Evento

Exploring the Origin of Life on Earth -- Dr. Mandy Ward and Ben Pollard

Tuesdays, June 6, 13, 27, 10:00am-12:00noon, KCBX Hall, SLO
Three Sessions
$15 for LLCC members, $30 for non-members.

This is a three session course. Buying a single ticket for this course admits you to all three sessions/classes.

Are you curious about your ancestors? No, not your great grandfather, further back than that. About 3.5 billion years further back. Almost certainly life on Earth started when small molecules found they could absorb chemicals from their surroundings, grow, and divide into copies of themselves. The course addresses the question of where and how this happened.

Course participants will be exposed to the reductionist approach used by scientists during hypothesis-driven research as we attempt to understand various aspects of this complex puzzle. The course is aimed at the curious weekend scientist who may have wondered, for example, if life originated around black-smoker hydrothermal vents, or how primitive cells might have survived in the absence of oxygen. Participants will hopefully finish the course more curious than when they started.

Mandy Ward has a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Glasgow, Scotland. She was junior faculty at the Johns Hopkins University, where she taught Microbiology and Molecular Microbiology, for 5 years. She retired from academia after being involved in an accident soon after moving to USC.

Retired civil and mining engineer Ben Pollard employed his background in geology in jobs ranging from appraising mining claims in the Rockies to designing fish ladders in Alaska.

If you would like to have the password for the member price for this course, go to www.lifelearnerscc.org for information on how you can become a member.