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SUMMARY:Geneses. How frequently does life emerge? - Markus Ralser and Amau
 ry Triaud
DTSTART:20160316T183000Z
DTEND:20160316T200000Z
UID:TALK64310@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mark Dunning
DESCRIPTION:We will present two different ways of investigating the origin
 s of life. We will looks at the conditions of the Archean Earth whose chem
 istry permitted the emergence of biology and see how advances in Astronomy
  construct a context in which Earth is but one example of a multi-variate 
 distribution.\n\n\nThrough observations of planets orbiting other stars th
 an the Sun\, we can investigate which Earth-like and non-Earth-like condit
 ions can lead to biology\, as well as study planets (and therefore life) t
 hrough time. The frequency of inhabited planets will reveal whether munda
 ne conditions and reactions are sufficient\, or if rarer\, more specific s
 teps are required. We will go over what we know about exoplanets\, describ
 e the techniques that can discover worlds similar to the Earth and the met
 hods that are employed to investigate their atmospheric chemistry.\n\nLook
 ing at Earth\, a key task is to understand which conditions are required 
 for an early life - the Archean planet looked nothing like the modern Eart
 h.  However\, we have a chemical record of the early world chemistry oper
 ating in our cell\, the metabolic network\, a large chemical system that c
 onnects the operating biochemical processes. We will discuss about new res
 ults which show that many of the key biochemical reactions forming this sy
 stem might be direct descendants of chemical reactions that could function
  on the basis of sedimental transition metals\, in particular iron. These 
 chemical reactions appear to have given rise to glycolysis\, the pentose p
 hosphate pathway and the Krebs cycle\, key biochemical systems that form t
 he core of cellular biochemistry. We will discuss whether the chemical con
 straints that form the biochemical network would result in exobiological l
 ife to resemble ours.
LOCATION:Postdoc Centre\, 16 Mill Lane
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