Lecture 1: Origin and distribution of the biologically important chemical elements:

Stellar evolution and the origin of the chemical elements; ejection into the interstellar medium; timescales for creation and dispersal of carbon and other key elements; interstellar clouds and astrobiologically relevant interstellar chemistry.

Lecture 2: Conditions in the early Solar System:

Epoch of heavy bombardment and the `impact frustration' of the origin of life; possible importance of comets as reservoirs of volatiles and organic molecules; possible role of giant planets in shielding terrestrial planets from cometary impacts; concept of habitable zones.

Lecture 3: Earliest evidence for life on Earth:

Stromalotites; micro-fossils; and stable isotope ratios as evidence for the early appearannce of life on Earth; discusion of astrobiological implications.

Lecture 4: Biological Basics:

Key biological molecules (amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids, etc); classification of life (kingdoms; domains); basic structure of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells; genetic code.

Lecture 5: Pre-biological chemical evolution and the origin of life:

Summary of pre-biological chemical evolution; Urey-Miller-type experiments; importance of oxidation state of early Earth for organic molecule yields; probable importance of RNA; the RNA world and alternatives.

Lecture 6: History of life on Earth:

Summary of major evolutionary innovations since early appearance of life; evolution of eukaryotic cells -- evidence for endosymbiosis; Cambrian explosion; essential time frame for major evolutionary innovations; astrobiological implications.

Lecture 7: Requirements for life:

What is life? Energy and metabolism; xtremophiles; the 'envelope' of physical conditions occupied by life on Earth today; hydrothermal vents; Antarctica -- Lake Vostok. Rare Earth -- is Earth uniquely habitable? Plate tectonics and the carbon cycle; role of a large Moon, etc.

Lecture 8: Prospects for life on Mars:

Evidence for surface water in the past; climate change; Viking results; possible sub-surface life; Martian palaeontology; future exploration.

Lecture 9: Prospects for life eleswhere in the Solar System:

Europa: Evidence for sub-ice ocean; possible hydrothermal vents; future exploration; Other possibilities (briefly -- Jupiter? Titan?); panspermia.

Lecture 10: Extrasolar planets:

Discovery of planets around other stars; summary of discoveries to-date; limitations of the current methods; future direct imaging of extrasolar terrestrial planets (Darwin, TPF); spectroscopic search for bio-signatures in the atmospheres of extrasolar planets.

Lecture 11: Extraterrestrial intelligence: