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Astrobiology Analytical Lab. My primary area of study is

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organic geochemistry, and specifically what we're looking at is the organic

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composition of asteroids, comets, and their fragments--meteorites,

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interplanetary dust particles--things that could deliver the basic building blocks of life

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to the early Earth. On a day-to-day basis, part of my time is actually working

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in the laboratory--handling the meteorite samples, crushing them up,

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extracting the organic compounds from them, and doing

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the basic analysis of the organic compounds in these objects--and then, the other part of my time

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is trying to get research funding to support the research we do. So, I'm writing

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proposals to different agencies to get money to actually fund our research.

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The team here in the Goddard Astrobiology Analytical Lab is simply the best

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team I've ever worked for. I mean, everybody here is here because they want to be here,

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they're excited about the science, they're enthusiastic when they come in on a Monday

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morning, and this is just the best team--and no pun intended, but

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we've got the right chemistry here in the Astrobiology Analytical Lab.

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