THE world’s most technologically advanced exploration ship sails today on a mission that may reveal the origin of life on Earth.
The Japanese ship Chikyu intends to drill seven kilometres (4.3 miles) below the sea bed — more than three times deeper than has been done before. It will then raise to the surface a cylinder 1.5m (5ft) long and 15cm wide which could contain science’s first glimpse of a “living” sample of the Earth’s mantle.
