It looks like the course website I created for my "Alien Worlds on Earth" mini-course is not globally viewable like I hoped it would be. The course went well, and I do hope to do something more with it in the future. In the mean time, I wanted to share some of the resources I gathered to share with students who wanted to know more about the environments we were talking about in class. I hope these are interesting and useful... let me know if they are!

Hydrothermal Vents

WHOI's basic hydrothermal vent website http://www.whoi.edu/main/topic/hydrothermal-vents , and the 4 multimedia links in the column on the right of the page.
This short video about the discovery of vents, and different types of vents: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/education-videos/education-general-2/edu-hydrothermal-vents/
An article I wrote about the "alien" nature of hydrothermal vents, including descriptions of some recent discoveries: http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2013/the-alien-worlds-of-hydrothermal-vents-2/
Creature Feature: discovery of strain 121, the current holder of the world's record for uppper thermal limit to life on Earth http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/08_03/hottest.shtml
Giant tube worms: check out this awesome footage of the giant tube worms Riftia pachyptila http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FFnrW_SUdM.

Cave resources

The NOVA documentary "Mysterious Life of Caves" and associated web content found here (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/caves/). Part adventure story, part geology, part microbiology... definitely worth a watch if you're curious about caves.
Descriptions and images of particularly interesting cave creatures can be found on this BBC site (http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Troglobite#intro).
"Introduction to Cave Microbiology: A Review for the Non-Specialist" by explorer and microbiologist Hazel Barton. http://www.caves.org/pub/journal/PDF/V68/v68n2-Barton.pdf
Video profile of caver and microbiologist Hazel Barton. (http://worldsciencefestival.com/videos/cool_job_the_cave_microbiologist)
Background information from another good cave documentary "Journey Into Amazing Caves" (http://www.amazingcaves.com/learn_micro.html).

Lake Vostok resources - news coverage of recent research

Subsurface resources

Astrobiology magazine piece about how probing the depths may help the search for extraterrestrial life: http://www.space.com/22188-alien-life-search-microbes-underground.html
Worms found at depth: http://www.livescience.com/14390-deepest-worms-discovered.html
Microbe magazine "New Horizons for Deep Subsurface Microbiology: http://www.microbemagazine.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1045:new-horizons-for-deep-subsurface-microbiology&catid=310&Itemid=473
NSF special report on radiation eaters: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/microbes/textonly/eaters.jsp
A nice explanation from the Hinrichs Lab website about why they study the deep subsurface and what they're hoping to learn: http://www.marum.de/en/HinrichsLab_DeepBiosphere.html
"The Nature and Extent of the Deep Biosphere" from Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistryhttp://www.minsocam.org/MSA/RIM/RiM75/RIM075_C17.pdf
"Probing the Depths of the Biosphere", A blog post I wrote back in 2010 over at ScienceBlogs about the first investigations into the microbiology of the deepest layers of Earth's crust: http://scienceblogs.com/webeasties/2010/11/10/rarely-do-i-read-papers/
International Ocean Discovery Program (formerly the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program): http://www.iodp.org/

Astrobiology resources

Search for Extraterrestrial: http://www.seti.org/
NASA astrobiology: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/
Astronomers estimate as many as 1 in 5 stars could have Earth-sized planets within their habitable zones: http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/5800/one-in-five-stars-has-earth-sized-planet-in-habitable-zone
Is there life on Titan?

Heather Craig Olins

Heather Craig Olins

NEWS&NOTES

Heather Craig Olins

Interested in Alien Worlds on Earth?

Heather Craig Olins