Astrobiology, homochirality, and the origin of life

Colloquium by Axel Brandenburg

NORDITA Professor Axel Brandenburg will

Friday February 12, at 14:15, in Auditorium B, speak about

"Astrobiology, homochirality, and the origin of life"

For an abstract, see below.

Axel Brandenburg got his PhD in Helsinki in 1990, and has been a professor of astrophysics at NORDITA since 1994. His main interest is in solar physics, with emphasis on dynamo theory and turbulence theory. His work is sponsored by a 5-year ERC grant (see interview below).

Abstract:

Astrobiology, the research into the origin and possibility if life here on

Earth as well as elsewhere in the planetary system and beyond has received

tremendous impetus in recent years. Several circumstances have contributed

to making astrobiology an exciting new research field. On the one hand,

there are many scientific reasons: the discoveries of extra-solar

planets which contributes to our understanding of the Solar System

and the formation of Earth-like planets, the realization that life can

thrive under rather extreme conditions making it more probable for life

to exist elsewhere in the Solar System, and the fact that major resources

are being spent in developing the technology to produce artificial life,

which helps us to appreciate the range of possibilities that nature may

have utilized on Earth or elsewhere. On the other hand, astrobiology

touches upon some fundamental questions regarding our very existence,

and it is perhaps this that attracts the broad interest of scientists

and the public alike. In my talk I will begin with an overview of some

of the research topics that physicists have been engaged in within

astrobiology. I will then turn attention to the connection between

the molecular origin of life and the origin of homochirality, i.e. the

handedness of amino acids and sugars in living things. Was homochirality

a prerequisite that was necessary for the mechanical stability of the

first polymerizing biomolecules, or was it a consequence of life that

developed when the first replicating biomolecules polymerized?