Title: How are the building blocks of life formed?

Abstract: In the past decade, Astrochemistry has witnessed an impressive increase in the number of detections of complex organic molecules in space. Some of these species are of prebiotic interest such as glycolaldehyde, the simplest sugar, or amino acetonitrile, a possible precursor of glycine. In this talk, I will review how ALMA has greatly contributed to the discovery of a wide range of complex organic compounds in the interstellar medium, and I will present our recent efforts to detect prebiotic molecules such as hydroxylamine and ethanolamine, known to be precursors of ribonucleotides and phospholipids in theories of the origin of life. 

The European ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) network has recently launched the new virtual talk series "ALMA recounts of Cosmic Conundrums”.  In every talk of this series the invited speaker will present a major astronomical question and then focus on ALMAs contribution to this question, past and future. The aim of the series is to highlight the unparalleled contribution of ALMA to the broader astronomical landscape and to provide an outlook towards the future.

The current schedule is as follows:

If you have any questions contact the European ARC network through the ALMA helpdesk.