Some changes to the programme still migh apply

Astronomy and life

Keynote speaker: Lisa Kaltenegger, Harvard University, USA

The detection and characterisation of extrasolar planets and the connection between host-star and life. The physics and chemistry of biomolecule precursor formation in interstellar space.

Evolution of habitable planets

Keynote speaker: Tilman Spohn, German Aerospace Centre, Germany

What makes a planet habitable? How does the size, structure and interior dynamics of a planet and its atmospheric evolution influence key habitability factors and life?

Weird life: Extremophiles and ancestral organisms on Earth

Keynote speaker: John Baross, University of Washington, USA 

What can we learn from microbial communities in extreme environments as analogues for life on Mars or outer moons? How do metabolic networks function and what do they tell us about life's complexity?

Interaction between geochemistry and life and geological signatures of life

Keynote speaker: Frances Westall, Centre de Biophysique Móleculaire, France

The co-evolution of geochemistry and metabolism, and the preservation of life in the geological record as a proxy for finding life elsewhere.

Ad Astra- Miscellaneous hot topics

Interesting talks that do not fit into the other themes.