Friday, November 5, 2010

NAI Workshop Without Walls on Molecular Paleontology and Resurrection: Rewinding the Tape of Life


The Workshop Without Walls on November 8-10, 2010 will be conducted with NAI collaborative tools, shown in use by scientists in the above images


A three-day workshop using NAI remote communications tools will be held on November 8, 9 & 10, 2010. Participants will discuss ‘top down’ origin of life research, which will ultimately allow us to rewind the evolutionary record of biochemical processes and assemblies.

Organized by John Peters and Loren Williams, PIs of the NAI’s Montana State University and Georgia Tech teams, a primary goal of the workshop is to foster new interdisciplinary collaborations across the community.

Session topics will include

* Phylogenetic Studies on Key Enzymes Involved in Information Pathways and Metabolism
* The Evolutionary History of Protein Synthesis
* Minerals to Enzymes – Bridging the Gap Between Metal Based Abiotic and Biological Chemistry
* Phylogenetic Reconstruction/Resurrection – A Glimpse into Extinct Biochemistry
* What can Modern Biological Energy Transformation Systems Tell Us About Conditions on the Early Earth?
* Linking the Evolutionary Record to the Geological Record

The workshop will consist of talks and discussion. Each presentation will allow ample time for questions and answers afterwards. Although talks will be recorded and posted online, we encourage researchers to attend in real time to engage in what we expect will be a lively exchange of ideas during the workshop.

This will be the second Workshop Without Walls organized by NAI scientists. As with the first workshop, we will be experimenting with best use of the virtual communications capabilities of NAI. The workshop is open to the worldwide science community and will be accessible via internet browser—no special software or equipment is required. Once again we look forward to a productive conference with a low carbon footprint and without registration fees, the hassle of travel, and time away from family.

Workshop Organizing Committee

* Betul Kacar Arslan (Georgia Tech, betul@gatech.edu)
* Eric Boyd (Montana State University, eboyd@montana.edu)
* John Peters (Montana State University, john.peters@chemistry.montana.edu)
* Loren Williams (Georgia Tech, loren.williams@chemistry.gatech.edu)

Agenda

Click here to view the agenda
http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/ool-www/program

To accommodate all US time zones, the workshop will run from 1pm-5pm EST each day.

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