The Vatican City workshop and life beyond planet Earth
In 2009, CIRES Fellow Shelley Copley was among the scientists invited to discuss life and its possibilities outside our solar system during a unique meeting in Vatican City. This was a gathering to discuss astrobiology.
now several hundred known extra-solar planets! Also, the ability to detect planets in the habitable zones is improving. This is harder because it requires detection of smaller planets closer to stars, but it is starting to happen, so we can now be sure that there are habitable planets out there.
What did you get out of this experience?
I came away with a renewed sense of excitement about working on a Really Big Question—the origin of life—and a profound respect for the power of interdisciplinary science.
Where do things go from here? Life on other planets? A better understanding of life on Earth?
There are so many important unanswered questions. We know of only one example of life at this point, and we have a poor understanding of how life originated on this planet. That makes it difficult to predict what life might look like on other planets, what types of planets (and moons) might support life, and how we should look for life elsewhere. There is a lot of interest in what exotic forms of life might look like. A big challenge is figuring out how best to look for life, given the uncertainties about what we’re looking for, the vast distances involved, and the high cost of big telescopes and the higher cost of space missions. 
found elsewhere in the Universe is quite acceptable to the Church, and indeed would be considered as evidence of God’s magnificence.
You spoke about catalysts as essential for life to emerge. Can you tell us a little more about this relationship?
Almost every reaction that occurs in living organisms is catalyzed by an enzyme. This is critical for life because these reactions would otherwise be terribly slow. Catalysts were also critical for the emergence of life, not only because they accelerated the rates of certain reactions, but because they dictated the types of reactions that would be incorporated into modern metabolic networks.
Were there any other topics that stood out for you?
The topic that really grabbed my interest was the amazing increase in the rate of discovery of extra-solar planets—there are
Can you tell us about this relatively new area of scientific study and how you became involved in it?
NASA defines astrobiology as “the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe.” It’s a fascinating interdisciplinary endeavor that brings together astrophysicists, planetary scientists, geologists, chemists, biologists, and even philosophers.
My interest in astrobiology stemmed from my work on the evolution of enzymes and metabolic pathways. Thinking about the origin of the sophisticated protein enzymes and robust metabolic networks found in extant life inevitably led me to thinking about the characteristics of the earliest life forms on Earth, and then to thinking about how they arose from the collection of small organic molecules available on the early Earth.
What was it like giving a talk of this nature in a place like Vatican City?
It was surreal. In many ways, it was a typical scientific meeting. There were excellent talks from top scientists in diverse areas of astrobiology, and fascinating discussions over coffee and meals. Our hosts were priests, but the meeting wasn’t about religion, or the relationship between religion and science—it was all about the science. The Vatican has a long history of interest in astronomy. The idea that life might be
