Natural History scholar debates Earth’s early life

Faculty and students filled room 100 of Rawles Hall on Tuesday despite the snow and icy roads to hear Harvard Professor Andrew Knoll speak about early life on Earth.

Knoll gave a lecture about the early life forms on Earth between two and four billion years ago. He examined rocks, minerals and their composition to analyze Earth in its earliest stages.

“Evidence suggests that life originated early in Earth’s history but it worked without oxygen,” Knoll said. The oxygenated state that Earth has now began only 2.4 billion years ago, long after life on earth emerged, he added.

Though some of the lecture was clearer to those with knowledge on the subject, such as the numerous faculty in attendance, Knoll did a good job of explaining the technical aspects of the geology within his research, sophomore Kate Sanders said.

Sanders is a member of the Hutton Honors College and will be attending a dinner with Knoll after his second lecture on Thursday.

Graduate student Joe Hughto is an astrophysics major and attended the lecture in preparation for Thursday’s lecture. He said he is a fan of the William T. Patten Lecture Series and tries to attend most of the events because they are good learning experiences.

Professor of sedimentary geology Abhijit Basu, one of the men who nominated Knoll for the lecture series, was also in attendance. 

“I think my nomination began ‘If there was a Nobel prize for geology,’ ” he said, laughing.