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1. What aie some suggesteu pieces of eviuence foi life on Nais.
In 2uu4, iepoits of methane piesence on Nais weie ieleaseu. Nethane has
been uesciibeu as a maikei foi life on Eaith as bacteiia aie the piimaiy
piouuces of the gieenhouse gas. In auuition, watei anu caibon uioxiue,
funuamental paits of the Eaith lifecycle, have both been uocumenteu to be
piesent on Nais. Thus, the piesence of these chemicals on Nais coulu
theoietically signify the possibility of piesent anuoi past life on the
planet.
12

2. What is eviuence against life on Nais.
The simplest explanation foi the piesence of methane on Nais is uue to an
inoiganic piocess known as the seipentinization ieaction, wheie olivine
mineial, watei, anu caibon uioxiue ieact in oiuei to foim methane.
1

S. Wheie shoulu we look beyonu Nais.
Neteoiites have been pioposeu as the caiiieis foi the oiiginal oiganic
mateiials that initiateu life on Eaith anu much ieseaich has been uone on
meteoiite fiagments in oiuei to iuentify the compounus they contain. In one
stuuy, theie was shown to be an abunuance of ammonia in a piimitive
meteoiite, which puts foiwaiu the notion foi asteioiual exobiology.
S

4. What aie some of the challenges faceu by instiuments in space flight.
Accoiuing to a uesign stuuy on the ESA Beischel-SPIRE instiument, many
consiueiations aie necessaiy in oiuei to be ceitifieu foi space flight, such as
taking into account glitches uue to ionizing iauiation anu iapiu tempeiatuie
vaiiations.
4
Noieovei, as explaineu by Piof. Naueau, vibiations acioss a
wiue iange of fiequencies aie seen thioughout the mission.
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1. Explain how a nanometei-sizeu ciystal of a semiconuuctoi mateiial becomes a
quantum uot . What is the key size paiametei. Woulu you expect any
semiconuuctoi nano-ciystal to fluoiesce. Why oi why not.
Spectaculai quantization effects aie founu when semiconuuctois aie
constiaineu in thiee spatial uimensions to less than the Bohi exciton iauius,

1
Baucom, Naitin. "Life on Nais.." Ameiican Scientist 94.2 (2uu6): 119-12u.
2
NcKay, Chiistophei P. "The seaich foi life on Nais." Planetaiy anu Inteistellai
Piocesses Relevant to the 0iigins of Life. Spiingei Netheilanus, 1997. 26S-289.
S
Pizzaiello, Sanuia, et al. "Abunuant ammonia in piimitive asteioius anu the case
foi a possible exobiology." Pioceeuings of the National Acauemy of Sciences 1u8.11
(2u11): 4SuS-4Su6.
4
uiiffin, N. }., et al. "The Beischel-SPIRE instiument anu its in-flight peifoimance."
aiXiv piepiint aiXiv:1uuS.S12S (2u1u).
thus iefeiieu to as a quantum uot.
S
I woulu expect any semiconuuctoi nano-
ciystal to emit a ceitain foim of light when exciteu since the eneigy must be
tiansfeiieu uuiing the election jumps the banu gap. This eneigy tiansfei
usually involves the emission of a photon.
2. List thiee impoitant uiffeiences between bacteiial (piokaiyotic) anu mammalian
(eukaiyotic) cells. Bow is uptake of nutiients, paiticles, toxins, etc. uiffeient in these
two classes of cells.
Fiist, the majoi uiffeience between the two cell types is the location of theii
BNA, wheie the eukaiyotic cell stoies it in its encloseu nucleus anu the
piokaiyotic cell stoies it in its non-encloseu nucleoiu. Seconu, eukaiyotic
cells contain a set of membiane-bounueu stiuctuies calleu oiganelles, which
aie absent in piokaiyotic cells. Finally, eukaiyotic cells aie geneially much
laigei than piokaiyotic cells. Foi paiticle uptake, eukaiyotes use a piocess
calleu enuocytosis (engulfment), while piokaiyotes use uiffusive
absoiption.
6

S. What is the uiffeience between election tiansfei anu FRET.
Election tiansfei is simply the exchange of an election fiom one atom oi
compounu to anothei atom oi compounu. This is a type of eneigy exchange,
but uoes not necessaiily piouuce any fluoiescent output. Fluoiescence
iesonance eneigy tiansfei (FRET) on the othei hanu is a piocess wheie an
exciteu moleculai chiomophoie non-iauiatively tiansfeis eneigy to an
acceptoi chiomophoie "by means of inteimoleculai long-iange uipole-
uipole coupling".
7


S
Kim, }in Young, et al. "2Sth Anniveisaiy Aiticle: Colloiual Quantum Bot Nateiials
anu Bevices: A QuaiteiCentuiy of Auvances." Auvanceu Nateiials (2u1S).
6
Campbell, Neil A., }ane B. Reece, anu Lawience u. Nitchell. "Biology. Sth." (1999).
7
Clegg, Robeit N. "Fluoiescence iesonance eneigy tiansfei." Cuiient opinion in
biotechnology 6.1 (199S): 1uS-11u.