1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:13,110 [Music] 2 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:16,180 I'm Jennifer Stern and I'm at NASA 3 00:00:20,589 --> 00:00:18,290 Goddard Space Flight Center so I'm a 4 00:00:22,060 --> 00:00:20,599 planetary geochemist and I work on a 5 00:00:25,359 --> 00:00:22,070 broad range of things but primarily 6 00:00:28,300 --> 00:00:25,369 right now I'm interested in Mars and the 7 00:00:30,909 --> 00:00:28,310 cycling or not cycling of nitrogen on 8 00:00:32,950 --> 00:00:30,919 Mars and as part of that I work on the 9 00:00:35,220 --> 00:00:32,960 sample analysis at Mars instrument suite 10 00:00:38,770 --> 00:00:35,230 on the Mars Science Laboratory Rover 11 00:00:41,020 --> 00:00:38,780 Curiosity my primary work is to look for 12 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:41,030 the chemical and isotopic signatures of 13 00:00:45,970 --> 00:00:44,090 life elsewhere be that Mars or even icy 14 00:00:48,639 --> 00:00:45,980 worlds like Europa when we think about 15 00:00:50,829 --> 00:00:48,649 life possibility of life on Mars or any 16 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:50,839 other planet we think about you know if 17 00:00:56,139 --> 00:00:53,570 you landed in the middle of Antarctica 18 00:00:58,029 --> 00:00:56,149 or some very some very place here that's 19 00:00:59,380 --> 00:00:58,039 devoid of life would you just 20 00:01:00,759 --> 00:00:59,390 immediately assume just because you 21 00:01:02,470 --> 00:01:00,769 don't see life right there on the 22 00:01:04,329 --> 00:01:02,480 surface that there isn't life there at 23 00:01:07,180 --> 00:01:04,339 all probably not you really want to do a 24 00:01:10,210 --> 00:01:07,190 thorough search for life and we're still 25 00:01:12,580 --> 00:01:10,220 discovering on earth new habitats that 26 00:01:14,950 --> 00:01:12,590 life has exploited and sort of branched 27 00:01:17,469 --> 00:01:14,960 out into I get excited about the fact 28 00:01:20,499 --> 00:01:17,479 that we have not seen anything of the 29 00:01:22,510 --> 00:01:20,509 subsurface of Mars so we know something 30 00:01:25,060 --> 00:01:22,520 about the surface and we've imaged it 31 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:25,070 and mapped it but we know nothing below 32 00:01:29,380 --> 00:01:28,130 a couple of centimeters and so we don't 33 00:01:31,300 --> 00:01:29,390 know anything about the geothermal 34 00:01:33,010 --> 00:01:31,310 gradient we don't know anything about 35 00:01:34,749 --> 00:01:33,020 whether there are nutrients there 36 00:01:37,749 --> 00:01:34,759 whether there might be some sort of 37 00:01:39,609 --> 00:01:37,759 habitat for life there and I'm excited 38 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:39,619 because some of the upcoming Mars 39 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:41,930 missions may at least start to answer 40 00:01:46,630 --> 00:01:44,570 some of those questions working where I 41 00:01:49,420 --> 00:01:46,640 do at NASA Goddard we have a lot of 42 00:01:51,639 --> 00:01:49,430 chemists a lot of geologists and a lot 43 00:01:54,429 --> 00:01:51,649 of people who do a lot of laboratory 44 00:01:57,999 --> 00:01:54,439 experiments but coming here to this sort 45 00:02:00,310 --> 00:01:58,009 of workshop I talked to more biologists 46 00:02:02,770 --> 00:02:00,320 and more people who are looking at how 47 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:02,780 biology is expressing itself in the 48 00:02:07,630 --> 00:02:04,850 fossil record and so the good thing 49 00:02:09,669 --> 00:02:07,640 about that is that we all do speak the 50 00:02:13,090 --> 00:02:09,679 same language in some ways as scientists 51 00:02:16,640 --> 00:02:13,100 sometimes you have to sort of step back 52 00:02:18,140 --> 00:02:16,650 explain from the top down and you should 53 00:02:22,210 --> 00:02:18,150 be able to do that as a scientist should 54 00:02:24,770 --> 00:02:22,220 be able to communicate to any level the 55 00:02:27,710 --> 00:02:24,780 challenges for somebody in my position 56 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:27,720 where I work on missions and trying to 57 00:02:33,170 --> 00:02:29,850 develop instrumentation is working with 58 00:02:35,180 --> 00:02:33,180 engineers and they speak of slightly or 59 00:02:37,870 --> 00:02:35,190 maybe not so slightly different language 60 00:02:40,190 --> 00:02:37,880 than scientists at times the scientist 61 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:40,200 thinks big and wants to build something 62 00:02:46,430 --> 00:02:43,530 that can do new thing as the engineer 63 00:02:48,980 --> 00:02:46,440 wants to use something that has heritage 64 00:02:50,570 --> 00:02:48,990 that is proven to work it's kind of a 65 00:02:53,870 --> 00:02:50,580 little bit of a culture shock at first 66 00:02:55,220 --> 00:02:53,880 but it's really helpful at Goddard we 67 00:02:57,050 --> 00:02:55,230 work very closely we're actually 68 00:02:58,580 --> 00:02:57,060 co-located with the engineers who are 69 00:03:00,770 --> 00:02:58,590 working on the mission so we're in the 70 00:03:02,930 --> 00:03:00,780 same hallway saying you know path people 71 00:03:05,750 --> 00:03:02,940 in offices and so that I think that 72 00:03:07,370 --> 00:03:05,760 helps a lot being at LC has been amazing 73 00:03:10,430 --> 00:03:07,380 because I mean even just the very first 74 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:10,440 day I met a master's student who told me 75 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:11,970 that she had read my paper about 76 00:03:15,260 --> 00:03:13,290 nitrogen and and was doing 77 00:03:16,910 --> 00:03:15,270 photochemistry experiments to try to 78 00:03:19,010 --> 00:03:16,920 understand that how the nitrate is 79 00:03:21,470 --> 00:03:19,020 formed on Mars she showed me her results 80 00:03:22,820 --> 00:03:21,480 and I just this is so awesome that was 81 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:22,830 really exciting and then there were a 82 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:26,250 couple of presentations from folks from 83 00:03:31,340 --> 00:03:28,890 Elsi that were that were really neat but 84 00:03:32,570 --> 00:03:31,350 I may not have seen had I not come to a 85 00:03:34,430 --> 00:03:32,580 workshop like this which is 86 00:03:45,180 --> 00:03:34,440 interdisciplinary and bringing people