AstroBiology?

What relationship is there between biology (the study of living organisms) and space (an area void of biological life)?

What relationship is there between biology (the study of living organisms) and space (an area void of biological life)?

I did a brief lecture course in astrobiology as part of my first year physics degree in durham. Not sure that it is a big enough field to devote an entire course to it though

You could try: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate-degrees/maps/earth-sciences/degree/planetry/index.shtml

good to see that I'm not the only person wanting to go into Astrobiology. :-) The thing is though that it is truly very interdisciplinary; so you could be an Astronomer and Astrobiologist, a Planetary Scientist and Astrobiologist, Chemist or Biologist or whatever and Astrobiologist. (sometimes it's also refered to as Exobiology by the way...)
Interesting that there is actually a degree in this subject, but even though this is the field I'd like to end up in, I would not take that course, because it may end up being very limiting...

I know quite a few scientists that do research in the area of Exobiology, but almost all of them do it along another field... (Astronomers, Geologists, Biologists) Even if you worked in an Astrobiology Institute (there is one in Spain for example and at NASA Ames in California I believe), you would have to have a focus point...

I'm starting Biology at York hopefully next year, and I'm intending to specialize in astrobiology later. So I'd recommend you go into some core science, get a strong degree and then see your opportunities in Astrobiology.

For those who are not quite clear on what Astrobiology is when we have not found extraterrestrial life; well the point is to see the possibilities of its existence, to find it and to learn about the origins and nature of life on Earth... very cool subject, I think :-)

Astrobiology = bad xenoscience. It's ridiculously limited. One of the main tenets is that a planet must be within a star's "habitable zone" (ie in an orbit where liquid water can form) before one can consider it capable of supporting life. That's silly.
Sure, if we're looking for terrestrial-style life, then it's good. But we're not. Or at least, we shouldn't be. If we're looking for life, we should be looking for any kinds of life, be they replicating magnetic vortices or inflatable Jovian gasbags.
And besides, Europa probably has liquid oceans, thanks to the heat of its core melting the inner ice layers, but it's most certainly outside the Sun's "habitable zone".
Anyhoo, for a more in-depth guide to the problems of astrobiology, see Evolving the Alien by Jack Stewart and Ian Cohen.

Not wanting to discourage you, just make sure you're aware of the problems with it. Who knows, maybe you'll be able to broaden it's horizons!