Related papers: The Engine of Life
Active particles contain internal degrees of freedom with the ability to take in and dissipate energy and, in the process, execute systematic movement. Examples include all living organisms and their motile constituents such as molecular…
The regimes of possible global atmospheric circulation patterns in an Earth-like atmosphere are explored using a simplified GCM based on the University of Hamburg's Portable University Model for the Atmosphere with simplified (linear)…
Photosynthesis powers life on our planet. The basic photosynthetic architecture comprises antenna complexes to harvest solar energy and reaction centers to convert the energy into a stable charge separated state. In oxygenic photosynthesis,…
Almost all organisms show some kind of time periodicity in their behavior. Especially in mammals the neurons of the suprachiasmatic nucleus form a biological clock regulating the activity-inactivity cycle of the animal. This clock is…
We have designed an inquiry-based laboratory activity on transiting extrasolar planets for an introductory college-level astronomy class. The activity was designed with the intent of simultaneously teaching science process skills and…
In order to understand the climate on terrestrial planets orbiting nearby Sun-like stars, one would like to know their thermal inertia. We use a global climate model to simulate the thermal phase variations of Earth-analogs and test whether…
Fish often travel in highly organized schools. One of the most quoted functions of these configurations is energy savings. Here, we verified the hypothesis and explored the mechanism through series of experiments on "schooling" robotic…
This paper reviews habitability conditions for a terrestrial planet from the point of view of geosciences. It addresses how interactions between the interior of a planet or a moon and its atmosphere and surface (including hydrosphere and…
This is a series of four lectures presented at the 2015 Enrico Fermi summer school in Varenna. The aim of the lectures is to give an introduction to the hydrodynamics of active matter concentrating on low Reynolds number examples such as…
We present an atmospheric model tailored for the interactive visualization of planetary surfaces. As the exploration of the solar system is progressing with increasingly accurate missions and instruments, the faithful visualization of…
We perform a situational diagnosis in topics of astronomy of pre-service elementary teachers in order to try and develop didactic tools that better collaborate with their formal education. In this work we present the instrument we designed…
The investigation of the emergence of life is a major endeavour of science. Astronomy is contributing to it in three fundamental manners: (1) by measuring the chemical enrichment of the Universe, (2) by investigating planet formation and…
In the coming decades, the discovery of the first truly Earth-like exoplanets is anticipated. The characterisation of those planets will play a vital role in determining which are chosen as targets for the search for life beyond the Solar…
The field of exoplanetary science is one of the most rapidly growing areas of astrophysical research. As more planets are discovered around other stars, new techniques have been developed that have allowed astronomers to begin to…
The search for biosignatures necessitates developing our understanding of life under different conditions. If life can influence the climate evolution of its planet then understanding the behaviour of life-climate feedbacks under extreme…
To predict line emission in the solar atmosphere requires models which are fundamentally different depending on whether the emission is from the chromosphere or the corona. At some point between the two regions, there must be a change…
Terrestrial planets in temperate orbits around very low mass stars are likely to have evolved in a very different way than solar system planets, and in particular Earth. However, because these are the first planets that are and will be…
Solar active regions are driven dissipative dynamical systems. The turbulent convection zone forces new magnetic flux tubes to rise above the photosphere and shuffles the magnetic fields which are already above the photosphere. The driven…
The goals of the astrobiology community are focussed on developing a framework for the detection of biosignatures, or evidence thereof, on objects inside and outside of our solar system. A fundamental aspect of understanding the limits of…
Electromagnetic waves carry energy, linear momentum, and angular momentum. When light (or other electromagnetic radiation) interacts with material media, both energy and momentum are usually exchanged. The force and torque experienced by…