REGISTRATION OPENS ON 10/12

Chance, Necessity, and the Origins of Life

Earth's 4.5 billion year history is a complex tale of deterministic physical and chemical processes, as well as "frozen accidents". Most models of life's origins also invoke chance and necessity. Recent research adds two important insights to this discussion. First, chance versus necessity is an inherently false dichotomy--a range of probabilities exists for many natural events. Second, given the astonishing combinatorial chemical richness of early Earth, events that are extremely rare may, nevertheless, be deterministic on time scales of a billion years.

- The Carnegie Institution will open its doors at 6:00PM.

- An overflow room, with screens, will be available when our auditorium reaches maximum capacity. Seating in the auditorium is on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Carnegie Institution for Science has partnered with Colonial Parking to offer parking reservations for its public lectures and conferences: http://www.ecolonial.com/locations/carnegie-science-institute/