Earth, atmosphere and climate Water, minerals and geochemistry
The Earth that cradled life: the role of silica
Juan Manuel García-Ruiz Donostia International Physics Center · Andalusian Institute of Earth Sciences
The video loads from YouTube (privacy-enhanced mode) only when you press play.
About the lecture
In this lecture we will explore the geochemical niches of the early Earth that may have hosted the transition from inorganic to organic geochemistry, and from there to prebiotic chemistry and the emergence of the complexity that would lead to the first life-like structures.
We will reveal the crucial role of minerals, especially silica, in mineral self-organisation and in the heterogeneous catalysis of prebiotic chemistry. And we will discuss the relevance of these experimental results for the origin of life and for detecting primitive terrestrial and extraterrestrial life.
Dr Juan Manuel García-Ruiz is Ikerbasque Professor at the Donostia International Physics Center and ad honorem Research Professor at the CSIC Andalusian Institute of Earth Sciences. He currently leads the ERC Synergy project “The role of silica in the dawn of life on our Planet”.
Text of the official description published by IAA-CSIC on YouTube.
