Santa Fe Institute

Events News

Science On Screen continues May 8 with Simon DeDeo and 'Sneakers'
April 30, 2013 -

The popular Science On Screen series returns to Santa Fe Wednesday evening, May 8, with Simon DeDeo and the 1992 cult hacker film Sneakers.

Video: How social media might help you survive the next big disaster
March 25, 2013 -

SFI's 2013 Community Lecture series debuted March 14 with UC-Boulder's Leysia Palen describing how victims, observers, and “citizen-responders” are using modern technology to participate in disaster response. Watch ...

Climate scientists James Hansen, at SFI, calls for energy sources to foot their 'true' costs
Feb. 22, 2013 -

Speaking at SFI yesterday, noted climate scientist James Hansen told an overflow crowd that efforts to stem climate change will be ineffectual as long as fossil fuels remain the cheapest ...

SFI's successful crowdfunding campaign will help scientists study indigenous people
Dec. 14, 2012 -

SFI's crowdfunding campaign has reached its goal. The resulting research will help scientists preserve the threatened landscapes on which indigenous human groups depend. 

The Gods Must Be Crazy with Murray Gell-Mann
Dec. 13, 2012 -

The 2012 Science On Screen series in Santa Fe wrapped up December 13 to a full house, with "The Gods Must Be Crazy" and Murray Gell-Mann's distinctive insight and ...

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Reconstructing the Wiring Diagrams of Earth's Biogeochemical Cycles

Colloquium

January 08, 2013
3:30 PM
Noyce Conference Room

Paul G. Falkowski (Environmental Biophysics and Molecular Ecology Program, Rutgers University)

Abstract.  Life is far from thermodynamic equilibrium.  Over the past decade, together with collaborators, I have been analyzing the biochemical reactions responsible for energy generation in all organisms, and we have identified a set of ~500 “core” genes which encode for the energy transduction systems on a planetary scale.  In this lecture, I will examine the evolutionary trajectory of these core reactions, culminating in the splitting of water by light and the use of oxygen as a terminal electron acceptor by aerobic microbes.  These two, and fifteen other processes, form a global electronic circuit,  where individual organisms essentially are transistors on a planetary circuit board.  The wires are the two primary geophysical fluids: the ocean and the atmosphere.  The primary power supply is solar energy.  The output is a self-replicating system that decreases entropy at the cost of increased energy dissipation; a condition that is not amenable to classical Boltzmann functions. The system has a limited number of transistor designs.  We have identified 35 basic structural elements, which appear to have a single common ancestor with a core Fe4S4 motif.  We are attempting to develop a phylogeny of the core motifs in an effort to understand the evolution of biologically catalyzed redox reactions.

Purpose: Research Collaboration

SFI Host: Rogier Braakman

More Info

  • * SFI community lectures are free, open, & accessible to the public.
  • * Seminars & colloquia are geared for scientists but free & open to the interested public.
  • * All other SFI events are by invitation only.
  • * Note: We are unable to accommodate members of the public for SFI's limited lunch service; you're welcome to bring your own.