NEW NoRCEL EVENT

7th NoRCEL CONFERENCE

The Network of Researchers on the Chemical Emergence of Life (NoRCEL) is an interdisciplinary collaborative network focused on understanding the origins, emergence and evolution of life from a chemical perspective. Founded by Sohan Jheeta, NoRCEL’s primary aim is to bring together scientists from various disciplines to investigate one of the most fundamental questions in science: how life began. We have now evolved into a truly global network of scientists, researchers, students and lay people coming together to work to investigate and fathom some of the most multi-faceted aspects of – and elusive challenges facing the scientific world. This has led to our more recent missions into exploring global issues, as with our Blue Earth project, as well as developing educational tools in our endeavour to enable wider access to the field of astroscience, especially in the Global South.

Become a member of NoRCEL !

NoRCEL has been established with the aim of kick-starting a debate amongst those practitioners who are directly involved in the theoretical aspects and experimental studies pertaining to the origin of life, and those scientists who traditionally work in other fields. We encourage you to join the network and come together at our meetings in order to air, share and debate their ideas under one roof. It is our fervent desire that our regular conferences, reports and published papers will assist in expediting a better understanding of the origin of life on the Earth.

Upcoming events

Kavli – IAU Symposium (IAUS387)

From our origins, humans have been inspired by pinpoints of light in the night sky. They cause us to wonder about our existence. Who are we? What are we doing here? Where did we come from? And, where are we going? The physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked “Where is everybody?”...

News scoop

Scientists Identify “Pioneer Peptide” That May Have Sparked Life on Earth

Rutgers University scientists have identified a portion of a protein called “Nickelback” that is a likely candidate for kickstarting life on Earth over 3 billion years ago. This finding has important implications for the search for extraterrestrial life, as it offers a new clue for researchers to look for....

Bob Bruner’s 2023 Exhibit NoRCEL

R. B. Bruner, a Denver Museum of Nature and Science volunteer and life-origins enthusiast, has updated his collection on "Meteorites and Minerals associated with the Origin of Life", which he exhibits in conferences around the world. Please check the following page: Meteorites and Minerals associated with the Origin of Life

Multi-instrumental study of a 162173Ryugu Sample (Hayabusa-2 mission, JAXA)

A dark, so-called carbonaceous asteroid, was recently sampled for the first time. History was made when the sampling spacecraft (Hayabusa-2) travelled ~3.2 billion kilometres chasing down this asteroid (known as 162173Ryugu) and returned back to Earth. Our Czech lead consortium is analysing the organic material in 162173Ryugu samples, which makes...

OxR: an instrument for measuring Reactive Oxygen Species in nature

Author(s): Elias Chatzitheodoridis, Christos Georgiou Editorial: Sohan Jheeta Planetary and asteroid surfaces are irradiated by both particle and UV radiation from the Sun, as well as cosmic rays. Micrometeorites continuously induce fine fracturing of minerals. Both processes induce the formation of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). ROS are metal superoxides in the form...

Upcoming events

Kavli – IAU Symposium (IAUS387)

From our origins, humans have been inspired by pinpoints of light in the night sky. They cause us to wonder about our existence. Who are we? What are we doing here? Where did we come from? And, where are we going? The physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked “Where is everybody?”...

Jobs & Opportunities

Publications

Bob Bruner’s Meteorites and Minerals Exhibit

Here is the story: It is commonly accepted that you need three conditions for life to start: A source of Organic Molecules A solvent (water...

The Gap Map and Grothendieck’s Rising Sea

Mathematician Alexander Grothendieck, whose work is considered abstract even by mathematical standards, once described two ways of solving problems. The first takes the idea...

Evolution of proteome based on the evolution of genetic code

The evolution of species by means of natural selection can be modelled in a "tree of life" (ToL) that can be traced backwards in...

The asteroid belt

The asteroid belt, a region located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, is composed of millions of rocky objects ranging in size from...

What isn’t Life?

For centuries, mankind has struggled with the problem of defining life. Just what is it? What makes it different from things that are not...

Are We the First: Was There Life Before Our Solar System?

The enduring question is: “Are We the First?” From what we already know of chemistry—especially that of carbon and water—it is highly probable that...

Searching for life on Venus

Venus is the closest planet to the Earth and the brightest celestial body after the Sun and the Moon...

BEP2024 presentations and panel discussion

Talks from the LatAM2023 colloquium

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