Is Earth Exceptional? Explorations into the Origin of Life
How life came from non-life—or abiogenesis—is still largely a mystery. Despite how much we know about the state of the Earth 3–4 billion years ago, no comprehensive scientific explanation for the origin of life on Earth has yet been found. Classical Miller-Urey type experiments in the 1950s showed that key carbon-containing building blocks could be produced in simulated primitive Earth conditions. And yet, the main property required for early life is self-replication. The earliest self-replicating systems would have possessed the ability to gather chemicals from the local environment and make copies of themselves. How does self-replication begin? What are the natural mechanisms that lead to complex, self-replicating biological materials such as DNA, RNA, and proteins?
Based on Mario Livio and Jack Szostak’s book, Is Earth Exceptional?, this presentation will review the history of abiogenesis research and highlight some important recent breakthroughs. How have scientists sometimes “gotten in their own way” in the pursuit of answers? What has been learned, and what is still a mystery? Where do we go from here?
No prior knowledge of organic chemistry will be assumed in this presentation.
Rebecca “Becky” Chamberlin is a chemist working at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the Nuclear Engineering and Nonproliferation Division. As a 30+ year employee of the Lab, her interests have centered on nuclear and radiological materials and the prevention and detection of their misuse. In the distant past, she interned for two summers in the planetary systems and space biosciences branches of NASA Ames Research Center, near her hometown in California. Becky earned a B.A. in Chemistry at Pomona College and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Cornell University. She is also a Fellow of the American Chemical Society and a certified Project Management Professional. When she’s not at work, you might find Becky teaching Sunday school or ringing handbells at Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church, hiking in the Valles Caldera, or binging the latest sci-fi series with her family.
