Instructor: David Catling
AUTUMN QUARTER, 2009.
CLASS TIMES: Mon, Wed: 11am-12.20pm (lectures)Click HERE
FOR SYLLABUS/SCHEDULE.
NOTE: Lecture notes and materials will become
available here:
1) Papers for Reviewing (each
Thursday)
Class Description
This
course reviews the latest geological, biological and chemical research
on the most significant times in Earth's history when life grew more
complex and the atmosphere and oceans changed from anaerobic to
oxygenated. We also discuss the comparative evolution of Mars, the
concept of "Snowball Earth", relevant microbiology, bioenergetic
change, and thermodynamic metrics concerning what life is and the
detection of life.
This course will consist of lectures and also sessions when students critically review published papers on topics of interest. The course is for graduate students. However, senior/junior science major undergraduates may also take the course with permission of the instructor.
Course Outline
1. Comparative Planetary Evolution (2 wks)
Astrobiology Guest Faculty: Profs. Don Brownlee, Josh Bandfield, John Baross
3. Evolution of Microbial Metabolisms:
Anaerobes to Aerobes (2 wks)
Astrobiology Guest Faculty: Prof. John Leigh, David Stahl, Jim Staley
4. Bioenergetics and Entropy in an Aerobic versus
Anaerobic
World (3 wks)
5. Review and Student presentations (1 wk)
Background Reading
The popular books below are recommended background reading for the Summer, prior to taking the course.
In the course, we will review highly technical material: research papers from the scientific literature.
For a readable background on early life on Earth:
For general background to the nature of life and some
ideas on entropy, the following is an old classic, originally published
in 1944. Amongst other things, in this essay, Nobel Laureate, Erwin
Schrodinger,
first said that life must run on some kind of "code" like a computer
program,
i.e., he introduced the term "genetic code" to the English language.