Jesse Ausubel, Mark Stoeckle, and Paul Gaffney have completed the Summary Report of the 29-30 November 2018 National Conference on Marine eDNA .  A press release also briefly summarizes the report.

Galatee Productions, the company of French producer-director-actor Jacques Perrin, the genius of Winged Migations, Oceans, Microcosmos, The Seasons, and other films, has advanced toward making a film about the American West, The Photographer.  Producer Antoine de Cazotte (Oscar for The Artist) is leading the project development.  The concept of the film is described in a 13 December 2018 article in France-Amerique.  Jesse Ausubel as well as environmental scientist Mark Schaefer have been assisting the effort.

2019 begins with newspaper of coverage of

–the Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project in Vienna’s Kurier; and

–the Deep Life work of the Deep Carbon Observatory in hard copy of the New York Times (posted 19 Dec online).

The essay Cars and Civilization by Jesse Ausubel has been translated into German by Thilo Spahl and appears (with fewer illustrations) in Thilo’s 2018 book Around the World in 80 Minutes (In 80 Minuten um Die Welt) as “Die Geschwindigkeit zaehlt” (Speed pays), pp. 30-49.

Thanks to Marian Tupy for republishing Jesse Ausubel’s short essay, We Must Make Nature Worthless, in Human Progress.

Last year, the Lotos Club invited Jesse Ausubel to give a short dinner address at their celebration of Earth.  The little essay, Why are flowers beautiful?, draws on ideas about truth and beauty (and mathematics) of mentor Cesare Marchetti.

The Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project opened our eyes to the possibilities (inevitability!) of exciting new discoveries by integrating new tools of genetics, molecular biology, and microbiology into studies of art history and practices in conservation of cultural heritage.  We were able to help arrange support for a joint project of the NYU Institute of Fine Arts and the research lab of the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

ART BIO MATTERS 2018 aims to assemble, for the first time, scientists, curators/art historians, and conservators for a stimulating forum to explore new directions in the study of biological materials in works of art. Through guided and balanced discussions, participants will identify connections between advanced DNA, mass-spectrometric, and antibody-based approaches and their own research questions, thereby, facilitating focused and mutually beneficial collaborations.

By many accounts, the conference 8-10 November 2018 was thrilling.  The website has lots of great materials and leads.  Congratulations to Julie Arslanoglu, Peggy Ellis, Matthew Teasdale, and the emerging community at the interface of biology and art!

In 1996 while working with Ralph Gomory, then President of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Jesse Ausubel helped Sloan develop initiatives in higher education.  These included the first university simulator (Virtual U.), professional science master’s degrees (championed by Sheila Tobias), and research on community colleges.   A great success was (is) the Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Teacher’s College (TC).  The CCRC was partly inspired by insights of TC faculty member Thomas Bailey, an expert on the high-performance workplace and school-to-work transitions. Bailey became the founding director of the CCRC and led it until this autumn, when he became President of Teacher’s College.  Congratulations to  Tom and to TC.  Read Tom’s excellent inaugural address and about his pathfinding career, which includes kind mentions of Sloan and Jesse.

The Deep Life Community shared its progress over the past decade in the Deep Carbon Observatory at the December 2018 meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington DC.  Jesse Ausubel helped found the DCO in 2009.

Articles include: Life in deep Earth totals 15 to 23 billion tons of carbon—hundreds of …  Phys.Org–Dec 10, 2018Deep Life scientists say about 70% of Earth’s bacteria and archaea …. says Jesse Ausubel of the Rockefeller University, a founder of the DCO.

 Earth’s Deep Life Biosphere –“A Subterranean Galapagos”
The Daily Galaxy –Great Discoveries Channel–Dec 10, 2018

Deep down: ‘Zombie’ bacteria found miles below Earth’s surface
Independent.ie–Dec 10, 2018

There Is A Colossal Cornucopia Of Exotic Life Hiding Within Earth’s …
In-Depth–Forbes–Dec 11, 2018

 

Below the seabed live forests of ancient life

Our “GoFish” paper is published in PLOS ONE (Stoeckle MY, Mishu MD, Charlop-Powers Z. GoFish: a versatile nested PCR strategy for environmental DNA assays for marine vertebrates). From water collection to Sanger sequencing results, the assay can be carried out in three days. This approach will be a useful addition to current eDNA methods when analyzing presence/absence of known species, when turnaround time is important, and in educational settings.