The Atlantis Astrobiology Research Institute [AARI] Turns 1 Year Old Today

The Atlantis Astrobiology Research Institute, a small private organization is celebrating it's first anniversary today: atlantis-astrobiology.blogspot.com... Apparently, it was first started as a virtual institute in Massachusetts but later moved to Canada. It was started up by a NASA Astrobiology Institute PhD student at the University of Wisconsin.

They've been doing a lot of fundraising over the last few months to buy lab equipment and reagents and I think it's really terrific that someone besides the big space agencies are getting involved for a change. Astrobiology, as a field, is horribly under-funded so perhaps having someone take a grassroots approach is long overdue. Since they seem to get their funding from some rather nontraditional sources, I hope they decide to approach the question of life's origins from a fresh perspective. The field has made consistent progress in a slow & steady fashion but I often wonder if it's because of all the red tape that's involved in government and academic settings.

At any rate, Happy Birthday, AARI!

Wow! Did I pick the wrong audience or what? I figured that UFOs and Nibiru were a high priority here but where's the interest when it comes to real science? I thought there would be a few people who might be interested since I've seen some heating discussions here about the origins of life but I guess it's just not as controversial (interesting) enough to warrant a response. Too bad. I'd say that's a pretty telling sign for the future of astrobiology.

It's a pretty nice site with good videos. I only just begun looking at it.

The idea of making small group of serious people to do research is very good. However, I feel that the name of their organization won't help them look serious. I mean, what does atlantis have to do with astrobiology and space exploration ... or was this a fan site for the tv series ?!?

A lot of companies are named after Atlantis so I wouldn't get too hung up on the name. It may have been chosen because their geographical base of operations was in flux. Instead of naming it after the town/city, etc. they called it something more neutral (perhaps with some ideal in mind). I can understand why they wouldn't have named it after a planet/celestial body because life hasn't yet been discovered there (presumptuous). Nobody wants to be wrong, after all!

Naming it for it's previous location may not have been convenient if they expected to move and naming it after the next, when they were still in the first wouldn't have made any sense at all. On top of that, the founder seems to be doing double-duty in Madison, WI... so there's 3 different locations. Retaining just a single name is far less confusing. I don't know what I would have picked if it had been my choice but these, I would have ruled out.

Although, I can understand where you're coming from, given what "Atlantis" generally implies on a site like ATS! Here, it's either some technologically-advanced, lost utopia, Plato's creation or on the planet Atlantia in the Pegasus Galaxy (yes, I watch Stargate Atlantis too).