It all began with ELSI PIs Ken Kurokawa and Piet Hut, senior administrator Yoshi Kobayashi and me in a meeting. By the time I sat down, the three scientists were clearly worked up about something: over Pangaea. My mind wondered what new meaningful evidence could have been uncovered about the supercontinent.

It turned out, the scientists are buzzing over...BEER, over the great discovery of a hole-in-the-wall pub within walking distance from Tokyo Tech's Ookayama campus where ELSI is situated. The mere thought of Brew Pub Pangaea ("They make their beer ON SITE!") is a Siren song. Don't get me wrong, I like beer. But just not to their point of excitement. When the proverbial foam finally settled, the meeting at hand flowed smoothly (like a good Amber) after which the group dispersed, leaving Piet and me to wrap up a few unfinished discussions.

Brew Pub Pangaea bottled a limited number of ELSI-label beers for us, in celebration of our launch.

A scientist is a curious and easily motivated explorer. Thoughts of Pangaea fermenting, Piet eagerly suggested that we go there to finish our work. This purported paradise is in a narrow basement space, one that a Japanese would call an eel's den. Clearly, the emphasis is on its beer, not décor, though it does have a passable down-home atmosphere. After checking out the three cylinders of brew being made on site (size is more nano brewery than micro, the vats closer to a large beer keg) Piet and I each select something different to compare and critique.

Here is where the evening turns interesting. As we are on our second round of critiquing, who should come clopping down the stairs but Ken and Yoshi! We are surprised, almost embarrassed by our (their) shared, immediate pursuit of good beer. This is proof to my point about scientists being a curious and easily motivated bunch. Or these three just happen to find beer irresistible. The two are not mutually exclusive.

The dialogue that floated over our round table, which was increasingly becoming a graveyard of pint and half-pint glasses, was a reflection of ELSI itself, a lively interdisciplinary exchange. Ken, Yoshi and Piet talked about the linearity of physics and chemistry, how there is no intention or goal involved in the outcome. What happens just happens, in one linear direction, from past to future. In comparison, biology is a loop. Even the simplest creatures have a goal: to eat, to live, to protect, to propagate. So the future influences their actions through their wishes, and the past influences their actions through determining their abilities. It is a two way street in time, a loop where the future determines what we want to do and, in turn, our actions influence the future.

Ken, the biologist, mused over the pattern of survival of communities that he sees repeated in the simplest of bacteria to the most complex human beings and wondered if all living matter are programmed in fundamentally similar ways. This led him and me on to a discussion about free will.

Around this time Piet, whose Japanese is already very good, happily commented on how his language abilities always improved by leaps after a few drinks. On the back of such pronouncements, my free will tells me that it is time to bid farewell.

As I head towards the station under a full moon, I think fondly of the easily enthused scientists. I think of my most memorable sight of that evening, the unmitigated joy that spread across Yoshi's face upon the first taste of his "Senzoku Pale Ale." If you can get that much out of life from one sip, well, that was inspiration at its simplest and best.

We may not know how initial life on Earth began but by the time this group parted that evening, we were certain of one fact: that this was the beginning of a beautiful relationship with this neighborhood watering hole. In the same way that Earth created the cradle from which earliest life formed and evolved, Brew Pub Pangaea will surely become the nurturing space from which many of ELSI's discussions will emerge.

Although only in Japanese, click the link for information on Brew Pub Pangaea. http://pangaea-senzoku.seesaa.net/

If you would like information in English, you can always email me: hanako@elsi.jp (and no, for the record, I am not a part-time employee of Brew Pub Pangaea :)