Public Panel - "Life on Earth & Beyond"

Prof. Nagissa Mahmoudi & Prof. Richard Leveille (McGill EPS & TSI)

May 1, 2025 7:00 PM

Location: Leacock Building, Room 26
Public Talk

Curious how studying life on Earth can inform our understanding of planetary evolution, habitability, and the potential for life beyond our planet? Join us on Thursday, May 1st, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM for the panel “Life on Earth & Beyond,” featuring two experts from McGill University. The event will consist of two 30-minute TED-style talks, followed by a 30-minute Q&A, where you'll have plenty of time to ask questions about the origins of life on Earth, astrobiology, and the search for life in our Solar System.

Speakers & Topics:

1) The Secret Life of Microbes: How Earth's First Lifeforms Conquered the Planet by Nagissa Mahmoudi (Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at McGill University)

About The Talk: Long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, tiny microbes were already hard at work transforming our planet. In this talk, we’ll journey back billions of years to explore how the earliest forms of life emerged, survived, and radically changed the chemistry of Earth. From creating the oxygen we breathe to shaping the evolution of all life that followed, microbes have always been the invisible engineers of our world.

2) How close are we to finding life in our Solar System? by Richard Léveillé (Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at McGill University)

About The Talk: In the past three decades, our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth and its adaptability and interconnectedness has greatly influenced the development of the field of astrobiology. Also, during this same time, we have sent multiple space missions to explore Mars, the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, as well as asteroids and comets. Together, these missions have shown the widespread distribution of organic building blocks of life, interesting prebiotic mineral combinations and habitable environments with liquid water, either today or in the past. This presentation will highlight some key findings from recent space missions and attempt to answer the question: How close are we to discovering life elsewhere in the Solar System?

Date: Thursday, May 1st, 2025

Time: 7:00 - 8:30 PM

Livestream: https://youtube.com/live/4P0EWB5TXls

This event is free and open to everyone.