Blog No.126
Author: Kuhan Chandru

January is often a horrendous month for ELSI researchers; first we have our own in-house annual international symposium and then this is followed by our intense internal evaluation seminar, a two-day affair where all ELSI members present their work for the past twelve months. This year I decided to one up that schedule by attending the Gordon Research Conference on the Origins of Life in Galveston, Texas in between these two important events.

This was my first trip to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and I was very excited about it before boarding the flight. After 15 hours of journey, I started to develop mixed feelings about this trip until I was shown to my room at the famously haunted Hotel Galvez (be sure to watch the video in youtube), where I slept for the next 15 hours. That is a personal record. 

Here are some of my random observations during the GRC's intense science program.

1) You are forbidden to record electronically any of the talks or posters given by the presenters. Because of that very fact, we are ALLOWED to argue aggressively. Rumor has it that there was a legendary argument that took place in the past. When I say argument, I don't mean light ones. But to my surprise nothing like that happened this time. This was probably because they wasn't anyone trying to sell/convince you their version of OoL scenario (which usually happens in Origins kind of conferences). This GRC, in my opinion, was amazing since the focus was only in what we know, what we don't know, and what the current evidence is showing. That was such a relieve for me after witnessing many sales pitches in the field in the past

2) GRC likes placing their conferences in, sorry Galveston, remote areas to create an intimate group setting. This is something that didn't go well with the enthusiastic foreigner like me who wants to spend some time off as well. But in any case, science always comes first, and I was immensely satisfied with what I have gained (talks and meeting people) and not to mention having the time-off to visit Johnson Space Center with some of my favorite people on board. 

3) The scientific talks were exclusively made for an interdisciplinary crowd, meaning that one never saw a physicist showing only equations and expecting the biologists and chemist to understand, as if it were "matter of fact" knowledge. I don't mean this in an offensive way but it is really hard to be able to give a talk to an interdisciplinary crowd, something we do almost everyday at ELSI. The GRC Origins was good demonstration of this with few minor exceptions. 

4) The GRC starts from 9 to 12 pm, we then have a huge break until dinner, and talk resumes again from 7.30 to 9.30. This was thoughtful and pleasing as it helps the jet-lagged foreigner to sleep and feel refreshed for the sessions.

One glaring shift I noticed among some of the leading OoL workers in the field is that they are moving away from trying to only understand origins based on modern bio-molecules. This is good news, as we in ELSI are also having similar views and are working to explore new chemical domains within prebiotic chemistries and origins of life. I also noticed that the integration of theory and experiments are also coming into play more than before to understand this complex problem. In my opinion, interdisciplinarity between sciences cannot be forced upon but needs to grow organically. This puts ELSI in an amazing position with all the disciplines combining (sometimes clashing) to solve some of the pieces of the origins puzzle. In my world of complaints and criticisms (I'm an experimentalist), this is one of the best conference I have attended in this field, absolutely worth the jet-lag and crazy ELSI schedule of January.