When Erika Flores utilized for an internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2014, she wasn’t fairly positive if her undergraduate work in environmental science match at a spot recognized for work a lot farther afield.
“I wished to repair our planet,” Flores mentioned just lately. “I didn’t actually think about myself finding out outer house.”
Not solely did she land the internship on the La Cañada Flintridge establishment’s Origins and Habitability Laboratory, however her contribution there additionally launched an ongoing partnership between the civil engineering division at Cal State Los Angeles and a lab devoted to understanding how life begins.
“I didn’t see myself in an astrobiology lab,” Flores mentioned from her workplace on the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, the place she has labored since 2023 as an engineering affiliate.
However because it seems, understanding how microorganisms got here to be in Earth’s water is effective data to these tasked with cleaning that offer as we speak, her mentor at JPL mentioned.
“There’s plenty of overlap between wastewater and astrobiology,” mentioned Laurie Barge, a JPL scientist who co-leads the Origins and Habitability Laboratory with analysis scientist Jessica Weber. “Sounds bizarre, but it surely’s true.”
Laurie Barge, a JPL scientist, speaks to interns contained in the Origins and Habitability Laboratory at JPL.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Occasions)
This symmetry between the biology of our residence planet and extra distant worlds has led to a partnership between Barge and Weber’s lab and that of Flores’ former advisor Arezoo Khodayari, an affiliate professor of civil engineering at Cal State L.A.
After practically a decade of collaboration, Barge and Khodayari just lately obtained a grant from NASA that can cowl as much as six internships within the lab for Khodayari’s college students over the subsequent two years.
The award is one in every of 11 that NASA’s Science Mission Directorate made to universities that haven’t historically been a part of the pipeline that brings new scientists to the house company.
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1. Cal State L.A. college students Julia Chavez, left, and Cathy Trejo conduct an experiment that simulates oceans on early Earth and presumably different planets. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Occasions)
“We’re deliberately rising equitable entry to NASA for the perfect and brightest abilities in our nation,” mentioned Shahra Lambert, NASA senior advisor for engagement, in a press release.
The 2 scientists linked by Flores who, with Barge’s encouragement, determined to go for a grasp’s diploma at Cal State L.A. throughout her Origins and Habitability Laboratory internship.
Whereas Khodayari’s analysis in Cal State L.A.’s Environmental Sustainability and Air pollution Management lab focuses on managing contaminants right here on Earth, she and Barge instantly noticed parallels with the Origins and Habitability lab’s exploration of the situations that might give rise to life throughout the universe.
“The destiny of those chemical compounds in an aqueous surroundings is related for each fields,” Khodayari mentioned. “All of those completely different initiatives have chemistry in widespread.”
After the success of Flores’ internship, the 2 scientists began searching for methods to introduce planetary science to college students who may not have thought of it as a part of their coaching, and lacked entry to the instruments needed for classy analysis.
Arezoo Khodayari of Cal State L.A. has collaborated with JPL for years to convey interns to the Southern California NASA middle.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Occasions)
Eduardo Martinez was finding out for a grasp’s in civil engineering in 2018 when Khodayari known as him into her workplace and requested if he’d be keen on working for JPL.
“I used to be type of greatly surprised a bit bit,” recalled Martinez, who was born in Mexico and grew up in Los Angeles. “I used to be like — ‘JPL? Like, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory?’ ”
He was hooked instantly. As a civil engineering scholar, Martinez had been keen on how phosphorus and nitrogen have an effect on water high quality, resulting in algal blooms and low oxygen ranges when discharged in excessive portions into freshwater. Through the internship, he was a lead writer on a analysis paper with Barge, Khodayari and others on how nitrates react with iron compounds in aqueous environments.
His work on the Origins and Habitability lab confirmed him that the identical components additionally play a vital function in forming and sustaining life, and thus are a key focal point for NASA astrobiologists. “I had not made that hyperlink earlier than, and it was simply fascinating to see,” Martinez mentioned.
The expertise impressed him to pursue a doctorate in geoscience on the College of Nevada, Las Vegas. His analysis there focuses on how sure isotope compositions in clay minerals might point out previous life in samples introduced again from Mars.
Julia Chavez and Cathy Trejo high-five at JPL. They’re two of a number of college students from Cal State L.A. who’re interning at JPL’s Origins and Habitability Laboratory.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Occasions)
Since Flores’ preliminary crossover from environmental science to house, 5 Cal State L.A. college students have completed internships on the JPL lab. The NASA grant will pace up that pipeline, introducing extra college students to analysis alternatives that won’t in any other case have crossed their paths.
This summer season, interns Julia Chavez and Cathy Trejo donned goggles and white lab coats to inject fluids into an iron chloride answer. The experiment replicates the response between seawater and the stuff that comes up by hydrothermal vents — an vitality supply for all times on Earth, and a attainable mechanism by which organisms first developed right here.
“5 or 6 years in the past, I didn’t actually envision myself in analysis,” mentioned Chavez, who accomplished her grasp’s diploma this yr. “Being right here, I couldn’t think about a unique path.”
