Hello everyone, I'm a biologist who is interested in the astrobiology and microbiology. I want to study master degree in microbiology and emphasize the thesis project in astrobiology. However I have never worked in something related with that, I lack of experience in that fields. On the other hand, a preview of the project is a requisite to apply for scholarships and study the postgraduate course in any university in the world.Recently I finished the latest book of microbiology of brock, also i have read books of astroiology, and papers, with them i got many ideas to research. However most of them require special devices which are able to simulate extraterrestrial enviroments such as venus, mars, etc. I'm living in Australia and apparently none of the universities in the country has this kind of machine. In addition to this, the development of one of this devices are too expensive and needs specialized personal to be constructed. So I had to read more about anothers possibilities and I got more ideas. But searching for papers, I noticed that always someone has already do the same (sometimes with differents kind of methods that I tought ). Am I being too exigent with me trying to do something unique, new and original? what can I do? it doesnt matter how much I try getting new ideas of research, always looks that someone already do the same. I'm stuck and out of ideas and time.
Thank you for read, I'll appreciate any advice.
Kind regards
I did a Masters and PhD in study fields completely foreign to my original training, so you can do anything! :)
You could contact, for example, the European Space Agency looking for ideas. The ESA has in past worked on astrobiology. www.esa.int
Hi Andrés, all good?
So, I think that you can do some things. First of all, you read the papers of your interest field, that papers have authors, right? Search this author, send an email about your interest (just send for one author/professor at time), something simple, just say you "are interested in this field, you want to learn more and do some research in X, Y, and Z techniques for A, B, C purposes", etc., etc. Some of these authors are professors in universities and can show you a way to go. Another way is to search the universities that work on astrobiology, see the lines of research, the researchers and professors that work there... etc. and, this will open more the way to you. And, if none of them are available in Australia, well, go for the world! It's a challenge, but, it is good for you. Nothing is more satisfying than work with what you like.
I think in this way you will mature your thesis idea, do some interactions with people that work in this field, and know more universities that you can go to study and work.
I was also quite interested in astrobiology in the recent past. While I completely agree with other answers, if you want a simple idea for example, I tried to design an approach to emulate microgravity effect on microorganisms in earth in order to understand expression differences in detail. Obviously, there may or may not be relevant studies to this. I personally think astrobiology is re emerging as an interdisciplinary approach in contrast to the past and you should build your repertoire with such as physics, synthetic biology and material engineering. As a Master's candidate myself, I hope you can find the best track for your thesis.
Astrobiology need prerequest courses about space microbiology,microbiology in general both theory and practical to facilitate your research which fillfull the request of MS.C thesis.
Hey Andrés,
I´m not a biologist, but writing my bachelor thesis at the moment. It´s about the intestinal microbiome and written like a review because I don´t have to do research. This topic is very interesting. Maybe you find something related you want to write about? In Germany there is an Phrase: "You don´t have to reinvent the wheel". You can just do what others did before. And if you in Australia do exaclty what others did before in Europe it´s still unique enough and a valueable contribution to science.
Regards,
Irina
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