Please find the recording of "Estimating Mid-Proterozoic O2 Levels from O-MIF signals in the 1.4Ga Sibley sulfates" here. Read more about Professor James Kasting (Penn State) - "Estimating Mid-Proterozoic O2 Levels from O-MIF signals in the 1.4Ga Sibley sulfates"

Abstract: 

 

Oxygenic phototrophs have played a fundamental role in Earth’s history by enabling the rise of atmospheric oxygen (O₂) and paving the way for complex life.  Their origin fundamentally transformed the biology and geochemistry of our planet. During my talk, I will highlight some of the key events in the evolutionary history of Cyanobacteria: the Archean origin of PSII (...

Read more about Dr. Patricia Sanchez-Baracaldo (University of Bristol) "Origin of photosynthesis and major Cyanobacteria groups - implications for the interpretation of the geological record"

Abstract

Super-Earths (planets with masses and sizes intermediate between the Earth and Neptune) do not exist in our Solar System, and models of planet formation and evolution are unable to uniquely predict their bulk compositions.  Whether these planets are primarily rocky, gassy, or icy — and, if all three possibilities exist, how the dividing lines between sub-classes are sculpted — remains the subject of vigorous scientific discourse.  The atmospheres of super-Earths are an astronomical observer’s window into the composition of these planets....

Read more about Assistant Professor Eliza Kempton (University of Maryland) "Revealing the Atmospheres of Extrasolar Super-Earths"

Abstract

 

Early life may have been based on catalytic RNA, or ribozymes. Using in vitro evolution, our laboratory systematically maps RNA sequence space to understand evolutionary landscapes and their implications for the origin of life. Could a population of RNAs exploring sequence space through evolution actually discover the fittest sequences? Would replaying the Gouldian 'tape of life' yield the same outcome in the RNA world? Our recent work addresses these questions using ribozymes that self-aminoacylate using prebiotically plausible...

Read more about Assistant Professor Irene Chen (University of California Santa Barbara) - "Lessons from ribozyme evolution"

Abstract  Read more about Professor Betül Kaçar (University of Arizona) - "Probing the malleability of the bacterial translation machinery"

Abstract

 

The Neoproterozoic Era marks a critical turning point along Earth’s evolutionary trajectory.  Sedimentary rocks from this time period record the breakup of a supercontinent, the advent of eukaryotic biomineralisation, the origin of complex multicellularity, and the most significant and enigmatic perturbations to climate and the carbon cycle in Earth’s history. Nevertheless, a lack of constraints on ocean-atmosphere carbon chemistry has left inorganic carbon burial as a critical yet poorly understood factor in regulating Earth’s surface carbon...

Read more about Professor Nicholas Tosca (University of Oxford) "The Tonian carbonate factory and the long-term evolution of the Precambrian CaCO3 cycle"

Abstract

The study of planets orbiting other stars has become a mainstream branch of astronomy.  Much of the focus is now on the discovery and characterization of exoplanets enough like the Earth that we can imagine life as we know it could be comfortable there:  Goldilocks planets with solid surfaces at the right temperature for water to be liquid, enveloped by secondary atmospheres with molecules suitable for the invention of life.  Characterizing the structure and composition of such planets depends on knowledge of the bulk density, and interpretation of...

Read more about Professor David Latham (Harvard) "The Search for Habitable Worlds"

Abstract

 

The Paleoproterozoic Nash Formation in the Medicine Bow Mountains, SE Wyoming hosts some of the most spectacularly preserved Precambrian stromatolites in the world.  The Nash Formation is composed of tan, silicified, stromatolitic metadolomite with interbedded black phyllite and quartzite, occurring near the top of a sedimentary protolith assemblage that was deposited along the passive, southern margin of the Wyoming Province, ca. 2000 Ma.  Although sporadic research has been conducted on Nash Fork stromatolites since 1926 (E....

Read more about Professor Dave Lageson (Montana State University) - "Variability in stromatolite morphology, Paleoproterozoic Nash Formation, Medicine Bow Mountains, Wyoming: A case study in biogenicity"