Student: Clare Laubenthal, Undergraduate Student in Biochemistry and Biology, University of Northern Iowa
Faculty Advisor: Joshua Sebree
Bacterial Study of Titan-Analog Aerosols
In the astrochemistry laboratory at University of Northern Iowa, our ongoing project is the creation and study of tholins. Tholins are defined as a class of heteropolymer molecules formed by a reaction of gas mixtures caused by irradiation of ultraviolet light. My project is performing a bacterial growth study using Titan-analog tholins as the sole carbon source. In order to quantitatively evaluate my results, the tholins will be made with carbon-13-spiked gases and a metabolic NMR study will be run.