{"id":1176,"date":"2021-12-17T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/profile-searching-for-the-origins-of-life\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T20:16:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T03:16:21","slug":"profile-searching-for-the-origins-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/profile-searching-for-the-origins-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Profile: Searching for the Origins of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3603-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3603-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"Profile: Searching for the Origins of Life\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Alumni Laurie Barge and Scott Perl outside the building housing the Origins and Habitability Lab they co-lead at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Mike Glier)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=alumni\">Alumni<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>Profile: Searching for the Origins of Life<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Alumni Laurie Barge \u201909 and Scott Perl \u201919 co-lead a laboratory at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. There, they search for the origins of life on Earth to better understand how life might develop elsewhere in the universe. <strong>[5\u00bd min read]<\/strong>\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Margaret Crable<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">December 17, 2021<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span 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   \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>Scott Perl \u201919 is nearly a mile beneath the Earth\u2019s surface, crunching through the tunnels of the Boulby Underground Laboratory on England\u2019s North Yorkshire coast. He\u2019s gathering salt \u2014 250-million-year-old salt, to be precise.<\/p>\n<p>Boulby was dug into an ancient sea bed, where layers of salty sediment keep a record of the chemistry of past life. At the end of his trip, Perl will ship hundreds of pounds of briny sand back to his lab in California, where he\u2019ll examine it for chemical signatures of ancient microbial life and to determine how long that evidence might have survived \u2014 an important factor when looking for signs of life on other planets.<\/p>\n<p>His briny samples will share storage space with specimens from another extreme environment: deep-sea vents. Perl\u2019s laboratory partner and fellow USC Dornsife Ph.D. graduate, Laurie Barge \u201909, is researching fluid and minerals gathered from ocean floor vents that bubble 200 miles off the coast of southern Oregon.<\/p>\n<p>The duo co-leads the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/origins-habitability.jpl.nasa.gov\/#:~:text=Welcome%20to%20the%20Origins%20and%20Habitability%20Laboratory!&amp;text=Our%20group%20consists%20of%20geologists,the%20outer%20planets%2C%20and%20exoplanets.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Origins and Habitability Lab<\/a>\u00a0at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. They research how life formed on Earth to better understand how life might form on other planets. This means important lab collaborators are working \u201coff-world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can analyze samples in our lab using instrument techniques similar to the instruments on the Mars rovers,\u201d says Perl. Their lab can also mimic the environments of other planets, helping scientists determine the best methods for how to look for life on other worlds.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Barge and Perl were space enthusiasts from an early age. They grew up watching\u00a0<em>Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/em>\u00a0and dreamed of exploring the universe. Both enrolled as undergraduates with the goal of eventually working at NASA.<\/p>\n<p>As Barge began studying astronomy and astrophysics at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, she found herself increasingly drawn to the question of where life on Earth came from, and whether there might be life elsewhere in the universe.<\/p>\n<p>She enrolled at USC Dornsife to pursue a Ph.D. in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/earth\/\">geological sciences<\/a>\u00a0after discovering the research of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/cf\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty.cfm?pid=1003571\">Ken Nealson<\/a>, who was using geobiology to search for life\u00a0on other planets. Nealson, now Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences, became her doctoral adviser.<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: bold;\" cite=\"\"><p>\u201cHow I worked with my adviser at USC Dornsife is how I work with my students here in the lab.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe department was wonderful; it really paid attention to students. I enjoyed having the freedom to explore astrobiology and biosignatures research for my thesis, and to also work at JPL part time as an intern, both of which led to my eventual postdoctoral research at JPL,\u201d says Barge.<\/p>\n<p>Perl graduated from State University of New York at Stony Brook with degrees in geology and material science, then accepted a job at JPL. He selected USC Dornsife for his geological sciences and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/geobiology.usc.edu\/\">geobiology<\/a>\u00a0Ph.D. program because of its flexibility for working students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was looking for a department that was small enough that I could have face time with my adviser and where I wouldn\u2019t be treated differently because I was already full time at JPL,\u201d says Perl. \u201cUSC and JPL have a strong professional network.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barge and Perl met while working at JPL on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mars.nasa.gov\/mro\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter<\/a>\u00a0mission, a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, and struck up a friendship. They were working as investigation\u00a0scientists for instruments aboard the craft \u2014 Barge for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and Perl for the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM). The HiRISE camera snaps images and helps find landing sites for future missions while CRISM maps mineral residue that appears where water once existed.<\/p>\n<p>Barge and Perl didn\u2019t realize at first that they were both USC Dornsife alumni or that they had attended the same astrobiology summer school in Spain, just one year apart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s funny, you can have the same life path as someone but never meet,\u201d says Barge.<\/p>\n<p>The two eventually decided to join forces and combined their individual labs into one.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe realized there were many benefits of sharing leadership of a research group,\u201d explains Perl.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SALT AND SEAS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now they spend their days trying to unravel one of the most complex conundrums in astrobiology \u2014 how life began on our planet and how it can thrive on other solar system bodies. They use Earth field sites as test beds and analogous laboratory experiments to recreate rock-fluid interactions that could have led to the origin of life.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a surprisingly unresolved question. Even pinpointing where life first began is hotly debated, with some researchers arguing for shallow seas while others favor the hot waters bubbling up from deep ocean vents. Perl, Barge, their students and postdocs conduct experiments that mimic various early Earth and planetary environments to understand which conditions would have been most conducive to chemistry leading to life\u2019s origin.<\/p>\n<p>They also look at samples from areas that once held life on Earth, like the sediment at Boulby, to see what traces life leaves behind. Understanding the chemical signature of past life on our planet allows scientists to look for those similar signs in the rocks they analyze on, say, Mars \u2014 or, perhaps, in the icy plumes of the ocean moons of Jupiter and Saturn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf life can emerge in deep-sea vents, then maybe it could have emerged on these ocean worlds as well, and future missions might be able to see signs of that organic chemistry,\u201d explains Barge.<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s rovers can touch down on Mars where water once stood and then scan for signs of life, or future missions could analyze plume material from the icy moons, with Barge and Perl comparing the mission data to what they see in the lab and in the field.<\/p>\n<p>The precise point at which organic compounds acquire enough complexity to sufficiently form \u201clife\u201d is also still fuzzy \u2014 an important gap in our scientific knowledge that Barge hopes to fill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to better understand the boundary between life and non-life,\u201d she says. Barge notes that planets like Mars or moons like Jupiter\u2019s Europa or Saturn\u2019s Enceladus could show evidence of organic compounds, yet it might be hard to determine if these compounds would qualify as once-living organisms.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LAB RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Along with solving pressing scientific questions, Perl and Barge are also defying stereotypes of scientists as lone geniuses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLaurie and I collaborate on everything,\u201d Perl says. \u201cWe each have our favorite science projects but we write proposals together and serve as co-mentors to all of our students. Our work is a collective.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They host a rotating crew of undergraduate and graduate students who assist with research projects or embark on their own science investigations. Barge and Perl credit USC Dornsife with helping inspire their lab group\u2019s collaborative culture, which prioritizes curiosity and long-term friendship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow I worked with my adviser at USC Dornsife is how I work with my students here in the lab,\u201d says Perl. \u201cI still talk to my thesis advisers and our students return again and again. We focus not just on science experiments and research, but also on building lifelong careers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0\u2014M.C.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/cosmic-measurements-of-gravity-support-dark-matter\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Scientists test a fundamental rule of gravity on cosmic scales \u2014 and it holds up<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/santec-usa-corporation-funds-fellowships-for-physics-research\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >New fellowship empowers future physicists to explore quantum frontier<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/why-are-some-stars-always-visible-while-others-come-and-go-with-seasons\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Why are some stars always visible while others come and go with the\u00a0seasons?<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alumni Laurie Barge \u201909 and Scott Perl \u201919 co-lead a laboratory at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. There, they search for the origins of life on Earth to better understand how life might develop elsewhere in the universe. <strong>[5\u00bd min read]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":1179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[264,323,159,322,324],"class_list":["post-1176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-alumni","tag-astrobiology","tag-earth-sciences","tag-geology","tag-ken-nealson"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Profile: Searching for the Origins of Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alumni Laurie Barge \u201909 and Scott Perl \u201919 co-lead a laboratory at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.\" \/>\n<meta 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