On Life's Origins: a View from Astrophysics

Guest speaker Professor Dimitar Sasselov
Department of Astronomy, Harvard University

26 October 2023 5:30-6:30pm

What is the best approach to constrain the geochemical scenarios for the origins of life on Earth? 

This day will bring together researchers from Cambridge whose research is relevant in light of exoplanets, planets, and life in the Universe. 

The Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe seeks to harness simultaneous breakthroughs in astrophysics, planetology, organic chemistry, biology and cognate disciplines to tackle one of the great interdisciplinary challenges of our time: to develop a deeper understanding of life, its emergence, and its distribution in the Universe.

This day will bring together researchers from Cambridge whose research is relevant in light of exoplanets, planets, and life in the Universe. 

Coffee meetings take place every other Thursday for people to catch up on research in an informal setting, give ~20 minute informal talks or walk us through a paper they’ve worked on or would like to discuss.

Coffee meetings take place every other Thursday for people to catch up on research in an informal setting, give ~20 minute informal talks or walk us through a paper they’ve worked on or would like to discuss.

Join us to celebrate the establishment of IPLU, hear about life in the Universe research in Cambridge and learn how to get involved.

The event is open to all. Please register here.

Speaker: Nancy Cartwright, Professor of Philosophy at Durham University and Distinguished Professor at the University of California, San Diego.

It is likely that prebiotic chemistry and early life required a source of hydrogen. Are there geochemical processes that provide this source of hydrogen? Can prebiotic chemistry happen in the environments where these processes are active?

We will have our first ever online 101 Lecture, Protocells 101, which will be given by Dr Claudia Bonfio.