Download The Origin of Life: from geophysics to biology? Professor Albert

The Origin of Life: from geophysics to biology?
Professor Albert Libchaber
Rockefeller
One of the deepest and most controversial questions of our time is that of the origin of
life. In this lecture a hypothesis is presented, according to which the temperature
gradients existing in the earth - which led to plate tectonics and the formation of
undersea thermal vents - also led to the evolution of life around these vents. Movies will
be shown of experiments, in which all stages of this scenario are justified: how thermal
gradients led to plate tectonics, to DNA amplification in thermal vents, and to the
organization of bacteria. This mixture of physics, chemistry, and biology illustrates how
life can originate without the intervention of the sun, driven only by geophysical thermal
gradients.