Cool News

Growing Microorganisms at Deep-Sea Pressures

The high-pressure, high-temperature chemostat of the Carnegie Institution of Washington is now at the Deep-Sea Microbiology Lab (Rutgers Univ.) to grow pressure-adapted bacteriia isolated from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent (Vetriani, Foustoukos, Patwardhan, Mullane, Giovanelli)

Creating Magmatic Fluids in the Lab

A series of hydrothermal diamond anvil experiments has been conducted to investigate the D/H isotope composition of H2-CH4-H2O aqueous saline solutions. Vibrational Raman spectra collected in-situ at high temperature and pressures reveal the speciation and structure of magmatic vapors and brines formed during adiabatic decompression of supercritical saline fluids to pressures lower than 1 kbar.

OSIRIS-REx: Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Science Team Member of the OSIRIS-REx mission supporting the isotopic/elemental geochemical investigations within the "Sample Elements and Isotopes" and "Sample Organic Analysis" working groups.