Origin of Life Early-Career Network

I had a great time being interviewed for this!

New in #PhilTransB - a theme issue exploring one of science’s deepest questions: how life can emerge from non-living matter. Edited by @ricardsole.bsky.social and colleagues. Read: buff.ly/7iz4tGu

After a long time in the making, my paper on nonequilibrium thermodynamics of Darwinian evolution has been published in Philosophical Transactions B. Updated version: arxiv.org/abs/2112.02809

From ProtoSigns Lab in The Conversation this week – 'Could life exist on Mars today?'

Devyani Jambhule took the lead here – excellent from an early stage PhD student 👏

@protosignslab.bsky.social @theconversation.com @dcu-lsi.bsky.social @dcuresearch.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu @researchireland.ie

The University of Rochester has a faculty position opening in complexity science as well as other domains of theoretical physics. Please apply to join us in
studying the “physics of life” and other subjects

apply.interfolio.com/173432

www.oolen.org/join-oolen/

UKRI announces winners of £120 million Future Leaders Fellowships Research into the causes of lung cancer and Alzheimer’s disease are among 77 projects to be funded by UKRI’s Future Leaders Fellowships.

Thrilled to share that I have been awarded a Future Leaders Fellowship! 🤩
I am really grateful to my colleagues at Cambridge Biochemistry for their support and to the UKRI for believing in me and funding this project!
Stay tuned for Research Assistant and Associate positions available!

🧪 Curious how chemistry becomes biology? Join OoLEN’s open seminar Thu Sep 12, 06:30 UTC (15:30 JST / 08:30 CEST) !

📣 We’ll share a short yearly update, then Tony Z Jia dives into Primitive Polyester Microdroplets on Early Earth. 🫧🌍

▶️ Live stream: youtube.com/@OoLEN_org

A new 5-year mission begins!

I'm so grateful to everyone at NASA Astrobiology for this opportunity to advance our search for life in the universe with @calebscharf.bsky.social and our team of amazing colleagues at @carnegiescience.bsky.social, NASA Ames, and beyond!

Protein-free catalysis of DNA hydrolysis and self-integration by a ribozyme Abstract. Group II introns are ancient self-splicing ribozymes and retrotransposons. Though long speculated to have originated before translation, their de

Out now in
@NAR_Open
! A #ribozyme can self-integrate into and hydrolyze ss- & dsDNA, offering a new avenue for the development of protein-free genome editing tools, and hinting at the possibility of a pre-translation origin of group II introns (G2Is). 🧬🧵 (1/7)
#intron #RNAworld

🧪 Curious how chemistry becomes biology? Join OoLEN’s open seminar Thu Sep 12, 06:30 UTC (15:30 JST / 08:30 CEST) !

📣 We’ll share a short yearly update, then Tony Z Jia dives into Primitive Polyester Microdroplets on Early Earth. 🫧🌍

▶️ Live stream: youtube.com/@OoLEN_org

Instituto Superior Técnico (@istecnico.bsky.social) Instituto Superior TÉCNICO is the largest school of Architecture, Engineering, Science and Technology in Portugal, involving a community of 12000+ people on campus 🏛️🇵🇹 tecnico.ulisboa.pt

#POSTDOC position avaiable at @ istecnico.bsky.social. Combining modelling chemical networks, goal-directedness, & OOL. Good conditions, but needs to be filled ASAP by a person who is already allowed to legaly live & work in Portugal. Check full details at: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/362411

Interested in moving/establishing your research group in Ireland?

www.researchireland.ie/funding/glob...

I'd love to see more #originoflife #astrobiology researchers join us here!

Feel free to contact me directly to discuss!

@abgradcon.bsky.social @oolen.bsky.social @dcuresearch.bsky.social

Presented my work on calcium carbonate as potential template for origin of life and its prebiotic reactions. @goldschmidt-confer.bsky.social at prague -2025 @oolen.bsky.social @astrobiology.bsky.social

And now here’s another great talk by OoLEN member @miquai.bsky.social on agnostic life detection at #BEACON25 #OriginOfLife

Another incredible talk by OoLEN member @silkeasche.bsky.social at #BEACON25 in Iceland 🚀🇮🇸

Keynote on the habitability of ocean worlds 🌊 @ #BEACON2025 #Astrobiology

Awesome talk by @klauspaschek.bsky.social at the #BEACON conference in Reykjavik ! 🚀 #OriginOfLife #Astrobiology

Thank you to @oolen.bsky.social for inviting me to give a keynote on progressing from Postdoc to PI in Iceland! I met so many promising ECRs!

Scouted some fieldwork locations while I was there too so can't wait to return for sampling!

@erc.europa.eu @researchireland.ie @dcuresearch.bsky.social

Had a great time presenting my work on Assembly Theory and molecular phylogenetics at the GRS and GRC on Molecular Mechanisms of Evolution in Boston, and the FALCON origin of life and astrobiology conference at Reykjavik. Feeling inspired!

Thank you to everyone for coming! A special thanks to AbGradE and @euroastrobiology.bsky.social for joining forces to make this incredible event here in Iceland 🇮🇸 possible! It was a privilege to collaborate, and we truly owe you for making it all happen! Enjoy the conference excursion tomorrow! 🌋🐑🏔️🌊

#FALCON2025 was wrapped up by a career development workshop, featuring @seanfj.bsky.social and Filipa Sousa, giving us valuable and honest advice on how to progress in one's career to becoming a PI and how to write good proposals, as well as a lively poster session.

The origins of life session during #FALCON2025 featured an amazing keynote talk by our very own @silkeasche.bsky.social, intriguing roundtable discussions about the very definition of life and how to detect it, and, of course, many exciting contributed talks! Thanks to all the speakers! 👏

On the first full day of #FALCON2025, we enjoyed an amazing lineup of astrobiology talks, a lovely tour of the botanical gardens, and a great conference dinner. We hope that many new connections will be made between the astrobiology and origins of life communities here in Iceland!

#FALCON2025 is in full swing, uniting Astrobiology and the Origins of Life sciences in a fun, relaxed gathering surrounded by 🇮🇸 Iceland's picturesque volcanic early Earth analogue landscape. 🌋🧬🦠
Let's go!

A small teaser of my BEACON poster that shows a text chain between two scientists trying to decide how to make an artistic figure

Poster printed and ready for #BEACON2025! See you next week, @euroastrobiology.bsky.social!

I'm so excited to be on my way to #FALCON2025, our first jointly organized early-carrer conference of AbGradE and @oolen.bsky.social in Reykjavik 🇮🇸🌋! Can't wait to meet everyone and talk exciting science! 🤩

More info
oolen.org/news-and-events/in-person-meetings/falcon2025
and
abgrade.eu/falcon2025

FALCON 2025 kicks off this evening in Reykjavík! Proud to co-host with AbGradE. Swing by the 19:00 icebreaker BBQ to meet fellow early-career origin-of-life researchers and set the tone for three days of wonderful science! 🇮🇸🌋 #FALCON2025

A screenshot of our session description that reads: P038 - The Emergence of Life as a Planetary Process The origin of life is an enduring conundrum that requires multidisciplinary expertise to understand. Although the exact circumstances surrounding life’s emergence remain shrouded in mystery, geoscientific advances help constrain the processes responsible for the origin of the biosphere. What complex molecules were produced via atmospheric chemistry? What role did redox-sensitive minerals play in catalyzing protometabolic networks? How does mantle dynamics impact the generation of subaerial landmasses? Would bolide impacts have sterilized Earth in the deep past, or created prebiotic niches? Do wet–dry cycles incite organic chemistry to “evolve” prior to the onset of Darwinism? What would finding life on Enceladus teach us about life’s origins? Can we detect “prebiotic exoplanets” with future astronomical observatories? This session welcomes any study—be it theoretical, modeling, experimental, observational, fieldwork, or data analysis—that investigates the planetary processes that could have driven life’s emergence and early evolution. Conveners: Michael L Wong, Michael J Walter

I'm convening a session at #AGU25 on the emergence of life as a planetary process ✨☄️🌋⛈️☀️❄️🌊🫧🦠

Get those abstracts ready!

Submission deadline: July 30.

Calcium Carbonate as a Potential Template for the Origin of Life: Coupled Inorganic–Organic Geochemistry of Travertine Deposit from Puga Hot Spring Unraveling life’s origin involves finding environments that can form and preserve organic molecules, with hydrothermal systems offering a likely setting. Terrestrial mineral deposits in the form of si...

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... pleased to share my latest article on how CaCo3 can act as potential template for orgin of life. @oolen.bsky.social @seanfj.bsky.social @astrobiology.bsky.social @euroastrobiology.bsky.social