- Mon Nov 10 (room reservation 10:30 JST [=UTC+09:00]), ELSI-1 105 Mishima Hall [Seminar] ELSI Seminar - Javier Martin Torres Title: Brines, Dust, and Habitability: Lessons from Mars for the Origin and Survival of Life Prof. Javier Martín-Torres, FRSE, FRAS Chair Professor of Planetary Sciences, University of Aberdeen Abstract: The search for life beyond Earth hinges on understanding how planetary environments sustain liquid water and chemical disequilibria—two prerequisites for life as we know it. Mars provides a unique natural laboratory where these factors intersect in a cold, irradiated, and chemically active environment. The Curiosity rover has just completed 13 years (seven Mars years. Seven times around the Sun at 1.52 AU! ) on the surface. REMS, the environmental monitoring station onboard Curiosity has compiled the longest continuous measurement record of pressure, ground and air temperatures, relative humidity, and ultraviolet irradiance on another planet. In this talk, I will present how complementary long term in situ and orbit observations reveal the interplay between dust dynamics, deliquescent brines, and transient habitability on the Martian surface and subsurface. I will discuss the microphysical processes that enable brine formation under current Martian conditions, their stability limits, and implications for chemical energy gradients that could have supported prebiotic or extant microbial activity. By examining dust–brine interactions, hygroscopic salts, and the atmospheric water cycle, we can constrain not only where and when Mars might still host liquid water but also how early habitable niches may have emerged. These findings inform broader questions about the origin and resilience of life in planetary environments far from equilibrium, offering analogs to early Earth and icy moon systems. Finally, I will outline how upcoming missions and new instrumentation—combining environmental monitoring with molecular detection—can bridge planetary science, geochemistry, and astrobiology to trace the boundary between geophysical processes and the emergence of biology. Seminar will be hybrid: zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6625820729?pwd=U3RNblNxVm9yTG8wL0ltRHdyaTQ5QT09 - Fri Nov 14 (room reservation 14:00 JST [=UTC+09:00]), ELSI-1 207 Seminar Room B [Study Group] Metabolism Hour - Fri Nov 14 (room reservation 15:00 JST [=UTC+09:00]), ELSI-1 207 Seminar Room B [Seminar] Protein language model hour Study group for protein language models