Abstract

The origin of life is among the greatest unsolved mysteries in science. Our discoveries have provided clues to how primordial chemistry sparked the emergence of fundamental biomolecules, and how these biomolecules assembled to form the first cells. This knowledge can then be turned toward the heavens, revealing where we should look for alien life.

Our first speaker, Paul Rimmer, will present

• a chemical network leading from simple molecules and ultraviolet light to life’s building blocks,

• delineate an ‘abiogenesis zone’, outside of which prebiotic photochemistry cannot take place, and

• a plausible geochemical scenario where the supply of molecules needed for the prebiotic photochemistry would be abundant.

Our second speaker, Claudia Bonfio, will discuss about

• model prebiotic redox-active iron-sulfur clusters and their role in early metabolism, non-enzymatic prebiotic RNA replication and its compatibility with model primordial cells.