IPLU Panel Discussion: A Geochemical Context for Prebiotic Plausibility

Prebiotic chemistry deals with the synthesis and interaction of those organic compounds which might have been present before life began. So, what are sufficient conditions for the synthesis of the organic molecules constituting the building blocks of life as we know it? Dr Paul Rimmer of Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences who is also affiliated with Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory and MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology brought together three Earth scientists, Professor Alexis S. Templeton (University of Colorado), Professor Nick Tosca (University of Cambridge) and Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar (University of Toronto), to discuss mechanisms involving the emergence of such chemistry under different conditions billions of years ago on Earth and potentially on other planets and moons.