Astrobiology and the origin of life

Aims of the course

• To become acquainted with leading origin-of-life models and discuss how they can be tested.
• To explore what aspects of the biology of alien life is predictable, and whether aliens are likely to exist.
• To understand how views on astrobiology and the origins of life have changed over time, and how they might change in the future.

Target audience

This course is for anyone interested in science generally, and those interested in evolutionary biology, astrobiology, and origin of life in particular.

Welcome week (Week 0)

Purpose:

• personal introductions
• introducing the course
• useful reading
• personal objectives

Learning outcomes:

By studying this week, the students should have: 

• become familiar with navigating around the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and from VLE to links and back
• test your ability to access files and the web conferencing software and sort out any problems with the help of the Technology Enhanced Learning team
• learn how to look for, assess and reference internet resources
• contribute to a discussion forum to introduce yourself to other students and discuss why you are interested in the course and what you hope to get out of your studies 

Teaching Week 1: Astrobiology (I): is anybody there?

Purpose:

Beginning as a casual question asked over a lunch at Los Alamos in the midst of the Manhattan Project, answering Enrico Fermi’s question (‘where is everybody?’) is central to the field of astrobiology. We will introduce the Drake equation as a concept for thinking about how to approach the Fermi paradox, and there is the potential for an interactive element here where students can input their own values and see how the estimates change (or there are websites where they can be directed towards to do this). The rest of the lecture will be spent looking at potential solutions (uncommunicative scenarios, communicative scenarios, non-existence). 

Learning outcomes:

• To gain understanding of how ideas about the habitability of the Solar System have changed over time;
• To gain a critical appreciation for the Fermi paradox and Drake equation, as well as the ability to evaluate the leading proposed solutions.

Teaching Week 2: Astrobiology (II): touring the cosmic zoo

Purpose:

In this week we will consider two ways in which the cosmic zoo may be toured, without leaving your living room! The first is to consider a universal property of life, and consider the plausibility of different solutions. We will take energy sources as an example, looking at what we could predict about hypothetical thermotrophs and radiotrophs in terms of their mode of life. A second route to tour the cosmic zoo is look for traits that have evolved many times on Earth, and think about what this ‘convergence’ means for prediction-making in astrobiology. We will briefly introduce the debate between Conway Morris and Gould, and will be directed towards their two excellent books for further study. 

Learning outcomes:

• To gain an understanding of how predictions about extra-terrestrial organismal form can be made, and tested, in astrobiology;
• To gain a critical appreciation for the utility of convergence, universal Darwinism, and physical constraints as mechanisms by which astrobiological predictions can be made.

Teaching Week 3: Astrobiology (III): should we make contact

Purpose:

If the signals emitted by humans were detected by other civilisations, what would happen next? In this lecture we consider the main positive and negative scenarios that have been discussed in the literature. On the positive side, Sagan’s hypothesis that advanced civilisations must have evolved beyond petty conflict and aggression and towards a ‘super-cooperator’ state. On the negative side, we will consider the dark forest hypothesis and potential reasons behind alien aggression. We will close with a discussion of the Hobbesian trap hypothesis for the likelihood of extra-terrestrial pre-emptive strikes, where there is the potential for a nice interactive element in terms of matching rationales to actions.

Learning outcomes:

• To gain an appreciation of what messages have already been sent with the intention of extra-terrestrial discovery, and an understanding of how these messages were designed;
• To gain a critical appreciation of the pros and cons of extra-terrestrial contact initiatives;
• To gain an understanding of how extra-terrestrial translation could be approached.

Teaching Week 4: The origin of life (I): chickens and eggs

Purpose:

We will introduce this topic by considering the central dilemma at the heart of origin-of-life studies. What came first: DNA or protein? Without DNA, proteins cannot be encoded; without proteins, DNA cannot replicate. We will explore reasons why it seems implausible that either DNA or protein formed spontaneously without the other (egg-first vs chicken-first hypotheses), as well as the idea they both emerged spontaneously.

Learning outcomes:

• To gain an appreciation of the chicken-and-egg paradox (DNA-first vs protein-first hypotheses) in the origin of life debate;
• To gain the ability to explain the evidence supporting both the plausibility for, and evidence of actual occurrence of, the RNA world hypothesis;
• To gain an understanding of how hypotheses concerning the timing and location of life’s origins might be tested.

Teaching Week 5: The origin of life (II): the first word

Purpose:

The last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all life on Earth lived c. 4 billion years ago. It never fossilised, but using comparative genomics we can, incredibly, still reconstruct with high precision its mode of life and appearance. In this case study we will consider what LUCA’s reconstruction has to teach us about the origins of life. 

Learning outcomes:

• To gain the ability to explain how traits (phenotypes) can be reconstructed over very long evolutionary timescales, including the last universal common ancestor and early versions of the genetic code/proteome;
• To gain a critical appreciation for the strengths and weaknesses of these methods, and what their results can tell us about life’s origins.

Week 6: what next?

• assessment of student learning
• assessment of student satisfaction
• encouragement of further study

This course is open to everyone, and you don’t need any previous knowledge or experience of the subject to attend.  

Our short courses are designed especially for adult learners who want to advance their personal or professional development. They are taught by tutors who are expert in both their subjects and in teaching students of all ages and experiences. 

Please note that all teaching is in English. You should have near-native command of the English language to get the maximum benefit from the course. 

Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours of self-study time, for example, reading materials, although this will vary from person to person. 

While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material). 

Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the VLE so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (using discussion boards etc).

Fees 

The course fee includes access to the course on our VLE, personal feedback on your work from an expert tutor, a certificate of participation (if you complete work and take part in discussions), and access to the class resources for two years after your course finishes. 

Concessions 

For more information, please see our concessions information page. 

Alison Fordham Bursary

University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education is proud to offer the Alison Fordham bursary, which is awarded to students who wish to study on one of our short online courses via our VLE, reducing the fee paid by 50%. The bursary is limited to a single award for each set of online courses. 

Application criteria:  

• applicants should set out their personal learning motivations since priority will be given to those who are returning to learning after an extended break, or have not previously engaged with fully online learning, or are seeking to use the online short course as a bridge towards undergraduate award-bearing study
• applicants who can demonstrate financial need 

For more information, please see our bursaries information page. 

A certificate of participation and a digital credential will be awarded to those who contribute constructively to weekly discussions, exercises and assignments for the duration of the course.