Origin of life

Biology, Physics, Chemistry. 23/09/10

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This is a conversation with Aaron Engelhart, assistant Professor in the University of Minnesota Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development. His research mainly focuses on understanding nucleic acid folding and function. In this conversation we talk about life on Mars, astrobiology, RNA world and tools we are using to find life on Mars.


About the guest

  • 00:00:00 Introduction

  • 00:00:46 What are the major theories in Origin of life?

  • 00:05:22 Major questions Aaron's group is focusing on?

  • 00:08:57 Association with NASA

  • 00:11:11 Life on earth coming from space

  • 00:12:40 Can life forms surviving meteorite explosions?

  • 00:16:02 Similarities between geochemistry of Mars and Earth?

  • 00:20:15 RNA world

  • 00:21:53 RNA as a coding molecule and RNA as a catalytic molecule

  • 00:26:44 Solubility of biomolecules

  • 00:29:47 Problem of the compartmentalization

  • 00:32:55 Link between genetics and compartments

  • 00:36:52 Importance of Watson-Crick paring in DNA

  • 00:39:18 Impact of wet-dry and redox cycles on DNA/RNA

  • 00:42:50 Structures beyond Watson-Crick paring

  • 00:45:26 New imaging tools based on RNA

  • 00:50:22 How the new tools can be used to study Origins of life?

  • 00:54:22 How do we get information from Mars?

  • 00:59:05 Introducing imaging tools to the equipment sent to Mars

  • 01:00:03 Major questions for Aaron

  • 01:03:27 Populating Mars with microbes

  • 01:05:51 Living on Mars

  • 01:06:58 Further reading

  • 01:09:56 Thank you!

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