39 Alpha Research is named after Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. LC-39A is a billion dollar chunk of government concrete, and it is inspirational.
Conceived in the 1960s, LC-39A enabled the Apollo missions to put the first humans on the moon in 1969. Its construction required Americans to come together and build a foundation, literally, in order to open a lasting gateway to space.
Whether humans are walking on the moon, establishing an off-world outpost on Mars, or finding evidence of life in the oceans at Europa; a launchpad is integral, and obvious. LC-39A is still in use today.
At 39A Research we are not engineers, or astronauts, or rocket scientists. We practice geochemistry, physics, and biology. Our methods are mathematical, theoretical, and computational. However, foundations in the theoretical sciences can be… nebulous. By foundations we are not referring to something as literal as concrete, but instead, guiding principles. What principles and practices guide our research at the meta-scale?
After finishing our PhDs in 2019, we were just a small collection of young scientists, passionate about pure research, yet troubled by how little our future scientific careers would actually involve doing science. Thus, 39A Research was born.
NAMESAKE
What problems should we tackle? How should we fund our research? How should we balance publishing for the sake of maintaining our careers while giving novel exploration the time it requires? How should we publicize our work? How should we grow as scientists? What impact would our work leave on the Earth? On society? We needed a foundation to stand on, our own theoretical chunk of concrete.
39 ALPHA CONCRETE
Wandering is fundamental to scientific exploration. We embrace exploration for its own sake, knowing that the most transformative insights often arise when we let wonder lead the way.
Success & failure are team outcomes. Scientific careers are made or broken on publication with author precedence. Modern authorship practices in science disproportionately drive success or failure for lead authors. Better science comes from teams operating at maximum potential, where they succeed or fail together.
Scientific funding should be detached from individual ideas. The need to continuously raise money that becomes chained to preconceived ideas constrains novel scientific development.
Shuttle Launch off Pad 39A — NASA
DOUG MOORE (PHD)
TUCKER ELY (PHD)
COLE MATHIS (PHD)
ABIGAIL LEMBKE
TEAM ZERO
OPERATIONS
Experience
Research Scientist 3X 2019 - Current
39 Alpha Research
Assistant Professor 2023 - Current
School of Complex Adaptive Systems
Arizona State University
NASA Astrobiology Postdoctoral Fellow 2021-2023
Arizona State University and Santa Fe Institute
NASA Postdoctoral Fellow 2020-2023
Toner Laboratory for Low Temperature Geochemistry
University of Minnesota
Postdoctoral Research Scientist 2018-2021
Team Leader Cronin Group for Complex Chemical Systems
Department of Chemistry
University of Glasgow
Postdoctoral Research Scholar 2016-2021
Walker Lab, ELIFE
BEYOND Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science
Arizona State University
Graduate Researcher 2013-2020
Group Exploring Organic Processes in Geochemistry
School of Earth and Space Exploration
Arizona State University
Graduate Researcher 2014-2018
Walker Lab, ELIFE
School of Earth and Space Exploration
Arizona State University
Graduate Researcher 2016-2016
Group Exploring Organic Processes in Geochemistry
Complex Systems Summer School
Santa Fe Institute
Instructor 2016-2016
Sawant Lab
Department of Radiation Oncology
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Postdoctoral Researcher 2015-2016
Sawant Lab
Department of Radiation Oncology
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Graduate Researcher 2014-2014
Complex Systems Summer School
Santa Fe Institute
Adjunct Faculty 2012-2014
Department of Mathematics and Physics
McLennan Community College
Undergraudate Researcher 2012-2012
Johnson Lab
Planetary Ices Group
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Undergraudate Researcher 2011-2012
Saltikov Lab
Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology
University of California, Santa Cruz
Professional Associations
Publications
Randolph-Flagg, N.G., Ely, T., Som, S.M., et al. 2023. Phosphate availability and implications for life on ocean worlds. Nature communications, 14. 10.1038/s41467-023-37770-9
Ely, T., Leong, J., Canovas, P., et al. 2023. Huge variation in H2 generation during seawater alteration of ultramafic rocks. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 24, doi:10.1029/2022GC010658.
Rucker, H.R., Ely, T.D., LaRowe, D.E., et al. 2023. Quantifying the bioavailable energy in an ancient hydrothermal vent on mars and a modern earth-based analog. Astrobiology,
Boyer, G., Robare, J., Ely, T., et al. 2022. AqEquil: Python package for aqueous geochemical speciation (0.15. 3). Zenodo. doi, 10.
Marshall, S.M., Moore, D.G., Murray, A.R., et al. 2022. Formalising the pathways to life using assembly spaces. Entropy, 24.
Buessecker, S., Imanaka, H., Ely, T., et al. 2022. Mineral-catalysed formation of marine NO and N2O on the anoxic early earth. Nature Geoscience,
Moore, D.G., Morales, M., Walker, S.I., et al. 2021. The information signature of diverging lineages. bioRxiv,
Lockey, D., Mathis, C., Miras, H.N., et al. 2021. Investigating the autocatalytically driven formation of keggin-based polyoxometalate clusters. Matter,
Milesi, V., Shock, E., Ely, T., et al. 2021. Forward geochemical modeling as a guiding tool during exploration of sea cliff hydrothermal field, gorda ridge. Planetary and Space Science, 197,
Leong, J.A.M., Ely, T., Shock, E.L. 2021. Decreasing extents of archean serpentinization contributed to the rise of an oxidized atmosphere. Nature communications, 12,
Doran, D., Clarke, E., Keenan, G., et al. 2021. Exploring the sequence space of unknown oligomers and polymers. Cell Reports Physical Science, 2.
Asche, S., Cooper, G.J., Keenan, G., et al. 2021. A robotic prebiotic chemist probes long term reactions of complexifying mixtures. Nature communications, 12.
Liu, Y., Mathis, C., Bajczyk, M.D., et al. 2021. Exploring and mapping chemical space with molecular assembly trees. Science advances, 7,
Marshall, S.M., Mathis, C., Carrick, E., et al. 2021. Identifying molecules as biosignatures with assembly theory and mass spectrometry. Nature communications, 12,
Miras, H.N., Mathis, C., Xuan, W., et al. 2020. Spontaneous formation of autocatalytic sets with self-replicating inorganic metal oxide clusters. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117,
Mathis, C. 2020. Meaning of the living state. Social and Conceptual Issues in Astrobiology,
Ely, T.D. 2020. Thermodynamic cartography in basalt-hosted hydrothermal systems.
Marshall, S.M., Moore, D., Murray, A.R., et al. 2019. Quantifying the pathways to life using assembly spaces. arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.04649.
Antonioni, A., Martinez-Vaquero, L.A., Mathis, C., et al. 2019. Individual perception dynamics in drunk games. Physical Review E, 99.
Surman, A.J., Rodriguez-Garcia, M., Abul-Haija, Y.M., et al. 2019. Environmental control programs the emergence of distinct functional ensembles from unconstrained chemical reactions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116.
Kim, H., Smith, H.B., Mathis, C., et al. 2019. Universal scaling across biochemical networks on earth. Science Advances, 5.
Caillet, V., O’Brien, R., Moore, D., et al. 2019. Technical note: In silico and experimental evaluation of two leaf-fitting algorithms for MLC tracking based on exposure error and plan complexity. Medical physics, 46.
Moore, D.G., Walker, S.I. 2019. Inferring a graph’s topology from games played on it. The 2019 conference on artificial life, 31.
Walker, S.I., Mathis, C. 2018. Network theory in prebiotic evolution. Prebiotic chemistry and chemical evolution of nucleic acids.
Moore, D.G., Walker, S.I., Levin, M. 2018. Pattern regeneration in coupled networks. ALIFE 2018: The 2018 conference on artificial life, 30.
Daniels, B.C., Kim, H., Moore, D., et al. 2018. Criticality distinguishes the ensemble of biological regulatory networks. Physical review letters, 121.
Valentini, G., Moore, D.G., Hanson, J.R., et al. 2018. Transfer of information in collective decisions by artificial agents. The 2018 Conference on Artificial Life: A Hybrid of the European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL) and the International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE).
Moore, D.G., Valentini, G., Walker, S.I., et al. 2018. Inform: Efficient information-theoretic analysis of collective behaviors. Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 5.
Mathis, C., Ramprasad, S.N., Walker, S.I., et al. 2017. Prebiotic RNA network formation: A taxonomy of molecular cooperation. Life, 7.
Mathis, C., Bhattacharya, T., Walker, S.I. 2017. The emergence of life as a first-order phase transition. Astrobiology, 17.
Moore, D., Walker, S.I., Levin, M. 2017. Cancer as a disorder of patterning information: Computational and biophysical perspectives on the cancer problem. Convergent Science Physical Oncology, 3.
Moore, D.G., Valentini, G., Walker, S.I., et al. 2017. Inform: A toolkit for information-theoretic analysis of complex systems. 2017 IEEE symposium series on computational intelligence (SSCI).
Moore, D.G. 2016. The landscape of free fermionic gauge models.
Moore, D., Ruan, D., Sawant, A. 2016. Fast leaf-fitting with generalized underdose/overdose constraints for real-time MLC tracking. Medical physics, 43.
Noell, A.C., Ely, T., Bolser, D.K., et al. 2015. Spectroscopy and viability of bacillus subtilis spores after ultraviolet irradiation: Implications for the detection of potential bacterial life on europa. Astrobiology, 15.
Moore, D. 2014. The systematic construction of free fermionic heterotic string gauge models. Journal of physics. Conference series, 485.
Moore, D.G., Satheeshkumar, V.H. 2014. Spectral dimension of bosonic string theory. Physical Review D, 90.
Renner, T., Greenwald, J., Moore, D., et al. 2013. Initial systematic investigations of the landscape of low-layer NAHE variation extensions. International Scholarly Research Notices, 2013.
Moore, D., Greenwald, J., Cleaver, G. 2013. GAUGE MODELS IN d DIMENSIONS. Modern Physics Letters A, 28.
Moore, D.G., Satheeshkumar, V.H. 2013. THE FATE OF LORENTZ FRAME IN THE VICINITY OF BLACK HOLE SINGULARITY. International Journal of Modern Physics D, 22.
Renner, T., Greenwald, J., Moore, D., et al. 2012. Initial systematic investigations of the landscape of low layer NAHE extensions. European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields, 72.
Greenwald, J., Moore, D., Pechan, K., et al. 2011. On a NAHE variation. Nuclear Physics B, 850.
Cleaver, G., Faraggi, A., Greenwald, J., et al. 2011. Investigation of quasi-realistic heterotic string models with reduced higgs spectrum. European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields, 71.
Renner, T., Greenwald, J., Moore, D., et al. 2011. REDUNDANCIES IN EXPLICITLY CONSTRUCTED TEN-DIMENSIONAL HETEROTIC STRING MODELS. International journal of modern physics. A, Particles and fields, gravitation, cosmology, 26.
Hicks, W., Vestal, L., Greenwald, J., et al. 2011. Algorithm for determining u(1) charges in free fermionic heterotic string models.
Moore, D., Greenwald, J., Renner, T., et al. 2011. SYSTEMATIC INVESTIGATIONS OF THE FREE FERMIONIC HETEROTIC STRING GAUGE GROUP STATISTICS: LAYER 1 RESULTS. Modern Physics Letters A, 26