Symposium 2026
‘Individuality Across the Biosphere’
'Earth-Life Science'
graduates from ELSI!
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ELSI releases FY2024 outreach activities report
October 27, 2025 -
ELSI Voices: Matsuura-lab – Building artificial cells to understand life
October 22, 2025 -
ELSI student Taren Ginter won the Student Presentation Award and IUPUB Nara Memorial Student Presentation Award
October 16, 2025 -
Tracing speculation in astrobiology communication from caution to hype
October 9, 2025Thilina Heenatigala et al., PLOS One, 2025
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Registration open for the 14th ELSI International Symposium — Individuality Across the Biosphere
October 9, 2025Event Date：Wednesday-Friday, 7-9 January 2026
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ELSI student Ryusei Matsumoto won the Society for Biotechnology Outstanding Student Award and Outstanding Student Presentation Award
October 7, 2025 -
Fresh clues to the origins of organic molecules on Enceladus
October 3, 2025Maxwell Craddock, Yasuhito Sekine et al., Nature Astronomy & Icarus, 2025
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Yokohama Science Frontier High School took part in the ELSI School Outreach Programme
September 30, 2025Event Date：Wednesday, 10 September 2025
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ELSI Seminar: Space and Chance in Virus–Bacteria Ecosystems
September 25, 2025Event Date：Wednesday 1 October 2025
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Hot springs in Japan give insight into ancient microbial life on Earth
September 25, 2025Fatima Li-Hau, Yuichiro Ueno, Shawn Erin McGlynn et al., Microbes and Environments, 2025
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Decolonising Science Panel Discussion on ‘Ethical Reflections on Sample Return Missions’ at the UN Science Summit, United Nations General Assembly (UNGA80)
September 24, 2025Event Date： Wednesday, 24 September 2025
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Students shape imagination and science in the Martian Pottery Project
September 19, 2025 -
ELSI Seminar: Protein assembly design of two-component tubular structures similar to cytoskeletons
September 18, 2025Event Date：Wednesday 22 October 2025
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Space Café Tokyo – Was there a Rogue Planet in the Early Solar System?
September 16, 2025Event Date：Thursday September 25, 2025
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ELSI student Keigo Taniguchi won the JpGU 2025 Outstanding Student Presentation Award
August 29, 2025 -
Fujiawa Shoryo High School took part in the ELSI School Outreach Programme
August 29, 2025Event Date：Thursday, 28 August 2025
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Space Café Tokyo – Exploring Mercury and the Martian system with JAXA missions
August 27, 2025Event Date：Thursday, 28 August 2025
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Students of University of California, San Diego visit ELSI
August 4, 2025Event Date：Tuseday, 29 July 2025
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Tracing speculation in astrobiology communication from caution to hype
October 9, 2025Thilina Heenatigala et al., PLOS One, 2025
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Fresh clues to the origins of organic molecules on Enceladus
October 3, 2025Maxwell Craddock, Yasuhito Sekine et al., Nature Astronomy & Icarus, 2025
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Hot springs in Japan give insight into ancient microbial life on Earth
September 25, 2025Fatima Li-Hau, Yuichiro Ueno, Shawn Erin McGlynn et al., Microbes and Environments, 2025
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A molecular retelling of Through the Looking Glass uncovers an ancient protein with an unexpected function
May 16, 2025Tatsuya Corlett and Liam M. Longo et al., Angewandte Chemie, 2025
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Protein problem: Researchers challenge fundamental assumption in evolutionary biochemistry
May 14, 2025Liam M. Longo et al., Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2025
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The versatility of lactic acid in the origin of membraneless protocells at the origins of life
May 1, 2025Tony Z. Jia et al., Polymer Journal, 2025
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ELSI’s Liam M. Longo receives the prestigious Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) grant
April 16, 2025 -
How to convert plastic straw waste into polyester microdroplets with enzyme engineering and prebiotic chemistry
April 2, 2025Tony Z. Jia, Kosuke Fujishima et al., ACS Applied Polymer Materials, 2025
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How calcium may have unlocked the origins of life’s molecular asymmetry
March 27, 2025Tony Z. Jia et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 2025
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How life’s building blocks took shape on early Earth: the limits of membraneless polyester protocell formation
February 6, 2025Tony Z. Jia and Rehana Afrin et al., ACS Bio & Med Chem Au, 2025
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Solving the evolutionary puzzle of polyploidy: how genome duplication shapes adaptation
January 23, 2025Tetsuhiro S. Hatakeyama et al., PRX Life, 2024
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Could a Subsurface Supercritical CO₂–Water Two-phase Environment Offer a Solution to the Phosphate Problem and Water Paradox?
December 23, 2024Shotaro Tagawa, Kosuke Fujishima et at., Astrobiology, 2024
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Representing chemistry by its underlying rules to understand how evolution has selected universal pathways
December 6, 2024Eric Smith and Harrison B. Smith et al., PLoS Complex Systems, 2024
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Could polyesters (yes, the material of which your jacket is made!) drive primitive reactions on early Earth?
October 24, 2024Chen Chen and Tony Z. Jia et al., Accounts of Chemical Research, 2024
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Alternative pathways to life should be considered
October 16, 2024Tony Z. Jia et al., Life, 2024
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New Study Sheds Light on Ancient Protoribosome and its Role in Early Life Evolution
October 2, 2024Tomoko Yamaguchi, Kosuke Fujishima et al., Nucleic Acids Research, 2024
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Osmotic Energy Conversion Discovered in Hydrothermal Vents Provides Clues to Life’s Beginnings
October 1, 2024Hye-Eun Lee, Shawn Erin McGlynn, Ryuhei Nakamuar et al., Nature Communications, 2024
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Scientists create plastic-eating artificial system that make their own protein building blocks
May 30, 2024Shota Nishikawa, Tony Z. Jia and Kosuke Fujishima et al., ACS Catalysis, 2024
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ELSI releases FY2024 outreach activities report
October 27, 2025 -
ELSI student Taren Ginter won the Student Presentation Award and IUPUB Nara Memorial Student Presentation Award
October 16, 2025 -
ELSI student Ryusei Matsumoto won the Society for Biotechnology Outstanding Student Award and Outstanding Student Presentation Award
October 7, 2025 -
Yokohama Science Frontier High School took part in the ELSI School Outreach Programme
September 30, 2025Event Date：Wednesday, 10 September 2025
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Decolonising Science Panel Discussion on ‘Ethical Reflections on Sample Return Missions’ at the UN Science Summit, United Nations General Assembly (UNGA80)
September 24, 2025Event Date： Wednesday, 24 September 2025
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Students shape imagination and science in the Martian Pottery Project
September 19, 2025 -
ELSI student Keigo Taniguchi won the JpGU 2025 Outstanding Student Presentation Award
August 29, 2025 -
Fujiawa Shoryo High School took part in the ELSI School Outreach Programme
August 29, 2025Event Date：Thursday, 28 August 2025
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Students of University of California, San Diego visit ELSI
August 4, 2025Event Date：Tuseday, 29 July 2025
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Laurus International School of Science took part in the ELSI School Outreach Programme
July 31, 2025Event Date：Thursday, 17 July 2025
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Tokyo Metropolitan Takehaya Senior High School took part in the ELSI School Outreach Programme
July 31, 2025Event Date：Tuesday, 15 July 2025
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The 10th ELSI/ Kavli IPMU/ IRCN Joint Public Lecture series “Quest for Origins” ‘From Extraterrestrial Life to the Origin of Life, and then to a Universal Biology’ lecture video is available online
June 4, 2025 -
ELSI at JpGU 2025 conference
May 22, 2025Event Date：Sunday 25 May - Friday 30 May 2025
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ELSI welcomes new students to the Earth-Life Science Course
April 8, 2025 -
Congratulations to Earth-Life Science Course graduates FY2024!
April 1, 2025 -
JSPS Hope Meeting participants visited ELSI
April 1, 2025 -
13th ELSI International Symposium 2025 ‘Life and Humans in Space’ lecture videos are available online
March 25, 2025 -
ELSI Annual Public Lecture FY2024 ‘Seismic Exploration of Planets’ lecture videos are available online
December 17, 2024Videos of the lectures by Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Christine Houser (ELSI) and Project Researcher Keisuke Onodera (Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo)
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Registration open for the 14th ELSI International Symposium — Individuality Across the Biosphere
October 9, 2025Event Date：Wednesday-Friday, 7-9 January 2026
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ELSI Seminar: Space and Chance in Virus–Bacteria Ecosystems
September 25, 2025Event Date：Wednesday 1 October 2025
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ELSI Seminar: Protein assembly design of two-component tubular structures similar to cytoskeletons
September 18, 2025Event Date：Wednesday 22 October 2025
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Space Café Tokyo – Was there a Rogue Planet in the Early Solar System?
September 16, 2025Event Date：Thursday September 25, 2025
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Space Café Tokyo – Exploring Mercury and the Martian system with JAXA missions
August 27, 2025Event Date：Thursday, 28 August 2025
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Mini-symposium: “No Vesicle, No Life”
July 23, 2025Event Date：Friday, 1 August 2025
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Molecular mashup: a conference to write a theory of composition for biomolecules
July 8, 2025Event Date：18-21 August 2025
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ELSI to join the Networking Roundtable on the Future of Science Centres at Expo 2025 Osaka
July 3, 2025Event Date：Thursday, 31 July 2025
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Orientation Webinar for the Earth-Life Science Course as part of the International Graduate Programme, Institute of Science Tokyo (commencing from April 2026)
June 24, 2025Event Date：Thursday, July 24 2025
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ELSI Seminar: Insights into rock–fluid interactions in volcanic settings: experiments, field investigations, and modelling perspectives
June 16, 2025Event Date：Wednesday 18 June 2025
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ELSI Seminar: Looking Deep Inside the Earth & Planets with Coda Correlation Seismology
May 13, 2025Event Date：Wednesday 28 May 2025
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ELSI Seminar: Effects of climate change on human health
May 12, 2025Event Date：Wednesday 14 May 2025
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Space Café Tokyo – Special Public Lecture: What is science? by Prof. Mark Harrison (UCLA)
May 9, 2025Event Date：Thursday, 15 May 2025
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Lecture series by visiting Professor Mark Harrison of UCLA
May 7, 2025Event Date：Wednesday 7 May - Thursday 15 May 2025
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ELSI Seminar: On wet rocky worlds – How does origin of life research impact space exploration efforts at Icy Worlds?
May 2, 2025Event Date：Wednesday 7 May 2025
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ELSI Seminar: Assessing the role of reduced phosphorus in biogeochemical cycles on the early Earth
April 30, 2025Event Date：Wednesday 30 April 2025
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ELSI Seminar: ENTANGLED: Prehistoric Archaeology in the Digital Age
April 17, 2025Event Date：Wednesday 24 April 2025
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Symposium: Traveling around Molecular Robotics and Artificial Cell
March 14, 2025Event Date：Friday, March 14, 2025
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ELSI Voices: Matsuura-lab – Building artificial cells to understand life
October 22, 2025 -
ELSI Science-Art Project: The Complexity in the Simplicity
October 15, 2024ELSI Science-Art Collaborative Project featured Kayo Nomura as the ELSI Artist in Resident for FY2023. She explored the complex systems in the Origins of Life as the central theme and conducted seminars, workshops, and live painting during the residency.
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Nurturing graduate students with science communication skills
July 18, 2023 -
Communicating about life beyond Earth and other big news
July 11, 2023 -
ELSI Science-Art Project: Universe; Celebration of Life
July 4, 2023 Madoka NaitoELSI Science-Art Project with the artist Madoka Naito aims to explore and expand the framework of the science language through active discussions and exchange of perceptions between the artist and researchers about life, Earth and the universe, and a workshop that reflects the discussions.
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Placing science outreach centre-stage in Japan
July 5, 2022Interview with ELSI's Director of Communications, Thilina Heenatigala
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ELSI graduate course tackles fundamental questions of life
July 5, 2022Interview with Professor Tomoaki Matsuura and Professor Ryuhei Nakamura
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The dawn of evolution: ELSI’s quest for extra-terrestrial life
July 5, 2022Interview with new ELSI Director, Yasuhito Sekine
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Ten years of ELSI: Earth, life and a new research culture in Japan
July 5, 2022Interview with former ELSI Director, Kei Hirose
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Role of ELSI’s CRAY computer cluster
June 16, 2022 Koichiro UmemotoThe CRAY XC30, which has continued to run since the establishment of ELSI, is a computer cluster with 960 CPUs. It will be replaced for performance and other reasons but has been a significant part of my Earth & planetary science research.
EON
Princeton IAS
GRC/Ehime-U.
Harvard OoL
Columbia U.
UTokyo
EFADP
Molcure