New Frontiers in the Origins of Life

Meeting Description: The goal of this workshop is to address new frontiers in origins of life research, from the perspectives of early career researchers. We know that no single result will constitute a solution to such a complex problem, so what are the explicit goals of this research? What can be done to move past dogmatic discord and work towards these goals (e.g. training, collaborations, etc.)? We will discuss recent advancements, such as in the areas of synthetic cells and prebiotic evolution, to inform how general our studies should be. In addition, we will discuss how our exploration of environments beyond Earth should influence origins of life research, or vice versa. Given that many origins of life hypotheses are non-falsifiable, what would success look like in the next decade?

This event is supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation Grant Number 1745355, under the Research Coordination Networks (RCN) program (RoL: RCN for Exploration of Life’s Origins).  Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.