NASA’s Astrobiology Program Still Ignores Its Own Cool Stuff

Keith’s note: NASA funds some really cool stuff – especially in the area of Astrobiology – the search for life elsewhere in the universe. Yet the NASA Astrobiology program has a pitiful record when it comes to getting out news about its own cool stuff. Here is the latest example.

An article about N2O (nitrous oxide) as part of a biosignature search paradigm in the search for life on other worlds appeared on 4 October 2022. NASA funded the research. The authors include people from multiple NASA centers, contractors, etc.

The paper has spawned hundreds of serious and popular news stories including references to N20 as “laughing gas”, “party drug” etc. In other words the media was able to approach the topic from a variety of directions and levels – and maybe inform a few people in the process.

This is the article: “Evaluating the Plausible Range of N2O Biosignatures on Exo-Earths: An Integrated Biogeochemical, Photochemical, and Spectral Modeling Approach“. Here’s a sample press release: “Laughing gas in space could mean life“ from UC Riverside.

Is there any mention at astrobiology.nasa.gov or @NASAAstrobio? No.

I run a website – all by my little self – in my basement (astrobiology.com) – one that runs circles around NASA’s ability to talk about its own Astrobiology news. Just Google “astrobiology” – my astrobiology.com website is 3rd or 4th in the search results – globally. If you search Google for “astrobiology” in news — well, where’s NASA?

It is rather pathetic that the largest space agency on Earth is incapable of doing a better job at talking about a topic that it most certainly has the biggest impact on. Just sayin’

• NASA PAO Just Lets Wrong Stories Go Global – Unchallenged, earlier post
• Astrobiology News From Mars That NASA Forgot to Tell You About, earlier post
• NASA’s Astrobiology Program Needs An Outreach Reset, earlier post
• Bill Nelson Talks About The SETI Program That NASA Does Not Have, earlier post
• Astrobiology News That NASA’s Astrobiology Program Ignores, earlier post