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CarnegieScienceThe Newsletter of the Carnegie Institution

FA L L 2 0 1 2

EMBRYOLOGY N GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY N GLOBAL ECOLOGY N THE OBSERVATORIES N

PLANT BIOLOGY N TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM N CASE: CARNEGIE ACADEMY FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION

On the Inside

5 Geoengineering Could Whiten the Sky

7 Looking for Jupiters to Find Earths

11 Tough Stuff: Plant Cell Walls

13 Fishy Fat Absorption

CS12_FallNewsletter_RV3_Layout 1 10/24/12 8:15 AM

Carnegie Institution for Science1530 P Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20005-1910

202.387.6400www.CarnegieScience.edu

PresidentRichard A. Meserve

Director, Department of EmbryologyAllan C. Spradling

Director, Geophysical LaboratoryRussell Hemley

Director, Department of Global EcologyChristopher Field

Director, The ObservatoriesCrawford H. Greenewalt ChairWendy L. Freedman

Director, Department of Plant BiologyWolf Frommer

Director, Department of Terrestrial MagnetismLinda Elkins-Tanton

Director, Administration and FinanceCynthia Allen

Chief Advancement OfficerRick Sherman

Chief Information OfficerGotthard Sághi-Szabó

Director, External AffairsSusanne Garvey

EditorTina McDowell

Science Writer Natasha Metzler

Why Invest in Science?There is no more critical time to support science than now. The world is in a period ofgreat uncertainty and change. The economy continues to waver as anxiety permeatesglobal markets. And governments, corporations, foundations, and individuals arecarefully husbanding their resources. Yet despite this widespread unease, investing in thescientific enterprise offers us, perhaps, the best way to get back on course.

Since World War II, science and technology have been the driving force for about halfof the growth of the U.S. economy. Vannevar Bush, president of the Carnegie Institutionfrom 1939-1955 and a chief architect of postwar U.S. science policy, recognized thispotential. His influential 1945 report requested by President Roosevelt entitled Science:The Endless Frontier argued that federal investment in basic research is necessary foreconomic progress and stability. He was right. This endeavor paved the way for theestablishment of the National Science Foundation—a vital government agency that hassupported decades of discoveries—and laid the foundations for the support of basicresearch throughout the government.

Today, some three-quarters of U.S. economic growth can be attributable to innovation,which of course, stands on the shoulders of scientific and technological breakthroughs.Recently, science, technology, engineering, and math—the so-called STEM subjects—have become the war cry for a better economic future. Carnegie’s basic research andeducational programs are well positioned to contribute to our nation’s economic progressand to tackle some of the world’s other fundamental challenges.

To address some of these challenges, Carnegie plant scientists, for instance, areunraveling the genetics to develop plants adaptable to saltier, drier, and hotter conditions.Our climate researchers have invented high-resolution, airborne techniques tounderstand carbon and nutrient cycling and to provide tools to help combat climatechange. Carnegie’s high-pressure investigators have a long history of creating newmaterials with potential industrial and energy applications. And our biologists arediscovering the genes and processes behind diseases, including cancer, with the promiseof providing a pathway to eventual cures.

It does not stop there. A strong research program can spawn countless, unanticipatedspin-offs—satellite phones, cordless tools, and the chips that power an interconnectedworld, to name a few. Today, China, Korea, India, and other countries are acceleratingtheir investments in science and technology, providing tough competition for innovationdominance. The U.S. needs to respond to the reality that others would like to emulate andsurpass our remarkable engine for economic growth and technological advance.

No one can predict what the future holds. But Carnegie’s solid record of extraordinaryachievements for the last 110 years underscores the vital contribution we are making toadvance humankind. Continued investment in basic science will help perpetuate thislegacy and that in turn will help the nation remain competitive.

LETTER FROM THE

CHAIRMAN

The president and the chairman of the board alternateroles in presenting an introductory letter.

Michael E. Gellert, Chairman


Senior trustee and retired Goddard SpaceFlight Center astronomer Jaylee Mead died athome from congestive heart failure on Sep-tember 14, 2012, at the age of 83. Mead joinedthe Carnegie board in 1999. She was a dedi-cated member of the Development and Re-search committees. She became a seniortrustee in 2008.

Mead was born in North Carolina. Herteachers and parents encouraged her to seekhigher education. She attended the Universityof North Carolina at Greensboro and receiveda bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1951.She went on to Stanford University and ob-tained a master’s in education in 1954.

Mead went on to work for the State Depart-ment in Washington, D.C. In 1959 she was re-cruited by NASA. Later she attended George-town University, where she studied withCarnegie’s Vera Rubin, the astronomer whoconfirmed the existence of dark matter. Meadreceived her doctorate in astronomy in 1970.

In addition to her many other contribu-tions, Mead established the Vera Rubin Fel-lowship to honor her former mentor. Thusfar, eight researchers have benefitted fromher generosity. She and her husband Gilbert,a geophysicist, were members of the HubbleSociety. Members of the Hubble Society havecontributed between $1 million and $10 mil-lion to Carnegie science. �

Senior TrusteeJaylee Mead

Dies

Carnegie Science | Fall 2012 3

Senior trustee Jaylee Mead (above) and her mentor, Carnegie astro-nomer Vera Rubin (left).

Astronomers use Type Ia supernovae,massive exploding stars, to measure theexpansion of the universe, but theyknow embarrassingly little about thestars they come from and how their ex-plosions are initiated. New researchfrom a team including Carnegie scien-tists could help explain at least some oftheir origins.

Type Ia supernovae are believed to bethermonuclear explosions of a whitedwarf star that is part of a binary sys-tem—two stars that are physically closetogether and orbit around a commoncenter of mass. There are two possible ex-planations for the creation of Type Ia su-pernovae from this type of binary system.

In the so-called double-degeneratemodel, the orbit between two whitedwarf stars gradually shrinks until thelighter star gets so close to its compan-ion that it is ripped apart by tidal forces.Some of the lighter star’s matter is thenabsorbed into the primary white dwarf,causing an explosion. In the competingsingle-degenerate model, the whitedwarf slowly accretes mass from an or-dinary nonwhite dwarf star until itreaches an ignition point.

Previous research has been unable toshed light on which model is correct.Carnegie scientists Josh Simon, ChrisBurns, Nidia Morrell, and Mark Phillipswere part of a Harvard University-ledteam that examined 23 Type Ia super-novae. The team looked for signaturesof gas, which should be present only insingle-degenerate systems, and foundthat the more powerful explosions didindeed tend to come from “gassy” sys-tems, or systems with outflows of gas.However, only a fraction of supernovaeshow evidence of outflows; hence theremainder likely come from double-degenerate systems.

This finding may help astronomerstell the two types of Ia supernovae apart,thus leading to greater accuracy in meas-uring the expansion of the universe. �

This Type Ia supernova was detected in2005 and is dubbed Supernova 2005ke. It is shown here exploding at optical,ultraviolet, and X-ray wavelengths.

Funding for this research was provided in part by aClay Fellowship, the International Science Foundation,the Minerva Foundation, the Lord Sieff of BrimptonFund, CONICYT, the Millennium Center for SupernovaScience, and the National Science Foundation. TheHobby-Eberly Telescope is a joint project of theUniversity of Texas at Austin, Pennsylvania StateUniversity, Stanford University, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen, and Georg-August-UniversitatGottingen. The HET is named in honor of its principalbenefactors, William P. Hobby and Robert E. Eberly.

Trustee News

Honing in onSupernovaeOrigins

Images courtesy N

ASA

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mler


Mineral evolution posits that Earth’s near-surface mineral diversity gradually increasedthrough an array of chemical and biologicalprocesses. The dozen different species in in-terstellar dust particles that formed the So-lar System evolved to more than 4,500species today. Previous work fromCarnegie’s Bob Hazen demonstrated thatup to two-thirds of the known types of min-erals on Earth can be directly or indirectlylinked to biological activity. More recently,Hazen has focused specifically on mineralscontaining the element mercury and theirevolution on our planet as a result of geo-logical and biological activity. His work,published in American Mineralogist, demon-strates that the creation of most mineralscontaining mercury is fundamentally linkedto several episodes of supercontinent as-

sembly over the last 3 billion years.Mineral evolution is an approach to un-

derstanding Earth’s changing near-surfacegeochemistry. All chemical elements werepresent from the start of our Solar System,but at first they formed comparatively fewminerals—perhaps no more than 500 dif-ferent species in the first billion years. Astime passed on the planet, novel combina-tions of elements led to new minerals. Al-though as much as 50% of the mercury thatcontributed to Earth’s accretion was lost tovolatile chemical processing, 4.5 billion yearsof mineral evolution led to the at least 90

different mercury-containing minerals nowfound on Earth.

Hazen and his team examined the firstdocumented appearances of these 90 differ-ent mercury-containing minerals on Earth.They were able to correlate much of this newmineral creation with episodes of supercon-tinent formation—periods when most ofEarth’s dry land converged into single land-masses. They found that of the 60 mercury-containing minerals that first appeared onEarth between 2.8 billion and 65 million yearsago, 50 were created during three periods ofsupercontinent assembly. Their analysis suggests that the evolution of new mercury-containing minerals followed periods of continental collision and mineralization associated with mountain formation.

By contrast, far fewer types of mercury-containing minerals formed during periodswhen these supercontinents were stable orbreaking apart. One striking exception tothis trend is the billion-year-long intervalthat included the assembly of the Rodiniansupercontinent approximately 1.8 to 0.8 bil-lion years ago, which saw no mercury min-eralization anywhere on Earth. Hazen andhis colleagues speculate that this hiatuscould have been due to a sulfide-rich ocean,which quickly reacted with any availablemercury and thus prevented mercury frominteracting chemically with other elements.

The role of biology is also critical in un-derstanding the mineral evolution of mer-cury. Although mercury is rarely directlyinvolved in biological processes—except insome rare bacteria—its interactions withoxygen came about entirely due to the ap-pearance of the photosynthetic process.Mercury also has a strong affinity for car-bon-based compounds that come from biological material, such as coal, shale, petroleum, and natural gas products. �

Mercury Mineral Count Rising

Carnegie Science | Fall 20124

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Deep Carbon Observatory awarded grants to in part support the Mineral EvolutionDatabase. This work was supported by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, an NSF-NASA Collaborative Research Grant to TheJohns Hopkins University and the Carnegie Institution for Science, a DOE grant, and a U.S. National Science Foundationgrant to the University of Maine.

The silverspheres arenative mercuryfrom San LuisPotosi, Mexico.

This is a picture ofcinnabar–or mercurysulfide–the mostcommon mercurymineral, fromSonoma County,California.

Bob Hazen poses while doing fieldwork.

Images courtesy B

ob Hazen


Sun’s light would make the skythree to five times brighter, aswell as whiter.

Carbon dioxide emissionsfrom the burning of coal, oil,and gas have been increasingover the past decades, causingthe Earth to get hotter and hot-ter. Large volcanic eruptionscool the planet by creating lotsof small particles in the strato-sphere, but the particles fall outwithin a couple of years, and theplanet heats back up. The ideabehind solar geoengineering isto constantly replenish a layer ofsmall particles in the strato-sphere, mimicking this volcanicaftermath by scattering sunlight

back into space. Using ad-vanced models, Kravitz andCaldeira examined changes insky color and brightness pro-duced by using sulfate-basedaerosols in this way. They foundthat, depending on the size ofthe particles, the sky wouldwhiten during the day and sun-sets would have afterglows.

Their models predict thatthe sky would still be blue, buta lighter shade than that towhich most people are accus-tomed. Further, the researchteam’s work shows that skieseverywhere could look likethose often seen over urban areas—hazy and white.

The group’s findings haveseveral larger environmentalimplications too. Becauseplants grow more efficientlyunder diffuse light such as thatproduced by solar geoengineer-ing, global photosynthetic ac-tivity could increase, pullingmore of the greenhouse gascarbon dioxide out of the at-mosphere. On the other hand,the effectiveness of solar powercould be diminished, as lesssunlight would reach solar-power generators. The workwas published in June 2012 by Geophysical Research Letters,a journal of the American Geophysical Union. �

Pictured right is alight sky over longgrass. Kravitz andCaldeira’s researchindicates thatalthough ageoengineered skywould still be blue, it would be a lightershade than is usuallyseen now outsideurban areas.

Africa’s NyamuragiraVolcano, shown below,began to erupt along a new fissure inNovember 2011.Geoengineering isintended to mimic thecooling effect causedby major volcaniceruptions releasingparticles into thestratosphere.

Image courtesy Jesse A

llen, NA

SA Earth O

bservatoryIm

age courtesy Alice B

irkin, PublicD

omainP

ictures.net

ne idea forfighting global warming is toincrease the amount ofaerosols in the atmosphere,which would scatter incomingsolar energy away from theEarth’s surface. But scientiststheorize that this solar geo-engineering could have theside effect of whitening thedaytime sky. Research from ateam including Carnegie’s BenKravitz and Ken Caldeira indi-cates that blocking 2% of the


The major difference between plant andanimal cells is the photosynthetic process,which converts light energy into chemi-cal energy. The cellular organelle respon-sible for this process is the chloroplast.Research, published in the Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences, byCarnegie’s Eva Nowack and ArthurGrossman has opened a window into theearly stages of chloroplast evolution.

It is widely accepted that chloroplastsoriginated from photosynthetic, single-celled bacteria called cyanobacteria. More than 1.5 billion years agothese cyanobacteria were engulfed by a more complex, non-pho-tosynthetic cell. While the relationship between the two organismswas originally symbiotic, over evolutionary time the cyanobac-terium transferred most of its genetic information to the nucleusof the host organism, transforming the original cyanobacteriuminto a chloroplast organelle no longer able to survive without itshost. To sustain the function of the organelle, proteins encoded bythe transferred genes are synthesized in the cell’s interior and thenimported into the organelle.

Clearly the events that gave rise to chloroplasts changed theworld forever. But it is difficult to research the process by which thishappened because it took place so long ago. One strategy used tounderstand this process’s evolution involves identifying organismswhere events that resulted in the conversion of a bacterium into ahost-dependent organelle occurred more recently.

Nowack and Grossman focused their research on the amoebaPaulinella chromatophora. This type of amoeba contains two pho-tosynthetic compartments that also originated from an endosym-

biotic cyanobacterium, but that repre-sent an earlier stage in the formation of afully evolved organelle. These compart-ments, called chromatophores, trans-ferred more than 30 of the originalcyanobacterial genes to the nucleus ofthe host organism.

The Carnegie team honed in on threeof the P. chromatophora transferred genesthat encode proteins involved in photo-synthesis, a process localized to the chro-matophore. They set out to determine

whether these proteins are synthesized in the cytoplasm of theamoeba and whether the mature proteins become localized to thechromatophore. They were able to determine that these three pro-teins are indeed synthesized in the cytoplasm and then transportedinto the chromatophores, where they assemble together with otherinternally encoded proteins into working protein complexes that arepart of the photosynthetic process.

Interestingly, the process by which these proteins are transportedinto chromatophores may also be novel and involve transit throughan organelle called the Golgi apparatus prior to becoming localizedto the chromatophore. This suggests the occurrence of an initial,rudimentary process for proteins to cross the envelope membraneof the nascent chloroplast—a process that ultimately evolved intoone that is potentially more sophisticated and that uses specific pro-tein complexes for efficient transport. �

6

Can Amoeba Explain Photosynthetic Evolution?

This research was supported by Michael Melkonian, DeutscheForschungsgemeinschaft, and the National Science Foundation.

Paulinella chromatophora as viewed through a light (left) and electron (bottom) microscope.Cr is chromatophore; G is golgi; M ismitochondrion; N is nucleus; and T is theca(cell wall composed of silica scales).

Image courtesy Eva N

owack

Arthur Grossman Eva Nowak

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In the search for Earth-like planets, scientists look for clues andpatterns that can help them narrow down the types of systemswhere potentially habitable planets are likely to be discovered. Ateam including Carnegie’s Alan Boss narrowed down the search forEarth-like planets near Jupiter-like planets, indicating in theprocess that the early postformation movements of so-called hotJupiter planets probably disrupted the formation of Earth-likeplanets. The team used data from NASA’s Kepler mission to lookat hot Jupiters—roughly, Jupiter-sized planets with orbital periodsof about three days. If a hot Jupiter planet has been discovered bya slight dimming of brightness in the star it orbits as itpasses between the star and Earth, it is then possible—within certain parameters—to determine whether ithas any companion planets.

Of the 63 candidate hot Jupiter systems iden-tified by the Kepler mission, the research teamfound no evidence of nearby companionplanets. There are several possible explana-tions for this. One is that there are no com-

panion planets for any ofthese hot Jupiters. An-other is that the com-panions are too small ineither size or mass to be

detected by these methods.Lastly, it is possible that there

are companion planets, but that the configu-ration of their orbits makes them undetectable.

Looking for

Jupiters 7

However, when expanding the search to include systems with ei-ther Neptune-like planets (known as hot Neptunes) or “warmJupiters” (Jupiter-sized planets with slightly larger orbits than hotJupiters), the team found some potential companions. Of the 222hot Neptunes, there were two with possible companions, and of the31 warm Jupiters, there were three with possible companions.

These findings imply that systems with Earth-like planets formdifferently from systems with hot Jupiters. It is believed that hotJupiters form farther out from their suns and then migrate inward.

But this migration could disrupt the formation ofEarth-sized planets closer to the center of

these solar systems. Boss says that ifour Solar System had a hot Jupiter,

there would be no Earth. The research was publishedby Proceedings of the Na-tional Academy of Sciencesin May 2012. �

to Find

EarthsThe Kepler mission is funded by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The research was supportedin part by NASA’s Kepler Participating Scientists Program and by Hubble Fellowship grants.

Jupiter and its fourplanet-sized moons,called the Galileansatellites, are shownhere photographedand assembled into a collage by NASA.


When evaluating the historic contributionsmade by different countries to the green-house gases found in Earth’s atmosphere, cal-culations generally go back no further thanthe year 1840. Research from Carnegie’s JuliaPongratz and Ken Caldeira shows that carbondioxide contributions from the preindustrialera still impact today’s climate. The burningof fossil fuels that came with industrializationreleased massive amounts of carbon dioxideemissions into the atmosphere, causing globalwarming. But clearing forests and other wildareas for agricultural purposes also con-tributes to atmospheric carbon dioxide, andthese releases have been happening since before industrialization.

The relatively small amounts of carbondioxide emitted many centuries ago con-tinue to affect atmospheric carbon dioxideconcentrations and our climate today,though to a small extent. But looking intothe past illustrates that the relatively largeamount of carbon dioxide that we emit to-day will continue to impact the atmosphereand climate for centuries into the future.

Moreover, the effect of accounting forpreindustrial emissions can have importantconsequences for the amount of climatechange attributed to certain regions. In some

regions, such as North America, preindus-trial clearing is only a small part of the totalcarbon picture because of the massive quan-tities released by burning fossil fuels. But inother regions, particularly China and India,the ratio of preindustrial to industrial emis-sions is high.

The world’s population increased aboutfive-fold between 800 and 1850 A.D., andhalf that growth occurred in China and In-dia. This led to substantial deforestation inthe preindustrial era. On the other side ofthe coin, cumulative postindustrial fossilfuel carbon emissions for these nations arerelatively low, reaching substantial levelsonly in recent years.

Using advanced models, Pongratz andCaldeira determined that accounting forpreindustrial emissions shifts attribution ofglobal temperature from industrialized nations to developing nations by up to 3%.For example, the study found that consid-ering emissions from preindustrial land-usechange increases the amount of total globalwarming that can be attributed to emissionsfrom South Asia (a region that includes In-dia) from 5.1% to 7%–an increase of 37% in the amount previously attributed to thisregion. Emissions from North America,

Europe, and the former Soviet Union havecaused more than half of all global warming,even though fewer people live in those re-gions combined than live in India alone.

The researchers note that their work isnot intended to increase the blame on peo-ple living today in the developing world forour current climate problems based on whattheir ancestors did centuries ago, particu-larly considering the much larger climateimpact being made by modern industrial-ized nations on a daily basis.

Pongratz and Caldeira’s work was pub-lished in Environmental Research Letters. �

Preindustrial Emissions Count,Too

8

Today’s modern traffic,such as in Beijing

shown here, will haveeffects on the climate

well into the future.

Images courtesy P

eter Kratochvil, P

ublicDom

ainPictures.net

Images courtesy K

en Caldeira and Julia P

ongratzJulia Pongratz (left) and Ken Caldeira (right) of Global Ecology conducted the study.


cientistshave long

speculated about why there is alarge change in the strength ofrocks that lie at the boundarybetween two layers immedi-ately under Earth’s crust: thelithosphere and the underlyingasthenosphere. Understandingthis boundary is central to ourknowledge of plate tectonicsand thus the formation andevolution of our planet.

A new technique for observ-

ing this transition area, partic-ularly in the portion of Earth’smantle that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean basin, has ledCarnegie and Goddard SpaceFlight Center scientist NickSchmerr to new insights intothe origins of the lithosphereand asthenosphere. Schmerr’swork was published in theMarch issue of Science.

The lithosphere-asthenos-phere boundary, or LAB, repre-sents the transition from thehot, convecting mantle as-thenosphere to the overlyingcold, rigid lithosphere. Theoceanic lithosphere thickens asit cools over time, eventuallysinking back into the mantle at Earth’s so-called subductionzones where one tectonic plateslides under another.

Studies of seismic wavestraveling across the LAB showhigher wave speeds in the lith-

osphere and lower speeds inthe asthenosphere. In some regions, seismic waves indicatean abrupt 5 to 10% decrease inwave speeds between about 20to 75 miles (35 to 120 km),forming a boundary known asthe Gutenberg discontinuity. In many cases the depth of theGutenberg discontinuity isroughly coincident with theexpected depth of the LAB,leading to the suggestion thatthe two boundaries are closelyinterrelated.

However temperature alonecannot fully explain the abruptchange in the mechanical andseismic properties that havebeen observed at the Guten-berg discontinuity. This has ledmany scientists to suggest thatother factors—such as thepresence of molten rock, water,and/or a decrease in the grainsize of minerals—may alsoplay important roles.

Older techniques made im-aging seismic discontinuitiesshallower than 60 miles (100km) quite difficult. But an innovative observation tech-nique—one that incorporatesseismic waves that sample be-neath remote regions of theEarth at higher frequencies—

and new signal processingtechniques enabled Schmerr to hone in on the Gutenbergdiscontinuity.

Schmerr discovered that theseismic discontinuity is not aPacific-wide phenomenon butrather is only detectable be-neath regions with recent sur-face volcanism. He also foundthe Gutenberg discontinuityappears to become deeper be-neath older crust, confirmingthe discontinuity is indeed related to the LAB.

Schmerr proposes that theGutenberg discontinuity isformed by partially moltenrock produced in the asthenos-phere that collects and pondsat the base of the lithosphere.Decompression of hot rock atsmall-scale upwellings or hotmantle plumes is responsiblefor generating the melt. Theplumes thermally reheat thelithosphere, making it shal-lower than would be expectedunderneath older crust. �

Solving Mantle Mysteries


Funding was provided by the CarnegieInstitution for Science Department ofTerrestrial Magnetism PostdoctoralFellowship and the NASA PostdoctoralProgram. The facilities of the IRIS DataManagement Center were used toaccess the data required in this study.

The generation of partially molten rock locally sharpens the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB), allowing seismic waves to reflect fromthe interface. Shear waves from an earthquake (star) travel through the Earth and reflect from the surface, and also where melt has pondedat the base of the lithosphere. The waves are recorded by seismometers (blue inverted triangle) deployed around the globe, providing acomplete view of the LAB beneath the Pacific. Regions without melt will not produce a deeper reflection, signifying that melt is not the primarymechanism for weakening of rock in the asthenosphere. Image courtesy Nick Schmerr

crust

lithosphere

asthenosphere

mid-ocean ridge hotspot

S


The Big Bang produced lots of hydrogenand helium and a smidgen of lithium. Overthe last 13.7 billion years stars have pro-duced all of the heavier elements found onthe periodic table. Astronomers analyzestarlight to determine the chemicalmakeup of stars, the origin of the elements,the ages of stars, and the evolution of galax-ies and the universe. Now, for the first time,astronomers co-led by Carnegie’s IanRoederer have detected the presence of ar-senic and selenium in an ancient star in

the faint stellar halo that surrounds the Milky Way. Arsenic and se-lenium are elements at the transition from light to heavy and hadnot been found in old stars before. This research was published inMay in The Astrophysical Journal.

Stars like our Sun can produce elements on the periodic table upto oxygen. More massive stars can synthesize heavier elements—those with more protons in their nuclei—up to iron by nuclear fu-sion, which is the process in which atomic nuclei fuse and releaselots of energy. Most of the elements heavier than iron are made bya process called neutron capture nucleosynthesis. Although neu-

Old Star,NewTrick trons have no charge, they can decay into protons after they’re in the

nucleus, producing elements with larger atomic numbers. Onemethod is by exposure to a burst of neutrons during the violent su-pernova death of a star. This rapid process (r-process) can produceelements at the middle and bottom of the periodic table—from zincto uranium—in the blink of an eye.

Roederer looked at an ultraviolet spectrum from the HubbleSpace Telescope public archives to find arsenic and selenium in a 12-billion-year-old halo star dubbed HD 160617. These elements wereforged in an even older star which has long since disappeared, andthen—like genes passed on from parent to infant—they were borninto the star we see today, HD 160617.

The team also examined data about HD 160617 from the publicarchives of several ground-based telescopes and was able to detect45 elements. In addition to arsenic and selenium they found rarelyseen cadmium, tellurium, and platinum, all of which were producedby the r-process. This is the first time these elements have been de-tected together outside the Solar System. Astronomers cannot repli-cate the r-process in any laboratory since the necessary conditionsare so extreme. The key to modeling the r-process relies on astro-nomical observations. �

In the panoramic image (above) from the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-PlaneSurvey Extraordinaire project, a plethoraof stellar activity in the Milky Way’sgalactic plane, reaching to the far side of our galaxy, is exposed.

The image at left shows the Milky Way Galaxy near the Southern Crossconstellation. Roederer detected thepresence of arsenic and selenium in an ancient star in the faint stellar halothat surrounds the Milky Way.

Image courtesy NASA Image Exchange

Ian Roederer

Ian Roederer is supported by the Carnegie Institutionthrough the Carnegie Observatories Fellowship. Co-authorJames Lawler is supported by NASA grant NNX10AN93G.

10

Image courtesy Gregory J. Bock, Southern Astronomical Society, Queensland, Australia

Stars like our Sun can produce elements on the periodic table up to oxygen.


Along with photosynthesis, the plant cell wall is one of thefeatures that most sets plantsapart from animals. New re-search from a team includingCarnegie’s David Ehrhardt andRyan Gutierrez examines thestructure of the wall’s mostcrucial component, cellulose. Their research was published inFebruary in Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences.

Cellulose is synthesized in asemi-crystalline state that is essential for its function in thecell wall, but the mechanismscontrolling its crystallinity arepoorly understood. Cellulose isthe primary constituent of thecell wall and as such is the mostabundant biopolymer on theplanet. It is also the key mole-cule providing the cell wall its

essential mechanical properties.A plant’s cell wall serves sev-

eral essential functions includ-ing mechanical support: Allow-ing the plant to withstand theonslaughts of wind andweather, permitting it to growto great heights—hundreds offeet for trees like the giant red-wood—and providing an es-sential barrier against invadingpathogens. The cell wall is alsoa source of materials that havelong been utilized by humans,including wood and cotton, inaddition to serving as a poten-tial source of biofuel energy.

Using a complex series oftechniques, the research teamwas able to identify two muta-tions in the genes that encodecertain cellulose making pro-teins, CESA1 and CESA3. Both

of these mutations resulted inplant cell walls with defects inthe structure of cellulose.

Normally, the individualsugar chains that make up cel-lulose bond to each other tomake a semi-crystalline fiber.This crystalline structure givescellulose its essential mechani-cal properties, such as rigidityand tensile strength. Thisstructure is also responsible forcellulose’s resistance to diges-tion, which provides a key bar-rier to utilizing cellulose as asource to produce liquid fuel.

The mutant CESA1 and 3produced cellulose with lowercrystallinity. This cellulose wasalso more easily digested, aprocess needed to liberate sug-ars from cellulose so they canbe converted to useful fuels. �

Tough Stuff: Plant Cell Walls

This work was supported by the NationalScience Foundation and the Department of

Energy. The Cornell High EnergySynchrotron Source is a national user

facility supported by the National ScienceFoundation and the National Institutes of

Health/National Institute of General MedicalSciences via the National Science

Foundation.

(Top) Cellulose provides thestructural support that allows

plants, even giant trees, towithstand wind and weather.

(Bottom) The cotton harvestedfor human use has a high

cellulose content.

Image courtesy M

ichael Drum

mond, P

ublicDom

ainPictures.net

Image courtesy D

avid Nance, U

SDA


Andrew Steele and his team analyzed evidence showing that carbon in some Martian meteorites formed on Mars

and was not contamination from Earth. Image courtesy NASA Image Exchange

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CS12_FallFinal_RV1_Layout 1 10/26/12 7:15 AM

olecules containing largechains of carbon and hydro-gen—the building blocks ofall life on Earth—have beenthe targets of missions to

Mars from Viking to the present day. While thesemolecules have previously been found in mete-orites from Mars, scientists have disagreed abouthow this organic carbon was formed and whetheror not it came from Mars. Research by Carnegie’sAndrew Steele provides strong evidence that thiscarbon did originate on Mars, although it is notbiological. The work was published by ScienceExpress in May 2012.

There has been little agreement among scientistsabout the origin of the large carbon macromole-cules detected in Martian meteorites. Theoriesabout their origin include contamination fromEarth or other meteorites, chemical reactions onMars, or that they are the remnants of ancientMartian biological life.

Steele’s team examined samples from 11 Mar-tian meteorites whose ages span about 4.2 billionyears of Martian history. It detected large carboncompounds in 10 of them. The molecules werefound inside grains of crystallized minerals. Us-ing an array of sophisticated research techniques,the team was able to show that at least some ofthe macromolecules of carbon were indigenousto the meteorites themselves and were not the re-sult of contamination from Earth.

Next the team looked at the carbon moleculesin relation to other minerals in the meteorites tosee what kinds of chemical processing these sam-ples endured before arriving on Earth. The crys-talline grains encasing the carbon compoundsprovided a window into how the carbon mole-cules were created. The findings indicate that thecarbon was created during volcanism on Marsand show that Mars has been doing organicchemistry for most of its history.

In a separate paper published by American Min-eralogist, Steele and his team studied a meteoritecalled Allan Hills 84001 that was reported to con-tain relicts of ancient biological life on Mars. Thepaper demonstrated that these supposed rem-nants could have been created by chemical reac-tions involving the graphite form of carbon, ratherthan by biological processes. Both of these papersreveal a pool of reduced carbon on Mars and willhelp scientists involved in future Mars missionsdistinguish these nonbiologically formed mole-cules from potential life. �

The research for the Science Express paper was funded by NASA,the W. M. Keck Foundation, the Natural Sciences and EngineeringResearch Council of Canada, and the Carnegie Institution forScience. The research for the American Mineralogist paper wassupported by NASA.


In mammals, most lipids—such as fatty acids and cholesterol—are absorbed intothe body via the small intestine. The complexity of the cells and fluids that inhabitthis organ makes it very difficult to study in a laboratory setting. New researchfrom Carnegie’s Steven Farber, James Walters, and Jennifer Anderson, publishedin Chemistry & Biology, has produced a technique that allows scientists to watchlipid metabolism in live zebrafish. This method enabled the researchers to describenew aspects of lipid absorption that could have broad applications for reducingthe impact of diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.

The small intestine is composedof many types of cells. It is also wherethe agents that help digest and ab-sorb food—microorganisms, bile,and mucus—are found. In this envi-ronment, dietary lipids are digestedby enzymes and bile so that the body,via the enterocytes, or absorptivecells of the small intestine, can takein critical nutrients.

One type of lipid, cholesterol, isknown to impact a number of highlyprevalent human diseases and is ab-sorbed by enterocytes. In zebrafish and humans, newly absorbed cholesterol com-bines with proteins to form lipoproteins, vehicles destined for the lymphatic sys-tem for subsequent distribution throughout the body.

Fatty acids, another lipid metabolic product, are also absorbed by enterocytes.Despite years of study, the physiological process by which proteins mediate theinitial steps of fatty acid uptake is unclear. Once absorbed, the fatty acids are con-verted to triacyglycerides (fat) and are prepared either to be transported out ofthe cell or to be transformed into droplets of stored fat.

These processes involving fatty acids, triacyglycerides, and cholesterol influenceeach other in poorly understood ways. Enter Farber and his team’s new research tool.

They developed a method for using fluorescently glowing forms of lipids to ob-serve fat and cholesterol absorption in the small intestines of live zebrafish. Usingthis tool, they were able to demonstrate that the physiological processes regulatingfatty acid absorption and cholesterol absorption are linked, and that a fatty acidcalled oleic acid increases the uptake of dietary cholesterol, among other things. �

FishyFatAbsorption

This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, the G. Haroldand Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation, and the Carnegie Institution for Science endowment.

MIm

ages courtesy Steven Farber

A mature zebrafish

The glowing guts of fluorescentlytagged zebrafish larvae reveal

their ability to digest lipids.


InBrief

� From left to right: Sue Biggins, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Yixian Zheng

� Carnegiepresident Richard Meserve

� Director ofexternal affairsSusanne Garvey

� Steve Farber (right) poses with otherawardees, Antonio Garcia-Bellido (left)and Cliff Tabin (middle).

� Eric Mills � Peter Lopez

Image courtesy Lisa H

elfert

Getting Extreme with Hydrogen

To explore hydrogen under these new ex-treme conditions, the team developed newtechniques to contain hydrogen at pressuresof nearly 3 million times normal atmosphericpressure (300 GPa) and temperatures rangingfrom -438ºF (12 K) to close to room temper-ature and to probe its bonding and electronicproperties with infrared radiation.

The team found that the molecular statewas stable to remarkably high pressures, con-firming extraordinary stability of the chem-ical bond between the atoms. Their work dis-proves the interpretations of experiments byother researchers reported last year indicatinga metallic state under these conditions. Thenew study found evidence for semimetallicbehavior in the dense molecular phase, butwith electrical conductivity well below that ofa full metal. Their work was published inPhysical Review Letters.

Meanwhile, in another paper also pub-lished in Physical Review Letters, a team in-cluding Carnegie’s Alexander Goncharov re-ported evidence for another phase ofmolecular hydrogen. They found this phaseat the relatively high temperature of 80ºF(300 K) and under pressures above 220 GPa.They suggest that the structure of hydrogenin this new phase is a honeycomb made ofsix-atom rings, similar to the carbon struc-ture of graphene. �

ow hydrogen—the mostabundant element in thecosmos—responds to ex-tremes of pressure and tem-

perature is one of the major challenges inmodern physical science. Moreover, knowl-edge gained from experiments using hydro-gen as a testing ground on the nature ofchemical bonding can fundamentally ex-pand our understanding of matter. Newwork from Carnegie’s Chang-sheng Zha,Zhenxian Liu, and Russell Hemley has en-abled researchers to examine hydrogen under pressures never before possible.

Observing hydrogen’s behavior undervery high pressures has been a great chal-lenge for researchers because it is in a gasstate under normal conditions. Hydrogenhas three solid molecular phases. But thestructures and properties of highest-pres-sure phases are unknown. For example, atransition to a phase that occurs at about 1.5million times atmospheric pressure (150 gigapascals, GPa) and at low temperatureshas been of particular interest. But therehave been technological hurdles in examin-ing hydrogen at these high pressures usingstatic compression techniques.

Scientists speculate that under high pres-sures hydrogen transforms to a metal, whichmeans it conducts electricity. It could evenbecome a superconductor or a superfluidthat never freezes—a completely new andexotic state of matter.

The periodic table at left shows detailsof hydrogen.

Carnegie’s Chang-sheng Zha (left) andZhenxian Liu (right),with Russell Hemley,have examinedhydrogen underpressures never before possible.

Image courtesy iStockP

hoto

The research for the Zha paper was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. The research for the Goncharov paper was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in the U. K.; the Institute

of Shock Physics, Imperial College London; the Army Research Office; NASA Astrobiology Institute; and DOE’s EFRee.

H


TRUSTEES AND ADMINISTRATION

Former Carnegie trustee and astronautSally Ride died of pancreatic cancer atthe age of 61 in July.—� Carnegie president Richard A.Meserve gave welcoming remarks at the Sixth International Symposium onIsotopomers on June 18 in Washington,DC. He moderated a discussion onnuclear disarmament with Special EnvoyEllen Tauscher on July 11 in Washington,DC, on behalf of the Foundation forNuclear Studies. He participated inmeetings of the Small Modular ReactorSubcommittee of the Secretary ofEnergy’s Advisory Board on July 18-19and was cospeaker for congressionalstaff concerning the report of the BlueRibbon Commission on America’sNuclear Future on July 20 in Washington,DC. Meserve participated in councilmeetings of the National Academy of Engineering on July 31-Aug. 2 inWoods Hole, MA, and on Sept. 28-29 in Washington, DC. He spoke to asubcommittee of the Idaho Leadershipin Nuclear Energy Commission on Aug. 24. He testified with Gen. BrentScowcroft on the Blue RibbonCommission report before the SenateCommittee on Energy and NaturalResources on Sept. 12 in Washington, DC. Meserve chaired a forum on theFukushima accident at the 56th IAEAGeneral Conference on Sept. 17 inVienna, Austria. He presided at a HarvardBoard of Overseers meeting Sept. 22-23.—� Director of external affairs SusanneGarvey was appointed president of thePomona College Alumni AssociationBoard for 2012-2013. This strengthensthe Carnegie tie to the school.Observatories’ astronomers leadadvanced astrophysics seminars everyspring at Pomona and mentor Pomonaundergraduates every summer.

EMBRYOLOGY

Director Allan Spradling served on theJanelia Farm scientific review panel, the NIH Early Stage Investigator Awardpanel, and the Genetics Society of Amer-ica MOHB-Cancer Genetics meeting withlab members Rebecca Frederick, MattSieber, and Rebecca Obniski. Spradlingpresented a lecture at the NIH modEN-CODE symposium and the keynote ad-dress at the National Inst. for BasicBiology Symposium in Okazaki, Japan.—� Yixian Zheng presented her work at UC-San Diego and at the GordonResearch Conferences: IntermediateFilaments. She was an ASCB groupmember who met with congressionalstaff to explain the role of basic researchin treatments for disease and thepositive economic impact of NIH andNSF funded research.—

� Steven Farber and Jamie Shuda ofU. Pennsylvania shared the SDB ViktorHamburger Outstanding Educator Prizefor BioEYES. He also was appointed aprofessor in The Johns Hopkins U.School of Education. Farber co-organized a workshop at the 10thInternational Conference on ZebrafishDevelopment and Genetics in Madison,WI, and presented a lecture abouteducation in the zebrafish meeting.—Marnie Halpern attended the 10th In-ternational Conference on Zebrafish De-velopment and Genetics in Madison, WI.—Nick Ingolia attended “RNA Sciences inCell and Developmental Biology II” atthe RIKEN Center for Developmental Bi-ology in Japan and the Gordon ResearchConference on post-transcriptionalgene regulation.—Christoph Lepper was an invited speakerat the FASEB meeting “Skeletal MuscleSatellite and Stem Cells” in Lucca, Italy,in Aug.—Staff associate David MacPherson isnow an assistant member at the FredHutchinson Cancer Research Center.—Spradling lab postdoc Matt Sieber wasawarded a three-year Jane Coffin ChildsMemorial Fund for Medical ResearchFellowship. Postdoc Rebecca Frederickcompleted her training and is now a pol-icy advisor at NINDS/NIH.—Farber lab postdoc Jessica Otis wasawarded a three-year NRSA fellowship.Fan lab graduate student Michelle Rozowas awarded a three-year NRSA pre-doctoral fellowship.—� Ingolia graduate student Eric Millswas awarded a two-year American HeartAssociation predoctoral fellowship.—� Three graduate students defendedtheir Ph.D. theses: Vanessa Matos-Cruz, Halpern lab; Peter Lopez, Fan lab; and Julio Castaneda, Bortvin lab.—Arrivals: Stephen Ching is a researchtechnician in the Gall lab. Animal tech-nician Vance Martin joined the animalfacilities. Student volunteer Jahi Omarijoined the Halpern lab. Jun Wei Pekis a collaborative fellow in the Gall/Spradling labs. Yihan Wan is visiting theZheng lab. Undergraduate researcherStephanie Kuo and lab technician ReidWood joined the Lepper lab. New gradu-ate students are: Diana Camerota,Bortvin lab; Rebecca Obniski, Spradlinglab; Vanessa Quinlivan-Repassi, Farberlab; Sara Roberson, Halpern lab; GaelleTalhouarne, Gall lab; Blake Weber,Zheng lab; Yue Zheng, Fan lab. Summerstudents were Joseph Igwe, Aaron Katrikh, Joshua Raudebaugh, andOscar Reyes.—

Departures: Halpern postdoc Sang JungAhn left the lab for the Korea ResearchInst. Keisha Breland left the animal fa-cility. Research technician Eugene Gardner left the Gall lab for graduateschool at U. Maryland. Halpern postdocDaniel Gorelick took a position at U. Alabama-Birmingham. Spradling lab research technician Joan Pulupa left forgraduate school at Rockefeller U. Lakishia Smith left the administration.Research technician Liyang Tang left theLepper lab for school. Lab techniciansKarina Conkrite,Min Cui, and MichaelRongione left the MacPherson lab.

GEOPHYSICAL LABORATORY

Director Russell Hemley presented thetalk “Hydrogen at High Pressure” at theGordon Research Conferences: Researchat High Pressure held June 24-29 in Biddeford, ME.—� Alexander Goncharov was appointeda visiting professor at the Inst. of SolidState Physics (ISSP), Chinese Academyof Sciences, at a newly establishedCenter for Energy Matter in ExtremeEnvironments. He hosted postdoctoralassociate Sergey Lobanov andpostdoctoral student Artem Chanyshevfrom Novosibirsk, Russia. Their high-pressure/temperature work wassupported by the Deep CarbonObservatory and the Alfred P. SloanFoundation.—

f

Bob Hazen presented lectures on min-eral evolution at Boston College, MIT,and the 22nd VM Goldschmidt Confer-ence in Montreal. He lectured on theDeep Carbon Observatory at the JetPropulsion Laboratory (JPL). Hazen wasnamed 2012 Condon Lecturer (OregonState U.), 2013 Linus Pauling MemorialLecturer (Inst. for Science, Engineeringand Public Policy), 2013 Oualline Lec-turer (U. Texas-Austin), and 2013 NaffLecturer (U. Kentucky).—Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao presented an invited talk at the “Frontiers of Diamon-doid Science” workshop June 18-19 atStanford U. He also delivered a plenarytalk at the 6th Asian Conference on HighPressure Research Aug. 8-12 in Beijing.—Douglas Rumble was appointed a visitingadjunct professor at Dartmouth College.—Amol Karandikar presented the invitedposter at the Gordon Research Confer-ences: Research at High Pressure heldJune 24-29 at U. New England, Bidde-ford, ME.—Research Scientist Karyn Rogers at-tended the 2nd International Workshopon Microbial Life Under Extreme EnergyLimitation in Aarhus, Denmark, and theC-DEBI workshop on “Ocean CrustProcesses and Consequences for Life” in Bremen, Germany. She also visitedthe high-pressure microbiology labora-tory of Jens Kallmeyer in Potsdam,

Donald Brown Wins Lasker-Koshland Award!Director Emeritus Donald Brown of theDept. of Embryology received the pres-tigious 2012 Lasker-Koshland SpecialAchievement Award in Medical Science“for exceptional leadership and citizen-ship in biomedical science–exemplifiedby fundamental discoveries concerningthe nature of genes–and by selflesscommitment to young scientists; and bydisseminating revolutionary technolo-gies to the scientific community.” �

� Yingjian Wang (left), director of Hefei Institutes of PhysicalScience, and Alexander Goncharov pose at the award ceremonyat the Inst. of Solid State Physics on July 18.

� Artem Chanyshev

Image courtesy Lisa H

elfert

CS12_FallFinal_RV1_Layout 1 10/26/12 7:14 AM

Germany. In Aug. she conducted field-work on Cerro Negro Volcano, Nicaragua,to investigate the habitability of the acidsulfate weathering fumarole system—aMars analog environment.—Vincenzo Stagno gave a talk as an invitedspeaker at the 22nd VM GoldschmidtConference in Montreal in June. In Sept.he was awarded the prize for the bestPh.D. thesis by the Italian Soc. of Miner-alogy and Petrology. —HPSynC/HPCATThe High Pressure Synergetic Consor-tium (HPSynC) facility welcomed the fol-lowing visiting investigators to ArgonneNational Laboratory’s Advanced PhotonSource (APS): Jung-Fu Lin, assistantprofessor, Jackson School of Geo-sciences at U. Texas-Austin, and SeanShieh, associate professor at U. WesternOntario, Canada. —The High Pressure Collaborative AccessTeam (HPCAT) welcomed GenevieveBoman and Hongping Yan (postdoctoralfellow, Deep Carbon Observatory).—� HPCAT’s Genevieve Boman, YueMeng, and Maddury Somayazuluparticipated in Argonne NationalLaboratory’s “Science Careers in Searchof Women Conference” offered to upperlevel high school girls. Beamlineassociate Genevieve Boman gave apresentation on her science and high-pressure research at HPCAT, whileMeng and Somayazulu talked to the girls about research at the lab.—Guoyin Shen gave two invited talks, oneat the Inst. of High Energy Physics onApr. 26 and the other at Beijing U. onApr. 27.—Summer intern Katie Lazarz establisheda new user lounge at HPCAT with a dis-play of the facility. She also collectedand organized HPCAT statistics. InternDaniel Shen studied the behavior ofamorphous silicon at high pressureswith mentor beamline scientist StasSinogeikin.—On June 28 the American PhysicalSociety Topical Group on ShockCompression of Condensed Matter

toured HPCAT to exchange ideas andinformation. On July 27 students from U.Nevada-Las Vegas stopped at HPCAT ontheir tour of APS as part of the ResearchExperience for Undergraduates. HPCATalso hosted NX School on Aug. 13-15.

GLOBAL ECOLOGY

On Aug. 1 dept. director Chris Fieldtestified at a hearing of the US SenateCommittee on Environment and PublicWorks on the latest climate science.—In Apr. Ken Caldeira participated in theannual meeting of the European OceanAcidification Research Program in Nice,France. He is a member of its Interna-tional Science Advisory Panel. He alsodid a commentary on fossil fuel pricesand carbon emissions for the BBCWorld Service on May 1. On May 11Caldeira gave a keynote talk about energy systems and emissions for “Energy Policy in the European andGlobal Context” at the G8 & G20 YouthSummit in Berlin. — Field lab’s Rebecca R. Hernandezwas an NSF-sponsored trainee atMicroTrop’s workshop, “MicrobialInteractions and Sustainable SoilManagement” June 24-July 21 in Dakar,Senegal. She received advanced trainingin tropical soil ecology, agroecosystems,and food security, and she collaboratedwith 20 other scientists from NorthAmerica and Africa.— Berry lab Ph.D. student Jen Johnsonled a field expedition to AZ, NM, and TXbetween June and Aug. to study theecology of Flaveria—a model plantsystem for studying the evolution of C4photosynthesis. Johnson, with Carnegie’sJoe Berry and Claire Kouba (Stanford),rafted down the Colorado River to get toremote populations of Flaveria. The tripwas a collaboration with the USGSGrand Canyon Monitoring and ResearchCenter, Grand Canyon National Park,and the “Partners in Science” programof Grand Canyon Youth. Intern EricSlessarev was a key player in theexpedition. At the beginning of Sept.Johnson presented some preliminaryresults from this work at “Southwest

Climate: Past, Present, and Future” atthe Valles Caldera National Preserve inJemez Springs, NM.—Michalak lab’s Abhishek Chatterjeewas selected to attend an internationalsummer school on advanced data as-similation for geosciences at École dePhysiques des Houches in France fromMay 28-June 15. He is one of the 55 participants selected from all over theworld.—� Michalak lab’s Dorit Hammerlingwas selected for a two-year postdoctoralfellowship at the Statistical and AppliedMathematical Sciences Inst. (SAMSI), fora program that focuses on fundamentalmathematical questions and computerscience posed by massive datasets.SAMSI is a partnership of Duke U., NorthCarolina State U., U. North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and the National Inst. ofStatistical Sciences in Research TrianglePark, NC. SAMSI is part of NSF.—Mathew Colgan received his doctoratefrom Stanford U. and joined the Asnerlab as a postdoc on July 1.—Arrivals: Teresa Bilir joined the Fieldgroup at Jasper Ridge Apr. 16. NatalieVande Pol was a Field lab intern for July.The Asner lab welcomed intern PaolaPerez on July 1 and computer program-mer Sinan Sousan July 24. PostdocYuanyuan Fang joined the Michalak labon Aug. 1; research assistant Jeff Hojoined June 25. Kate Ashe joined LuisFernandez’s team in Peru Apr. 16.—Departures: Former Asner lab program-mer Aravindh Balaji returned to India onApr. 27. Asner lab’s Kyla Dahlin receivedher doctorate from Stanford U. in June.She left in Oct. for a postdoc position atthe National Center for Atmospheric Research in CO. Ben Kravitz left theCaldeira lab at the end of Aug. forLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.Visiting researcher Alessandro Baccinireturned to the Woods Hole ResearchCenter in Aug. Guillaume Tochon, a visiting Asner intern, returned to France on June 22.—The dept. recently upgraded some com-puter equipment and storage units and

16

�

(Left) Beamline scientist Yue Menggives a tour of the bending magnetbeamline hutch for the “ScienceCareers in Search of WomenConference” group.

(Center) The group of girlsparticipating in the “ScienceCareers in Search of WomenConference” pose at HPCAT.

(Right) On June 30 undergraduatestudents participating in theResearch Experience forUndergraduates visited HPCAT as part of their tour of ArgonneNational Laboratory.

Rebecca Hernandez

Jen Johnson � Dorit Hammerling

Images courtesy H

PC

AT


donated the obsolete equipment to the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose to improve the museum’s CDMedia.Studio, which provides computer-assisted programs for middle school youth.

OBSERVATORIES

Staff astronomer Eric Persson was in-vited to speak at the Jodrell Bank Centerfor Astrophysics at U. Manchester-UKJuly 2-4. He gave a talk on deep, multi-frequency radio observations of high-red-shift starbursts at a South Pole TelescopeSubmillimeter Galaxy workshop held atCaltech Aug. 6-8.—Staff astronomer Luis Ho was appointedassociate editor of The AstrophysicalJournal Letters.—Staff astronomer Ian Thompson gave acouple of talks in Cairns, Australia, inAug. at the “Nuclei in the Cosmos” meet-ing and the “Workshop on r-process Nucleosynthesis.”—Staff astronomer Michael Rauch was a Raymond and Beverly Sackler Distin-guished Visitor at the U. of Cambridge,collaborating with colleagues at the Inst. of Astronomy and the Kavli Inst. for Cosmology in July and Aug.—� Staff astronomer John Mulchaeyorganized the meeting “EnergeticAstronomy: Richard Mushotzky at 65”held June 4-6 in Annapolis, MD, in honorof Richard Mushotzky’s 65th birthday. —Staff astronomer Joshua Simon gave apublic lecture to the Ventura County As-tronomical Society on Aug. 18 titled “AJourney Back in Time to the First Stars.”—Staff associate Jeff Crane attended theSPIE Astronomical Telescopes and In-strumentation Conference in Amster-dam in July and presented a posterabout the Michigan/Magellan Fiber System (M2FS). He also contributed topresentations about the Apache PointObservatory Galactic Evolution Experi-ment (APOGEE) and the GMT-CfA,Carnegie, Católica, Chicago Large Earth Finder (G-CLEF).— In June staff associate and HaleScholar Andrew Benson gave a talk at the “CMB Polarization Cosmology in the Coming Decade” workshop inPasadena, CA.—Postdoctoral research associate JoshuaAdams gave a poster at Kavli Inst. forTheoretical Physic’s (KITP) “First Lightand Faintest Dwarfs” conference held in Santa Barbara Feb. 13-17.—Postdoctoral research associate RikWilliams spoke at the conference “Stellar Populations Across CosmicTimes” at the Inst. Astrophysique de

Paris, France, July 25-29. He also spokeat the conference “Galaxies: Insight Out”in Leiden, The Netherlands, July 2-5. —Postdoctoral research associate NimishHathi presented his work on Lyman-breakgalaxies at z=1-3 at the “Ultraviolet As-tronomy: HST and Beyond” conference in Kauai, Hawaii, June 18-21. —Hubble-Carnegie-Princeton FellowMansi Kasliwal attended the “Great An-dromeda Galaxy Workshop” in Prince-ton, NJ, in June. In July she participatedin the Palomar Transient Factory teammeeting, KITP, UC-Santa Barbara, andin Aug. the Rattle and Shine Conference,KITP, UC-Santa Barbara. In Sept. shetraveled to McGill U., Montreal, Canada,and Las Campanas, Chile.

PLANT BIOLOGY

On May 7 Wolf Frommer gave a talkabout Förster resonance energy trans-fer (FRET) sensors at U. Potsdam, Ger-many. May 8 he gave a seminar at MaxPlanck Inst. of Molecular Plant Physiol-ogy, Potsdam, about FRET. He gave atalk at the 29th Annual InterdisciplinaryPlant Group Symposium “Plant Physiol-ogy in the Omics Era” in St. Louis, MO,also about FRET, and he gave an invitedtalk at the 77th Cold Spring HarborSymposium May 30-June 4. On July 1-6he spoke at the Gordon Research Con-ferences: Membrane Transport Proteinsheld in Les Diablerets, Switzerland,about SWEET transporters. He was achair of the Plant-Microbe Symposiumat the July 20-24 annual meeting ofAmerican Society of Plant Biologistsheld in Austin, TX, and gave a talk titled“Plant Versus Pathogen: A Tug of Warfor Food.”—On May 8-11 Arthur Grossman servedon a review panel to evaluate the futureof the UTEX Culture Collection of Algaein Austin, TX. He was a member of aDept. of Energy Joint Genome Institute“Strategic Planning for the GenomicSciences” workshop held May 30-June 1in Washington, DC. He was an invitedplenary speaker at the 15th Interna-tional Conference on the Cell and Mo-lecular Biology of Chlamydomonas inPotsdam, Germany, June 3-10. On June

18-27 Grossman spoke on the Porphyragenome at the Phycological Society ofAmerica and Research CoordinationNetwork held in Charleston, SC. He alsoattended an editorial meeting of theJournal of Phycology held June 18-27in Charleston, SC. Grossman was on areview panel on bioenergy for the Ad-vanced Research Projects Agency-En-ergy held in Washington, DC, on Aug.7-9. He was also on a review panel toevaluate the NSF Experimental Programto Stimulate Competitive Research at U.Nebraska Aug. 14-16.—David Ehrhardt spoke at the Gordon Research Conferences: Plant Cell Wallsat Colby College, Waterville, ME, on Aug.4-9. On Aug. 12-17 he gave a keynote address at the Gordon Research Confer-ences: Plant and Microbial Cytoskeletonin Andover, NH.—Kathryn Barton was an honors exam-iner for four Swarthmore College stu-dents—Julia Cooper, Rosalie Lawrence,Elan Silverblatt-Buser, and MelissaFrick, who have to defend their theses.All four were students of Nick Kaplin-sky—a former Carnegie postdoc. RosalieLawrence’s research was supervised byDavid Ehrhardt. Barton gave an invitedtalk at the 77th Cold Spring HarborSymposium on “Quantitative Biology:The Biology of Plants.” She also gave an invited talk at the Society for Devel-opmental Biology 72nd Annual Meeting,Montreal, July 19-23.—José Dinneny gave a talk at the GordonResearch Conferences: Salt and WaterStress in Plants held June 24-29 at theChinese U. of Hong Kong. He also spokeabout the salt stress response at theAmerican Society of Plant Biologistsconference on July 19-24 in Austin, TX.—Martin Jonikas gave a talk about trans-forming our understanding of photosyn-thesis at the 15th InternationalConference on the Cell and MolecularBiology of Chlamydomonas in Potsdam,Germany, on June 6.—Wolf Frommer and David Ehrhardtco-organized the 4th Pan AmericanPlant Membrane Biology Workshop heldat Asilomar, CA, on May 16-20 whereEhrhardt delivered a talk about the


Director Wendy Freedman was elected a fellow of the AmericanPhysical Society this spring. Freedmanwas selected to receive a NASA HonorAward—an Exceptional ScientificAchievement Medal “for determiningthe Hubble constant with unprece-dented precision using the SpitzerSpace Telescope.” In Aug. she attendedthe 28th General Assembly of the In-ternational Union (IAU) in Beijing andgave a plenary talk, plus two additionaltalks—one on the Giant Magellan Tele-scope (GMT). �

Observatories director WendyFreedman answers questionsfollowing her plenary address at the IAU in Bejing, China.

� John Mulchaey

Andrew Benson

Image courtesy B

arry Madore

Wolf Frommer received the LawrenceBogorad Award at the American Society ofPlant Biologists meeting held July 20 inAustin, TX, for “his major contributions inthe development of fundamental tools andtechnologies essential for breakthroughdiscoveries that advance our understand-ing of glucose, sucrose, ammonium, aminoacid, and nucleotide transport in plants.” �


cortical cytoskeleton. Postdoctoralspeakers included Cindy Ast, Li-QingChen, Roberto DeMichele, Guido Grossmann, Cheng-Hsun Ho, andAlexander Jones.—TAIR curator Donghui Li talked aboutTAIR at Biocuration 2012 and at a biocu-ration workshop in Washington, DC, onApr. 2-5.—Tong-Seung Tseng, a senior researchassociate in the Briggs lab, presented a talk about blue light at the AmericanSociety of Plant Biologists meeting heldin Austin, TX, July 20. Also presenting a joint poster at this meeting wereWinslow Briggs, David Ehrhardt, visit-ing researcher William Eisinger, andsenior researcher Rajnish Khanna.— Arrivals: Postdoctoral researchassociate Chan-Ho Park joined the Rheelab on Apr. 1 from Chung-Ang U., Korea,as did postdoc Jianjun Guo on July 16from UC-Davis. May 1 arrivals to theFrommer lab were Swedish ResearchCouncil Fellow Jonas Danielson fromLund U., Sweden, and lab technicianTianying Su from UC-San Diego.Carnegie Fellow Luke Mackinder joinedthe Jonikas lab on June 18 from Kiel U., Germany. On July 16 lab technicianSean Blum also joined that lab.Postdoctoral research associateShahram Emami, from UC-Davis, andCarnegie Fellow Ruben Rellen-Alvarez,from Autonomous U. of Madrid, Spain,joined the Dinneny lab on June 1 andJuly 1, respectively.—Departures: Two members of the TAIRgroup left on Mar. 31: Philippe Lamesch,curator, left to be cultural outreach co-ordinator for Luxembourg, and internDamian Priamurskiy left to return toschool. On June 30 Enrico Magnani de-parted the Barton lab for INRA-Centrede Versailles-Grignon, France. Two lefton July 13, Jonikas lab technicianSpencer Gang and Frommer lab techni-cian Maria Sardi, both for graduateschool. On Aug. 31 Roberto de Michelereturned to Italy for a position at a university in Milan.

TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM

� In May director Lindy Elkins-Tantongave an invited colloquium at GoddardSpace Flight Center and was on a Ph.D.defense committee at MIT. A member of the Committee on Astrobiology andPlanetary Science (CAPS) at theNational Academy of Sciences, Elkins-Tanton participated in a CAPS meeting in May and gave an invited talk at the“Workshop on Planetary Origins andFrontiers of Exploration” at theWeizmann Inst. of Science in Israel. That month she also attended theCarnegie/Explorers Club event inManhattan. In June Elkins-Tanton gavean invited talk at the AGU Chapman

Conference on Volcanism and theAtmosphere in Selfoss, Iceland, andanother at “Comparative Climatology ofTerrestrial Planets” in Boulder, CO. InJuly she conducted fieldwork in Siberia.In Aug. she taught an Earth and spacescience class for middle and high schoolteachers at U. Massachusetts-Amherst.In Sept. Elkins-Tanton gave an invitedtalk at the Smithsonian workshop “Lifein the Cosmos” and an invited plenarylecture at the BABEL conference inBoston, MA. In Oct. she organized aworkshop on collaborative planetaryscience to include the Observatories and the Geophysical Laboratory. Shealso presented a paper at the AmericanAstronomical Society Division forPlanetary Sciences meeting in Reno,NV, that month. In May Elkins-Tantonhad an asteroid named after her,Asteroid (8252) Elkins-Tanton.—� In June DTM held a good-bye party forformer director Sean Solomon, who isnow director of the Lamont-DohertyEarth Observatory at Columbia U. APrinceton Elm tree was planted in hishonor.—In Aug. staff scientist Conel Alexanderattended the 75th Annual Meeting of theMeteoritical Society, in Cairns, Australia,as did ion microprobe research special-ist Jianhua Wang and postdoctoral fel-lows Shoshana Weider and Alexander(Zan) Peeters.—In June staff scientist Alan Boss servedon the Ph.D. thesis defense committeefor Johannes Sahlmann, of U. Geneva,and gave an invited seminar. In July Bossand staff scientist Alycia Weinbergerperformed the first all-remote run fortheir astrometric planet search pro-gram, operating the CAPSCam cameraon the du Pont telescope in Chile fromtheir Washington, DC, facility. In Aug.

Boss attended the IAU’s 28th GeneralAssembly in Beijing, where, as commission president, he chaired themeeting of IAU Commission 53 on Extra-solar Planets. Boss spoke about habit-able worlds around M dwarf stars at IAUSymposium 293, held in Beijing duringAug. He chaired sessions at both IAUSymposium 293 and IAU Special Session10 on Dynamics of the Star-Planet Rela-tions and served on the Scientific Organ-izing Committees for both meetings. In Sept. Boss chaired the sessions onexoplanets at the “NASA New TelescopeMeeting” at Princeton U. In Oct. hespoke about the orbital migration ofgiant protoplanets at the annual meeting of the AAS in Reno, NV.—Staff scientist Paul Butler presented theMay lecture “Planets Around NearbyStars” at the Explorers Club in Manhattan.—In July Rick Carlson taught at the KavliInst. for Theoretical Physics at UC-SantaBarbara. In Oct. he attended the Ph.D.defense of Matthew Sanborn at ArizonaState U.—Staff scientist John Chambers wasawarded the 2012 Paolo Farinella Prizebased on his research results in the fieldof formation and early evolution of theSolar System. In Sept. Chambers at-tended the European Planetary ScienceCongress in Madrid, Spain. In Oct. he attended the 44th annual meeting of the AAS in Reno, NV.—In May staff scientist Larry Nittler gavean invited talk at the annual workshopon Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry inPhiladelphia. In Aug. he attended the12th International Symposium on Nucleiin the Cosmos and the 75th AnnualMeeting of the Meteoritical Society, both in Cairns, Australia.—

18

Jianjun Guo Jonas Danielson

Luke Mackinder Sean Blum

� Director Lindy Elkins-Tantonconducts fieldwork in Siberia.Images courtesy Lindy Elkins-Tanton

The annual Plant Biology intern program from May toSept. was larger this year. Held in conjunction with Stanford U., the pro-gram culminated in a poster presentation. Barton lab technician AdamLonghurst was the organizer. Interns included: Jose Enrique Bravo,Marisa Brown, Rik Brugman, Anne-Hortense Carrot, Lilyana Chan-dra, Tara Chandran, Philipp Denning, Varun Dwaraka, Amir Ghowsi,Caryn Johansen, Andrew Lin, Stephanie May, Qais Moradi, GracePark,Kimberly Pham, Valeria Sandoval, Alice Shieh, Jacqueline Tang,Tam Tran, Max Tyler, Graciela Watrous, and Mandy Wong. �


In May staff scientist Scott Sheppardpresented at the “Asteroids, Comets,Meteors 2012” conference in Niigata,Japan. In Oct. he gave a talk at PontificalCatholic U. in Chile. He presented at theAAS meeting in Reno and was a part ofthe Scientific Organizing Committee.—In Aug. Diana Roman presented “Inter-mediate-Term Seismic Precursors tothe 2007 Father’s Day Intrusion andEruption at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii” at the AGU Chapman Conference onHawaiian Volcanoes. She conductedfieldwork in Hawaii in Aug. and Sept.—In May Steve Shirey organized and led a three-day field trip to look at geoneu-trino-producing Archean and Protero-zoic crustal rocks of the Sudbury,Ontario, for researchers from U. Mary-land and the Sudbury Neutrino Observa-tory.—In Aug. Erik Hauri and DTM-DCO FellowJared Marske collected cinder cones inHawaii. They then presented researchresults at the AGU Chapman Conferenceon Hawaiian Volcanoes Aug. 20-24. Theconference honored the founding of theHawaiian Volcano Observatory, whichwas originally supported in part byCarnegie researcher Frank Perret from 1911 to 1915.—In July Mass Spec lab manager TimMock, GL staff scientist Anat Shahar,and Steve Shirey hosted the Smithson-ian Science Education Academy forTeachers, who learned how geologicalage is measured in the mass spectrom-etry lab. In Aug. Shirey joined a groupfrom U. Wisconsin to study the volcanicrocks of Mount Mazama and Crater Lake.—Alycia Weinberger presented astronomycolloquia in Feb. at Michigan State U.and U. Michigan, in Mar. at Villanova U.,and in May at U. Maryland and at Pontifi-cal Catholic U. in Chile. In Apr. she gavethe first annual Myhill Memorial Semi-nar at Marymount U. in honor of formerDTM research associate Liz Myhill. Shealso made handheld spectrographs atthe Carnegie booth at the USA Science &Engineering Festival on Apr. 27 and 28with postdocs Chris Stark, SusanBenecchi, and Stella Kafka. In JuneWeinberger was selected to serve on theLarge Binocular Telescope Interferome-ter key project science team, which metin Sept. in Tucson, AZ. In July she gavean invited talk at a workshop at CatholicU. She also gave a talk at the NationalCapital Area Disks meeting.—In May staff scientist Rick Carlsonhosted Dmitri Ionov, a professor at U.Jean Monnet, St. Etienne, France, andLeonard Acuta, a Ph.D. student atLehigh U. Former postdoc JonathanO’Neil, now at Clermont-Ferrand, re-turned to analyze the 3.2- to 4.4-billion-year-old rocks from the Nuvvuagittuq,Canada. In June staff scientists Conel

Alexander, Carlson, Erik Hauri, SteveShirey, lab manager Mary Horan, DCOFellow Marion Le Voyer, and formerCarnegie Fellow Jonathan O’Neilattended the 22nd VM Goldschmidt Conference in Montreal.—In May staff scientist Matt Fouch con-ducted fieldwork at Telica Volcano,Nicaragua, with staff scientist DianaRoman and ASU colleagues to install aprototype volcanic gas monitoring sys-tem. In May Fouch presented a lectureat the campus lecture series. In June hepresented a poster at the IncorporatedResearch Institutions for Seismology(IRIS) national workshop and two talksabout IRIS. Postdoc Ryan Porter alsopresented at this meeting. In Aug. Fouchparticipated in the Mars Science Labo-ratory (MSL) rover landing festivities inPasadena, CA, with his wife and formerGL postdoctoral fellow Michelle Minitti,a member of the MSL team.—In May postdoc Susan Benecchi col-lected data at Las Campanas Observa-tory (LCO). In Aug. she gave a seminarfor the Planetary Science Inst. about herKuiper Belt light curve project. In Oct.Benecchi observed at LCO and pre-sented a seminar at Pontifical CatholicU. in Chile.—In May MESSENGER Fellow Paul Byrneattended the 26th MESSENGER ScienceTeam meeting in Vancouver, Canada,along with MESSENGER FellowsShoshana Weider, Christian Klimczak,former director Sean Solomon, andLarry Nittler. In June Byrne was an invited presenter at JPL. In July he par-ticipated in the 2012 Planetary ScienceSummer School at JPL, and in Aug.Byrne attended the 27th MESSENGERScience Team meeting in Salem, MA. In Sept. he presented MESSENGER tectonic work at the European PlanetaryScience Congress in Madrid, Spain. InOct. Byrne attended the joint MESSEN-GER-BepiColombo workshop in NY.—In June Vera Rubin Fellow Joleen Carlberg presented her work at the“Cool Stars 17” conference inBarcelona, Spain, and attended a work-shop at Temple U. In July she attended a workshop at NYU. In Aug. she gave atalk at Penn. State’s Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds.—In May postdoc Christian Klimczak gavea seminar at the Lunar and PlanetaryInst. in Houston, TX. In Aug. he attendedthe 27th MESSENGER Science Teammeeting in Salem, MA. In Sept. he presented at the European PlanetaryScience Congress in Madrid, Spain.—In June DCO Fellow Marion Le Voyergave a seminar at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.—

In July Carnegie Fellow Frances Jennerwas an invited speaker at the GordonResearch Conference in New Hampshire.—NAI Fellow Nickolas Moskovitz gave an invited talk at the Aug. 13-17 “AsiaOceania Geosciences Society (AOGS)-AGU (WPGM) Joint Assembly” in Singa-pore. In Oct. he presented a talk at the44th annual AAS meeting in Reno.Moskovitz had an asteroid named afterhim, Asteroid (8254) Moskovitz.—Arrivals: In May postdoctoral fellowChristelle Wauthier arrived from U.Liège, Belgium, to work with DianaRoman. In May graduate student John D.West from ASU visited DTM to collabo-rate for his Ph.D. dissertation with MattFouch. In July graduate student ChelseaAllison spent a week in the MojaveDesert with Matt Fouch and Ryan Porterto complete a paper on the Cima Vol-canic Field. Porter was named the firstPaul G. Silver Fellow in Seismology inJuly. MIT predoctoral student StephanieBrown spent June and July runningmodels of the early Earth with LindyElkins-Tanton and U. Maryland’sRichard Walker. In July former DTMpostdoctoral fellow Chin-Wu Chencollaborated with Matt Fouch and DavidJames on the High Lava Plains project.In July Merle A. Tuve Senior FellowMichael Werner arrived for a month and presented a Tuve lecture. In Aug.Stanford Ph.D. student Megan D’Erricoarrived to work with Mary Horan. Also in Aug. postdoctoral fellow Pamela Arriagada arrived to work with PaulButler on exoplanets. Visiting investiga-tor Satoshi Inaba, from Waseda U.,Japan, arrived in Aug. to collaboratewith Alan Boss, John Chambers andothers on planet formation. Formerpostdoctoral fellow Alex Song arrived inSept. for a month to collaborate with thegeophysics group. Also in Sept. postdoc-toral fellow Terrence Blackburn arrivedto work on cosmochemistry and astron-omy. Tyler Hosford came in June andJuly as a temporary administrative assistant and departed in Aug. for Texas A&M U. Former GL administrativeassistant Susan Schmidt is now a library volunteer.—Departures: Postdoctoral fellow NickMoskovitz departed for an NSF fellow-ship at MIT in Aug. Also in Aug. postdoc-toral associate Stella Kafka departed for the American Inst. of Physics.

GL/DTM

� In June the library held a librarybook fair, giving away over 600 booksthanks to the generosity of Frank Press,Sean Solomon, and Nathalie Valette-Silver, in memory of Paul Silver. In Aug.the campus held a farewell party forPedro Joaquin Roa, who joined Carnegiein 1986 as a maintenance technician. �


� Sean Solomon planting the tree in his honor.

� Book lovers from DTM andGL crowded into the campuslibrary in June for a book fairmarking the summer solstice.


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