Welcome to ASTBIO115, a survey of the field of Astrobiology for non-science majors. 

Professor                    W.T. (Woody) Sullivan, PAB C318 (543-7773, woody at astro.washington.edu)

 

Teaching Assistant    Jeff Bowman, MSB 362 (543-4911, bowmanjs at u.washington.edu)

 

Astronomy Office      (for messages, section changes, etc.): PAB C319 (543-2888)

 

Lectures                     MWF  12:30-3:20 in Chem Lib  015

 

Sections                      TuTh, in PAB A212

                                    AA (12:30) and AB (1:30)

 

Office Hours              Woody: F 1:30 or drop by 

                                    Jeff: M 1:30-2:30, W 9:45-10:45 PAB C337

 Required Text           Life in the Universe (2nd Ed., 2007) by J. Bennett & S. Shostak

                                   

November 6 2009, 3:26 PM

Some important announcements...

The quiz will not  be held this coming Thursday.  Instead it will be held on Tuesday, November 17. 

Homework 3 is posted and is due Tuesday the 10th (along with the second half of the spectroscopy lab).

All of these changes are reflected in an updated syllabus under the link at left.

The in progress grades are posted under the link at left.  Assignment received but not graded are marked "in".  Not on the grade report are EC, the ID debate, and the spectrocopy lab.  If you notice any errors on the sheet let me know immediately.

November 5 2009, 11:10 AM

The lecture for topic 10, the history of life is now posted. 

November 3 2009, 10:15 AM

The 2nd spectroscopy lab is now posted, along with the required reading.

November 2 2009, 1:56 PM

For lab tomorrow we will meet at the botany greenhouse.  Space is tight inside so place your coats and backpacks on the metal rack when you enter.  The greenhouse is going to some lengths to accomodate us and you will need the entire class period to do the lab, so please make every effort to arrive on time.

October 30 2009, 9:02 PM

The spectroscopy lab is now posted for those of you who made arrangements to make it up.

October 27 2009, 4:47 PM

Entry title

The origin of life lecture has been posted under the lectures link. 

Today's lab will be due next Tuesday.  You will need some of the numbers you generated today for next week's lab, so please be sure to bring it with you.

October 26 2009, 10:26 PM

Quiz 2 review has been posted under the link at left.

October 23 2009, 9:09 PM

Homework 2 has been posted.  It is due next Tuesday and is a little longer than Homework 1, so give yourself time...

October 23 2009, 6:28 PM

New lectures posted.

October 20 2009, 7:59 PM

Thursday's lab was been posted under the link at left.  If you missed class today make sure that you complete the Darwin and ID assignment before class on Thursday.  The assignment is due at the start of Thursday's lab.  As always, please type your write up.

October 19 2009, 9:29 AM

We will meet for lab on Tuesday, October 20 in OTB 206.  This is the same room that we met in before.

October 14 2009, 2:21 PM

Topic 4 and 5 slides have been uploaded along with an updated quiz 1 review sheet.  We will review homework 1 before the quiz tomorrow, come prepared with any questions.

October 12 2009, 6:09 PM

Tomorrow's lab will be held in the Ocean Teaching Building (OTB) room 206.  This is the large concrete building next to the Jensen Motor Boat Co. and behind the Health Sciences Complex.  Please allow yourself plenty of time to get there as we have a lot to do and will need to start on time.

You will find it useful to review the characteristics of life as presented in your text.

October 12 2009, 8:42 AM

The lab mini-lectures and a quiz 1 review quide have been posted, see the links at left.

October 9 2009, 4:13 PM

Homework 1 has been posted and is due October 13 in lab.  We aim to post the remaining lab notes and a preliminary (subject to change) review sheet for the quiz by Sunday evening.

October 8 2009, 10:49 PM

Lectures posted through topic 3.  We are currently working on getting the lab mini lectures posted (sometime over the weekend).  Keep your eye out for the homework (due this coming Tuesday) which should be posted by tomorrow everning at the latest.

October 7 2009, 3:15 PM

See the following announcement from Woody...

Very late Thu. night (or very early Fri. morn) NASA will be crashing a spent rocket booster into a polar crater on the moon, in order to create a huge plume of moon-stuff in order to study its spectrum and see what it's made of, in particular how much water might be present.

If you want to watch, here are the details (you can of course also see some of the recorded action later on Friday). NASA TV coverage begins at 3:15 am PDT, and the main action is ~4:30-4:40.

Go to http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Breaking.html

and click on "Watch NASA TV" on the left -T

OR the Exploratorium, a first-rate science museum in San Francisco, will be providing a webcast at:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/webcasts/

Two articles with many more details, part of which I've also inserted below.

http://spaceflightnow.com/lcross/091005preview/

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/63460127.html

October 5 2009, 8:26 PM

Details for the extra credit assignment have been posted, see the link at left.  Pdfs for the labs and homeworks will soon be available via the appropriate links.

September 30 2009, 8:41 PM

One additional note on grading... there will be 1 extra credit opportunity this quarter.  If you attend one of the (excellent) evening public lectures sponsored by the Astrobiology Program this quarter at Kane Hall and turn in a writeup you will receive some extra credit.  Woody will supply additional details, but I mention it now because the first lecture is coming up on October 6.  The series schedule can be found at the end of the posted Lecture 1 slides.

September 29 2009, 10:09 AM

All sections of Intro to Astrobiology are now full.  Some overloads will be allowed.  If you would like an add code you must come to the first class and email the TA (Jeff) with your reasons for wanting an add code (ie I really like astrobiology). 

September 15 2009, 12:02 PM

The first day of class is Wednesday, September 30.  The class website is under construction, check back as we continue to add information...