Our 5th conference IOoL 2026 just finished! Three intense days at ELSI in Tokyo, full of great talks and discussions about the origin of life. ✨️ 🏯 Thank you everyone for coming!!
Alexandre Champagne-Ruel
@alexchampagne.bsky.social
NASA Postdoctoral Fellow, Mathis Group @ Arizona State University. Agnostic life-detection strategies, complexity and origins of life. 🧬📡 Also maintains the OoL digest: https://buttondown.com/ooldigest 🌎 https://alexandrechampagne.io
Roman Telescope just launched, still getting chills every time !
#CCS2026 early-bird registration deadline tomorrow!! ccs26.cssociety.org
CCS 2026: The 2026 Conference on Complex Systems @ Binghamton, NY, USA
ccs26.cssociety.org
Young researchers, apply for our post-docs! The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester invites applications positions in theoretical and computational approaches to complex systems, information theory, and the emergence of autonomous agency. apply.interfolio.com/189157
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What does it take to solve the origins of life? 🚀 📘 This outstanding publication by several OoLEN members offers an exhaustive and up-to-date review of current techniques in OoL, building a common framework to tackle the origin of life and bridge theory with experiments 🔬⚙️ Check it out! 👇
What it takes to solve the origin of life: An integrated review. Part 1–Experimental methods and data repositories
The Origin of Life Early Career Network (OoLEN) presents a comprehensive review of common techniques and methods used across diverse research on the origin(s) of life. Part one focuses on…
cell.com
Open postdoc with the amazing Sarah Marzen (Scripps College, Claremont, California). Intersection of information theory, biophysics, neuroscience, and machine learning. Please RT theclaremontcolleges.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/SCR_C...
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Claremont, CA Job Posting Title: Post-Doctoral Researcher Job Description: PRIMARY PURPOSE/GENERAL DESCRIPTION: Working with Professor Sarah Marzen, the Post-Doctoral Researcher will serve in an advanced professional research capacity to conduct original scholarly and scientific research relating to the engineering of hybrid adaptive networks. The Researcher will routinely need to apply advanced knowledge in physics, applied mathematics, biophysics, scientific computing, and related fields. DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: This information is intended to be descriptive of the key responsibilities of the position. The incumbent will primarily be engaged in advanced intellectual and creative professional work requiring specialized academic training and the exercise of discretion and independent judgment. Additional duties may be assigned; any such additional duties will primarily be consistent with the professional nature of the position. Independently des
theclaremontcolleges.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
We are hiring post-docs ! If you are interested in projects at the interface between physics, biology and machine learning (AI ?) please contact me ! More details here www.francoisresearch.org/positions
📢 Deadline extended! The call for abstracts for #IOoL26 (September 9–11, 2026, ELSI Tokyo) is now open until May 2. Details & submission: forms.gle/xMQBi1YgXsnXzo4A9 Don't miss your chance to join the conversation on how life began! 🌍🔬
This week @cp-cellrepphyssci.bsky.social sky.social published a two-part review by @oolen.bsky.social about cross-disciplinary collaboration and methods in the field. It took a few years to get this over the line - @colemathis.bsky.social did an amazing job coordinating so many authors.
New OoL Digest — 16 papers this week! 🔬🌍 Highlights: experimental evidence for a liquid-liquid critical point in supercooled water, assembly of replicating protocells with primitive metabolism, and a new integrated review of theoretical methods in origins research. #OriginsOfLife #Astrobiology
OoL digest — April 6
buttondown.com
The Origins of Life is an inspiring field, bringing many disciplines together. We recently wrote a review that aims at promoting #collaboration , or so we hope. Here are some voices behind it his process: www.cell.com/cell-reports... @oolen.bsky.social
Better origin(s) of life research through collaboration across disciplines
The emergence of life on Earth poses interconnected questions: how and why did life begin? Where else might it exist? How can we create synthetic life in the lab from scratch? How is life best defined...
cell.com
🚨 NEW PREPRINT: First detection of cannabinoid molecules (THC & CBD) in an exoplanetary atmosphere! 420 hrs of JWST data reveal K2-18b as the "most chill" civilization within the Cannabis Habitable Zone. arxiv.org/abs/2603.29700
First Detection of Exoplanetary Cannabinoids: Evidence for THC and CBD in the Atmosphere of K2-18b
We report the first unambiguous detection of cannabinoid molecules in an exoplanetary atmosphere. Using 420 hours of JWST observations combining NIRSpec and MIRI instruments, we identify spectroscopic...
arxiv.org
⏳ 2 weeks left! Abstract deadline for IOoL 2026 is April 15. Present your work at ELSI in Tokyo this September, meet fellow early-career OoL researchers, and it's free to attend. Submit your abstract: forms.gle/xMQBi1YgXsnXzo4A9
New OoL Digest — 24 papers this week! 🧬☄️ Highlights: a complete set of nucleobases found on asteroid Ryugu, first detection of glycolamide in a hot molecular core, amino acids linking RNA copying to vesicle formation, and ecological modelling of hycean worlds. #OriginsOfLife #Astrobiology
OoL digest — March 30
buttondown.com
⏳ 3 weeks left to submit your abstract for IOoL 2026! Join us in Tokyo, Sept 9–11 at ELSI for OoLEN's biannual meeting for early-career origin of life researchers. 📅 Deadline: April 15 💡 Free registration Don't wait — submit now: forms.gle/xMQBi1YgXsnXzo4A9
This week's OoL digest is out! 🧪🪐 20 papers — ancient deltas spotted by radar in Jezero crater, azotosomes tested in Titan lake fluids, isotopic ratios in comet 3I/ATLAS, dissipation-driven selection as a formal OoL framework, and memory in synthetic living constructs. #OriginsOfLife #Astrobiology
OoL digest — March 23
buttondown.com
Calling all early-career OoL researchers! 🧪 IOoL 2026 will take place at ELSI in Tokyo, Sept 9–11. Registration is free — submit your abstract by April 15! forms.gle/xMQBi1YgXsnXzo4A9
📢 IOoL 2026 is heading to Tokyo! 🇯🇵 Join us September 9–11 at ELSI for the Interdisciplinary Origin of Life Meeting for Early Career Researchers. 🗓️ Abstract deadline: April 15, 2026 🎓 Open to students, postdocs & early-career PIs 💡 Free registration! Submit yours → forms.gle/xMQBi1YgXsnXzo4A9
This week's OoL digest is out! 🧪🪐 27 papers — Assembly Theory for exoplanet life detection, nanopore sequencing & life's origins, microbes growing in Martian regolith, wet-dry cycling of nucleotides in Icelandic hot springs, and light-directed protein evolution. #OriginsOfLife #Astrobiology
OoL digest — March 16
buttondown.com
New OoL digest! 🔬🌌 28 papers this week — amino acids in asteroid Bennu samples, error correction evolving from a need for speed, extremophiles surviving ejection from Mars, mobile- and stagnant-lid tectonics on Hadean Earth, and AI-driven genome design with Evo 2. #OriginsOfLife #Astrobiology
OoL digest — March 9
buttondown.com
New OoL digest! 🌍🧪 18 papers this week — the selfish ribosome hypothesis, mirror symmetry breaking via crystallization, peptide formation on olivine from space radiation, a symbiotic origin for the ribosome, and flexible paths to multicellularity. #OriginsOfLife #Astrobiology
OoL digest — March 2
buttondown.com
IOoL 2026 is happening in Japan this year and the call for abstracts is right around the corner 🗾 If you're working on origins of life — from prebiotic chemistry to complex systems to astrobiology — this is your meeting. More details coming very soon! 🔬
New OoL digest! 🧬🔬 22 papers this week — a ribozyme that synthesizes itself, carbonated rocks in Jezero crater on Mars, fuel-driven catalytic templating, Asgard archaeal origin of microtubules, and oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor. #OriginsOfLife #Astrobiology
OoL digest — February 23
buttondown.com
Save the date! 🇯🇵✨ ▶️ IOoL2026 — Interdisciplinary Origin of Life Meeting for Early Career Researchers 📍 Tokyo, Japan 🗓️ September 9–11, 2026 Indication of Interest form below! #IOoL26 #Japan #OriginOfLife #Astrobiology 📝 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
New OoL digest! 🧪🌍 23 papers this week — a polymerase ribozyme that can copy itself, synthetic cells with DNA replication + lipid synthesis, amino acids in asteroid Bennu samples, chemical habitability shaped by core formation, and molecular complexity in space. #OriginsOfLife #Astrobiology
OoL digest — February 16
buttondown.com
🔬 Today we celebrate women and girls in science! Thank you to all the women working on origins of life research. At OoLEN, our code of conduct commits to gender diversity, because representation matters. You belong in this field. #WomenInScience
New OoL digest! 🧬🪐 22 papers this week — virus-like particle self-assembly, self-replicating fuels via autocatalysis, Hadean mobile- and stagnant-lid tectonics, habitability of exomoons around free-floating planets, and pre-genetic semantic information in protocells. #OriginsOfLife #Astrobiology
OoL digest — February 9
buttondown.com
Currently hiring 1-2 postdocs to work on origins of life theory/experiment, assembly theory, life detection, with me and @leecronin.bsky.social, positions are mostly based at ASU but also some time could be spent at U. Glasgow, Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/176391 Please help us spread the word!
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Curious about how life began? OoLEN is a global community for early-career researchers in origins of life and prebiotic chemistry. 🧬🌍 Connect with others across disciplines, find opportunities, and grow together. Join: oolen.org/join Tell us in the replies—what do you work on? #OriginOfLife
