Sev Zielinska

PhD Candidate in Chemistry, Astrobiology, and Origin of Life Sciences at ProtoSigns Lab @ DCU

Experimental Evidence for a Microbial Origin of Reduction Spots in Red Beds

Following my MSc dissertation on the biogenicity of bleached spots in red beds on Earth and Mars, we have submitted "Experimental evidence for a microbial origin of reduction spots in red beds" for review, which is available to read now as a bioRxiv pre-print (not peer reviewed at this stage)!

Here, we observe that iron-reducing microorganisms can indeed produce bleached spots in ferruginous sediments, suggesting that bleached/reduction spots in red beds on Earth—and the similar "leopard spots" recently investigated by the Perseverance Rover on Mars—could be considered as a potential biosignature.

For full text, access here: https://lnkd.in/dK9xVZtp

The Tartan Tardigrade Podcast

"In this special Tartan Tardigrade episode, Mia Belle Frothingham, PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh, interviews 5 MSc students currently in the Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences MSc at Edinburgh. We will learn about their individual interest in astrobiology, what astrobiology questions they are working on, and how the programme has benefitted their long-term career goals."

In July 2025, I had the great pleasure of participating in the recording of the Tartan Tardigrade special episode as an invited interviewee. We spoke about my plans for the future and how my MSc degree has impacted how I approach research and the field of astrobiology as a whole.

FALCON - Frontiers in Astrobiology and Origins of Life Conference 2025

In June 2025, I had the great pleasure of attending FALCON 2025 as my first astrobiology conference.

Surrounded by the many beautiful, unique sites that can be found in Iceland, I spent the week networking, listening to talks at the cutting edge of both astrobiology and OoL science, and participating in round table discussions.

MINAR XII - Boulby Underground Laboratory

Alongside other members of the UK Centre for Astrobiology, I was invited to attend talks and tour the Boulby Underground Laboratory as part of the annual Mine Analogue Research (MINAR) field event in December 2024.

Investigating Salt Structure Formation at Different Pressures in the Context of a Martian Paleobarometer

Following on from the discovery of the "Mars Flower" by the Curiosity rover on Mars, I investigated the morphology of evaporties of different salts at different pressures in order to see if changes in shape or structure of these "flowers" could function as a form of barometer.

I was trained in the operation of the low-pressure Mars Chamber at the UK Centre for Astrobiology and in laboratory protocol for both chemistry and geology labs.

Age, Distance, and Mass Function of Milky Way Star Clusters

Remote observations of Milky Way open star clusters M 52 and NGC 7789 were taken using the PIRATE telescope at Teide Observatory. This group project resulted in a deep understanding of the astrophysical process, from initial observation, to creating an image pipeline, to applying corrections to images due to dust reddening or red shift.

As a result, the team was able to compare our values for the age, distance, and mass function of the star clusters to those found in literature.