AbSciCon 2026 is delighted to announce the return of the Creative Science Writing Contest, sponsored by Blue Marble Space Institute of Science! Submission deadline is April 8, 2026. Details here: www.agu.org/abscicon/pre...

The 4th NASA DARES Community Webinar is Tomorrow, March 18th, 12.00pm ET. Register here: science.nasa.gov/astrobiology...

The Network for Life Detection is offering travel awards to students to attend AbSciCon. Deadline April 1st! Apply here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Mark your calendar: The 2026 Molecular Origins of Life Munich Conference (MOM2026) will be held June 11-12, 2026 in Munich. Attendance is free! Registrations open until June 1st. indico.physik.uni-muenchen.de/event/645/ov...

Don't miss the 3rd NASA-DARES Task Force 2 Community Webinar! Tomorrow March 11, 12pm ET Register here: science.nasa.gov/astrobiology...

Thinning ice shells of smaller ocean worlds like Enceladus and Mimas could trigger boiling at the ocean's surface and loss of volatiles. Could this process help facilitate novel abiotic organic reactions? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

There is a NASA DARES panel happening TODAY and every Wed between Feb 25 - Mar 25 at 12 - 4 PM ET | 9 AM - 1 PM PT. Join in to express your thoughts for the next Astrobiology Strategy document! You must register (it is free) here: science.nasa.gov/astrobiology...

We have officially launched the applications for the 2026 BMSIS Young Scientist Program! Learn more and view our available projects for this year here: bmsis.org/ysp/projects/

NASA Summer Internship Opportunity: Open Science Impact. The internship would be in person at NASA HQ in Washington D.C. Applications due Feb 27, 2026! stemgateway.nasa.gov/s/course-off...

The NASA Astrobiology Program will be hosting a NASA Decadal Astrobiology Research and Exploration Strategy (NASA-DARES) Community Webinar Series. There is no cost to participate, but registration is required. science.nasa.gov/astrobiology...

Nominations are open for the 2026 Jill Tarter Award for Innovation in the Search for Life Beyond Earth, an international honor recognizing individuals whose ideas, work, or leadership have meaningfully advanced humanity’s efforts to understand life and intelligence in the Universe. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬

NASA is refining its strategy for prioritizing technology investments for civil space. If you would like to provide feedback on the prioritization of technology shortfalls critical to civil space, you can so do here: www.spacetechpriorities.org

Check out this new paper: Multiple formation pathways for amino acids in the early Solar System based on carbon and nitrogen isotopes in asteroid Bennu samples www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Could hematite have catalyzed prebiotic reactions? Check out this paper to find out: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Early Architecture Concepts for the Habitable Worlds Observatory -- System Design, Modeling, and Analysis astrobiology.com/2026/02/earl... #astrobiology #astronomy #exoplanet

Applications for the Europa ICONS internship program for undergraduates are now open! Get paired with a Europa Clipper science team member for a 10 week research experience in Boulder, Colorado. Due date: Feb. 27th, 2026. stemgateway.nasa.gov/s/explore-op...

Join the next LIFE RCN seminar! Wednesday February 11, 8AM PDT / 11AM EDT www.lifercn.org/events/2026-...

The Genesis Project On The Origin Of Life Becomes A National Centre Of Competence In Research astrobiology.com/2026/02/the-... #astrobiology

The 6th ISSOL online seminar will be held Thursday, February 5th, at 14:00 UTC. If you are a member or in the PCE3 mailing list, follow the link you received to attend, or consider subscribing to ISSOL! Annual membership fees start at $20 for students. issol.org/membership/

Are you a PhD student in geobiology or related disciplines? Consider applying for the 2026 International Geobiology Course! The course will be held between June 6th and July 10th in ITALY and at PennState. Deadline for applications is FEBRUARY 2nd, 2026 sites.google.com/psu.edu/igc-...

ROSES-2026 to be released July 2026. ROSES-2025 Amendment 39 extends due dates for three program elements: 1) submissions to C.2 Solar System Science to August 1, 2026, and 2) proposals to A.4 Rapid Response and Novel Research in Earth Science and A.10 INNOVATE to August 31, 2026

Submitting an abstract to AbSciCon? Check out the comments for a list of PCE3 related session!

New OoL digest is out! 🌍🧬 32 new papers, ft. Europa’s seafloor activity, Enceladus exploration roadmaps, prebiotic nickel catalysis, multicellularity switches in yeast, and liquid water scenarios on ancient Mars. #OriginOfLife #Astrobiology

A new study that looked at isotopes in plagioclase crystals within 3.7 Ga anorthosite rocks suggests that continent formation may have not started until ~3.5 Ga. Could Earth have been mostly a landless ocean world for its first billion years? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Sugars including ribose and glucose were found in Bennu samples, which indicates that the asteroid has a complete set of the essential building blocks of life! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reminder to get your AbSciCon abstracts in by Jan 14! While you are at it, consider submitting to the session: "Deciphering planetary organic inventories across the abiotic -prebiotic- biotic spectrum: uncovering the signs of life as we might not know it" agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon...

For our next episode of "Ask an Author", we asked our own PCE3 member Dr. Laura Rodriguez about her new paper just out in JGR - Planets. Great work Laura!

As AbSciCon 2026 abstract deadline approaches, conveners Davila, Shkoylar, and Hoehler invite you to submission to their great session: "The Abiotic Background: Challenges and Opportunities for Life Detection" agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon... Deadline is January 14th, 2026!

Extended Deadline to January 2nd, 2026! Submit your nominations for ISSOL Awards at the links below. 🏆

Job opportunity alert: The Life in the Universe Center at the University of Geneva is looking to fill a prebiotic chemistry professor position at the full, associate, or assistant level. Deadline for application is March 15, 2026. Details here: jobs.unige.ch/www/wd_porta...

Fresh off the press! a new study by Rodriguez et al. introducing a novel framework to characterize the organic state of a planetary body and facilitate missions to test origin of life hypotheses beyond inventorying biologically relevant compounds doi.org/10.1029/2024...

2026 ISSOL Awards: The deadline to nominate someone for the Oparin medal, ISSOL Fellow, or the Stanley Miller Award is approaching! Submit your nominations by December 19th. Full instructions here: issol.org/medals-and-h...

AGU attendees: the NASA astrobiology program will be hosting a NASA-DARES community update on Thursday, Dec. 18th, from 6 to 8 PM CST at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans. A recording of the meeting will be posted on the NASA-DARES webpage after AGU.

Extraterrestrial Photosynthesis Workshop A NASA Exoplanets System Science (NExSS) workshop taking place May 15-17, 2026, in Green Lake, Wisconsin, just before AbSciCon 2026. Learn more here: nexss.info/extraterrest...

NASA's Planetary Research Year in Review Webinar will take place on Dec. 10th at 1 PM Eastern. You can submit any questions at the following link: nasa.cnf.io/sessions/zg8... Join link: nasaevents.webex.com/wbxmjs/joins...

Here are a few reminders for approaching conference abstract deadlines! Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (March 16-20, 2026) - Deadline of Jan. 6th, 2026 #LPSC2026 Astrobiology Science Conference (May 17-20, 2026) - Deadline of Jan. 14th, 2026 #AbSciCon26

Applications due for the Extraterrestrial Materials Academy are due Jan. 16, 2026. The academy is scheduled for June 8th to Aug. 15th, 2026, at LPI in Houston, and is designed for undergraduates not studying at R1 institutions. www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/etm...

Registration is open for the AAS Exoplanet Atmospheres 2026 meeting, taking place in Denver from March 16-20, 2026. Abstracts are due Dec. 19th, 2025. aas.org/meetings/exo...

Check out this recent paper published in Nature Communications titled "Abiotic N2 reduction in submarine hydrothermal systems could quickly fertilize prebiotic oceans" www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The 5th ISSOL online seminar will be held tomorrow, November 18th, at 13.00 UTC. If you are a member, follow the link you received in your email to attend, or consider subscribing! Annual membership fees start at $20 for students. issol.org/membership/

Applications for the Astrobiology Introductory Course RED 2026 (Rencontres Exobiologiques pour Doctorants) are now open until December 14th! Apply now to attend the school in Le Teich (France), March 15-21, 2026. red-astrobiology.fr?mc_cid=eb8bb...

Travel funding opportunity alert! 💵🤑 The deadline for the Baruch Blumberg Grants in Astrobiology is November 17th, 2025. www.amphilsoc.org/grants/blumb...

In a recent episode of SETI Live, SETI Institute Deputy Director Dr. Simon Steel spoke with astronomer Dr. Melissa McClure of Leiden University about a groundbreaking discovery: the earliest stages of planet formation caught in action. 🧪 🔭 👩‍🔬 Learn more: www.seti.org/news/birth-o...

Looking for a PostDoc in Origins? The Wisconsin Center for Origins Research might be the right place for you! Apply here: wicor.wisc.edu/postdoc/

Interesting opinion article! Important discussion to be had as well. Who Decides What Is Prebiotically Plausible? The Risks of Premature Constraints in Origin-of-Life Research www.mdpi.com/3555090 #mdpilife via @Life_MDPI

A Reassessment Of The "hard-steps" Model For The Evolution Of Intelligent Life astrobiology.com/2025/10/a-re... #astrobiology

The shutdown means we can’t have an episode of Ask an Astrobiologist this month, but we can still celebrate the 24 year history of the show thus far! cosmobiota.substack.com/p/stay-curio...

Efficient direct phosphorylation of ribonucleosides by slightly soluble nickel phosphate mineral arupite, using wet/dry cycles - now published in New Journal of Chemistry pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Maybe life on Mars could be preserved in a frozen state in the martian permafrost. We should send a life detection mission to find out. www.space.com/astronomy/ma...

Curious about the latest in prebiotic chemistry? In this PCE3 Ask An Author feature, Prof. Peter Strazewski shares insights from his recent publication. Check it out here: