March General Meeting:

 

 

NASA's LUCY Mission and Outreach Initiatives in the Discovery Class Mission Era

 

Lucy Manlick volunteered for NASA's LUCY mission as a student ambassador from 2022-2024, while operating as a NASA L'Space program mentor and leadership intern in astrobiology and planetary geology. Lucy has her BA in biology and geology from Mount Holyoke College, and is reaching the completion of her MS in Marine biology at UMass-Dartmouth, after which she will be attending the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad, CA. Lucy has spent years volunteering with the LUCY mission and it's affiliated student and professional development pipeline programs, and is excited to share the mission and it's initiatives with the club!

 

 

 

 

 

Pebble Pups:

 

 

 "The Perfect Lagerstatte"
 
We have had several fossil presentations about fossil lagerstattes or places where unique fossil preservation and soft parts are found, but is there a lagerstatte that preserves vital parts like internal organs, proteins and DNA? Well I am sure almost everyone has seen one or several of the Jurassic Park films of how paleontologist collected DNA from mosquitoes encapsulated in fossil amber from the Jurassic and recreated living dinosaurs. Actually some of these Mesozoic body fluids have been revived, but DNA does not survive long periods of time. We will look at how Amber forms, how it varies from Copal and what really has been entombed in this almost perfect burial process.
Hope to see everyone there and bring a show-and-tell specimen for all to see.
Tom