On 27 May 2021 Professor Nick Lane of University College London talked to RSC Belgium on the topic: ‘How does chemistry come alive?’ He explored how the continuous reaction of hydrogen and carbon dioxide in the structured environment of hydrothermal vents could have driven the beginnings of metabolism and genetics in protocells at the origin of life on Earth.

Nick is an evolutionary biochemist and writer in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London. He was awarded the inaugural UCL Provost's Venture Research Prize for his research on evolutionary biochemistry and bioenergetics and his current work focuses on the origin of life, and the origin and evolution of eukaryotes. He was a founding member of the UCL Consortium for Mitochondrial Research, and leads the UCL Research Frontiers Origins of Life programme.