Project Scope Based on an assessment of a limited set of possible alternative chemistries for life, the study (1) evaluated the possibility that non-standard chemistry may support life in known solar system and conceivable extrasolar environments; and (2) defined broad areas that might guide NASA, NSF, and other relevant agencies and organizations to fund efforts to expand scientific knowledge in this area. Overall, the programmatic goal of the study was to identify research directions that will assess the likelihood of non-terran life and the potential cost needed to find it. From this came a recommendation whether the likelihood of finding non-terran life is sufficiently low that NASA should ignore its possibility, or sufficiently high that it should pursue it. The report was released third quarter 2007. This project was funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. View the report: The Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems   Committee Membership JOHN A. BAROSS, University of Washington, Chair STEVEN A. BENNER, Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution GEORGE D. CODY, Carnegie Institution of Washington SHELLEY D. COPLEY, University of Colorado at Boulder NORMAN R. PACE, University of Colorado at Boulder JAMES H. SCOTT, Dartmouth College ROBERT SHAPIRO, New York University MITCHELL L. SOGIN, Marine Biological Laboratory JEFFREY L. STEIN, Sofinnova Ventures ROGER SUMMONS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology JACK W. SZOSTAK, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard University Staff DAVID H. SMITH, Study Director JOSEPH K. ALEXANDER, Senior Staff Officer ROBERT L. RIEMER, Senior Staff Officer (shared with the Board on Physics and Astronomy)