|
Description: |
This course investigates Geobiology, the study of the interactions between the biosphere (living organisms and their products) and the geosphere (atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, cryosphere). In the first part of the semester, the class will explore how the geopshere's chemical and physical processes influenced life and evolution and how life influenced the Earth system during roughly the last 4 billion years. This will be done mainly through the reading and discussion of seminal papers. The second part of the semester will focus on students' investigation of specific geobiology topics, like microbial weathering of minerals, biomineralization, the role of different microbial metabolisms in elemental cycling, the ocean redox history and its relationship to the origin of life itself. In addition to learning geobiology fundamentals, students will learn how to undertake a scientific literature search, read and understand scientific material, brainstorm and develop new ideas and write a final research paper. |