Groundbreaking Research on the Origins of Life

996 views · Published 19 May 2014 · 22:47 · Indexed 22 October 2026

Channel: GBH Forum Network · 2014 · Education

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Two researchers at the famous Szostak Lab at Harvard University   describe their respective contributions to scientific understanding of the emergence of life.  Two essentials of life are (a) self-replication and (b) a membrane.  Dr. Matthew W. Powner, a Research Fellow at the Szostak Lab, explains the breakthrough he and his colleagues made in the reconstruction of the origin of nucleotides, the basic material of self-replication.   Itay Budin, a doctoral candidate in the Szostak Lab, explains the acclaimed model he devised for the development of lipid membranes on the early Earth. Both projects provide clues to the origins of the earliest stages of life.

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