生命史研究の潮流

抄録

Current trends in research on history of life are briefly reviewed. Since the 1990s study on deep past focusing on early life on Earth and Mars has become popular. This trend often called astrobiology will be a main stream in earth science in this century because it involves the latest human issues, such as global environment, energy, food, world population, and search for habitable planets outside the solar system, in addition to conventional studies on the evolution of Earth and life. Studies on chemofossils of nanometric scale and on geochemical proxies for evaluating paleoenvironments will be the most important targets in this research field. Inevitable in Japan are overhaul of the current domestic-oriented atmosphere in the geological community and deployment of a new research style under a long-term scope.