The 2007 Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium SeriesWatch webcast
How do scientists explain the emergence of life four billion years ago? The short answer is they can't - yet. The origin of life is a hotly contested scientific field with many rival theories vying for public attention - from primordial soup to self-organizing metabolic networks in potential habitats ranging from the surfaces of minerals to deep-sea hydrothermal vents below the Earth's surface to the surface of Mars. This year's Symposium brings together leading scientific experts with differing views on the origin of life to debate a question that has been asked for millennia.
