Why do we need (another) universal tracers portal in Astrobiology?

Astrobiology is a scientific field that is very interdisciplinary and developing very fast, with many new discoveries generating a high level of attention in both the scientific community and the public. A central goal of astrobiology is to discover life beyond Earth which is, with our current instrumentation and knowledge, arguably within our reach. However, knowledge exchange crossing disciplinary boundaries is becoming increasingly challenging due to different usage of nomenclature and scientific controversies often limited to subdisciplines. There have been some efforts to compile organized databases of terms, concepts and other relevant material within some of the subfields contributing to astrobiology, for example through manually curated online portals designed to benefit students, teachers and practitioners of astrobiology-related research. However, the developments within the subfields and the potentially premature communication of research findings are too fast for objective research portals to remain reliable and up-to-date enough to enable well-informed scientific discussions. We suggest here a novel strategy for developing an online tracers portal as a self-maintaining and self-updating information platform, that would allow not only for a relatively unbiased selection of research results, but also provide fast access to latest scientific discoveries together with potential controversies, such that users of the tracers portal can form their own opinion on all available data rather than obtaining an already filtered and potentially biased selection of information.

Publication Details

Journal
Refubium (Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin)
Published
2025-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.17169/refubium-48429
Primary Topic
Philosophy, History, and Historiography
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Why do we need (another) universal tracers portal in Astrobiology?

Refubium (Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin)
Philosophy, History, and Historiography
article

Why do we need (another) universal tracers portal in Astrobiology?

article en

Abstract

Astrobiology is a scientific field that is very interdisciplinary and developing very fast, with many new discoveries generating a high level of attention in both the scientific community and the public. A central goal of astrobiology is to discover life beyond Earth which is, with our current instrumentation and knowledge, arguably within our reach. However, knowledge exchange crossing disciplinary boundaries is becoming increasingly challenging due to different usage of nomenclature and scientific controversies often limited to subdisciplines. There have been some efforts to compile organized databases of terms, concepts and other relevant material within some of the subfields contributing to astrobiology, for example through manually curated online portals designed to benefit students, teachers and practitioners of astrobiology-related research. However, the developments within the subfields and the potentially premature communication of research findings are too fast for objective research portals to remain reliable and up-to-date enough to enable well-informed scientific discussions. We suggest here a novel strategy for developing an online tracers portal as a self-maintaining and self-updating information platform, that would allow not only for a relatively unbiased selection of research results, but also provide fast access to latest scientific discoveries together with potential controversies, such that users of the tracers portal can form their own opinion on all available data rather than obtaining an already filtered and potentially biased selection of information.

Refubium (Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Leverhulme Trust, European Commission, Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, Nuclear Safety and Security Commission
Openalex Percentile: Top 52%
Philosophy, History, and Historiography
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Why do we need (another) universal tracers portal in Astrobiology? · Refubium (Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin) (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS