Call for Abstracts: AbSciCon (https://connect.agu.org/abscicon/home) June 24-28, 2019 in Bellevue, Washington, USA
Session Title: “Computing the rise of life: On and beyond Earth” (ID 65503: https://agu.confex.com/agu/abscicon19/prelim.cgi/Session/65503)
Among the recommendations in the recent National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report on the science strategy for astrobiology is to incorporate more sophisticated methods for the study of biosignatures (novel and/or agnostic). A comprehensive chemical perspective into such a study requires investigation of a wider variety of reactions and processes that can feasibly and safely be performed in the laboratory. This is also the case for origins of life chemistry in which the diversity of proposed environments and processes relevant to prebiotic chemistry span a tremendous parameter space. In these situations, high-fidelity chemical simulations are essential, especially for defining biosignatures or origins of life research that can withstand the scrutiny their conclusions may bring.
With the increasing power of supercomputers and with the introduction of advanced chemical theories, simulations at all levels are currently being developed at a rapid pace. The role of simulations is two-fold: they provide detailed mechanistic explanations of observations, and they predict phenomena that are difficult, if not impossible, to observe in the laboratory.
This session seeks papers that offer existing/novel theoretical models or computational works that address the chemical and environmental conditions relevant to astrobiology. This includes computational work related to prebiotic chemistry, the chemistry of early life, the biogeochemistry of life’s interaction with its environment, chemistry associated with biosignatures and their false positives, and chemistry pertinent to conditions that could possibly harbor life (e.g. Titan, Enceladus, Europa, TRAPPIST-1, habitable exoplanets, etc.).
Abstract DEADLINE: Wednesday, March 6th 2019, 11:59 P.M. ET