I have an interest in the chemical origin of life, in particular, how life’s building blocks formed on the early Earth and in the early solar system. Amino acids and other building blocks of life had been believed to form spontaneously in lightning discharge in primitive early Earth atmosphere. Now, this model is not accepted any more, and we need other geologically reasonable model to understand the origin of the building blocks of life. I’m trying to test many environments and events to see which organic compounds form on the early Earth. I’m also investigating the delivery of the building blocks of life from space by analyzing organic compounds in meteorites.

When I was an undergrad, a professor explained me how origin of life is a big important open question and encouraged me to start investigating this. I was also impressed by his word that the origin of life is an open question for Earth and planetary science not just for biology.

In basic sciences, we are not investigating how we can make a profit or how we can improve daily life, immediately. Investigation on the origin of life is one of such studies. However, outcomes of such previous basic sciences have constructed all of our understanding of the present world as scientific truths. If you have interests to do this kind of trial, let’s make a new knowledge of the future world with us.