Penelope Boston
{{short description|American speleologist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Penelope Boston
| image = Penelope Boston lecturing on Subsurface Astrobiology Cave Habitats on Earth, Mars, and Beyond.webp
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| caption = Boston lecturing on Astrobiology
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| workplaces = National Cave and Karst Research Institute
NASA Astrobiology Institute
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| alma_mater = University of Colorado Boulder
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| thesis_year = 1985
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| website = {{URL|www.ees.nmt.edu/pboston/}}
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Penelope J. Boston is a speleologist and astrobiologist. She was associate director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute in Carlsbad, New Mexico, along with founding and directing the Cave and Karst Studies Program at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro. Among her research interests are geomicrobiology of caves and mines, extraterrestrial speleogenesis, and space exploration and astrobiology generally.
In the mid-1980s, Boston (then a graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder) was one of the founders of the Mars Underground and helped organize a series of conferences called The Case for Mars. She was the last director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute before the Institute was suspended.{{cite web|author=NASA Astrobiology Institute|url=https://nai.nasa.gov/articles/2019/12/20/the-nasa-astrobiology-institute-to-end-its-20-year-tenure/|title=The NASA Astrobiology Institute Concludes Its 20-year Tenure|publisher=NASA}}
Biography
She has a B.S. in microbiology, geology, and psychology, and a M.S. in microbiology and atmospheric chemistry. She completed her Ph.D. from University of Colorado Boulder in 1985. During 2002–2004, she was Principal Investigator on the Caves of Mars Project, which, among other things, studied the effects on mice of an atmosphere rich in argon, and "flat crops" that might be grown in Martian caves.
She developed the concept of small jumping robots for Mars exploration. She gave a TEDtalk about the likelihood of life on Mars in 2006.
Her interest is in extremophiles (organisms which prefer or thrive in the extremes of altitude, cold, darkness, dryness, heat, mineralized environments, pressure, radiation, vacuum, variability, or weightlessness) which may be found in caves and karst on Earth, and she thinks should be looked for in equivalents of other objects in space from asteroids to planets.
An only child of theatrical parents, she writes poetry reflective of her world travel and uncommon specialty. In 2010 she was featured in Symphony of Science. She continues to work with NASA on the Atacama Field Expedition.
Bibliography
- {{Cite book |last1=Schneider |first1=Stephen H. |last2=Boston |first2=Penelope J. |title=Scientists on Gaia |publisher=MIT Press |location=Boston, MA |isbn=978-0-262-69160-4 |year=1993 |url=https://archive.org/details/scientistsongaia0000unse }}
- {{Cite book |last=Boston |first=Penelope |title=The Case for Mars V: proceedings of the fifth Case for Mars Conference |publisher=Univelt (for the American Astronautical Society) |location=University of Colorado, Boulder |isbn=978-0-87703-459-9 |year=2000}}; held May 26–29, 1993, at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado.
- {{Cite book |last=Boston |first=Penelope |title=The Case for Mars: proceedings of a conference held April 29-May 2, 1981 at University of Colorado Boulder (Science and Technology Series) |publisher=American Astronautical Society |isbn=978-0-87703-197-0 |date=April 1984}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|refs=
{{Cite news |first=Gregg |last=Easterbrook |authorlink=Gregg Easterbrook |title=Possibility of mission to Mars has many obstacles to success |newspaper=Palm Beach Post |location=Palm Beach, FL |page=6E |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FRUuAAAAIBAJ&pg=1217,1386998&dq=penelope+boston+case-for-mars&hl=en |date=1986-09-03 |accessdate=2010-07-01}}
{{Cite web | last = Markey | first = Sean | title = Mars's Next Explorers: Jumping, Baseball-Size Robots? | work = National Geographic News | publisher = National Geographic | date = 2006-07-24 | url = http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/07/060724-mars-robots.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060813123400/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/07/060724-mars-robots.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = August 13, 2006 | accessdate = 2010-07-01}}
{{Cite web | title = Penelope Boston says there might be life on Mars | work = TED (conference) | publisher = The Sapling Foundation | year = 2006 | url = http://www.ted.com/talks/penelope_boston.html | accessdate = 2010-07-01}}
{{Cite web | last = Plait | first = Phil | authorlink = Phil Plait | title = The Symphonic Case for Mars | work = Bad Astronomy (blog) | publisher = Discover | date = 2010-06-09 | url = http://mblogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/tag/penelope-boston/ | accessdate = 2010-07-01}}
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External links
- Prof. Boston's [http://www.ees.nmt.edu/pboston/ homepage] at New Mexico Tech
- {{Cite web
| title = Penelope J. Boston
| work = Spaceward Bound! Planning and Executing Planetary Analog Field Expeditions: Atacama Field Expedition
| publisher = NASA
| year = 2006
| url = http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/spacewardbound/atacama2006/bios/Penelope_Boston.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060929215038/http://quest.nasa.gov/projects/spacewardbound/atacama2006/bios/Penelope_Boston.html
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 2006-09-29
| accessdate = 2010-07-01 }}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20011116224242/http://www2.nature.nps.gov/nckri/ National Cave and Karst Research Institute] of the U.S. National Park Service
- {{Cite web
| last = David | first = Leonard
| title = Fossil Hunting on Mars
| publisher = CNN | url = http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/03/17/creature.features/index.html
| date = 2004-03-17 | accessdate = 2010-07-01 }}
- {{Cite web
| last = Duncan | first = Argen
| title = N.M. Tech researchers study theory of life on Mars
| publisher = El Defensor Chieftain | location = Socorro, New Mexico | url = http://www.dchieftain.com/news/76046-11-24-07.html
| archive-url = https://archive.today/20070514024239/http://www.dchieftain.com/news/76046-11-24-07.html
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = May 14, 2007
| date = November 24, 2007 | accessdate = 2010-07-01
}}
- {{IMDb name|3573534}}
- {{TED speaker}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boston, Penelope}}
Category:American astrobiologists
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:American women geologists
Category:American speleologists
Category:University of Colorado Boulder alumni
Category:New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology faculty
Category:20th-century American geologists
Category:21st-century American geologists
Category:20th-century American women scientists