Time: August 11th, 9 AM PDT/12 PM EDT
Zoom: Join the 2026 LIFE NASA RCN Seminar Series
Title: Quantitative Prebiotic Chemistry and Defining the Abiotic Baseline Reveals why RNA may be unique to Earth
Dr. Sara Imari Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist whose research focuses on new approaches to the origins of life, artificial life, and the detection of alien life on other worlds. She is the author of Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life’s Emergence (Riverhead, 2024), which argues for a radical new thinking around what constitutes life. Walker is Deputy Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Professor at the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University (ASU) and External Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute.
Title: Deep-time evolution of proteome elemental composition in viruses and cells
Dr. L. Felipe Benites is a postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University who investigates the fundamental principles that constrain biological diversity across cellular and viral life. His work sits at the intersection of astrobiology, evolution, and genomics, where he explores how life might differ under alternative chemical, evolutionary and planetary conditions.
To learn more about the LIFE: Early Cells to Multicellularity Research Coordination Network and how you can join, visit the official website.
Astrobiology,
