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Strategic Plan Documents
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Co-Evolution of Life and the Physical Environment
Early Life and Increasing Complexity
Identifying, Exploring, and Characterizing Habitable Environments
Synthesis and Function of Macromolecules in the Origin of Life
Concept Documents
Webinar Document Links:
January
30 - What is the origin and early evolution of photosynthesis?
29 - What is the geophysical evolutionary history of terrestrial planets of different sizes and compositions?
23 - How can we best overcome our ignorance about microbial life on Earth?
22 - What Roles Do Primitive Icy Bodies Play in the Origin of Life on Habitable Planets?
16 - How Can We Search for Life in our Solar System?
15 - How does Earth's earliest rock record inform us about the origin of life on Earth?
8 - Did life or pre-biotic chemistry evolve on differentiated icy worlds?
December
19 - What does the simplest life look like?
18 - What experimental studies of evolutionary pathways and emergence in molecular systems should be performed?
5 - How did polypeptide meet polynucleotide?
4 - How did macromolecules gain function?
November
20 - How are stable populations of oligomers synthesized & assembled?
21 - How can we substitute space for time to better understand geochemical and co-evolutionary dynamics?
13 - What genomic, metabolic & ecological features characterized LUCA/life at the root of the Tree of Life?
6 - How can we identify habitable environments in our Solar System?
7 - How can we identify habitable planets and search for life beyond our Solar System?
October
30 - How do habitable systems form?
31 - How can a world generate and support life?
23 - What environmental factors are coupled to the emergence of life?
24 - What are the common attributes of extant living systems and what can they tell us about all living systems?
16 - How can we enhance the utility of biosignatures as a tool to search for life in the solar system and beyond?
16 - How can we understand the Earth's past, present and future as proxies for habitable worlds?
9 - How extensive, diverse and dynamic are subsurface and deep biospheres and how do they function?
9 - How did complex organisms arise from early life, and what were the mechanisms that controlled their subsequent evolution?
September
25 - How does the evolution of the atmosphere & its interactions with the solid Earth and the biosphere inform our exploration of habitable worlds?
26 - What are the sources of organic monomers relevant to the origin of life?
Other related documents:
Workshop Report (Frank Rosenzweig)
Network 'Spider' Diagram (Eric Smith)
Way Forward (Michael New)
Webinar Recordings