T7-S1. Minerals and our living world; biogeochemical cycles, environmental challenges and the origin of life

Giovanni De Giudici (gbgiudic@unica.it)
Oliver Moore (o.moore@leeds.ac.uk)
Laura Newsome (L.Newsome@exeter.ac.uk)

Minerals play a crucial role in supporting life on Earth, through providing chemical energy for the very first microbial life, to participating in the biogeochemical cycling of elements that are essential for life today.  Microbe-mineral interactions are a primary control on plant growth and therefore agriculture; they control the fate of toxic pollutants; and contribute to global environmental change. This session solicits contributions that explore the interactions between minerals and life, from the origin of life to natural and engineered environments.  Multidisciplinary studies in bio(mineralogy) are encouraged, as are studies from the molecular scale to the field scale.