NAI
2013 Annual Science Report
VPL at University of Washington
Reporting | SEP 2012 – AUG 2013
EPO Activity: Astrobiology Summer School Lectures
Project Progress
Two lectures of 1 hours each. The titles were “Introduction to Microbial Metabolism” and “Photosynthesis and the Transition to an Aerobic World”. The first lecture included discussion of: 1. Origin of life 2. RNA world 3. Cellularization of life 4. Properties of membranes 5. Patterns of metabolism and metabolic pathways 6. ATP bond energy 7. Redox processes 8. Chemiosmotic theory 9. Mechanism of ATP synthesis The second lecture included discussion of: 1. Principles of photosynthetic metabolism 2. Types of photosynthetic life 3. Photosynthetic antennas and reaction centers 4. Carbon fixation pathways 5. Origin and early evolution of photosynthesis 6. Origin of oxygen evolution 7. Origin of linked photosystems