Winter 2023
Tuesdays at 3:30 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences A340
January 10, 2023
Cancelled due to storms
January 17, 2023
Speaker: Russell Callahan, UCSC
Title: The role of deep weathering in ecological and hydrological processes across the mountains of California
Host: Amanda Donaldson
January 24, 2023
Speaker: Yuxin Zhou, UCSB
Title: New insights into the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation instabilities during the last glacial cycle
Host: Sam Kodema
January 31, 2023
Speaker: Corey Garza, Cal State Monterey Bay
Title: A game of drones: Advancing discover and innovation in coastal research
Host: Ned Richards
February 7, 2023 - Remote
Speaker: Andrew Czaja, University of Cincinnati
Title: Searching for Life on Mars
February 14, 2023
Speaker: Emilie Dunham, UCLA
Title: Meteorite hunting in Antarctica to uncover Solar System mysteries
Host: Nathan McGregor
February 21, 2023 - Remote
Speaker: Linda Kah, University of Tennessee
Title: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Mesoproterozoic
February 28, 2023 - Remote
Speaker: Jena Johnson, University of Michigan
Title: Exploring Mineral Signals of Early Iron-Cycling Life through (Bio)geochemical Experiments
March 7, 2023
Speaker: Sara Tenamoeata Kahanamoku, Ulana ʻIke Center of Excellence Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program
Title: Resource allocation across scales: Examining life history and demography from Santa Barbara Basin foraminifera to academic research
Host: J Fearon
March 14, 2023
Speaker: Jennifer Glass, Georgia Institute of Technology
Title: Ironing out Life’s First Breaths
Abstract: Every cell contains a biochemical record of four billion years of Earth-life coevolution. Our mitochondria were once free-living bacteria. Each unit of the electron transport chain that we use to breathe oxygen was borrowed from older microbial machinery. Aerobic respiration is a medley of pieces of older anaerobic respiratory pathways such as methanogenesis, anoxygenic photosynthesis, and iron oxidation. Yet we have barely begun to chart the vast landscape of myriad microbial metabolisms. In this talk, I will describe how dissecting the molecular machines of modern microbes can give us glimpses of the early Earth environments that supported life’s first breaths.
Host: Matthew Clapham