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Seminar Detail
Energy Flow and Life: A Thermodynamic-Kinetic View of Biology in its Relationship with the Environment
Presenter: Tori Hoehler (NASA Ames Research Center)
March 1, 2010 11:00 AM Pacific
Life’s unique and universal relationship with energy flow offers an added constraint in conceptualizing and quantifying habitability and biosignatures, the central concepts in the search for life beyond Earth. The statement, “life requires energy”, is widely accepted and often invoked in astrobiology, but is of little practical use given that energy – in one form or another, and at one level or another – is present everywhere in the universe. However, qualification and constraint are introduced by considering the unique attributes of life’s dependence and effect on energy flow, at physical, chemical, and biological levels of specificity. Life’s relationship with energy has both thermodynamic and kinetic dimensions: how much and how fast are both important, where energy demand, availability, and transduction are concerned. When considered in concert, these two dimensions yield significant resolving power in quantifying life’s need for energy (a constraint on habitability) and life’s imprint on energy flow (a form of biosignature). They do so at a fundamental point of interface between life and its host environment, and in a fashion that need not be specific to Earth-type life. This approach will be described at a conceptual level, and then applied to the specific example of habitability of serpentinizing systems for methanogenic organisms.
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Click here to view Online RecordingDecember 21, 2007
The Director’s Seminar series features talks from scientists who are invited by the NAI Director to present their research results to the community. A primary goal of the seminars is to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration across NAI teams and within the astrobiology community at large.
Team Overview Seminars describe the work of the fourteen NAI teams and NAI Central. They offer an opportunity to find out more about the science, E/PO and other activities being performed by the NAI teams and the NAI Central office.
The Forum for Astrobiology Research (FAR) provides an opportunity for graduate students to present their research results and to meet as a student community for networking and mutual support.
The University of Washington seminar series is hosted by the NAI Virtual Planetary Lab (VPL) team from the UW campus in Seattle.
