Emergence of Life

How did life begin on Earth? How has Earth and life evolved through geological time. Is there life anywhere else in the universe? The modern Tree of Life allows you to see the Earth's 4-billion-year-old history through the lens of the Tree of Life.

This course will examine the whole history of human life in the context of our new understanding of the Tree of Life. This includes the groundbreaking work of Professor Carl Woese at the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign campus, which revolutionized our understanding of the Tree of Life. The following are other themes:

-Reconnaissance ancient primordial life, before the first cell evolved

-The whole 4 billion-year development of single- or multi-celled life through a lens of the Tree of Life

-The impact of Earth system processes (meteor hits, volcanoes and ice sheets) on the shaping and structuring of the Tree of Life

This synthesis highlights the universality and necessity of the emergence life in order to search for extraterrestrial existence.