurface life is comprised exclusively of microorganisms, and estimates indicate 12-45% of the global prokaryotic biomass, on the order of 1029 microbes, is found in subseafloor sediments. Investigating how this enormous microbial biomass is maintained in the extreme habitats below seafloor is critical for understanding the rules of life in the deep biosphere. Furthermore, Earth’s subseafloor habitats often present analog environments detected in other planets such as the recently discovered “ocean worlds”, i.e., planetary bodies in our solar system which consist of large subsurface oceans including Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon Europa. Therefore, investigating life in and beneath Earth’s oceans remains at the forefront of the current astrobiological research endeavors. Despite the inhospitable nature of the subseafloor sedimentary realm, active microbial populations including bacteria capable of transforming into dormant endospores have been demonstrated to inhabit deeply buried anoxic sediments and oil reservoirs, permeable ocean crust, and around hydrothermal vents. These extreme habitats often remain physically connected to the seafloor by unique geological features such as marine cold seeps that transmit hydrocarbon-rich fluids originating in deep sediment layers. It remains unclear how fluid migration in cold seeps influence the composition of the seabed microbiome and if they transport deep subsurface life up to the surface. In this study, we addressed this knowledge gap by analyzing over 180 marine surficial sediments from the Gulf of Mexico and the Monterey Bay to assess whether hydrocarbon fluid migration serves as a mechanism for the dispersal of subsurface extremophiles and their introduction into the seabed via cold seeps. Seafloor samples were collected either by piston coring or ROV-operated push coring and were stored at -20°C upon collection. Presence of hydrocarbons in the piston core sediments wa characterized by gas chromatography mass spectrometry and fluorescence spectroscopy whereas gas seepage was determined in the ROV push cores by visual confirmation of gas bubbles emanating from the seafloor. Sediment microbiome composition was determined by high throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Metabolic diversity was assessed via a genome-centric metagenomics approach aided by shotgun metagenomic sequencing of selected samples. Additionally, viable bacterial endospore communities were investigated from a subset of over 120 of the above samples by allowing endospore germination using a high-temperature incubation assay followed by amplicon sequencing. While 132 of the piston core sediments contained migrated liquid hydrocarbons, evidence of continuous advective transport of thermogenic alkane gases was observed in 11 sediments. Gas seeps harbored distinct microbial communities featuring bacteria and archaea that are well known inhabitants of deep biosphere sediments. Specifically, 25 distinct sequence variants within the bacterial lineages Atribacterota and Aminicenantia and the archaeal lineage Thermoprofundales occurred in significantly greater relative sequence abundance along with well-known seep-colonizing members of the bacterial genus Sulfurovum, in the gas-positive sediments. Metabolic predictions guided by metagenome-assembled genomes suggested these organisms are anaerobic heterotrophs capable of non-respiratory breakdown of organic matter, likely enabling them to inhabit energy-limited deep subseafloor ecosystems. In addition, eight different lineages of anaerobic bacterial endospores activated by sediment incubation assays were strongly associated with hydrocarbon-bearing sediments. These lineages were most closely related to Clostridiales previously detected in oil reservoirs from around the world. These results cumulatively point to petroleum geofluids as a vector for the advection-assisted upward dispersal of deep biosphere microbes from subsurface to surface environments, shaping the microbiome of cold seep sediments and providing a general mechanism for the maintenance of microbial diversity in the deep sea.

B - 78 Virtual Reality Versus Analog Performance and the Age-Related Paradox of Prospective Memory.

A prospective memory (PM) task in virtual reality (VR) was developed to investigate whether older adults perform better when tested in true-to-life environments, as they do in naturalistic environments according to the age-related paradox. The purpose of this study was to compare younger and older adults on PM tasks in analog and VR environments. Older adults (N = 87; ages 60-90) and younger adults (N = 54; ages 18-26) were administered PM tasks using analog and virtual reality environments, as part of the Virtual Kitchen Protocol. A two-way, mixed-subjects analysis of variance indicated that both age groups performed better on the analog PM task than on the VR task (F[1, 139] = 48.32, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.26), and that younger adults performed better than older adults on both PM tasks (F[1, 139] = 76.90, p < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.36). While PM performance was higher on the analog task for both age groups, performance on the VR task decreased similarly for younger and older adults. The life-like distractors in VR appeared to impact both age cohorts equivalently, suggesting that VR assessment is equally valid with older adults as it is with younger adults. Although the VR setting was selected to imitate real life, the environment details did not appear specific enough to replicate the boost found in older adults' PM in naturalistic environments. Future research on PM should model VR tasks after individuals' home environments to tap into the over-learned habits utilized in individuals' everyday lives.

Assessment of Mars Analog Habitation Plans Using Network Analysis Methodologies

Space institutions place humans in analog environments that closely match the target environment, such as the Moon or Mars, to study space habitation. Seven Mars analog missions consisting of habitation units with published designs were selected for analysis using graph data science methodologies to provide insight into how their designers solved the challenge of living in an isolated, constrained, and distant environment. Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Label Propagation Approach (LPA) are utilized to examine the relationships between adjacent functional areas of habitations. The paper presents the final documentation that will be used as a design framework to generate layouts for a habitation project.

Can Extreme Bacteria Teach Us About Extraterrestrial Life?

Have you ever wondered if there is life beyond Earth? Scientists have been studying this topic for a long time and believe the answer might lie in extremophilic microbes, small organisms that thrive in extreme environments. In a 2022 study, scientists took extremophilic microbes from an analogue environment, or place on Earth similar to Mars, and put them in simulated Martian conditions. After exposing them to higher ultraviolet radiation levels, low oxygen levels, a dry atmosphere, and moisture-free Mars-like soil, these microbes still were able to survive. This research is important in helping us understand if Mars can house life and give us clues into what that life might look like beyond Earth.

Scientific exploration of challenging planetary analog environments with a team of legged robots

The interest in exploring planetary bodies for scientific investigation and in situ resource utilization is ever-rising. Yet, many sites of interest are inaccessible to state-of-the-art planetary exploration robots because of the robots’ inability to traverse steep slopes, unstructured terrain, and loose soil. In addition, current single-robot approaches only allow a limited exploration speed and a single set of skills. Here, we present a team of legged robots with complementary skills for exploration missions in challenging planetary analog environments. We equipped the robots with an efficient locomotion controller, a mapping pipeline for online and postmission visualization, instance segmentation to highlight scientific targets, and scientific instruments for remote and in situ investigation. Furthermore, we integrated a robotic arm on one of the robots to enable high-precision measurements. Legged robots can swiftly navigate representative terrains, such as granular slopes beyond 25°, loose soil, and unstructured terrain, highlighting their advantages compared with wheeled rover systems. We successfully verified the approach in analog deployments at the Beyond Gravity ExoMars rover test bed, in a quarry in Switzerland, and at the Space Resources Challenge in Luxembourg. Our results show that a team of legged robots with advanced locomotion, perception, and measurement skills, as well as task-level autonomy, can conduct successful, effective missions in a short time. Our approach enables the scientific exploration of planetary target sites that are currently out of human and robotic reach.

Microgravity induces overconfidence in perceptual decision-making

Does gravity affect decision-making? This question comes into sharp focus as plans for interplanetary human space missions solidify. In the framework of Bayesian brain theories, gravity encapsulates a strong prior, anchoring agents to a reference frame via the vestibular system, informing their decisions and possibly their integration of uncertainty. What happens when such a strong prior is altered? We address this question using a self-motion estimation task in a space analog environment under conditions of altered gravity. Two participants were cast as remote drone operators orbiting Mars in a virtual reality environment on board a parabolic flight, where both hyper- and microgravity conditions were induced. From a first-person perspective, participants viewed a drone exiting a cave and had to first predict a collision and then provide a confidence estimate of their response. We evoked uncertainty in the task by manipulating the motion’s trajectory angle. Post-decision subjective confidence reports were negatively predicted by stimulus uncertainty, as expected. Uncertainty alone did not impact overt behavioral responses (performance, choice) differentially across gravity conditions. However microgravity predicted higher subjective confidence, especially in interaction with stimulus uncertainty. These results suggest that variables relating to uncertainty affect decision-making distinctly in microgravity, highlighting the possible need for automatized, compensatory mechanisms when considering human factors in space research.

Extreme Niche Partitioning and Microbial Dark Matter in a Mauna Loa Lava Tube

AbstractLava tubes are key targets in the search for life on Mars. Their basaltic walls provide protection from radiation and changing environmental conditions, which could enable life or preservation of previous life in an otherwise harsh environment. We can understand the potential for Martian life in lava tubes by studying the habitability of analog environments on Earth. In this study, we present the first characterization of the microbial life inside a pristine Mauna Loa lava tube. This study is the first to combine 16S SSU rRNA sequencing and whole genome shotgun sequencing to map the taxonomic makeup and functional potential of any lava tube community in Hawaii, enabling a deep understanding of the types of microbes that thrive in this unique environment and the metabolisms they use. We find a surprisingly high degree of niche partitioning over small spatial scales and discuss implications for life detection strategies. Based on recent bioinformatic advancements in metagenomics, we also assemble dozens of high‐quality metagenome assembled genomes from the microbes living in the lava tubes, including several novel species.

The influence of video-based training on caregiver arrangement of infant sleeping environments.

Recent behavior analytic studies have examined behavioral skills training to teach adults to arrange safe infant sleeping environments. These studies were conducted in an analogue environment and with all training components delivered by an expert staff trainer. The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend this literature by substituting video-based training for behavioral skills training. We assessed whether expectant caregivers could arrange safe infant sleeping environments following video-based training. The results suggested that video-based training alone resulted in positive outcomes for a portion of participants, whereas a subset of participants required feedback to reach mastery criteria. The social validity data suggest that the participants found the training procedures favorable.

Spectroscopic comparisons of two different terrestrial basaltic environments: Exploring the correlation between nitrogen compounds and biomolecular signatures

Life detection in the solar system relies on the unambiguous identification of signatures of life and habitability. Organic molecules are essential to life as we know it, and yet many organic compounds are ubiquitous in the solar system and can be synthesized abiotically; thus, their presence alone is not indicative of life. On Earth, chemical signatures of life's processes are often left behind in minerals through the biologically induced formation of secondary minerals or intermediary organic complexes. In natural rocks biomolecules and organic species often co-occur with minerals, and their overlapping peaks can create difficulties in interpretation. In the process of identifying the minerals and organic species in our basaltic samples we noticed signatures for cyanates co-occurring with organic molecules. Cyanates are an overlooked group of nitrogen compounds in which C is bonded to N (e.g., OCN− or SCN−) that often co-occur with urea and ammonium in environments where microorganisms are present. These compounds are common in many terrestrial and oceanic environments and play an important role in biogeochemical nitrogen cycling. In natural systems, these compounds form as the result of multiple biogeochemical pathways, often from the interaction of microbes with a chemically active environment. These interactions leave behind signatures in the form biotic breakdown products such as urea or ammonium and organic reaction byproducts that are observable with spectroscopic methods. To explore these relationships, we used field-portable Raman spectrometers and laboratory micro-Raman imaging to characterize and compare samples collected from two different terrestrial basaltic environments, a lava tube on Mauna Loa, Hawaii, dominated by the precipitation of sulfate minerals and a geothermal stream at Hveragil, Iceland dominated by the precipitation of carbonate minerals. The Raman (RS) measurements were complemented by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), Long-wave Infrared (IR) LIBS, with the addition of gas chromatograph mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to identify cyanate compounds, biomolecules, and other nitrogenous compounds related to the breakdown or production of cyanate in host basalts and secondary precipitates. The RS data suggest that the reason for RS cyanate signatures in the carbonate samples could be due to luminescence artifacts while those detected in the host basalts may be due to hydrolysis chemistry. The cyanate signatures detected in the lava tube samples dominated by sulfates do not seem to be luminescence artifacts but may in fact be evidence of an active microbial nitrogen cycle. Our results inform the spectroscopic detection of cyanates in planetary analog environments and the challenges in their identification. Further work is needed to understand their potential as biosignatures on other planetary bodies.

Jack Dwayne Farmer April 18, 1947-February 22, 2023.

Jack Dwayne Farmer April 18, 1947-February 22, 2023.

Predicting new mineral occurrences and planetary analog environments via mineral association analysis.

The locations of minerals and mineral-forming environments, despite being of great scientific importance and economic interest, are often difficult to predict due to the complex nature of natural systems. In this work, we embrace the complexity and inherent "messiness" of our planet's intertwined geological, chemical, and biological systems by employing machine learning to characterize patterns embedded in the multidimensionality of mineral occurrence and associations. These patterns are a product of, and therefore offer insight into, the Earth's dynamic evolutionary history. Mineral association analysis quantifies high-dimensional multicorrelations in mineral localities across the globe, enabling the identification of previously unknown mineral occurrences, as well as mineral assemblages and their associated paragenetic modes. In this study, we have predicted (i) the previously unknown mineral inventory of the Mars analogue site, Tecopa Basin, (ii) new locations of uranium minerals, particularly those important to understanding the oxidation-hydration history of uraninite, (iii) new deposits of critical minerals, specifically rare earth element (REE)- and Li-bearing phases, and (iv) changes in mineralization and mineral associations through deep time, including a discussion of possible biases in mineralogical data and sampling; furthermore, we have (v) tested and confirmed several of these mineral occurrence predictions in nature, thereby providing ground truth of the predictive method. Mineral association analysis is a predictive method that will enhance our understanding of mineralization and mineralizing environments on Earth, across our solar system, and through deep time.

Immunoanalytical Approach for Detecting and Identifying Ancestral Peptide Biomarkers in Early Earth Analogue Environments.

Several mass spectrometry and spectroscopic techniques have been used in the search for molecular biomarkers on Mars. A major constraint is their capability to detect and identify large and complex compounds such as peptides or other biopolymers. Multiplex immunoassays can detect these compounds, but antibodies must be produced for a large number of sequence-dependent molecular targets. Ancestral Sequence Reconstruction (ASR) followed by protein "resurrection" in the lab can help to narrow the selection of targets. Herein, we propose an immunoanalytical method to identify ancient and universally conserved protein/peptide sequences as targets for identifying ancestral biomarkers in nature. We have developed, tested, and validated this approach by producing antibodies to eight previously described ancestral resurrected proteins (three β-lactamases, three thioredoxins, one Elongation Factor Tu, and one RuBisCO, all of them theoretically dated as Precambrian), and used them as a proxy to search for any potential feature of them that could be present in current natural environments. By fluorescent sandwich microarray immunoassays (FSMI), we have detected positive immunoreactions with antibodies to the oldest β-lactamase and thioredoxin proteins (ca. 4 Ga) in samples from a hydrothermal environment. Fine epitope mapping and inhibitory immunoassays allowed the identification of well-conserved epitope peptide sequences that resulted from ASR and were present in the sample. We corroborated these results by metagenomic sequencing and found several genes encoding analogue proteins with significant matches to the peptide epitopes identified with the antibodies. The results demonstrated that peptides inferred from ASR studies have true counterpart analogues in Nature, which validates and strengthens the well-known ASR/protein resurrection technique and our immunoanalytical approach for investigating ancient environments and metabolisms on Earth and elsewhere.

Evaluating caregivers arrangement of infant sleeping environments in the home.

Sleep-related infant deaths are one of the top causes of infant mortality in the United States. A few behavior analytic studies have examined behavioral skills training to teach adults to arrange safe infant sleeping environments. These studies were conducted in an analogue environment, and no data were collected outside the training setting. The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend the extant literature. We taught caregivers to arrange safe infant sleeping environments in a community-based organization. Thereafter, we assessed the feasibility and effectiveness of a technology-based contingency management procedure to examine caregivers' adherence with arrangement of a safe sleeping environment for their newborns across a 2-week period. As in previous studies, behavioral skills training resulted in positive outcomes, and follow-up data suggested that the technology-based contingency management procedure may be a promising approach to promoting adherence with infant sleeping environment recommendations.