My name is Yang Yifan and I am a first year university student at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. I am writing my first blog in English after my first visit to Japan and my first visit to a research institute.

This summer, I had a chance to visit ELSI as a member of the Sakura Science Program. This program is supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency. Its goal is to raise interest and create exchange between Japanese and Asian youths towards leading science and technology in Japan. Although I am a student of Art and German at my university, I am very much interested in science so I was pleased for the opportunity.

We went to ELSI as part of our visit to Tokyo Institute of Technology. We were able to see a meeting on the topic of the origin of life. The scientists at the meeting took a break and explained to us about how life and the earth began. It left a deep impression on me because it is a lesson that we never learned in our classrooms. The scientists talked to us about the connection between mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology. One scientist even showed a video so that we can understand better about the origin of life. Most of all, I was so inspired by everyone's enthusiasm and passion for working to solve a big mystery for mankind.

I want to say thank you to the people at ELSI and JST for increasing my interest in science. My hope is to contribute to humanistic ideas and continue to support science in my own small way.