Science
Algae here, alien life out there — Cal State L.A.-JPL partnership connects engineers to astrobiology
When Erika Flores applied for an internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2014, she wasn’t quite sure if her undergraduate work in environmental science fit at a place known for work much farther afield.
“I wanted to fix our planet,” Flores said recently. “I didn’t really imagine myself studying outer space.”
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Not only did she land the internship at the La Cañada Flintridge institution’s Origins and Habitability Laboratory, but her contribution there also launched an ongoing partnership between the civil engineering department at Cal State Los Angeles and a lab dedicated to understanding how life begins.
“I did not see myself in an astrobiology lab,” Flores said from her office at the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, where she has worked since 2023 as an engineering associate.
But as it turns out, understanding how microorganisms came to be in Earth’s water is valuable knowledge to those tasked with cleansing that supply today, her mentor at JPL said.
“There’s a lot of overlap between wastewater and astrobiology,” said Laurie Barge, a JPL scientist who co-leads the Origins and Habitability Laboratory with research scientist Jessica Weber. “Sounds weird, but it’s true.”
Laurie Barge, a JPL scientist, speaks to interns inside the Origins and Habitability Laboratory at JPL.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
This symmetry between the biology of our home planet and more distant worlds has led to a partnership between Barge and Weber’s lab and that of Flores’ former advisor Arezoo Khodayari, an associate professor of civil engineering at Cal State L.A.
After nearly a decade of collaboration, Barge and Khodayari recently received a grant from NASA that will cover up to six internships in the lab for Khodayari’s students over the next two years.
The award is one of 11 that NASA’s Science Mission Directorate made to universities that have not traditionally been part of the pipeline that brings new scientists to the space agency.
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1. Cal State L.A. students Julia Chavez, left, and Cathy Trejo conduct an experiment that simulates oceans on early Earth and possibly other planets. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
“We are intentionally increasing equitable access to NASA for the best and brightest talents in our nation,” said Shahra Lambert, NASA senior advisor for engagement, in a statement.
The two scientists connected through Flores who, with Barge’s encouragement, decided to go for a master’s degree at Cal State L.A. during her Origins and Habitability Laboratory internship.
While Khodayari’s research in Cal State L.A.’s Environmental Sustainability and Pollution Control lab focuses on managing contaminants here on Earth, she and Barge immediately saw parallels with the Origins and Habitability lab’s exploration of the conditions that could give rise to life across the universe.
“The fate of these chemicals in an aqueous environment is relevant for both fields,” Khodayari said. “All of these different projects have chemistry in common.”
After the success of Flores’ internship, the two scientists started looking for ways to introduce planetary science to students who might not have considered it as part of their training, and lacked access to the tools necessary for sophisticated research.
Arezoo Khodayari of Cal State L.A. has collaborated with JPL for years to bring interns to the Southern California NASA center.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Eduardo Martinez was studying for a master’s in civil engineering in 2018 when Khodayari called him into her office and asked if he’d be interested in working for JPL.
“I was kind of taken aback a little bit,” recalled Martinez, who was born in Mexico and grew up in Los Angeles. “I was like — ‘JPL? Like, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory?’ ”
He was hooked immediately. As a civil engineering student, Martinez had been interested in how phosphorus and nitrogen affect water quality, leading to algal blooms and low oxygen levels when discharged in high quantities into freshwater. During the internship, he was a lead author on a research paper with Barge, Khodayari and others on how nitrates react with iron compounds in aqueous environments.
His work at the Origins and Habitability lab showed him that the same elements also play a crucial role in forming and sustaining life, and thus are a key point of interest for NASA astrobiologists. “I had not made that link before, and it was just fascinating to see,” Martinez said.
The experience inspired him to pursue a doctorate in geoscience at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His research there focuses on how certain isotope compositions in clay minerals could indicate past life in samples brought back from Mars.
Julia Chavez and Cathy Trejo high-five at JPL. They are two of several students from Cal State L.A. who are interning at JPL’s Origins and Habitability Laboratory.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Since Flores’ initial crossover from environmental science to space, five Cal State L.A. students have done internships at the JPL lab. The NASA grant will speed up that pipeline, introducing more students to research opportunities that may not otherwise have crossed their paths.
This summer, interns Julia Chavez and Cathy Trejo donned goggles and white lab coats to inject fluids into an iron chloride solution. The experiment replicates the reaction between seawater and the stuff that comes up through hydrothermal vents — an energy source for life on Earth, and a possible mechanism by which organisms first developed here.
“Five or six years ago, I didn’t really envision myself in research,” said Chavez, who completed her master’s degree this year. “Being here, I couldn’t imagine a different path.”
Our universe might be chock-full of cosmic wonder, but you can observe only a fraction of astronomical phenomena with the naked eye. Meteor showers, natural fireworks that streak brightly across the night sky, are one of them.
The latest observable meteor shower will be the Lyrids, which has been active since April 14 and is forecast to continue through April 30. The shower reaches its peak April 21 to 22, or Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
According to NASA, the Lyrids are one of the oldest known meteor showers, and have been enjoyed by stargazers for nearly 3,000 years. Their bright, speedy streaks are caused by the dusty debris from a comet named Thatcher. They appear to spring from the constellation Lyra, which right now can be seen in the eastern sky at night in the Northern Hemisphere.
The moon will be about 27 percent full tonight, appearing as a thick crescent in the sky, according to the American Meteor Society.
To get a hint at when to best watch for the Lyrids, you can use this tool, which relies on data from the Global Meteor Network. It shows fireball activity levels in real time.
And while you gaze at the heavens, keep an eye out for other stray meteors streaking across the night sky. Skywatchers are reporting that the amount of fireballs is double what is usually seen by this point in the year.
Where meteor showers come from
There is a chance you might see a meteor on any given night, but you are most likely to catch one during a shower. Meteor showers are caused by Earth passing through the rubble trailing a comet or asteroid as it swings around the sun. This debris, which can be as small as a grain of sand, leaves behind a glowing stream of light as it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Meteor showers occur around the same time every year and can last for days or weeks. But there is only a small window when each shower is at its peak, which happens when Earth reaches the densest part of the cosmic debris. The peak is the best time to look for a shower. From our point of view on Earth, the meteors will appear to come from the same point in the sky.
The Perseid meteor shower, for example, peaks in mid-August from the constellation Perseus. The Geminids, which occur every December, radiate from the constellation Gemini.
How to watch a meteor shower
Michelle Nichols, the director of public observing at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, recommends forgoing the use of telescopes or binoculars while watching a meteor shower.
“You just need your eyes and, ideally, a dark sky,” she said.
That’s because meteors can shoot across large swaths of the sky, so observing equipment can limit your field of view.
Some showers are strong enough to produce up to 100 streaks an hour, according to the American Meteor Society, though you probably won’t see that many.
“Almost everybody is under a light-polluted sky,” Ms. Nichols said. “You may think you’re under a dark sky, but in reality, even in a small town, you can have bright lights nearby.”
Planetariums, local astronomy clubs or even maps like this one can help you figure out where to go to escape excessive light. The best conditions for catching a meteor shower are a clear sky with no moon or cloud cover, sometime between midnight and sunrise. (Moonlight affects visibility in the same way as light pollution, washing out fainter sources of light in the sky.) Make sure to give your eyes at least 30 minutes to adjust to seeing in the dark.
Ms. Nichols also recommends wearing layers, even during the summer. “You’re going to be sitting there for quite a while, watching,” she said. “It’s going to get chilly, even in August.”
Bring a cup of cocoa or tea for even more warmth. Then lie back, scan the sky and enjoy the show.
Where weather is least likely to affect your view
Storm systems sweep across the country in early spring, and some will be obscuring skies tonight. But there will still be plenty of areas with clear skies, particularly in parts of the central United States.
“The best spot is going to be in the Upper Midwest,” said Rich Bann, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center.
Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa will offer especially good sky-viewing weather and a beach on the Great Lakes could be a nice spot to look up at the stars.
But don’t expect to view the show from Chicago, as Illinois could see some thunderstorms. The weather will be better in the Northern and Central Plains, particularly the eastern Dakotas.
High, wispy clouds are expected over the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys and into parts of the Mid-Atlantic. But, Mr. Bann said, “you may be able to see some shooting stars through thin clouds.”
Clouds will be draped across much of the Southeast and the Northeast, though there could be some clearing in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia. Remember, the meteors could be visible all night long. If you look outside and see clouds, try again later.
Catching the spectacle will be challenging across much of the West, particularly from Washington into Northern California, where a storm system is bringing rain and snow. That system will move east overnight.
There are likely to be some pockets of clear skies at times across southern Nevada, northwest Arizona and southwest Utah, Mr. Bann said.
Amy Graff contributed reporting.
WASHINGTON — Amid growing national security concerns, the FBI said Tuesday that it has launched a broad investigation in the deaths or disappearances of at least 10 scientists and staff connected to highly sensitive research, including four from the Los Angeles area.
“The FBI is spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists. We are working with the Department of Energy, Department of War, and with our state and state and local law enforcement partners to find answers,” the agency said in a statement.
The FBI’s announcement comes after the House Oversight Committee announced that it would investigate reports of the disappearance and deaths of the scientists, sending letters seeking information from the agencies involved in the federal inquiry as well as NASA, which owns the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, where three of the missing or dead scientists worked.
“If the reports are accurate, these deaths and disappearances may represent a grave threat to U.S. national security and to U.S. personnel with access to scientific secrets,” Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the committee, and Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) wrote in the letters.
President Trump told reporters last week that he had been briefed on the missing and dead scientists, which he described as “pretty serious stuff.” He said at the time that he expected answers on whether the deaths were connected “in the next week and a half.”
Michael David Hicks, who studied comets and asteroids at JPL, was the first of the scientists who disappeared or died. He died on July 30, 2023, at the age of 59. No cause of death was disclosed.
A year later, JPL physicist Frank Maiwald died at 61, with no cause of death disclosed.
Two other Los Angeles scientists are part of the string of deaths and disappearances.
On June 22, 2025, Monica Jacinto Reza, a materials scientist at JPL, disappeared while on a hike near Mt. Waterman in the San Gabriel Mountains.
On Feb. 16, Caltech astrophysicist Carl Grillmair was fatally shot on the porch of his Llano home. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department arrested Freddy Snyder, 29, in connection with the shooting. Snyder had been arrested in December on suspicion of trespassing on Grillmair’s property.
Snyder has been charged with murder.
There is no evidence at this point that the deaths and disappearances, which occurred over a span of four years, are connected.
A spokesperson for NASA, which owns JPL, said in a statement on X that the agency is “coordinating and cooperating with the relevant agencies in relation to the missing scientists.
“At this time, nothing related to NASA indicates a national security threat,” agency spokesperson Bethany Stevens wrote. “The agency is committed to transparency and will provide more information as able.”
Representatives from Caltech, which manages JPL, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The sun had barely risen over the Pacific Ocean when a small motorboat carrying a team of Indigenous artisans and Mexican biologists dropped anchor in a rocky cove near Bahías de Huatulco.
Mauro Habacuc Avendaño Luis, one of the craftsmen, was the first to wade to shore. With an agility belying his age, he struck out over the boulders exposed by low tide. Crouching on a slippery ledge pounded by surf, he reached inside a crevice between two rocks. There, lodged among the urchins, was a snail with a knobby gray shell the size of a walnut. The sight might not dazzle tourists who travel here to see humpback whales, but for Mr. Avendaño, 85, these drab little mollusks represent a way of life.
Marine snails in the genus Plicopurpura are sacred to the Mixtec people of Pinotepa de Don Luis, a small town in southwestern Oaxaca. Men like Mr. Avendaño have been sustainably “milking” them for radiant purple dye for at least 1,500 years. The color suffuses Mixtec textiles and spiritual beliefs. Called tixinda, it symbolizes fertility and death, as well as mythic ties between lunar cycles, women and the sea.
The future of these traditions — and the fate of the snails — are uncertain. The mollusks are subject to intense poaching pressure despite federal protections intended to protect them. Fishermen break them (and the other mollusks they eat) open and sell the meat to local restaurants. Tourists who comb the beaches pluck snails off the rocks and toss them aside.
A severe earthquake in 2020 thrust formerly submerged parts of their habitat above sea level, fatally tossing other mollusks in the snail’s food web to the air, and making once inaccessible places more available to poachers.
Decades ago, dense clusters of snails the size of doorknobs were easy to find, according to Mr. Avendaño. “Full of snails,” he said, sweeping a calloused, violet-stained hand across the coves. Now, most of the snails he finds are small, just over an inch, and yield only a few milliliters of dye.
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