This week I had a fantastic opportunity to participate in the Interdisciplinary Origin of Life meeting organised by Institute of Molecular Evolution and hosted in the beautiful Schloß Mickeln, Düsseldorf.
The meeting brought together researches from disciplines as diverse as geochemistry, bioinformatics, astrophysics and philosophy, all sharing the passion for the study of Origin of Life.
Throughout the meeting, we held roundtable discussions to debate our ideas and views, discuss the unknowns in the field, and talk about the future direction of this research.
I was honoured to chair “From Geochemistry to Biochemistry – a Tough Transition” roundtable, full of passionate and engaging discussions on the emergence of very first molecules and the formation of very first polymeric systems starting life as we know it today.
I am confident that this Interdisciplinary Origin of Life meeting will generate new ideas and lead to many fruitful collaborations in future!
In a presentation, entitled “Computational Chemistry as a Time-Traveller’s Tool”, Valentina discusses how her molecular modeling techniques allow studying phenomena that occurred millions of years ago, that lead to the transition from geo- to biochemistry. She then demonstrates how the same methods, used to address fundamental questions, can also be applied to today’s problems of industrial interest, such as enhanced oil recovery and synthesis of high surface materials. All these processes are driven by interactions between organic molecules and layered materials under conditions difficult to reproduce through experiment alone.
