On the 9th of December over 50 people gathered for the Royal Astronomical Society Specialist Discussion meeting. The topic for the day's meeting was Is the Earth Special? Is  our  world  a  typical  product  of  planetary  formation  processes,  or  does  it  exhibit  an  un-usual  combination  of  properties  that  were  necessary  preconditions  for  the  emergence  of   life?  And  what's  the  strongest  influence:  Gaia  or  Goldilocks?  Does  a  complex  biosphere   self-­‐support  environmental  stability  or  does  this  confuse  cause  and  effect?

This  interdisciplinary  meeting  intended  to  shed  light  on  this  question   from  many  different  directions:  Cosmology  (How  big  is  the  Universe?),  Geophysics  (Is  the   Earth's  magnetic  field  unusually  strong?),  Biogeochemistry  (does  the  silicate  weathering   cycle  guarantee  climate  stability?),  Biology  (what  are  the  environmental  limits  on  a  complex  biosphere?),  Early life  (what  are  the  conditions  necessary  for  life  to  emerge?)  and   Celestial  Mechanics  (how  do  volatiles  get  to  terrestrial  planets?).   Click to view the abstract book for this meeting.

A report on the meeting will be published imminently in Astronomy & Geophysics.