  In the 1970s the microwave spectroscopy group at Monash University became the
first in the world to determine the spectral frequencies of urea, glycine, and
several other biomolecules. We immediately searched for these at Parkes, using
existing centimetre-wave receivers plus newly built receivers that operated at
frequencies as high as 75GHz (and used just the central 17 m of the dish).
Although these searches were largely unsuccessful, they helped launch the now
flourishing field of astrobiology.
