Ralph E. Pudritz
Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Director, Origins Institute, McMaster University
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We live in a unique moment in human history when the age old questions of whether there are other worlds such as our own and whether they support life have been opened to direct scientific investigation. The formation of stars a few hundred million years after the big bang, and the subsequent appearance of planetary systems can be probed by the Hubble and Kepler space telescopes. How are young planets "equipped for life" in the sense of acquiring water, atmospheres, and biomolecules such as amino acids that are essential for life as we know it? My talk presents a journey through time and space as we track the recent scientific advances on the origin and evolution of stars, planets, and pre-biotic conditions that may lead to the appearance of the earliest genetic codes.
