Being invited to visit the Earth-Life Science Institute in place of Professor Gunter von Kiedrowski, my Ph.D. supervisor, I consider myself one of the luckiest among all the visitors who were there at that time.

Me on my Mt. Fuji climb

My scientific education is in chemistry, more specifically in organic and organometallic catalysis, and last November I started my Ph.D. studies working on asymmetric autocatalysis. In the group of Prof. von Kiedrowski (Bochum, Germany) some pioneering and groundbreaking research on self-replicating systems has been done, and this is the reason why Piet Hut sent an invitation to him to attend the workshop on the 'Origins of Life' which took place at ELSI on June 12~14. Prof. von Kiedrowski's busy schedule was my good luck - it gave me the opportunity to travel in his place, to Japan.

This workshop was mainly focused on chemistry, and was meant to give to the very diverse audience at ELSI (where researchers range from astrophysicists to geologists, from chemists to biologist) an introduction to the main hypotheses on the origins of life ('replication-first', 'metabolism-first' and 'lipid-world'). There is no need to mention that my personal contribution was so incomparable to all that I got to learn from the brilliant lectures and -even more- from the stimulating discussions that followed. This was a great experience for me!

I had the chance to spend two and a half weeks at ELSI. Before the workshop, which was towards the end of my stay, I was invited to attend their research discussions and activities such as their study groups and seminars. I learned of ELSI's background and what the institute's research targets are. One of the things which impressed me most was the real effort that was made to create a truly interdisciplinary institution, where people with very different scientific backgrounds speak a 'common language', and are able to communicate and share ideas.

At dinner with the workshop speakers and visitors. Clockwise from left bottom: Nick Hud, Omer Markovitch, me (Elena Palmieri), Hanako Ricciardi, Monica Nicolau, Jim Cleaves, Rogier Braakman, and Nigel Goldenfeld.

Another relevant side of my visit to Japan was, of course, Japan itself. I thought it would have been a crime not to see and experience as much as possible the country I was in. Therefore I decided on a sort of 'scientific approach', each day visiting a new district in Tokyo, trying to interact with local people (often, mainly by gesturing), tasting different Japanese meals and variety of beverages on sale at vending machines (this last one, I have to admit, is simply impossible due to the number of choices!)

Even if I love to travel on my own, the best experiences were the ones I shared with the other visitors and the people from ELSI. All of them had been extremely kind and helpful, from the office staff who arranged my travelling, to the Ph.D. students and postdocs, to the director Kei Hirose and, especially, Piet Hut, Jim Cleaves and Hanako Ricciardi. Without them, I would have never learnt so much about Japanese culture, tried the best food and beverages in the right places, or gone singing in an 'old-style' karaoke. I would have never received the best hints for places to see (I will never forget visiting the Inari shrine in Kyoto by night!), and I would have had to climbed Mount Fuji alone -without anyone to share the thrilling experiences (which included people feeling sick from altitude, a dead body, and much more.)

I would have been very satisfied to just attend ELSI's Origins of Life workshop, and I would have been pleased to be a traveller to Japan. But I am lucky to have done both while meeting so many kind, interesting people so I thank you all!