Genesis

Catalog description

This class will explore the current theories about the chemical origins of life on earth, and will then use these insights to discuss the search for life on other planets, inside the Solar system and outside. Topics will include origin of the Sun, the Big Bang, the formation of Earth, the origin of life, from the prebiotic synthesis of amino acids, nucleobases, and other building blocks of life, the evolution of primitive protocells, the earliest RNA-based catalysts, the evolution of protein synthesis machinery, and the origins of eukaryotic cells. We will conclude with strategies and progress in identifying life on other planets in our solar system and on planets orbiting other stars.