Whispers from other worlds and primitive cells: Leopoldina Annual Assembly examines the origin and beginning of life

The conditions that made life on Earth possible are widely recognized: a planet with water and a protective atmosphere located at the perfect distance from the sun. However, how life actually began remains a mystery. This year’s Annual Assembly of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina will examine the complex processes underpinning the origin of life. On Thursday 26 and Friday 27 September international experts will gather in Halle (Saale)/Germany to explore the astronomical, physical, chemical, biological, and philosophical aspects of one of humanity’s most fundamental questions: how did life originate and is life on our planet an improbable, isolated case within our universe?

Leopoldina Annual Assembly 2024
“Origin and Beginning of Life”
Thursday 26 September and Friday 27 September 2024
Leopoldina Main Building
Jägerberg 1, 06108 Halle (Saale) and online

On Thursday, before the opening ceremony, the Leopoldina Senate will elect a new President. The person chosen will take over the role from Professor (ETHZ) Dr Gerald Haug, the XXVII President of the Leopoldina, in February 2025.

Rainer Robra, Head of the State Chancellery and Minister for Culture of Saxony-Anhalt will give a welcoming address. Before the Annual Assembly addresses the origin of life from various scientific perspectives, Professor Dr Thomas Zurbuchen will give a keynote lecture that broadens our horizon all the way into outer space. The Swiss-American physicist and former Scientific Director of NASA’s lecture is titled “Whispers from Other Worlds: NASA’s Search for Life in the Cosmos.” The evening lecture will also consider potential life in the cosmos: the Swiss astronomer Professor Dr Didier Queloz will talk about the search for planets that revolve around a star outside our solar system. The astronomer received the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the first exoplanet.

As part of the opening ceremony, the biochemist Dr Georg Hochberg will be awarded the “ZukunftsWissen – the Early Career Award from Leopoldina and Commerzbank-Stiftung”. He studies the evolution of the structure and function of proteins that exist today. On Friday, Hochberg will give a lecture on his research.

In addition, the Cothenius Medal 2024 will be awarded to Leopoldina Member Professor Dr Roger Goody for his lifetime of scientific achievement. The biochemist discovered fundamental biological mechanisms involved in metabolic processes and thus made an important contribution to the study of cancer, as well as eye and brain diseases.

The long-serving Vice-President of the Leopoldina Professor Dr Dr Gunnar Berg will receive the Medal of Merit for his exceptional, decades-long voluntary work for the Academy.

In the Friday sessions, experts from the natural sciences and humanities will give lectures about where life begins, how it might have originated, and whether, like a law of nature, life automatically occurs under certain conditions. For example, the US astronomer Dr Laura Kreidberg, who works with the James Webb Space Telescope as part of her research, will talk about the search for atmospheres on rocky planets. The astronomer and Harvard Professor Dr Dimitar Sasselov will present early Earth geochemical models. The chemist Dr Claudia Bonfio will speak about her research into primitive cells. She studies how the first cells may have arisen from inanimate matter. The microbiologist Christa Schleper will explain how microorganisms developed into complex life forms. The philosopher Professor Dr Christof Rapp will explain how the origin and beginning of life has fascinated philosophers as far back as Ancient Greece.

The chemist Professor Dr Thomas Carell and the astrophysicist Professor Dr Thomas Henning are in charge of scientific coordination of the Annual Assembly 2024.

This event is open to all interested parties, is free of charge, and will also be livestreamed. Lectures are held in English and simultaneously translated into German. Information on the livestream and a link to the programme are available here: https://www.leopoldina.org/en/annual-assembly-2024

Journalists who would like to attend should register by email at presse@leopoldina.org. We will happily arrange interviews with the speakers.

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About the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina:
As the German National Academy of Sciences, the Leopoldina provides independent science-based policy advice on matters relevant to society. To this end, the Academy develops interdisciplinary statements based on scientific findings. In these publications, options for action are outlined; making decisions, however, is the responsibility of democratically legitimized politicians. The experts who prepare the statements work in a voluntary and unbiased manner. The Leopoldina represents the German scientific community in the international academy dialogue. This includes advising the annual summits of Heads of State and Government of the G7 and G20 countries. With around 1,700 members from more than 30 countries, the Leopoldina combines expertise from almost all research areas. Founded in 1652, it was appointed the National Academy of Sciences of Germany in 2008. The Leopoldina is committed to the common good.

Media Contact:
Julia Klabuhn
Acting Head of the Press and Public Relations Department
Tel: +49 (0)345 472 39-800
E-mail: presse@leopoldina.org

Weitere Informationen:
https://www.leopoldina.org/en/events/event/event/3137/