ELSI | TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
TEN YEARS OF ELSI: EARTH, LIFE AND A NEW RESEARCH CULTURE IN JAPAN Unlike most traditional Japanese universities, the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Tokyo Institute of Technology has created a ‘flat’ and diverse research environment. On its ten-year anniversary, Outgoing Director Kei Hirose shares what is special about the institute and the secret behind its successful management.
Q: How did ELSI’s theme, the Origin of the Earth and Life, come about? A: ELSI was born from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Tokyo Institute of Technology. Since we were setting up a new research institute, we wanted a big theme for researchers to study under. The one we all agreed on was the origin of the Earth. The birth of Planet Earth and the sequence of events that created the magma ocean and the core happened all around the same time. So we decided to focus on that part first. Since we believe that life was probably born not so far from when the Earth was formed, we included that in the theme. So we had a research target on the formation of the Earth, its early stages and the birth of life.
Q: What have they discovered at ELSI so far? ASIA RESEA RC H NE WS
A: We have a deeper understanding
2022
of what happened in the magma ocean when the Earth was formed. The surface layer of the Earth today is basically made of rocks, but there was a time when all the rocks were melted and the entire Earth was covered with magma. This is called the magma ocean state. Thanks to this state, the Earth was divided into three parts: the atmosphere/ sea, the mantle (rock) and the core (metal).
We were able to further clarify the role of the magma ocean as a starting point of various planets, including Earth and Venus, and possibly Mars. We are also interested in how organisms were born on Earth, which was originally uninhabitable and had no life at all. For example, there is only 0.04 atmospheric pressure (atm) of carbon dioxide on Earth now, compared to what is believed to have been about 100 atm of carbon dioxide back then. Carbon dioxide is very oxidative, but living organisms, like humans, are made up of organic matter, which is more reductive. Most carbon back then was
Early Earth had 100 atm of carbon dioxide compared to only 0.04 atm today. in the form of carbon dioxide, yet life somehow arose. It was a very big challenge to understand how a carbon dioxide-dominant environment managed to create a more reductive carbon, like that found in the human body. What we found is that the large amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide reacted with an existing flow of electricity and hot water spouts emerging from the Earth’s surface, converting it into carbon
monoxide. This was then further reduced to make amino acids, which are the ingredients of organisms.
Q: What makes ELSI attractive for researchers? A: It is a very international, open and ‘flat’
place. In the traditional university system, the professor is sitting at the top, followed by associate professors, assistant professors and students at the bottom. This pyramid structure exists everywhere in the world. ELSI is not such a place at all. For example, a postdoc working on one research topic could be collaborating with a professor who has a completely different research project. I call that a flat environment. Normally, a postdoc works on what a professor tells them to do. At ELSI, that's not necessary at all. In short, postdocs can work freely here. I think that makes ELSI very attractive.
Q: What is the secret behind ELSI’s rich diversity? A: Japan lags behind when it comes to
diversifying university environments. Universities often tackle this issue by welcoming international students, but that does not solve it. I believe that the most important thing in this case is to bring excellent researchers from abroad to Japan. ELSI has been most successful achieving that out of all the WPI centres*. Credit: Creative Commons
50
Further Thilina Heenatigala | thilinah@elsi.jp information Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) Tokyo Institute of Technology
