News

Some of the nation's leading researchers, including several PSU scientists, met at PSU's Simon Benson House in mid-October, for a two-day conference on viruses that was sponsored by NASA's Astrobiology Institute. According to Ken Stedman, PSU biologist and focus-group participant, viruses are perhaps the most successful organisms on earth, may contain more biodiversity than all other organisms combined, and are rarely harmful to humans. During the two days of meetings, the "Virus Focus Group" discussed the origin of viruses, viruses in extreme environments, detection methods, and other issues, with the goal to generate new ideas and expand the scope of research as it relates to life on Earth and the potential for life elsewhere.

Stedman is one of several researchers in PSU's Center for Life in Extreme Environments (CLEE) that is actively researching issues of interest to NASA's Astrobiology Institute; other CLEE members participating in the conference included the Biology department's David Boone, Anna-Louise Reysenbach, and Luis Ruedas, as well as Sherry Cady, PSU geologist and editor of the science journal Astrobiology.