General information about the Graduate School in Astrobiology

The graduate school in Astrobiology is based at Stockholm University and got started in September 2006. 8 graduate students were selected to embark on an interdisciplinary PhD programme. Astrobiology is a new and rapidly expanding field. It tries to find answers to questions such as:

• What are we actually defining as life? Where does physics and chemistry end and the evolution of life and biology begin?
• Which are the conditions for life to emerge on planets and remain there? Is or was life on other planets (e.g. Mars) or their satellites (e.g. Titan) possible?
• To which extent can building blocks of biomolecules (e.g. amino acids and carbohydrates) be formed in the interstellar medium?
• How do simple molecules evolve into complex biopolymers (e.g. proteins, RNA and DNA) and to which extent is this development affected by influences from space?
• Which molecular components of cells were formed first: enzymes, genes or membranes?
• What can lifeforms in extreme environments tell us about life in early stages of our planet (and possibly other planets)?
• Which role did impacts of small and large objects (e.g. meteorites and comets) have on the evolution on Earth?
• How should scientists search for life on other planets? What are the pitfalls of the various approaches, and what evidence would be considered conclusive?

To clarify these questions multi-disciplinary and multi-method scientific approaches are required. Therefore, Astrobiology comprises the subjects of astronomy, chemistry, biology, paleontology, geology, physics and many of their subdisciplines. At Stockholm University, the following departments will be engaged in teaching and research in the field of Astrobiology:

Stockholm Observatory
Geology and Geochemistry
Molecular Biology and Functional Genomics
Physics

The graduate school is a part of the Nordic Network of Astrobiology Graduate Schools.