From the Beginning of Time to the Ends of the Earth Join us on a whistle stop tour through space and time! Our planet hosts some crazy creatures living in some of the most extreme places, let's dive in and d…

The answer might be 42, but what’s the question?
I’ll be giving a talk at @pintofscience.uk in Norwich on May 20:
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Life in the Universe”.

Come along if you’re around!

#PintOfScience #Astrobiology

pintofscience.co.uk/event/from-t...

Carbon monoxide dehydrogenase-encoding microorganisms in volcanic astrobiological analogues: an enzyme system to investigate the evolution of life Volcanic ecosystems reveal how ancient CO-oxidizing microbes evolved CODH genes, enabling energy generation and adaptive versatility across diverse extreme

Excited to see our work now live!
In this study on the role of CODH-utilising microbes in volcanic astrobiological analogues.
Huge thanks to Marcela Hernández and all collaborators!

Happy to hear thoughts!

#Astrobiology #Geomicrobiology #Extremophiles #Volcanology

academic.oup.com/femsec/artic...

PhD Opportunity: Habitability of Enceladus & Planetary Protection

Join the us to explore the habitability of Saturn’s moon Enceladus and help shape international planetary protection standards.

buff.ly/rQzOZgH - studentship P9

The call for abstracts for IOoL 2026 — the Interdisciplinary Origin of Life Meeting — is coming soon! 🧬 This year we're heading to Japan for a week of deep, interdisciplinary discussion on how life began. Stay tuned for details 🇯🇵

Really nice discussions at the @norwichmicro.bsky.social last week where I presented a poster on extremophiles in volcanic soils as analogues for early planetary biospheres and I had the chance to co-chair a session.
Poster below for anyone interested 👇
#Astrobiology #Geomicrobiology #CMINorwich26

If there’s even partial atmospheric circulation or subsurface flow, you’d get persistent redox cycling. That could stabilise some really interesting metabolic niches over long timescales.

PH3 really had the wildest career arc in astrobiology history

The redox gradients on a tidally locked planet would be fascinating. Permanent hot/cold interfaces could create long-lived chemical disequilibrium. Possibly great for metabolism, maybe even for biosignatures.

Thanks fellow space explorer @destinazionestelle.bsky.social. Ad astra!

Excited to share our new paper on CODH in astrobiological analogues is finally out! Grateful to my supervisor at @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social and co-authors @unsw.edu.au and to @royalsociety.org for their support.

#Research #Astrobiology #FEMSmicrobiology

academic.oup.com/femsec/advan...

Venus has lava tubes! A long undersurface tunnel discovered in old NASA data

Venus has lava tubes! That's so cool!

Or hot. Venus is a sucky place to live, but is super amazing for science.

badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/venus-has-...

🔭 🧪

Centre for Microbial Interactions – Conference 2026 Centre for Microbial Interactions – Annual Conference 2026. Registration is free and the deadline to sign up is Wednesday 25th February 2026.

Big news! I'll be co-chairing a session and presenting a poster at the @norwichmicro.bsky.social Annual Conference this March.

Deadline for abstract submission coming up soon.

#CMI2026 #Microbiology #Astrobiology #NRP #Extremophiles

share.google/wFUzmSQdayFR...

I've been confirmed for the @egu.eu General Assembly 2026 in Vienna.
It will be an honour to participate in one of the world's largest gatherings of geoscientists.
If any of you are heading to the Austria for the conference, it would be good to catch up.
#EGU26#Astrobiology#ResearchCommunity

Last Friday I attended the UK Planetary Forum at @ucl-bbk-cps.bsky.social. I presented my recently revised paper on CODH-utilising microbes in volcanic analogues. Thanks to the organisers and speakers for a rewarding experience.
The paper is now under review. Stay tuned! 🪐🔬 #Astrobiology

It was nice to present my PhD work, at my department seminar on the "Characterisation of trace gas oxidisers at Mount Etna volcano".
Next up, I'm taking the findings from my first publication to the UK Planetary Forum.

#PhDresearch #ScienceCommunication #Geomicrobiology #Astrobiology

Mount #Semeru erupted violently today, sending a massive ash plume nearly 2 km into the sky. Explosive pyroclastic flows of hot rock, gas, and ash raced 7 km down its slopes, enveloping the surrounding area in a scorching, swirling volcanic cloud.🌋⚡️

Organic geochemical evidence for life in Archean rocks identified by pyrolysis–GC–MS and supervised machine learning | PNAS Throughout Earth’s history, organic molecules from both abiogenic and biogenic sources have been buried in sedimentary rocks. Most of these organic...

Our new biosignatures paper is out in @pnas.org! This time we're using machine learning trained on organic chemical data to identify signs of life—including photosynthetic life—in ancient rocks.

Caves carved by water on Mars may hold signs of past life Eight possible cave openings found on the Martian surface look to have once had ancient streams flowing into them, suggesting they are promising places to look for evidence of life

Eight possible cave openings found on the Martian surface look to have once had ancient streams flowing into them, suggesting they are promising places to look for evidence of life

Hydrology Paper of the Day @eos.org on changes in microbial diversity in the Arctic and and possibility of soils acting as a carbon sink in a warming world: microbiome shifts and biogeochemical cycles in the pan-Arctic; samples from intact permafrost sites; and the mediating role of hydrology.

Deep‐branching eukaryotes and early events in protist evolution The first eukaryotes evolved from their archaean ancestors in the early Proterozoic, likely ca. 2000–1800 million years ago (Mya). Their macroscopic multicellular descendants, such as plants, heterok...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#protistsonsky

Experimental diagenesis reveals preservation of biosignatures in filamentous sulfur mats under hydrothermal conditions - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Experimental diagenesis reveals preservation of biosignatures in filamentous sulfur mats under hydrothermal conditions

Microbial biosignatures associated with iron sulfides are among the prime targets in early life studies, but their formation and preservation are not yet understood
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Miocene and Pliocene ice and air from the Allan Hills blue ice area, East Antarctica | PNAS Antarctic ice cores provide a unique archive of Earth’s atmosphere and its largest extant ice sheet. The oldest continuous ice core extends back 80...

As the ice cap forms, it traps air bubbles, which then remain isolated. It has allowed us to reconstruct our past climate of 800,000 years ago. This was the date of the oldest Antarctic ice sampling thanks to a ice core drilled near the base of the Antarctic ice sheet.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Sistema Sac Aktun – longest underwater cave Image: Archivo Gran Acuífero Maya (GAM)/INAH. Leer en Español Follow @mantarayo Sistema Sac Aktun (white cave) is one of the cave systems that discharge fresh water into the Caribbean Sea. Differen…

Although Sistema Sac Aktun has been surpassed by Sistema Ox Bel Ha as the world’s longest underwater cave, it remains one of the most scientifically fascinating and culturally rich submerged cave systems on Earth.

🧪
sites.northwestern.edu/monroyrios/s...

#Karst #Yucatán #CaveDiving

Microbial Ecology of Subsurface Granitic Bedrock: A Humid–Arid Site Comparison in Chile Abstract. Subsurface microorganisms face extreme challenges such as anoxic, xeric, and oligotrophic conditions. In igneous systems, nutrient limitation is

academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

Nitrogen fixation under declining Arctic sea ice - Communications Earth & Environment Nitrogen fixation occurs under Arctic sea ice and is positively correlated with primary production, according to analyses of transects across the marginal ice zone and in the Central Arctic Ocean.

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

A Super-Earth Candidate Less Than 20 Light-Years Away Astronomers have discovered a ready-to-image super-Earth candidate, named GJ 251c, less than 20 light-years away.

Astronomers have discovered a ready-to-image super-Earth candidate less than 20 light-years away.
skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...
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.
#astronomy #exoplanet #superearth

EVENT - Centre for Microbial Interactions Annual Conference 2026

Register now to attend in-person or virtually @norwichmicro.bsky.social

🗓️ 4-5 March 2026
📍John Innes Conference Centre, NR4 7UH

⏰ Deadline for registration - 25 February 2026: okt.to/16MLmH

Full programme: okt.to/YF8TVe

Microbes At Red Sea Vents Show How Life And Geology Shape Each Other - Astrobiology n unusual microbial world in the Hatiba Mons hydrothermal vent fields of the central Red Sea

Microbes At Red Sea Vents Show How Life And Geology Shape Each Other
astrobiology.com/2025/10/micr... #astrobiology #oceanography

Genomic Characterization of Microbacterium meiriae sp. nov., A Novel Bacterium Isolated From The International Space Station - Astrobiology During the microbial surveillance of the International Space Station (ISS) in April 2018, four Gram-stain positive bacterial strains

Genomic Characterization of Microbacterium meiriae sp. nov., A Novel Bacterium Isolated From The International Space Station
astrobiology.com/2025/10/geno... #astrobiology #microbiology

Growth, Physiology, And Metabolism Of Halomonas Meridiana In Aqueous Ammonium Sulfate With Implications For Icy Moon Astrobiology - Astrobiology The discovery of extraterrestrial reservoirs of liquid water has motivated missions to icy moons Europa and Titan.

Growth, Physiology, And Metabolism Of Halomonas Meridiana In Aqueous Ammonium Sulfate With Implications For Icy Moon Astrobiology
astrobiology.com/2025/10/grow... #astrobiology