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The origins of life and its search in the Universe

Life and Matter Sciences International Symposium November 16-17, 2016 Madrid

General information

Venue: Fundación Ramón Areces, Vitruvio, 5. 28006. Madrid

Organized by:

Fundación Ramón Areces

In cooperation with:

Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales

Coordinator/s:

Esteban Domingo SolansCentro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa. CSIC-UAM

Leopoldo García SanchoUniversidad Complutense

Carlos Briones LlorenteCentro de Astrobiología. CSIC-INTA

Description
Programme

The origin of life, its evolution and its possible existence beyond Earth in our Universe are questions that have fascinated mankind since endowed with a scientific view of its own existence. Being core questions of astrobiology, they have been approached also by scientists working in disparate disciplines such as physics, chemistry or biology, as well as by philosophers. This symposium, organized jointly by the Royal Academy of Sciences of Spain and Fundación Ramón Areces, will be an interdisciplinary course of lectures, followed by open discussion. The topics will include the processes that may have led to the origin of life, its evolution and adaptation to extreme environments, and current progress on the search for life in the Universe.

Abstracts

Wednesday, 16

9:30

Opening Session

Raimundo Pérez-Hernández y Torra
Director of the Fundación Ramón Areces. Spain.

Federico Mayor Zaragoza
Chairman of the Scientific Council. Fundación Ramón Areces.

José María Medina
Deputy Chairman fo the Scientific Council. Fundación Ramón Areces.

Jesús Ávila de Grado
Vice President of the Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Spain.

José Elguero Bertolini
President of the Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Spain.

SESSION 1: The origins of life

10:00

Origins of life systems chemistry

John D. Sutherland
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Cambridge. Reino Unido.

10:45

Competition and cooperation of simple replicons

Peter Schuster
Universität Wien. Institut für Theoretische Chemie. Viena. Austria.

11:30

Break

12:00

The origins and early evolution of metabolic pathways

Juli Peretó
Instituto Cavanilles de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva (ICBiBE). Universidad de Valencia.

12:45

The origins of cellular life on Earth

Jack W. Szostak
Massachusetts General Hospital. Boston. EE. UU.

13:30

General discussion

14:00

Break

SESSION 2: Diversification of life and extremophiles

16:00

Microorganisms in hot springs from Costa Rica to Antarctica

Carlos Pedrós-Alió
Centro Nacional de Biotecnología. CSIC. Madrid.

16:45

Some like it salty: life in hypersaline environments

Josefa Antón Botella
Universidad de Alicante. Spain

17:30

Break

18:00

Getting under Atacama's rocky skin: life's last refuge

Jacek Wierzchos
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales. CSIC. Madrid

18:45

Life in extremely acidic environments: Rio Tinto as a Mars terrestrial analog

Ricardo Amils
Centro de Astrobiología. CSIC-INTA. Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid.

19:30

General discussion

Thursday, 17

SESSION 3: The search for life beyond Earth

9:30

The realms of space, a testbed for astrobiology

Gerda Horneck
Institute of Aerospace Medicine. German Aerospace Center DLR. Colonia. Alemania.

10:15

Characterization and synthesis of organic matter in comets and meteorites

Guillermo Muñoz-Caro
Centro de Astrobiología. CSIC-INTA. Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid.

11:00

Break

11:30

The detection and characterization of Earth-like extrasolar planets

María Rosa Zapatero
Centro de Astrobiología. CSIC-INTA. Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid. Spain

12:15

The search for life in ocean worlds of the outer Solar System

Kevin P. Hand
Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NASA. Pasadena, California. EE. UU.

13:00

General discussion and closing remarks

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