Alycia Weinberger, Postdoctoral Associate John Debes, and colleagues have found the first indications of complex organic molecules in the disk of red dust surrounding an eight-million-year-old star known as HR 4796A. Their findings for HR 4796A, a star in the late stages of planetary formation, suggest that the basic building blocks of life may be common in planetary systems. In the paper, which appears in the current Astrophysical Journal Letters, the group reports observations of infrared light from the star using the Near-Infrared Multi-Object Spectrometer aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. They found that the spectrum of visible and infrared light scattered by HR 4796A looks very red, the color produced by tholins—large organic carbon molecules that are common in the outer Solar System and may have been present on Earth billions of years ago as precursors to the biomolecules that made up living organisms. For more information see the CIW release.

Former Postdoctoral Associate Jonathan Aurnou, now an assistant professor at UCLA, and wife Sarah welcomed a son, Ethan Irving Aurnou, on 26 December 2007. Ethan weighed 7 lbs 4 oz. and was 20 inches long at delivery. According to Jon, his cry can reach just over 100 decibels. The family is doing well.