SFI Community Event - Nick Lane

Energy and Matter at the Origin of Life
All living things are made of cells, and all cells are powered by electrochemical charges across thin lipid membranes - the ‘proton motive force.’ We know how these electrical charges are generated by protein machines at virtually atomic resolution, but we know very little about how membrane bioenergetics first arose. By tracking back cellular evolution to the last universal common ancestor and beyond, scientist Nick Lane argues that geologically sustained electrochemical charges across semiconducting barriers were central to both energy flow and the formation of new organic matter - growth - at the very origin of life.
Dr. Lane is a professor of evolutionary biochemistry in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London. His research focuses on how energy flow constrains evolution from the origin of life to the traits of complex multicellular organisms. He is a co-director of the new Centre for Life’s Origins and Evolution (CLOE) at UCL, and author of four celebrated books on life’s origins and evolution. His work has been recognized by the Biochemical Society Award in 2015 and the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize in 2016.

[@praveenmallar]

Most exciting talk I ever heard. Thanks Nick Lane for it and the books you have written. And thanks SFI for making this public and free.

[@marble296]

So life is the breakdown of kinetic barriers to thermodynamically favoured reactions

[@robbie_]

Great. Thanks for sharing.

[@endoftheroad10090]

I’m staggered people would choose creationism over something this beautiful and awe inspiring ... 😔