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Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms: Proceedings of a Workshop (1999)

Chapter: Appendix C: Workshop Agenda

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 1999. Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9638.
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Appendix C
Workshop Agenda

Thursday, October 22, 1998

General Session

8:30 a.m.

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Andrew Knoll, Co-chair

Harvard University

8:40 a.m.

E. William Colglazier, Executive Officer

National Research Council

 

9:00 a.m.

Edward Weiler, Associate Administrator (acting)

Office of Space Science, NASA

 

9:20 a.m.

Rita R. Colwell, Director

National Science Foundation

 

9:40 a.m.

Overview of the Workshop

Mary Jane Osborn, Co-chair

University of Connecticut Health Center

Panel Sessions

9:50 a.m.

PANEL 1

Christian de Duve, Moderator

Christian de Duve Institute of Cellular Pathology

What features of biology characterize microorganisms at or near nanometer scale?

Is there a theoretical size limit below which free-living organisms cannot be viable?

If we relax the requirement that cells have the biochemical complexity of modern cells, can we model primordial cells well enough to estimate their likely sizes?

Page 144 Cite
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 1999. Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9638.
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10:00 a.m.

Dan Fraenkel, Harvard Medical School

 

10:20 a.m.

Jeffrey Lawrence, University of Pittsburgh

 

10:40 a.m.

Break

Lecture Room

10:55 a.m.

Monica Riley, Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory

 

11:10 a.m.

David Boal, Simon Fraser University

 

11:30 a.m.

Peter Moore, Yale University

 

12:00 noon

Lunch

 

1:00 p.m.

Panel 1 Discussion

Christian de Dave, Moderator

Christian de Duve Institute of Cellular Pathology

2:30 p.m.

Concluding Remarks for Panel 1

Christian de Dave, Moderator

2:40 p.m.

Break

Lecture Room

2:50 p.m.

PANEL 2

Ken Nealson, Moderator

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Is there a relationship between minimum size and environment?

Is there a continuum of size and complexity that links conventional bacteria to viruses?

What is the phylogenetic distribution of very small bacteria?

3:00 p.m.

James Van Etten, University of Nebraska at Lincoln

3:20 p.m.

Olavi Kajander, University of Kuopio

3:40 p.m.

Don Button, University of Alaska at Fairbanks

4:10 p.m.

James Staley, University of Washington

4:30 p.m.

Karl Stetter, Universität Regensburg

Friday, October 23, 1998

General Session

8:30 a.m.

Opening Remarks

Andrew Knoll, Moderator

Harvard University

Panel Sessions

8:40 a.m.

PANEL 2

Ken Nealson, Moderator

Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Page 145 Cite
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 1999. Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9638.
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8:50 a.m.

Michael Adams, University of Georgia

 

9:10 a.m.

Edward DeLong, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

 

9:30 a.m.

Panel 2 Discussion

Ken Nealson, Moderator

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

10:30 a.m.

Break

Lecture Room

10:45 a.m.

Panel 2 Discussion

Ken Nealson, Moderator

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

11:50 a.m.

Concluding Remarks for Panel 2

Ken Nealson, Moderator

12:00 noon

Lunch

 

1:00 p.m.

PANEL 3

Andrew Knoll, Moderator

Harvard University

Can we understand the processes of fossilization and inorganic chemistry sufficiently well to differentiate fossils from artifacts in a sample?

1:10 p.m.

William Schopf, University of California at Los Angeles

 

1:30 p.m.

Jack Farmer, Arizona State University

 

1:50 p.m.

John Bradley, MVA, Inc.

 

2:10 p.m.

Panel 3 Discussion

Andrew Knoll, Moderator

Harvard University

3:10 p.m.

Concluding Remarks for Panel 3

Andrew Knoll, Moderator

3:20 p.m.

Break

 

3:30 p.m.

PANEL 4

Leslie Orgel, Moderator

Salk Institute

Does our current understanding of the processes that led from chemical to biological evolution place constraints on the size of early organisms?

If size is not constrained, are there chemical signatures that might record the transition to living systems?

3:50 p.m.

James Ferris, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

 

4:10 p.m.

Jack Szostak, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

 

4:30 p.m.

Steven Benner, University of Florida

 

4:50 p.m.

Panel 4 Discussion

Leslie Orgel, Moderator

Salk Institute

5:50 p.m.

Concluding Remarks for Panel 4

Leslie Orgel, Moderator
Page 146 Cite
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 1999. Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9638.
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General Session

6:00 p.m.

Closing Remarks

Andrew Knoll, Co-chair

Harvard University

Mary Jane Osborn, Co-chair

University of Connecticut Health Center

6:10 p.m.

Adjourn

 
Page 143 Cite
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 1999. Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9638.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 1999. Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9638.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 1999. Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9638.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 1999. Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9638.
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Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms: Proceedings of a Workshop
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How small can a free-living organism be? On the surface, this question is straightforward-in principle, the smallest cells can be identified and measured. But understanding what factors determine this lower limit, and addressing the host of other questions that follow on from this knowledge, require a fundamental understanding of the chemistry and ecology of cellular life. The recent report of evidence for life in a martian meteorite and the prospect of searching for biological signatures in intelligently chosen samples from Mars and elsewhere bring a new immediacy to such questions. How do we recognize the morphological or chemical remnants of life in rocks deposited 4 billion years ago on another planet? Are the empirical limits on cell size identified by observation on Earth applicable to life wherever it may occur, or is minimum size a function of the particular chemistry of an individual planetary surface?

These questions formed the focus of a workshop on the size limits of very small organisms, organized by the Steering .Group for the Workshop on Size Limits of Very Small Microorganisms and held on October 22 and 23, 1998. Eighteen invited panelists, representing fields ranging from cell biology and molecular genetics to paleontology and mineralogy, joined with an almost equal number of other participants in a wide-ranging exploration of minimum cell size and the challenge of interpreting micro- and nano-scale features of sedimentary rocks found on Earth or elsewhere in the solar system. This document contains the proceedings of that workshop. It includes position papers presented by the individual panelists, arranged by panel, along with a summary, for each of the four sessions, of extensive roundtable discussions that involved the panelists as well as other workshop participants.

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