14 September 2000
First Steps in the Origin
of Life in the Universe (+)
EuroConference (*)
Sixth Trieste Conference on Chemical Evolution
Monday, 18-Friday, 22 September, 2000
Venue:
The Kastler Lecture Hall,
Adriatico Guest House (AGH)
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11; P.O.Box 586; 34014 Trieste, Italy.
Co-sponsors
The Abdus Salam International
Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy
European Commission
The SETI Institute
The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology,
Trieste, Italy
Université Paris 12
European Space Agency (ESA)
The ICTP Public Information Office
Fondazione Internazionale Trieste per il Progresso e la Libertà
delle Scienze
Laboratorio dell'Immaginario Scientifico
Preliminary Programme
Directors:
Julian CHELA-FLORES
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics,
Italy and
Instituto de Estudios Avanzados (IDEA), Venezuela
Tobias OWEN
Institute For Astronomy
2680 Woodlawn Drive, 96822 Honolulu (Hawaii)
United States of America
Francois RAULIN
LISA, Universites Paris 12 & Paris7
Faculte des Sciences et Technologie, 61, Avenue du General de
Gaulle
F-94010 Creteil Cedex Fran
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Monday, 18 September 2000
8.00-10.00 Registration
10.00-10.30 WELCOME ADDRESSES
The Cyril Ponnamperuma Lecture
Chairperson: Mohindra Chadha
10.30-11.15 J. William Schopf,
SOLUTION TO DARWIN'S DILEMMA:
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSING PRECAMBRIAN RECORD OF LIFE
University of California-Los Angeles, USA
11.15-11.45 Coffee break
The Abdus Salam Lecture
Chairperson: Jamal Islam
11.45-12.30 Paul Davies,
PHYSICS AND LIFE
Imperial College, London, UK
Lunch break
Opening Lecture
Chairperson: Francois Raulin
14.30-15.15 Cynthia Phillips,
Europa: Prospects for an ocean and life.
SETI Institute, California, USA
15.15-15.45 Coffee break
15.45-17.00 Round Table:
Chairperson: Julian Chela-Flores
"Giordano Bruno's challenge:
Are there many inhabited worlds in our galaxy, or only one?"
Speakers
Davies, Drake, Miller, Owen, Phillips and Raulin,
18.00-19.00 GET-TOGETHER.
Venue: Terrace Level AGH.
Evening Lecture
Chairperson: Tobias Owen
20.30-21.30 Stanley Miller
PEPTIDE NUCLEIC ACIDS RATHER THAN RNA MAY HAVE BEEN THE FIRST GENETIC MOLECULE
University of California, San Diego, USA
Tuesday, 19 September 2000
Opening Session.
Chemical evolution:
Scientific basis for the studies of the origin of life
Chairperson: Cristiano Cosmovici
8.30-9.00 J. Mayo Greenberg,
What can we learn about the origin of life from the study of comets?
Leiden Observatory, Leiden, Netherlands.
9.00-9.30 Joan Oro COMETARY MOLECULES AND LIFE'S ORIGIN
University of Houston, Houston, USA
9.30-10.00 Graham Cairns-Smith,
Materials for "first steps" in evolution
University of Glasgow, UK
10.00-10.45 Contributions (15 minutes):
Chairperson: Wang Wenqing
Mohindra Chadha,
REMINISCENCES PONT- à -MOUSSON- 1970 TO TRIESTE- 2000
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay, India
Alicia Negron-Mendoza,
nterstellar molecules, an exotic chemistry?
UNAM, Mexico
Jamal Islam
DNA, origins of life, and the genome
University of Chittagong, Chittagong, Bengaladesh
Enzo Gallori and Marco Franchi,
Origin and persistence of genetic material in prebiotic habitats.
The possible role of nucleic acid - clay complexes
University of Florence,
Florence, Italy
10.45-11.15 Group photograph; coffee will be served at the Terrace of the AGH.
11.15-12.30 Contributions (15 minutes):
Chairperson: Enzo Gallori
Aristotel Pappelis,
FROM INANIMATE MACROMOLECULES TO THE ANIMATE PROTOCELL: IN SEARCH
OF THERMAL PROTEIN PHASE-SHIFTING
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
United States of America
Giorgio Careri,
Prebiotic ordering induced by periodic starlight
Universita' La Sapienza,Rome, Italy
Wang Wenqing,
Demonstration of the parity violating energy difference in phase
transition of D- and L-alanine".
University of Beijing, China
Mikhail Kritskiy
THE NUCLEOTIDE AND NUCLEOTIDE-LIKE
COENZYMES
IN PRIMITIVE METABOLISM, PHOTOBIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
A. N. Bach Institute of Biochemistry
Moscow, Russia
Romeu C Guimarães',
A metabolism-first definition of life
Departamento. Biologia General,
ICB - UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Lunch break
First Session:
Life without starlight:
Chairperson: Mikhail Kritskiy
14.30-15.00 Herrick Baltscheffsky,
TETRAPEPTIDYL MOTIFS IN THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF PHOTOSYNTHETIC BIOENERGY CONVERSION
University of Stockholm
15.00-15.00 Everett Shock,
Chemical environment at deep hydrothermal vents
Washington University, St. Louis, USA
15.30-16.00 Daniel Prieur,
THERMOPHILIC PROKARYOTES AT DEEP-SEA HYDROTHERMAL VENTS
Station Biologique,
Roscoff, France
16.00-16.30 Coffee break
Chairperson: J. Mayo Greenberg
16.30-17.00 Stephen Moorbath
LATEST EVIDENCE AND CONTROVERSIES RELEVANT TO THE OCCURRENCE AND AGE OF THE OLDEST, PUTATIVE LIFE ON EARTH
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
17.00-17.30 Antonio Lazcano,
THE CENANCESTOR AND ITS CONTEMPORARY BIOLOGICAL RELICS
UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico
Tuesday evening, 19 September 2000
Chairperson: Everett Shock
20.30-21.00 John B. Corliss ,
The hypothesis of hot springs as sites for the origin of life
Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
21.00-21.30 Contributions (15 minutes each):
Koichiro Matsuno,
Simulated Submarine Hydrothermal System: the case of Europa
Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka, Japan
Joseph Seckbach,
Microorganisms as analogues of extraterrestrial
life
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Efrat, Israel
Wednesday, 20 September 2000
8.30-11.30 Tour
of Trieste and its surroundings
Lunch break
First Session:
Life without starlight (conclusion):
Chairperson: Herrick Baltscheffsky
14.00-14.30 Gerda
Horneck,
Likelihood of transport of life between planets of our solar system or between different solar systems
German Aerospace Research Establishment, Cologne, Germany
Second Session:
Is there indigenous organic material on Mars?
Chairperson: John Corliss
14.30-15.00 David McKay,
The question of the detection of life in Martian meteorites
NASA-Johnson Space Center, Houston, United States of America
15.00-15.30 Christopher McKay,
Water on Mars and the question of organic material
NASA Ames, USA
15.30-16.00 Coffee break
16.00-16.30 Contributions (15 minutes):
Chairperson: Joseph Seckbach
Odile Vandenabeele-Trambouze,
Search for enantiomeric excess in extraterrestrial
samples, interest to Mars sample return
Université des Science Montpellier II, Montpellier cedex
5, France
Richard Ruiterkamp,
Stability and evolution of organics in the Martian soil.
Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands
16.30-17.00 Contributions
(15 minutes):
Chairperson: Margareta Baltscheffsky
Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez,
VOLCANIC LIGHTNING AND THE AVAILABILITY OF REACTIVE NITROGEN AND
PHOSPHOROUS SPECIES FOR CHEMICAL EVOLUTION
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
Vinod C. Tewari,
ORIGINS OF LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE AND EARLIEST PROKARYOTIC MICROORGANISMS
ON EARTH
Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, India
17.15-18.00 Break
Public Lecture
Chairperson: Margherita Hack
Venue: The Kastler Hall
18.00-19.00 J. William Schopf,
Ancient Life on Mars and Earth
University of California-Los Angeles, USA
Thursday, 21 September 2000
Second Session
Is there indigenous organic material on Mars?(Continued)
Chairperson: Stephen Moorbath
9.00-9.30 Marcello Coradini,
Present and Future ESA Missions-A review
ESA. Paris, France
9.30-10.00 Andre Brack,
Search for life on Mars:
the Mars Express Beagle-Lander
CNRS Orleans, France
Third Session:
The search for prebiotic and biological indicators in the satellites of the outer solar system:
Chairperson: Christopher McKay
10.00-10.30 Tobias
Owen,
The Satellites of Saturn
University of Hawaii, USA
10.30-11.00 Coffee break
11.00-11.30 Francois Raulin,
The Cassini-Huygens Mission and the nature of Titan
Universites Paris 12 & Paris 7, France
11.30-12.30 Contributions (15 minutes):
Chairperson: Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez
Sandip K. Chakrabarty,
Can DNA Bases and Amino Acids be produced during Star Formation?
S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Calcutta, India
Alicia Negron-Mendoza,
Interstellar molecules, an exotic chemistry?
UNAM, Mexico
V. Vuitton, M.-C. Gazeau,
Y. Benilan, A. Jolly, F. Raulin
Experimental and Theoretical Photochemical studies of polyynes
and cyanopolyynes: Application to Titan's Atmosphere
Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques
Univ. Paris XII-CNRS UMR 7583, Créteil, France
Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez
Protoplanetary disks, solar system minor bodies and the origin
of life
Depto. Astronomía, Universidad de Valencia and
Depto. Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad Jaume I, Spain
Lunch break
14.30-15.00 Meeting
of the Advisory Committee.
(Venue: Lundquist Lecture Hall, AGH.)
14.30-18.00 Poster Session:
Posters will be on display in the Art Gallery area form
Tuesday, 19
September till Friday 22 September 2000.
15.00-16.30 Preliminary list of possible brief (five-minute) oral introduction of posters:
Astrochemistry
Chairperson: Sandip K. Chakrabarty,
P1. Denis Puy, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland COSMOCHEMISTRY
IN THE EARLY UNIVERSE
P2. Suresh Chandra, University of Nanded, India ABSORPTION AGAINST
THE COSMIC 2.7 BACKGROUND
P3. Gonzalo Tancredi and A. Sanchez, Universidad de la República de Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay PROCESSES THAT "COOK" THE INTERIOR OF A COMETARY NUCLEUS
P4. Sandra Ramirez, UNAM, Mexico EXPERIMENTAL SIMULATION OF TITAN'S ATMOSPHERE BY COLD PLASMAS
P5. Gunther
Kletetschka and Peter Wasilewski NAS/NRC GSFC/NASA,Greenbelt,
MD, USA EVIDENCE FOR ELECTRIC DISCHARGE IN CARBONACEOUS METEORITES
P38. M.B. Simakov&E.A. Kuzicheva, Institute
of Cytology, St.Petersburg, Russia TWO POSSIBLE STEPS OF THE CHEMICAL
EVOLUTION ON THE SURFACE OF SMALL BODIES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Chemical Evolution
Chairperson: Alicia Negron Mendoza
P7. Kamaluddin,
University of Roorkee, India STUDIES ON METAL FERROCYANIDES AS
PREBIOTIC CATALYST
P8. Sergio Ramos Bernal,
UNAM, Mexico PREBIOTIC CHEMISTRY
P9. Vicente Marcano, Pedro Benitez and Ernesto Palacios-Pru, University of the Andes, Mérida, Venezuela ADAPTATIVE RESPONSE OF A FUNGUS SPECIES TO HYDROCARBON ENVIRONMENTS WITH MINIMUM OXYGEN AND WATER REQUIREMENTS - RESULTS FROM EXPERIMENTS IN LABORATORY.
P34. Benoit Prieur, ENS, Paris, France THE MISSING LINK OF PREBIOTIC
CHEMISTRY.
ASTROBIOLOGY
Chairperson: Rafael Vicuña,
P10. Abel Méndez,
University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, Puerto Rico PLANETARY HABITABLE
ZONES: PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT REQUIREMENTS AND POTENTIAL DISTRIBUTION
OF LIFE IN PLANETARY BODIES
P.14. Luis Cruz-Kuri, Universidad de Veracruz, Xalapa, Mexico SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF SOME CLIMATE PARAMETERS AROUND THE TIMBERLINE OF PICO DE ORIZABA
P15. Martino Rizzotti, Universita' degli Studi di Padova, Padova, Italy IS NATURAL INTELLIGENCE CORRELATED WITH CELLULAR COMPLEXITY?
P16. Jordi L. Gutierrez, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya,
Barcelona, Spain TERRANE METEORITES ON THE MOON AS A SOURCE OF
INFORMATION ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF LIFE ON EARTH
VIDEO
V1. John B. Corliss,
Central European University, Budapest, Hungary A VIDEO TAKEN FORM
THE SUBMARINE ALVIN IN RELATION WITH THE SUGGESTION THAT HYDROTHERMAL
VENTS ARE POSSIBLE SOURCES OF LIFE'S ORIGINS
POSTERS
P17. Valeria Ascheri,
University of Genova, Italy EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE AND COMMUNICATION
PERSPECTIVES
P18. Rosalba Bonaccorsi, University of Trieste, Trieste,
Italy,& Romana MelisLamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, NY -
USA, PERSISTENCE OF LIVING FORAMINIFERA IN THE ANTARCTIC SEA ICE
INFERRED FROM A STUDY OF AN OUTER SLOPE CORE (Ross Sea continental
margin)
P19. Vicente Marcano, Pedro Benitez, Luis Fajardo and Ernesto Palacios-Pru, University of the Andes, Mérida, Venezuela STABILITY OF RIBONUCLEIC ACID IN PROTECTIVE ENVIRONMENTS OF HEAVY N-ALKANES - RESULTS FROM EXPERIMENTS IN LABORATORY.
P20. Marco Franchi,
Claudia Vandini and Enzo Gallori, University of Florence ENZYMATIC
REPLICATION OF RNA ADSORBED ON CLAY MINERALS
P21. Joseph A. Nuth III, Hugh G. M. Hill and Gunther Kletetschka, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,Greenbelt , USA, THE FORMATION AGE OF COMETS: PREDICTED PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL TRENDS
P23. Paolo Musso, University of Genova, Italy ON THE LAST TERMS OF DRAKE'S EQUATION: THE PROBLEM OF THE ENERGY SOURCES
P24. Joan Oro and
Xavier Palau, Fundació Joan Oro, Lleida. Spain COSMOPARK
A NATURAL ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY
P25. Manish Patel, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom THE BEAGLE 2 ENVIRONMENTAL SENSORS:INSTRUMENT, MEASUREMENTS AND CAPABILITIES
P26. Florence Raulin Cerceau, Grande Galerie de l'Evolution Museum national d'Histoire naturelle & Centre Alexandre Koyre, Paris, France THEORIES ON ORIGIN OF LIFE BETWEEN1860 AND 1900, A SHORT TIME AFTER THE WORKS OF PASTEUR ABOUT SPONTANEOUS GENERATION
P27. Tahir K. Shah, Universita' di Trieste, Trieste, Italy ON
EVOLUTIONARY CONVERGENCE.
P28. Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez, Universidad de Valencia and Universidad Jaume I, Spain, METEOROID ORBITS AND SPECTROSCOPY FROM THE SPANISH PHOTOGRAPHIC METEOR NETWORK (SPMN)
P29. Gilbert Turian, Universite'
de Geneve, Geneva, Switzerland A PHOSPHORAMIDE BONDED "PRE-RNA
WORLD?
P30. John B. Corliss, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
THE SUBMARINE ALVIN AND THE SUGGESTION THAT HYDROTHERMAL VENTS
ARE POSSIBLE SOURCES OF LIFE'S ORIGINS (I).
P31. John B. Corliss, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary THE SUBMARINE ALVIN AND THE SUGGESTION THAT HYDROTHERMAL VENTS ARE POSSIBLE SOURCES OF LIFE'S ORIGINS (II).
P32. Jean Schneider and Antoine Labeyrie, Paris Observatory, Paris, France and Fiorella Coliolo, IRSPS, Universita' d'Annunzio, Pescara Italy A UNIVERSAL BIOSIGNATURE: `GENERALIZED CHLOROPHYLS'
P33. Mariaisabella Colli, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy EXOBIOLOGICAL APPROACH IN THE PROJECT 242 ASI/RUBBIA THE ORIGIN OF LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE: EARTH AND MARS
P35. Ernesto Palacios-Pru and Vicente Marcano, University of the Andes, Mérida, Venezuela. PROBLEMS ABOUT THE OCCURRENCE OF LIQUID WATER ON THE SURFACE OF MARS.
P36. Aristotel Pappelis, Peter Bahn and Sidney W. Fox, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, United States of America SEPARATION OF PRODUCT(S) OBTAINED BY HIGH TEMPERATURE THERMAL PROTEIN SYNTHESES USING CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS
P37. Peter Bahn and Aristotel Pappelis, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, United States of America SEPARATION OF PRODUCT(S) OBTAINED BY HIGH TEMPERATURE THERMAL PROTEIN SYNTHESES USING HPLC
P38. Wang Wenqing, University of Beijing, China MODEL SYSTEM FOR STUDYING THE ROLE OF PHOSPHORYL GROUP IN ENERGY TRANSFER SYSTEM
Thursday evening, 21 September 2000
Chairperson: Stanley
Miller
18.30-19.30 Pre-dinner Speaker:
Frank Drake
19.30 CONFERENCE DINNER
Friday, 22 September 2000
Fourth Session:
New Approaches to the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligent
Radio Signals and Some of its Implications
Chairperson: Frank Drake
9.00-9.30 Marc Ollivier,
Ways to detect life on the new planets
Max Planck Institut fur Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany
9.30-10.00 Cristiano Cosmovici,
Searching for water in exoplanets
CNR Istituto di Fisica Dello Spazio Interplanetario, Roma, Italy.
10.00-10.30 Giancarlo Genta,
Robotic set-up of a laser data link for the Saha Crater lunar
radioastronomic and SETI observatory
Politecnico di Torino, Italy
10.30-11.00 Coffee
Fourth Session (Continued):
Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Some of its Implications
Chairperson: Antonio Lazcano
11.00-11.30 George V. Coyne,
SJ,
Origins and Creation
Specola Vaticana, Citta' del Vaticano, Roma, Italy
11.30-12.00 Robert John
Russell,
Intelligent life in the universe:
philosophical and theological issues
Centre for Theology and the Natural Sciences
Berkeley California, USA
12.00-12.30 Guillermo Lemarchand,
Extravagant Interstellar Communication Means and the Limitations
of the Laws of Physics
University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lunch break
Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Some of its Implications (Continued):
Chairperson: Robert John Russell
14.30-15.00 Julian
Chela-Flores,
Implications of biological evolution outside habitable zones in solar systems
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics,Trieste, Italy and Instituto de Estudios Avanzados, Caracas, Venezuela
Closing Lecture
15.00-15.45 Francesco Bertola,
The plurality of worlds
University of Padua, Italy
Closing Ceremony
Chairperson: John Oro
15.45-16.15 Words by:
Julian Chela-Flores,Tobias Owen and Francois Raulin
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End of the Conference
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