The Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments (PCE3) announces the first virtual community workshop. This workshop is designed to cross-pollinate between different areas of research addressing origins of life, including early earth geoscience and prebiotic chemistry. This workshop will foster intellectual cooperation and innovation across the community and thereby give rise to novel research avenues. A central goal is to root models for the emergence of prebiotic pathways in realistic planetary conditions, and fully integrate the dynamics and constraints of early Earth environments into origins hypotheses. Beyond our planet, PCE3 aims to identify planetary conditions that can or cannot give rise to life’s chemistry, thus guiding future missions that target the discovery of habitable worlds.
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1. Earliest Planetary Formation
The Earliest Planetary Formation primer talks will be posted on Monday, October 5.
Link to Earliest Planetary Formation Primer Talks
Speakers and Topics
- Stellar Evolution (Edward Schwieterman)
- Accretionary History & Planetary Dynamics (Rebecca Fischer)
- Origin of the Moon (Miki Nakajima)
- Hadean Geodynamics (Rick Carlson)
- Impact History (Simone Marchi)
The discussion meeting on this topic will be on Friday, October 9, at 1pm Eastern Daylight Time.
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2. Evolution of the Near Surface
The Evolution of the Near Surface primer talks will be posted on Monday, October 12.
Link to Evolution of the Near Surface Primer Talks
Speakers and Topics
- Chemical Crustal Evolution & Oldest Crust (Ann Bauer)
- Physical Crustal Evolution (Brad Foley)
- Atmosphere and Ocean Evolution (Kevin Zahnle)
- Lithospheric Fluid Composition (Everett Shock)
The discussion meeting on this topic will be on Friday, October 16, at 1pm Eastern Daylight Time.
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3. Inventories, Geological Settings, and Building Blocks
These primer talks will be posted on Monday, October 19.
Link to Inventories, Geological Settings, and Building Blocks Primer Talks
Speakers and Topics
- Geological Settings and Local Conditions (Martin van Kranendonk)
- Meteoritic/Exogenous Delivery (Zita Martins)
- Haze and Atmospheric Synthesis (David Catling)
- Surface Chemistry and Abiotic Organic Synthesis (Benedicte Menez)
The discussion meeting on this topic will be on Friday, October 23, at 1pm Eastern Daylight Time.
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4. Prebiotic Complexity
The Prebiotic Complexity primer talks will be posted on Monday, November 9.
Link to Prebiotic Complexity Primer Talks
Speakers and Topics
- Overview (David Deamer, 30 min)
- Formation of Precursors, Simple Molecules, Selection I (James Cleaves)
- Formation of Precursors, Simple Molecules, Selection II (Laurie Barge)
- Processes Acting on Building Blocks, Assembly and Complexification I (Luke Leman)
- Processes Acting on Building Blocks, Assembly and Complexification II (Christine Keating)
The discussion meeting on this topic will be on Friday, November 13, at 1pm Eastern Daylight Time.
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5. Peering into the Past with Today's Biochemistry
The Peering into the Past primer talks will be posted on Monday, November 16.
Link to Peering into the Past with Today's Biochemistry Primer Talks
Speakers and Topics
- Overview – Biochemistry meets Prebiotic Chemistry (Ram Krishnamurthy)
- Genetics (Hannes Mutschler)
- Metabolism (George Cody)
- Chemical Evolution (Moran Frenkel-Pinter).
- Earliest Evidence of Life (Elizabeth Bell)
- Rewinding Life's Clock (Greg Fournier)
The discussion meeting on this topic will be on Friday, November 20, at 1pm Eastern Daylight Time