Yuki Morono

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This transcript is based on a video-recorded interview deposited at MarE3, JAMSTEC (Yokosuka, Japan).

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Interview of Yuki Morono by Beatriz Martinez-Rius on 2025 April 2, Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research (Kochi, Japan) [link]

Beatriz Martinez-Rius (BMR): Today is April 2nd of 2025. I am Beatriz Martinez-Rius, historian of science at JAMSTEC, and today I am at Kochi Institute for Core Sampling Research with Yuki Morono. Thank you very, very much.

Yuki Morono (YM): Thank you, too.

BMR: Can you please first introduce yourself? Saying your name, your affiliation, and your position.

YM: My name is Yuki Morono. I’m a geomicrobiologist of the Kochi Institute of Core Sample Research – I think I correctly say my institute’s name.

BMR: Can you also introduce your field of research? I think it’s quite unique.

YM: My field of research is geomicrobiology, or sub-seafloor specialized geomicrobiology research, which is very interesting for me but, unfortunately, in Japan, we don’t have so much of the people interested in that field of research.

One of the barriers for people not quite to get into this field is the technical barrier, so to say. Which is from the difficulty to handle the sample, and difficulty to handle the situation as well, because we need to get onboard on the drillship and also, we need to take care of the contamination. And we need to take care of the other side of the stuff, like how well we can preserve the sample, or how well we can maintain the correct condition for microbes, like the anaerobic environment or something like that. So, people usually don’t know that aspect of the technical stuff. And that is why it is very difficult when someone first comes, to join this field. I think that is the current barrier. I also think that something like education will be necessary for people to get into this field, and I’d like to help that, in the future.

BMR: Now that you mentioned education, is this sub-seafloor microbiology something that is studied at universities? Or is it something that, if someone wants to enter into the field, they should get in touch with the scientific ocean drilling community?

YM: Uhm… Good question. So far, as far as I know, not so many or almost no university has such a specialized laboratory or institute for deep sea or deep sub-seafloor research. I know one of that, but that is for deep sub-seafloor rock biosphere research. So, it is quite limited opportunity for general students to get into this field.

BMR: Before continuing with your background, I’d like to ask you, what do you like about microbes?

YM: I actually thought that microbes are simple enough to manufacture, or handle, or even create from scratch. So, that is kind of my original motivation to get into the microbiology field. But – life is not simple. Very difficult to handle. And it is amazing that microbial capacity to survive is far beyond our understanding, or far beyond our expectation. So, such amazing feature that life has, eliminated my original motivation to create microbes, now. But I don’t give up anything. I do like to know why the life is life, and what is a key point that life is moving without having any input from other helps or something.

BMR: Actually, weaking up microbes that have been sleeping for a hundred million years, that’s almost like creating life (laughs). So, let’s continue chronologically. First, I’d like to ask you, where did you grow up? From where did you start?

YM: I was born in the Fukui Prefecture. Fukui is located in the north-western part of Japan, facing the Japan Sea. That was my mother’s home. Right after I was born, I think, we moved to a Kanazawa, in Ishikawa prefecture – the next prefecture. I stayed there for six years, maybe? And right before entering elementary school, my father got moved his working place to Tokyo, and I moved my living place to Hachioji, one of the big cities in the western side of Tokyo.

I spent twenty years, maybe, in there, from elementary school to graduation of the PhD, the graduate school. After that, I moved to Tsukuba for a postdoc position, and I stayed there for two and half years, and moved to Kochi to join JAMSTEC.

BMR: At which point did you start to be interested in microbiology, or in the origins of life?

YM: Originally, I was interested in the mystery of life from my childhood. When I wrote my book, I included that story. In my childhood, I wanted to know the system or mechanism that can functionalize the stuff we are seeing. Something like an alarm clock, or something else. And when I opened that, the battery is there, and something like gears are there. One time, I tried to disassemble that, and it was so hard to reassemble. But as far as we re-assemble that structure, we can re-functionalize that stuff. But, in terms of the life, if we disassemble life, no one can reassemble that. That was the critical difference between the stuff and life. Then, my original thought or wonder, maybe, is: why life is life? And what critically discriminates life and other stuff? That was my original motivation.

The next point when I decided to get into microbiology field is that, after getting into university, I needed to select the division I’d proceed to. At that time, there were choices of the field of life sciences. Getting into life sciences was decided, when I got into university, but which field was decided sometime in middle of the university days. And at that time, I was thinking on the simplicity of the microbes. So, simplicity of the microbes could make me somehow, as I said, manipulate the mysterious life as I wish. Or even create life from scratch, or something. So, that was my original dream, let’s say. That was my motivation to get into microbiology field, especially microbial engineering field, when I first get into.

BMR: Was someone in your family related to science or engineering?

YM: Not quite. My father was working at IBM, so computer company. He was selling PCs to business customers. His background is in mechanical engineering or something. So, distantly related to life sciences. But he gave me some kind of advice that the life science could be an interesting field and maybe a growing field in future. That pushed me towards, into the life sciences.

BMR: When you went into microbiology, what was the state of this field? Were you learning from someone, about creating or manipulating life? What was known, at that point?

YM: At that point, some kind of genetic engineering was already born. So, yes. Genetic engineering was already there. Some kind of manipulation was already available, at the time. But creation of life was not quite a thing that people is doing, at that point. And, what I learned at my laboratory days in my graduate school is that, if I study some kind of bioengineering of the microbes, some cutting-edge companies are doing similar things, and it is quite challenging for the university or graduate school student to compete with them. That is kind of tough, or the limitation I felt, at that time, in my graduate school days. And I thought I need to do something else.

What I did as a postdoc was the tracking of genetically modified microbes in the environment. That was a Ministry of Environment project at the AIST, the Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. That is another federal institute.

BMR: The one in Tsukuba?

YM: Yes. There, I was hired as a postdoc to dedicatedly do that project. Actually, that was pretty much a fortunate thing for me, I could learn many of the genetic engineering during my postdoc. I learned that kind of techniques. Those were great days, and I could satisfy my desire to manipulate microbes by genetic engineering, at that time. So, I could introduce unique functions like, let’s say, having the green fluorescence by the green fluorescent protein or something. And also, I could do something like mark the gene, an artificially modified gene, which is introduced in the [?] or such target cells. So, pretty much satisfying but, I also felt something like, environmental tracing is important of course, but it’s not quite practically applicable. Tracking was thought to be important, I agree. But before that, prevention to escape from the laboratory is the primary importance. So, as a secondary measure, such kind of the environmental tracing was created as a project.

Even though I pretty much enjoyed genetic engineering, and also publishing about that, I felt something different at the time of my postdoc position. And after two years of my postdoc research, I got a call from the JAMSTEC people to join the team in Kochi.

BMR: What did you know before about JAMSTEC? Was there any relationship prior to that?

YM: Actually, yes. In my master course, I came to JAMSTEC for doing experiments. At that time, (Ken) Takai-san and (Fumio) Inagaki-san were there, and they were doing something like a cutting-edge genetic analysis experiment. My supervisor at graduate school contacted them and wanted to do experiments. I went there to do something like microbial community analysis at JAMSTEC. That was my first contact with JAMSTEC. And, after a while, during my PhD course, I didn’t have any connection to JAMSTEC, even at the time of my postdoc days. But one day, Takai-san visited our laboratory in AIST, and he got to know I’m there. That was kind of my great opportunity to obtain that chance to be part of JAMSTEC.

BMRL What interested you about being part of JAMSTEC? I understand that a microbiologist working on environmental samples can work in a wide range of institutional fields. Why JAMSTEC?

YM: At that time, before JAMSTEC, I didn’t have any interest on the ocean research. I just felt like this is far beyond my field of research. But after a while, I started to feel the limitations of the microbial engineering field. If I do something, someone else is doing it in a much more sophisticated way. It is very hard to do something new in microbial engineering field, I thought at that time. Then, after having a call from JAMSTEC people, I felt like being part of JAMSTEC could change my research life. I may be able to write high-impact papers when I join JAMSTEC because the sample is unique and, not quite engineering, but I may be able to explore something new. So, that was my feeling.

BMR: Was there someone in JAMSTEC who could mentor you in the field?

YM: Yeah, at the time Inagaki-san was a mentor for me. He was my supervisor, and he was great. [It was great] having time with him, because he could introduce me to the field of microbial research in the sub-seafloor environment. And also, what is known and what is not known, and what needs to be developed as a field of the sciences. So, that was quite nice stuff, that I could gain.

BMR: That’s very interesting, especially to understand how different research fields have progressively incorporated into scientific ocean drilling. So, how did you learn about scientific ocean drilling for the first time?

YM: Actually, after getting into JAMSTEC, my job or my target set as researcher was doing sub-seafloor microbiological research. So, naturally, IODP or scientific ocean drilling is the field that I seek. I didn’t have any other candidate or choice, to be part in. Yeah, I didn’t have any choice.

BMR: I was thinking in the timeline. Was this field of microbiology introduced in JAMSTEC because Chikyu was being developed, or just developed? Is there any relationship there?

YM: I think so. Before that, of course, some researchers in JAMSTEC had already an interest in scientific ocean drilling, and some people had joined the ODP expeditions. Not only single people, but multiple people had joined those expeditions. So, before Chikyu was built, some sort of microbiology research in scientific ocean drilling in Japan had already started. But Chikyu further accelerated that movement towards a more developed stage.

BMR: What was the state of the field of deep sea geomicrobiology when you first started?

YM: When I first started… That was not quite beginning stage of the sub-seafloor microbiology research, but it started late-eighties or beginning of the 90s. The deep sub-seafloor microbial research started, and after a while, famous professor John Parkes published in a Nature paper that abundant microbes are present in deep sub-seafloor sediments. And he revealed that the existence of microbes in sub-seafloor environments is not quite unique of some locations, but everywhere on the planet.

That stimulated that research worldwide and, after that, many of the scientist got interested in that field and started to research. At that time, I joined JAMSTEC. There was also continuing research going, and some researchers did wonderful experiments for probing the living status of the microbes in deep sub-seafloor environment. So, existence was probed, and living status was explored. And, what else? What will be coming? That was the state of microbiology research at that time I joined JAMSTEC.

BMR: Following up with what you just said, if someone asks you – and I’m sure someone has asked you this, at some point – why is it important to look at microbes in the sub-seafloor, what would you say?

YM: I would say – difficult question, actually. Practically, there’s no human living in sub-seafloor environment. The sub-seafloor environment is far from our living environment. So, not quite direct relation to human life exists, to microbes living in sub-seafloor environment. But they are so abundant – roughly one third of the living biomass, microbial biomass on Earth, so we need to know why they are there, and what the function of the microbes living in sub-seafloor environment are. That could provide something like a missing linking information of the elemental cycle of the entire Earth.

And also, we can of course reach to the a very extreme environment on Earth by drilling into deep sub-seafloor. Then, we can challenge the limit of the life, and maybe the history of the life, as well. So, scientifically very interesting, and as life, it is also interesting, and global elemental cycle. Something like a practical future is also interesting. Sub-seafloor environment is full of interesting things.

BMR: I agree. (both laugh)

YM: Thank you.

BMR: Then, you entered in this world, so to speak, of scientific ocean drilling. How was it like for you, to introduce in a scientific community that was mostly doing other things with sediments? A community that normally has very tight relationships – so, most of the people gets introduced because a professor or a supervisor was already there, and they share the data, the research topics… But you came in from a totally different field.

YM: That’s interesting question. Actually, having Inagaki-san as a supervisor was very helpful for getting into this field because he had already established some kind of connection to international researchers. So, I could be connected with those kinds of people by the help of Inagaki-san. That was a great thing I could have.

On the other hand, I found some challenging stuff, as well, when I got into this field, because it was still at the beginning stage. Not quite very beginning, but something like a beginning of the growing stage of the microbiology, at that time. So, some kind of technical method had not been well established. One day, I was looking through the microscope and I tried to stain microbial DNA inside of a cell, and I was wondering which one should be counted as microbes. I asked Inagaki-san which ones should be counted as microbes. He answered me that maybe all of them. And he was actually wrong, but I did the counting, and the result was unexpectedly high. And that caused many of the problems, afterwards. So, that was something like… My trauma (laughs). Like this stuff. I might have to solve that kind of problem before it occurs again. So then, I was rather focusing on how well we can do experiments without having such false positive problems.

BMR: Do you mean that onboard there were some technological limitations, and also the methodology was not well standardized? Or do you mean in general, working also on land?

YM: In general.

BMR: So, the field was starting to bloom but still there were some methodological procedures that were not well standardized. So, on top of doing your research on the samples, you needed to develop the way to do it in a homogeneous way.

YM: And also, we can refer, or I can get information of what the previous person did for that paper. But it was not quite… I won’t say useful, but it’s quite difficult to reproduce their experiments, actually. And, when I even look at the microscope, at the samples, which are prepared according to the previous person’s protocol, I don’t have any good guidance. Which one need to be counted, the microbes? Or which one should be from the microbial signal?

So, one day, I tried to compare the count of the microbes with other colleague researchers – I think three of us tried to do that – and there was 100 times of a deviation. Only three people. So, it was a nightmare. We cannot do any science from that, I thought. So then, I tried to solve that problem. And actually, fortunately, I could find some good way to count or recognize microbes without having such a high deviation. And I’m still using that basic principle for my current research. So, yeah, finding that was pretty much great treasure I could find at the beginning of my research life.

BMR: Were you also interacting with the community of microbiologists, outside IODP? How have you been mediating all this time between both communities?

YM: Yes. I’m actually belonging to the microbial ecology field of scientists. And also, at the beginning of my career in JAMSTEC, I joined several other Japanese communities of scientists. I could exchange information, or thoughts, or experiences with that people. But, because the samples and the handling of samples was so unique, not so much help was gained from that kind of communication.

BMR: How does the microbiology community value sub-seafloor research, in sediments? And how this perception has evolved – if it has changed?

YM: As entire microbial ecology field, sub-seafloor biosphere is regarded as some kind of extreme environment. Exploring this extreme is kind of the benefit for the entire microbial ecology. But, you know, let’s say the center of microbiology research is not quite the extreme environments, but something like human-related microbiology or, in terms of microbial ecology, soil, ocean, or such kind of big fields of microbiological environment. That’s quite the center. So, something like that, as mood in the society, have been there. And still, I’m feeling something like that.

BMR: I understand that they are interested, as something like a curiosity or a field with a lot of potential, but not enough potential as to attract a big portion of the community into scientific ocean drilling.

YM: Yeah, mainly yes. And sometimes, no. Some researchers want to collaborate with us. So, they got interested in the sub-seafloor field – like, sometimes I got contacted from pharmaceutical companies trying to find some good candidate compound from the sub-seafloor samples. But now, the pharmaceutical trend is not quite a natural compound science, but engineered compound science. So, they don’t do that anymore. And other microbial researcher got interested in sub-seafloor sediments for isolating unknown microbes. But it takes a long, long time, because the sub-seafloor environment is such a nutrient poor condition that it is very, very difficult to even grow microbes. So, that is not going so well. So, as a part of other scientists’ projects, sub-seafloor sediment is not quite good stuff they could have.

BMR: And talking about communities, I would like to ask you about the IODP community, the community of scientists. I have the feeling, and maybe I’m wrong (both laugh) that, at least during the first IODP expeditions that had some microbiology component, it was sort of a secondary goal.

YM: Yes.

BMR: Microbiology kind of piggybacked into geological proposals; except for two full microbiology-focused expeditions?

YM: Maybe a little bit more.

BMR: Oh, okay. So, I’d like to ask you about how does it work, this process of interacting with the IODP community, and introducing microbiology goals into a group of people that is focusing on the geological side of things?

YM: That is also good point. Actually, what was necessary to initiate microbial research in the sub-seafloor microbiological field, the only way was piggybacking. Because, without that, we – not we, at that time, the scientists – didn’t have any opportunity to join a drilling cruise. So, piggybacking was the only chance to get sub-seafloor samples.

That was at the beginning. After a while, after the discovery of the sub-seafloor microbiology, which is very abundant – an abundant but not known misery of the life – then a microbiology-dedicated drilling research project was proposed and getting to the ODP system. And, the first microbiology dedicated expedition occurred.

But at that time, I think, something like coordination… Or because of the technical developments, or something like… It’s a little bit difficult to explain, but because it was the beginning stage of the field’s development, some kind of over-sampling happened.

BMR: Do you mean, getting more samples than you need?

YM: Or, let’s say that now we can do research with less amount of the sample, or a shorter centimeter of the whole round core, because of the technical developments. But, at that time, people usually thought that more sample will be necessary to produce reliable data, including testing of techniques. So, such intensive sampling occurred, and that created pretty much of a conflict with the people who is interested in continuous record of the sediment. Along the discussion, there has been kind of a compromise. They got into a compromise scenario in that, let’s drill 3 holes, and 2 or 2,5 can be used for constructing a continuous record, and one hole may be dedicated for microbiology sampling and geochemistry.

So, that kind of compromise scenario could solve some kind of conflict; but still, there have been another kind of conflicts because not always a three-hole scenario can be applied in every drilling. So, in the case that only a single hole is available, and if the microbiologists want to have a hole-round core to do this critically continuous record, what people can do for that?

And also, in the case of microbiology, they can produce some kind of data but it is regarding the life living in there. And this is not quite a thing that all of the scientists in the other fields got interested in. So, there is also another conflict of interests. Those kinds of stuff created difficulties for microbiology getting into the scientific ocean drilling. But continuous discussions and the understanding of the people hanging around the scientific ocean drilling to microbiology opened the opportunity for microbiologists to get more samples in a wider range of expeditions. So then, we can have better chance.

BMR: Have you been involved in all the IODP expeditions that had the microbiology component?

YM: It’s impossible (laughs)

BMR: Okay, okay, because I’ve counted (laughs) and you’ve been in six, as far as I know.

YM: Yeah.

BMR: And I realized that two of them were the ones on Chikyu exclusively focused on microbiology, and the others were on the JR and MSP, and had a big component of microbiology. Was you proponent of any of those expeditions?

YM: No… I don’t think so. I just joined as onboard scientists. Sending the proposal to IODP, and I got the position to be part of the onboard scientists.

BMR: Why is it interesting for you to explore the microbial world of such a wide range of geographical environments?

YM: First, obtaining new samples could give you new ideas for understanding of the sub-seafloor environment. That is the first thing. And the other will be that by having the variation of the environment, we can know better about the life in sub-seafloor environment.

Actually, one of the expeditions I got on board was to drill rocks. So, not quite only the sediment, but rocks. In such a different environment, microbial analysis can be done. And because I got some good technique to find the microbes from the environmental samples, I wanted to have a field to apply my techniques to better find microbial life at that environment.

BMR: Talking about expeditions, let me go a bit back in time in your career. What was your first expedition, and why did you apply? And how was the experience of being aboard?

YM: My first expedition of IODP or scientific ocean drilling was Expedition IODP 329. That was a microbiology-oriented cruise in the center of the Pacific Ocean. At that time, my supervisor Inagaki-san was one of the co-chief scientists. The other was Steven D’Hondt, who is a US-based researcher in geomicrobiology. Why I submit a proposal is – based on the recommendation by Inagaki-san, that’s the first point, and the other will be finding life in one of the very limited… It is a very challenging environment for life, because of the nutrient scarcity. So, finding life out there, itself, could be very interesting stuff. And could be very impressive results for the field of geo-microbiology in sub-seafloor research. That’s the reason why I submitted the proposal.

BMR: Was this your first international collaboration?

YM: Yes. Ah! It was my first time in an expedition, but before that, because of the connection of Inagaki-san to international researchers, I already had international collaboration with other scientists in other countries.

BMR: Is there something remarkable, or fun, or depressing (both laugh), or stressful that you particularly remember about that first time aboard?

YM: The first time onboard was pretty tough and stressful. Actually, I didn’t enjoy it (laughs). Because my supervisor was there and I needed to work as long as I can. So, I didn’t take any long rest during all of the onboard time. That was a pretty challenging experience for me. Actually, at that time, I had a two-year old boy, so I wanted to be at home with him, but I joined. Of course, it is very important for my scientific career; no doubt. But personally, I wanted to be at home but I was onboard. And also, I spent very, very long time in a cold storage space for preparing my incubation. The temperature there was something like 4 to 8 degrees Celsius. And I didn’t bring a thermal insulated mug. I just had ceramic, regular mug cup. So, when I brought hot coffee into that room, 30 minutes later, that got cold coffee (laughs). I also had something like thick clothes, but that was not quite enough to spend, let’s say, six to eight hours in there. So, it was very tough memory but… Yeah, tough (laughs).

BMR: But you went back! Not one, but five more times (both laugh), so there was something good in there!

YM: Yes, yes, yes; of course. Good point (laughs). Why I got onboard again, and again, and again…? So maybe, even though it was a very challenging experience, and it was tough and away from my ordinary daily life, collaboration and the work with international colleagues was quite interesting and stimulating. So, yeah, I could have very good memories as well. You know, people remember the tough parts first. The good part is easy to be gone – maybe because of that.

BMR: We have about fifteen more minutes left. Is there something in particular you would like to talk about? Any specific expedition, or any topic you think it’s important to focus on?

YM: I’d like to speak about the future and also something like… Encouraging the coming students. What I’m interested in right now is to explore the limits of the biosphere in sub-seafloor environment, which has not been reached yet. So, every time we drill, every depth we drill, we find microbial life. That is kind of the endless story. But – there must be an end, somewhere in the depths of the sub-seafloor environment. And where is that? Is my current question. And what environmental factor, critically constrains the existence of the life. No one have ever reached that condition. That it’s kind of one of the goals in my career as a scientist. To reach that, the microbiological aspect is not quite the perfect thing to tackle that question. So, something like a combination with geochemistry, and also other fields of sciences is quite necessary to precisely define the life limiting condition in high reliability, let’s say. Because we have a limitation of detecting microbes. So, current technology cannot detect anything below, let’s say, one cell per cubic centimeter. It is impossible for us to detect lower. If you have one cell per 10 cubic centimeters, or if we have one cell per cubic meter, that should be regarded as a still a biosphere. But we cannot detect. So, nonexistence cannot be proven by any of the observationally approaches. So, we need to have something else. For that, something like a geochemical profile, or thermal profile, or profile of every kind of the aspect of the sub-seafloor will change along the depth to get our basic microbial abundance. Then, a continuation or an extrapolating work will be necessary. So, something like a combination of simulation and other geological aspects; some kind of integration will be necessary. It is kind of the hard job, but it will be very interesting to look for the limit of the biosphere. That is one of the stuff I want to do.

The other is, along that profile of the changing environment, I want to know the history or trace of the evolution of microbial life, because sediment continuously evolves along the time. And if the sediment can work as a cage for the microbes, then, microbes cannot move from its closed, original position, but environmental factors will change. To survive, what will happen? They need to adapt to a new environment. So, some kind of evolution will be necessary. Even though they are nutritionally very challenging, they need to adapt or they will die. So, finding microbes survive at that environment should contain some kind of historical context for their survival. To get information on how they could survive, and how did they evolve, is another interesting stuff. Without the sub-seafloor sedimentary environment, we cannot do that, because other environments have a drastic change of environmental conditions, including migration of the microbes. We cannot trace the history of evolution or environmental change. The sub-seafloor sediment is quite unique environment to look for, and we have many of the experimental chambers having the experimental time or duration continued for geological time scale. So, very long time of the history is hidden in the sub-seafloor environment, which is very unique and interesting.

BMR: If you could choose one thing for the future of scientific ocean drilling…

YM: One? No! (laughs)

BMR Then let’s say three (both laugh) for the future of scientific ocean drilling, what would you like to see?

YM: I mean, just in continuation of the current system of scientific ocean drilling will be good to achieve such an goal, because international scientific ocean drilling is such an established and well-organized, coordinated structure, having international scientists worldwide. So, any other program has such a great collaborative system, I think.

But unfortunately, current situation has changed a little bit towards a different direction. But, still, we have communities of international researchers, and we still are having a connection, to have discussions worldwide. And we can frame our scientific goals through the international collaboration. So, by continuing that, I’m sure that the goal of my research target will be fulfilled. And, I’m now thinking or I’m now working on creating the scientific ocean drilling research proposal, submitted to IODP³, together with international researchers. That is my main target and, by having a drilling expedition, my interest on the evolutionary part could also be fulfilled.

BMR: For that, is it necessary for the community of microbiologists to have dedicated expeditions for microbiology? Or is it already sufficient to combine microbiological goals with other geological targets?

YM: That is also good question. Actually, thinking about current situation of the scientific ocean drilling, we do need to have multiple goals. One of the main goals could be microbiology, but we need to incorporate other fields of research interested in that drilling. And we are now looking for that kind of aspect. Something like paleoenvironmental aspect, or geochemistry… We have already identified several of these, but we need to enlarge or make it broader interest to every field of the sciences.

BMR: Great. Let me finish with one last question. What is the most valuable thing, or most rewarding, you’ve got from your relation to scientific ocean drilling?

YM: That is… international friendship, maybe. This is quite unique. I realized it more after having discussions or conversations with Japanese scientists, that they usually don’t have such opportunities to communicate or collaborate so intensively with international scientists. For us, it’s kind of the normal stuff. After getting on board in one of the expeditions, sharing two months of the time together in the ship, can create very strong friendships. And even after getting off the ship we can communicate. Or even after, let’s say, like a few years of the termination of the communication, even after that, we can communicate easily – email or something else. And we reactivate such a communication.

So, having the two months experience together, it’s such a strong establishment of the communication, like, human relationships, and I think that’s very unique and very rewarding. And a precious thing I could have from the scientific ocean drilling.

I do like many of the students, also have such kind of experience, and hopefully continue in the scientific ocean drilling field in the future.

BMR: Yeah, hopefully. Well, thank you very much. It was really great. Is there something you would like to add that I have not asked you, or you wanted to mention?

YM: If I could, the Core School, I want to mention.

BMR: Sure.

YM: Now we are making a call for a second time of JDESC Core School, Deep Life Cores, where we disclose every secret of our microbial detection to attendees or participants. That is open to everyone who is interested in, or also students or some kind of worker… not quite restricted to researchers, but everyone who got interested in that aspect is welcome.

And why we do that is to remove technical barriers to get into sub-seafloor microbiology or that kind of science. As I said, it is quite a barrier for a beginner to touch the sample, and I’d like to have those kinds of people get the experience to touch the real sample, and try to look at the sample and experience how well people can recognize microbial cells in the sample.

And, with that, although there are many microbiologists worldwide, but not quite so many people are hanging around in such kind of the environmental sampling, or environmental microbiology field. So, I’d like people to get involved or join that kind of interesting field of the science in the future.

BMR: I think it’s a great opportunity to get into the field. Is this happening in Kochi?

YM: Yes, this summer.

BMR: let’s do something to spread the word. Well, thank you.

YM: Thank you.