We’re proud to share that Martha Gibson, one of PetroStrat’s palynologists, has been invited to present at the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition 2025.

The event is free for everyone to attended, taking place The Royal Society in London as well as being available via livestream

About The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition

This event is hosted annually at the Royal Society in London, and is one of the UK’s most prominent public science events. The exhibition showcases some of the latest scientific discoveries and research from institutes across the UK, and beyond. The goal is to make science accessible and relevant to the everyone, no matter their background.

There will be talks and panels on cutting-edge topics, hosted alongside hands-on activities designed to engage visitors of all ages. There will also be Interactive exhibits from leading research groups across the UK.

The 2025 programme includes subjects ranging from planetary science and AI, to biodiversity, materials, and Earth systems.

Meet the Speaker: Martha Gibson

Dr Martha Gibson obtained a PhD from the University of Sheffield in 2020, was a postdoctoral research associate at Northumbria University from 2021-2022, and relocated to West Virginia University, USA, in 2022 to become a Lindemann Trust Research Fellow in the Department of Geology and Geography. Here she applied her skills as a palynologist to astrobiology. Her research focused on the preservation of microscopic plant fossils, fungi, algae, and bacteria within >255 million year old evaporite deposits from the subsurface of Kansas and Oklahoma to help inform the search for life on Mars. Dr Martha Gibson is continuing her academic research alongside her current role at PetroStrat.

Talk Title :  Salty secrets – The search for life on Mars

Exclusive talk overview by Martha

Palynology is inspiring because it shows how such tiny fossils can tell such big stories. In looking to the past, we can uncover the history of life on Earth, help predict how life may respond to continuing climate change and even inform the search for life on other planets.

For over 40 years, scientists have documented the presence of salt minerals on the surface of Mars. Acidic saline lake deposits like the Permian Nippewalla Group of Kansas and Oklahoma, USA, and the modern acid saline lake systems in Western Australia are known to have similar sedimentology and mineralogy to those on Mars. Therefore, documenting the fossil and living life found inside salt minerals, like halite and gypsum, from these environments has significant implications for the search for life on Mars. This research helps us answer: Where might life be found? What sort of life might we find? What size might it be? And how can we safely study samples returned to Earth?

My research shows that as salt minerals precipitate during evaporation, they trap organic material, gas, liquids, and sediment. Therefore, salt minerals trap unique “snapshots” of the hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. We are uncovering that salt minerals like halite and gypsum are an excellent preserver of a variety of microfossils (pollen grains, spores, fungi), microorganisms (bacteria, Archaea, algae), and organic compounds. This may hint at the size and kind of life we may find in salt samples taken from the surface of Mars.

Don’t Miss Martha’s Talk