Minerals – eyewitnesses of the Earth’s 4.6-billion-year evolution and canvas for life’s ongoing signature.

Interview with Dr. Robert Hazen

Welcome to a new interview brought to you by the Earth Science Matters Foundation!

Want to know how minerals can provide information about the Earth’s distant past, and how life might have been influenced by them? Watch to find out!

It is our pleasure to welcome Dr. Robert Hazen to our interview. He is a distinguished mineralogist and astrobiologist based at the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory and George Mason University. His recent research focuses on the roles of minerals in life’s origins, including mineral-catalyzed organic synthesis and interactions between biomolecules and mineral surfaces, as well as “mineral evolution” and “mineral ecology”—new approaches that exploit large and growing mineral data resources to explore the co-evolution of the geo- and biospheres. A prolific writer, Dr. Hazen has authored more than 400 articles and 25 books on topics ranging from astrobiology to scientific literacy.

If you enjoyed the topic of this interview, we invite you to read Dr. Hazen’s book The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet. 

 

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