Mountain View, California.Researcher Dr. Lynn Rothschild takes samples of algal communities in order to study the impact of ultraviolet light damage on molecular evolution. Like many researchers at NASA/Ames Research center in Mountain View, California, Dr. Rothschild performs experiments to hypothesize about the origins of life on earth and the possible existence of life on other planets. Dr. Rothschild studies the biology of hostile environments in order to extrapolate about the conditions on earth when life began forming here several billion years ago and about the possibilities of life on other planets. MODEL RELEASED 1999