FRIAS Kolloquium - Daniel Duzdevich

How to study the origin of life in a laboratory: An RNA World perspective.

We do not know how life started, but we do know that non-living matter transitioned into something we would recognize as alive on at least one occasion. The physical reality of that transition, however rare or remote, means that it can be subjected to scientific inquiry. This lecture will introduce the fundamental questions and unique challenges of origin-of-life research, and the most popular experimental approaches, with an emphasis on the RNA World hypothesis. Finally we will nest the question "How did life start on earth?" within the bigger encompassing question of "What is life throughout the universe?"