"We all think about evolution. It is in our nature to wonder where we come from," says Filipa Sousa from the Department of Ecogenomics and Systems Biology at the University of Vienna, where she will conduct her ERC Starting Grant project Evolution of Physiology: the Link between Earth and Life. The main objective is to understand environmental microbial life to gain insights into the physiology of newly discovered lineages, and to understand how they harness and conserve energy. Filipa Sousa in her own words: "I want to understand the evolution of all types of energy metabolisms." [read more]