Urable Worlds: Where and How can Life Start in the Universe?

On which worlds and under what conditions can life begin? The new “urability” framework (places and conditions under which life can originate) is a new addition to Astrobiology, joining the term “habitability” (worlds where life as we know it can survive). Applying urability to exoplanet models will inform a key term in the Drake Equation enabling better estimation of the inventory of worlds where life might arise. The framework is based on a foundation of accumulating evidence by multiple international teams, which increasingly supports an origin of life on land in volcanic hot spring pools. David Deamer and Bruce Damer of UC Santa Cruz and the BIOTA Institute will introduce urability and the hot spring scenario and present a new twist, “the Drake Equation, in reverse,” along with a potentially controversial proposal that “microbes may be hard, not easy.”

This talk will be in person at the SETI Institute (limited space available) and online. Senior researcher Franck Marchis will moderate this talk.

Register at weblink to attend, either in person or online