Dylan Gagler and Hikaru Furukawa Attend ELSI Winter School in Tokyo

Graduate students Dylan and Hikaru attended an immersive two-week winter school hosted by the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) in Tokyo. This interdisciplinary program aimed to address the following questions:

• What is the interplay between planetary and biological evolution?
• How did the Earth form and evolve?
• How did life emerge and evolve? 

At the winter school, attendees went on a 4-day field excursion throughout the Izu Peninsula to learn about the unique geology of Japan and how this geologic system, where subducting oceanic plates give rise to volcanic hot springs, may be a plausible analog for how life first emerged. Dylan and Hikaru heard lectures on a range of topics relevant to the origin of life including Prebiotic Chemistry and Large Deviation Theory. In addition, they participated in a research groups focusing on exoplanets (Dylan) and microbiology (Hikaru).