Extended workshop (15 Sept - 26 Sept) and conference (15-17 Sept)
Participation in program and conference is done with the same registration form (see on the left). The streaming videos from the conference are mostly linked directly from this page, but those from the program are normally all listed on the Nordita Agenda Page. The distribution of ice throughout the universe and here on Earth has central implications in astrophysics and geophysics from the agglomeration of primordial matter in stellar nebulae to the fate and state of our climate system. All forms of life on Earth presently enjoy a comfortable climate, which is a fortunate consequence of the present extent of the global ice cover. Indeed, large swaths of our planet are seasonally or perennially covered with snow and ice, and although more than two-thirds of the surface of Earth is covered by water, it is the ice to water conversion, and vice versa, that insures that an important fraction of the globe habitable today. Finally, the only form of life known to exist is life on Earth. This life relies on the availability of liquid water. However, life may have evolved under quite different physical and chemical conditions. Knowledge of the limits of terrestrial life has increased substantially in the last few decades, which motivates us to examine possible life processes under the relatively dry and cold conditions such as found on Mars and other planetary bodies. The persistence of unfrozen water at surfaces, known as interfacial premelting, is central to the search for life and possibly its transport throughout the solar system sequestered in the polycrystalline host matrix.This program will focus on a range of issues of relevance to astrobiology and habitability, including, but not limited to (a) important chemical processes involving ice and water in astronomical and terrestrial settings (b) how habitable matter agglomerated in the first place and what chemical dynamics allowed life to flourish (c) terrestrial limitations and laboratories, from what controls the volume fraction of water in growing sea ice to the chemical, biological and biolocomotive controls on the network and nutrient supply. (d) The transport of fluid in restricted geometries and environments, essential both on the level of the redistribution of the contents in eukaryotic cells to that in a partially molten network. (e) the basic ice physics underlying the persistence of water in partially frozen media and its dynamical and transport properties.
Most of the talks will be concentrated in the conference, whenever possible. For the remaining time we shall schedule a few discussion sessions and informal seminars.
How to get here?
(this link has a description and a map). The meeting takes place in the Nordita building,
just next to the AlbaNova main building.
The meeting is sponsored by Nordita.
Organizers: John S. Wettlaufer, Axel Brandenburg
Schedule: Week 1
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Monday, 15 September
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chair: John Wettlaufer (video)
10:00-10:50 Amy Barr: Icy moons in the Outer Solar System
11:00-11:30 coffee
11:30-12:20 Jerome Neufeld: What controls the amount of liquid in ice grown from Oceans?
12:30-14:00 lunch
chair: Axel Brandenburg
14:00-14:50 David Thomas: The abundance of life in ice grown from Oceans I
15:00-15:30 coffee
15:30-16:20 David Thomas: The abundance of life in ice grown from Oceans II
16:30-17:20 Hendrik Hansen-Goos: Solvation of proteins— linking thermodynamics to geometry (pdf).
17:30 Reception
Tuesday, 16 September
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chair: Neufeld
10:00-10:50 Wolf Geppert: Dissociative recombination and the formation of biomolecule precursors in the interstellar medium and planetary atmospheres.
11:00-11:30 coffee
11:30-12:20 Gunnar Nyman: Adventures in interstellar nitrogen chemistry
12:30-14:00 lunch
chair: Geppert
14:00-14:50 Felipe Leon: Biofilms & microbial protection Relevance for astrobiology
15:00-15:30 coffee
15:30-16:20 Daniel Heißelmann: The physics of low-velocity collisions and applications to planet formation and Saturn’s rings
16:30-17:20 Axel Brandenburg: Emergence of Homochirality
17:30-18:30 Reception
19:00 Conference Dinner (AlbaNova)
Wednesday, 17 September
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chair: Nyman
10:00-10:50 Alan Rempel: Water in soil—the forces and patterns of phase change
11:00-11:30 coffee
11:30-12:20 Diedrich Möhlmann: Water and ice on Mars I
12:30-14:00 lunch
chair: Rempel
14:00-14:50 Harald Reichert: Radiation-enhanced interfacial melting of ice at deeply buried interfaces
15:00-15:30 coffee
15:30-16:20 Jean-Pierre deVera: Steps from Orbit Science to Moon, Mars, Europa and beyond
16:30-17:20 Diedrich Möhlmann: Water and ice on Mars II
Thursday, 18 September
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Coffee: 10:15
Talk 1: 10:30-11:20 Amy Barr: Tidally flexed satellites: Enceladus, Europa and Triton
Coffee: 14:15
Talk 2: 14:30-15:20 Mars/Water/Ice Discussion: Möhlmann, deVera, Rempel
Friday, 19 September
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Coffee: 10:15
Talk 1: 10:30-11:20 J. Greaves: Planet Formation in Action (FA31)
Coffee: 15:45
Talk 2: 16:00-17:00 J. Greaves: New Astrobiology Initiatives in Scotland
Monday, 22 September
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Free
Tuesday, 23 September
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Coffee: 10:15
Talk 1: 10:30-11:20 Jan Pettersson: Molecules on Ice- Experiments and Computer Simulations
Coffee: 14:15
Talk 2: 14:30-15:20 John Wettlaufer: A primer on ice crystal shape
Wednesday, 24 September
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Coffee: 10:15
Talk 1: 10:30-11:20 Ido Braslavsky: Spruce budworms, microfluidics & antifreeze protein mutants—natural controls in ice growth in organisms
Coffee: 14:15
Talk 2: 14:30-15:20 Yoshi Furukawa: Reversible adsorption of antifreeze glycoproteins and ice growth.
Thursday, 25 September
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Coffee: 15:00 Lobby: Oskar Klein Auditorium AlbaNova Colloq: 15:15-16:15 John Wettlaufer: The Quantum Electrodynamics of Snowflakes, Ice skating, Exobiology and other such matters
Friday, 26 September
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Coffee: 10:15
Talk 1: 10:30-11:20 Hans Ågren: Enhanced fluorescence in green fluorescent proteins
Coffee: 14:15
Talk 2: 14:30-15:20 Lars Pettersson: X-ray spectroscopy and DFT studies of bulk water structure: two structural motifs