Held at the Edward Percival Field Station, Kaikoura from 17th to 19th of January 2016, the first New Zealand Astrobiology Workshop featured New Zealand-based scientists and future scientists.
Speakers included David Penny (Massey) The Origin of Life; solvable problems, Andy Pratt (Canterbury) Proximity and the Origin of Biochemistry, Marcelo Gleiser (Dartmouth) Homochirality, Ed Budding (Wellington) Modelling Biospheric Energization, Peter Wills (Auckland) 15 mins Coding evolution through quasi-species bifurcations, Alannah Rickerby (Canterbury), Alex Popinga (Auckland) The Search for Simple Systems: Minimal Genetic Information and Autocatalytic Sets, Ashar Malik (Massey) Exploring deep phylogenies using protein structure, Kathy Campbell (Auckland) Hot springs: analogue settings for life on early Earth and Mars(?), Lucy Stewart (GNS) Methanogenesis in the subsurface of Axial Volcano, Allan Scott (Canterbury) Development of a Martian Regolith Simulant for in situ Resource Utilization Testing, Haritina Mogosanu (Space Place) Stars without Wars, the role of the institution in maintaining world security, case study NASA, Laura Penrose () From science to society, Matthew Hughes (Canterbury) Signs of Life? Reflections on planetary habitability and the responsibilities of young galactic civilisations, Antony Poole (Canterbury) What can modern biology tell us about the RNA world?, Paul Gardner (Canterbury) Is RNA genetically more robust than protein?, Nellie Sibaeva (Canterbury) The origin of DNA, and Dorien Coray (Canterbury) Mutational robustness of RNA and protein: transitions from an RNA world. Discussions were also held on ways to supporting Astrobiology-related research and education in New Zealand.
