The origin, or "origins" of life as many people prefer (the significance of the distinction being, as I understand it two-fold, one that there might be multiple origins that contributed to life as we know it in a syncretic fashion, the other being that there were multiple origins which occurred, though only one has survived to give rise to life as we know it), is a long standing question, perhaps among the most vexing outstanding ones science asks. It has been addressed scientifically for a few centuries now, in increasingly concrete and sophisticated ways, but thus far eluded satisfactory explanation. This question has been the focus of the International Society of the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL), an interdisciplinary group of scientists which meets triennially, since 1957, when Alexander Oparin hosted the first International Conference of the Origin of Life (ICOL) in Moscow.

This year ISSOL, jointly with the International Astronomical Union's Bioastronomy Commission, met at the foot of Mt. Wakakusa in Nara, Japan. Nara was the capital of Japan in the 8th century, and hosts a variety of remarkable cultural attractions, along with roaming herds of sika deer. The meeting was a terrific success, and hats are off to the organizers for putting together a wonderful meeting. ~350 scientists adjourned to discuss long-standing questions in the origin of life as well as new data and observations. Topics ranged from new findings in the field of exoplanet research, to chemistry to molecular biology, and it was well-evident that there is no shortage of interesting questions being asked regarding the origin of life in many fields. The meeting concluded with the decision to hold the following congress in Anchorage, Alaska, with the meeting being organized by Jerzy Maselko.

Immediately after the Nara ISSOL meeting, the 4th Open Questions in the Origin of Life (OQOL) meeting convened at the International Institute for Advanced Study (IIAS) in Kizugawa, Japan (just outside of Kyoto), a short train ride from Nara. I had the pleasure of participating in the 2nd meeting in San Sebastian, Spain, which lured me back for this one. The organization of the meeting is unusual, and is the brain-child of Pierre Luigi Luisi. To structure the meeting, the community is asked to provide a series of "open questions" about the origin of life, which are then voted upon democratically to see which are of most interest. The top questions are used to organize the scientific sessions, and considerable time is left for discussion, with the intention that presentations simply be scaffolds for dialogue regarding the selected questions. Questions ranged over such large topics as "What aspects of life are universal?" to "Why is the origin of life still a mystery?"

The IIAS provided fertile grounds for wandering and discussion, and I think everyone in attendance was motivated by the intense workshop to get back to their labs and try some new approaches to the problem. It was also decided at the end of the meeting to hold the 5th meeting after the ISSOL meeting in Anchorage. I suppose we'll see some familiar faces in 2017, and hopefully some new ones, too!

Overall, July was an intense week for the international OOL community, and Japan was the perfect gracious host for continuing dialog on this terribly fascinating and so far intractable problem.