UC Davis’ Dawn Sumner studies microbes in Antarctic lakes to uncover how early life helped oxygenate Earth, and what it means for life on our planet and beyond.

A group of researchers, including some from UC Davis, have received a three-year, $2,999,998 grant from NASA to identify and characterize life and its biosignatures in frozen sand dunes in Alaska, under conditions similar to dune fields on early Mars and Saturn’s moon Titan.