The Science of Life’s Origin

How a living system capable of evolving complexity first emerged on Earth some 4 billion years ago remains one of the biggest unsolved scientific mysteries. Resolving this puzzle would guide the search for life on other worlds and might even suggest ways to engineer new life-like chemical systems in the laboratory. UW Professor David Baum will discuss different theories that have been proposed to explain the origin of life and summarize ongoing work in his laboratory and elsewhere that aims to test these theories experimentally.