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SUMMARY:What is Life? Can We Measure it?
DTSTART:20221006T171500
DTEND:20221006T184500
DTSTAMP:20260610T101432Z
UID:557d996eba00693192efa66a71e739221db8cd0f145c438eeae8102e
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Dwayne Miller\nUniversity of Toronto\nThe posed quintess
 ential question is not cast as an origins of life issue here but rather di
 rected towards understanding the underlying mechanism by which chemistry b
 reathes life into otherwise inanimate matter. The real issue is how chemis
 try scales in complexity up to the level of biological systems.  For even
  relatively small molecules (e.g.\, 10 to 100 atoms)\, there are an enormo
 us number of possible nuclear configurations that could propagate the syst
 em from one molecular form to another during a chemical event. Chemistry i
 s inherently a high dimensional problem of order 3N and highly nonlinear i
 n sampling rates for different reaction trajectories.  To explain the obs
 erved time scales for chemistry and biological processes\, there must be a
 n enormous reduction in dimensionality at the barrier crossing region (con
 trolling the kinetics) in which a few key modes direct the chemistry – i
 rrespective of complexity. The challenge is to try to unearth these motion
 s and to understand a priori which motions are directing the chemistry and
  thereby biological functions.  With the recent advent of ultrabright ele
 ctron sources\, it is now possible to directly observe the atomic motions 
 involved to complete the picture.  Based on model systems\, a simple conc
 ept is introduced to understand the spatially correlated forces leading to
  generalized reaction mechanisms\, which makes chemistry a transferrable c
 oncept.  This insight is based on a molecular frame of reference.  The p
 roblem is much more challenging within cells where the number of possible 
 interactions becomes truly astronomical\, as will be discussed.  The less
 ons learned above give hope to find similar dynamically coupled spatial co
 rrelations\, but these will be related to free energy gradients that arise
  within intracellular architecture.  New technologies\, based on the spac
 e charge limits mastered in ultrabright electron source development\, will
  dramatically improve ion collection for spatial imaging mass spectrometry
  that may enable us to look inside the cell to directly observe the drivin
 g forces for living systems\, i.e.\, to quantify life.  It will be intere
 sting to see if there is a recurring pattern in how nature harnesses chemi
 stry over different length and time scales to lead to living systems.
LOCATION:BCH 2201 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BCH%202201
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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