2023

Assessing the feasibility of comet delivery of prebiotic feedstocks to Earth and rocky exoplanets  

Investigators
PI: Amy Bonsor, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge    
Co-I: Paul Rimmer, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge     
Auriol Rae, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge     
Postdoctoral Research Associate: Catriona McDonald

Project dates
01 October 2023 - 01 October 2025    

Summary
During Earth's early evolution, the planet was bombarded by material from both the inner and outer Solar System. As many of the key prebiotic feedstocks, including notably HCN and other organics are present in comets in the outer Solar System, this work investigates the potential for these bodies to deliver such material to early Earth, in a manner conducive to the origin of life. Crucially during the impact of a comet onto the surface of Earth, the interior of the body experiences strong pressures and heating. This project investigates the chemistry that occurs during cometary impacts, in order to ascertain whether or not comets can deliver prebiotic feedstocks successfully to the surface of early Earth. This is key to assessing the viability of cometary delivery for the origin of life.  

Concept of Life Podcast: First Series   

Investigator
PI: Andrew Davison, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge   

Project dates
01 January 2023 - 01 January 2024  

Summary
This series of podcasts will introduce our research on the origins of life and show the value of including the arts and humanities (A&H). It will both disseminate the work of the Centre to the public and provide an accessible way into A&H themes for scientists in the field. Episodes will (1) introduce the science, (2) look at the history of the quest, (3) consider the idea of fractionally alive stages along the way, (4) bring in the philosophy of complexity and emergence, and (5) look at lessons from attempts to create artificial life. A possible sixth episode will focus on how we look for life, and what philosophy of science tells us about how to react to ambiguities in the data. Note: the podcast is behind schedule, on account of the director’s paternity leave. The episodes are now planned, and recording will start in November 2023  

Philosophical Research on Central Concepts in Origins of Life Research   

Investigators
PI: Andrew Davison, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge   
Co-I: William Storrar (Director), The Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, NJ, USA   
Research Associate: Frederick V Simmons

Project dates
01 October 2023 - 30 September 2025     

Summary
A core commitment of the LCLU is championing the role of the arts and humanities (A&H) for our research. That is about helping A&H scholars to be up-to-date with the science, but even more about how A&H perspectives can help the science. The long history of human thought, especially in philosophy, offers many resources, not least in coming at central concepts with fresh eyes: concepts such as ‘origin’, ‘life’, and ‘matter’. Dr Simmons’ appointment is a decisive step in expanding our A&H work. A scholar of axiology – the philosophy of value – with a wide grounding in philosophy, Dr Simmons is working with Professor Andrew Davison to advance our A&H programme, with a fortnightly philosophy seminar, a reading group for early career scholars, our podcast, and A&H volumes in our new edited series on origins of life. Dr Simmons will also produce his own papers and a monograph in the field.  

Alternate stable biospheres - modelling the microbial to metazoan transition   

Investigators
PI: Emily Mitchell, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge   
Co-I: Nicholas Butterfield, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge   
Research Associate: Euan Nicholas Furness

Project dates
01 April 2023 - 31 March 2025     

Summary
Only one planet in the universe is currently known to host life but the search is on to detect others. Inevitably, the image we employ is drawn from our view on this planet – but there is an obvious problem: life (by definition) evolves through time, so it is naïve to assume that our current biosphere offers a useful benchmark for the phenomenon in general. What’s more, the history of life on Earth is now known to have been conspicuously discontinuous. Contrary to Darwin’s gradualistic expectations, the ‘Earth-like’ system we are familiar with began abruptly less than 550 million years ago. Yes, biology extends back for a further three billion years, but this earlier, exclusively microbial world followed a fundamentally different set of eco- evolutionary rules and interacted in a fundamentally different way with its host planet. If we are aiming to recognize life on other worlds, it is imperative that we understand the structure and function of this alternative condition. And if we are interested in the evolution of biospheres in general, we need to interrogate the patterns and dynamics associated with the first-order transitions.  This project will develop an integrated model that captures the myriad of interactions and dynamics associated with the Ediacaran to Cambrian transition – in other words, the shift from a bottom-up microbial world to one controlled largely by animals, from the top-down. This model will then be used to investigate the underlying dynamics of these two ‘alternate stable biospheres’, the circumstances under which one might emerge from the other, and how they are likely appear in terms of planetary biosignature.  

Habitable planets around white dwarf stars   

Investigators
PI: Gordon Ogilvie, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge   
Co-I: Matt Wyatt, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge   
Research Associate: Callum Fairburn

Project dates
01 April 2023 - 31 July 2023

Summary
Most stars will end their lives as white dwarfs, about the size of the Earth. In recent years, many of these remnant stars have been found to have a debris disc, formed from material that originates in a planetary system and is broken up near the star.  

This short-term project has aimed to develop theoretical models for the intriguing light curve of the white dwarf WD 1054–226, whose recent discoverers deduced that the star is occulted by debris with a remarkably regular and repeating structure that could be sculpted by a planet in the habitable zone.  

By exploring the resonant structures caused by a planet in discs composed of rocks, dust and vapour, we have placed constraints on the nature of this system and prepared for a more targeted theoretical study. Our discussions have highlighted the importance of future observations using JWST. We have also considered the significance of this object in the quest for understanding life in the universe.  

Chemistry on the Edge: Exploring the Boundaries of the Cyanosulfidic Reaction Network   

Investigator
PI: Paul Rimmer, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge  

Project dates
01 July 2023 - 1 July 2027

Summary
The project makes a start toward answering a fundamental question about origins of life: Much of the chemistry that leads from simple molecules to the first building blocks of life can be demonstrated in the lab, in the hands of a skilled chemist. Can this chemistry take place without the chemist? Worded differently, under what circumstances can the chemistry occur spontaneously? To begin addressing this question, we identify key reactions along the way from simple molecules to life's building blocks, and measure how fast those reactions take place. We also measure how fast the molecules fall apart. Comparing these rates, we can start to identify whether and under what circumstances under this chemistry can happen spontaneously.  

 

Cosmic dust as a feedstock for prebiotic chemistry on Mars and exoplanets  

Please allow social and marketing cookies to show embedded content.

View content (opens www.youtube.com in a new tab)

Investigators
PI:  Oliver Shorttle, Department of Earth Sciences and Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge  
Co-I: Craig Walton, department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge  
Mark Wyatt, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge  
Jessica Rigley, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge  
Dougal Ritson, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge  
Robin Wordsworth, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University  

Project dates
01 October 2023 - 01 October 2025   

Summary
The origin of life likely occurred in water on the surface of the early Earth.  However, for this water to be able to perform the productive chemistry that could lead to life, it would need to be rich in many elements that are typically present at low concentrations in modern waters. One possible solution to this problem is offered by cosmic dust, material that rains onto Earth from space.  This dust would have been much more abundant in the early Solar system, so could have accumulated to levels where it significantly affected water chemistry.  Importantly, this dust is rich in elements like phosphorus, which origin of life chemistry would likely need in large abundances.  This project will use the predictions of the ancient supply of this cosmic dust to Mars, to make testable predictions about what should be found in ancient sediments on its surface.
  

Unravelling the conditions of aqueous alteration on C-type asteroids: implications for the delivery of water and volatiles to the terrestrial planets  

Investigators
PI: Helen Williams, department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge  
Co-I: Oliver Shorttle, Institute of Astronomy and Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge  
Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Ross Findlay  

Project dates
01 October 2023 - 01 October 2025   

Summary
Water is abundant in the interstellar medium and within our own solar system. It is essential to life and likely played a critical role in the early evolution of rocky planets in and beyond our solar system. Primitive undifferentiated C-type asteroid bodies, sampled by carbonaceous chondrite meteorites (CCs), are widely thought to be the principal supplier of water to the Earth and other rocky planets. If we are to understand the accretion and delivery mechanisms of this type of material to the Earth, and its role in planetary habitability, we must first understand the processes controlling the distribution of water and volatiles on CC-meteorite asteroid parent bodies.   

The goal of this project is to understand the causal links between distribution of water, volatiles, metals and complex organics in CCs and parent body aqueous alteration reactions. We will address this question by coupling detailed petrography and microscopic analysis of CCs with novel stable isotope fingerprinting tools. We aim to use this data to identify different episodes of aqueous alteration and distinguish between water-rich minerals that are native (isotopically, petrologically and texturally related) to the parent CC asteroid and others which must be exogenous and were acquired late.  

  

Chemical and climate investigations of environmental conditions on early Mars, with implications for prebiotic chemistry and Mars sample return  

Investigators
PI: Robin Wordsworth, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences/Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, USA  
Co-I: Nicholas Tosca, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge  
Postdoctoral research fellow: Ziwei Liu

Project dates
01June 2023 to 28 February 2025   

Summary
This project will use observations from new numerical climate models develop a process-based understanding of geochemical environments on early Mars that is consistent with geological data acquired to date. Specifically we aim to test hypotheses for whether atmosphere-crust interactions could have facilitated or frustrated viable pathways for prebiotic chemistry as well as their global-scale importance in cycling volatile compounds.