Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I read in Popular Science about an experiment in Berlin, conducted by the DLR (German Center for Aeronautics and Space Research). In the experiment, the species Deinococcus radiodurans, Xanthoria elegans, and Bacillus subtilis, were subjected to Martian-like conditions for an extended period of time. There is more information about it at http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2 ... re-chamber.

I have searched the DLR's website and can't find any information on this experiment. Do you know of any sources I could go to to perhaps find a paper on this experiment, or any other information? Thank you.

Hello,

The NIH biological sciences literature database, PubMed, is your best friend in cases like this.

just go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed

Since you have the name of one of the scientists involved with the study, try searching for him first.

I typed in "de Vera" and "mars" and got three papers from this group. The scientist named de Vera is listed in the author list as "de Vera JP," so you can search for that precise term and get a couple more hits. To broaden your search from there to other papers by this group, try Googling the names of the last authors of the papers (the last author is traditionally the "principal investigator" or senior member of the research team) to find the home page of the labs doing the research, where you will find lists of papers published by those labs. As you read those papers, you'll find other interesting papers in their references and can expand your search from there.

Hope this helps.

-Will

Thanks so much for your help!