› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 19 Total Comments Show All

• 

  borscht at 09:00 AM JST - 9th October

  rjd_jr, While it takes a lot of dedication, sacrifice, and hard work (or luck) to get the Nobel Peace Prize, these people won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. In either case, congratulations to all the recipients.

  Dogdog, two of the physics professors do their work in Japan; the American does his in America. However, one Japanese Nobel winner (Tonegawa? - Physiology or Medicine 1987) has said that he couldn't have done his research in Japan because most researchers spend their time waiting for their lead professor to die so they can do original research.

• 

  browny1 at 09:11 AM JST - 9th October

  Congratulations. It's always great to see good science(ists) get kudos instead of politicians, movie"stars", ball hitters and the like.

  But the media here seems to misunderstand what the Nobel Prize is. It is not a competition. It definitely is not the olympics of academia. There is no first over the line winner.

  It is an AWARD for brilliant insight and discovery achieved over years of work and dedication - and in the case of sciences it's is usually the result of great work by a team. And the recipients usually always acknowledge that.

  The Japanese media does itself a dis-service(as do those who glorify it) by not reporting regularly on the great efforts of it's and other countries citizens who contribute so positively to the world.

  Just reporting when it suits them to give the recipients the "pop-star" treatment, reflects on their immature level of cognition.

• 

  timeon at 09:40 AM JST - 9th October

  Dogdog, Borscht, things depend a lot on your professor. Japan has the European system (full professor, associate, lecturer, assistant), so your research money and students are guaranteed, but your freedom depends on how wise is the professor. And many guys nowadays give a lot of freedom to their staff. Moreover, more and more guys become professors at a young age (two of my collaborators 36 and 37 years old). There are many reasons why research in Japan doesn't lead to Nobel prize. First you need great advertising power to push your work, that means you need good English skills, oratorical skills and charisma. Second, to get a grant in US you need a "target-orientated" project, and that makes the research more competitive an of higher impact. Third, you need "fighting skills". Many discoveries were initially make experimentally by Japanese, but they lacked the fighting spirit to impose a completely new theory upon the world. And there are many others, but I have to go cheer up my prof, he's crying over not being chosen this year. again :)

• 

  romulus3 at 09:51 AM JST - 9th October

  Aso told reporters. “It’s really good.”

  great Orator that Aso.

• 

  Richard_the_First at 10:01 AM JST - 9th October

  I too thought the the media attention was OTT.

• 

  imacat at 10:04 AM JST - 9th October

  Very sad to see Masukawa making a big deal about how he hates English, hates travelling abroad, sees himself as a Japanese "national treasure that never leaves Japan", refuses all invitations to conferences abroad, wants the rest of the world to read his papers in Japanese(!) etc.

  This kind of petty nonsense is not in the spirit of a quest for higher knowledge, that might well benefit from international cooperation.

  They are hardly the type of comments one expects from a Nobel Laureate.

  He seems like a typical stubborn nationalistic ojisan. Many people might infer that he hates foreigners from these remarks.

  I wonder if he'll be prepared to lower himself enough to grace the Nobel awards ceremony with his presence.

• 

  neverknow2 at 10:06 AM JST - 9th October

  Japan’s haul of Nobel prizes- I think that is a misprint, It should say American ctizens' haul of Nobel Prizes.

• 

  bamboohat at 10:06 AM JST - 9th October

  I thought there were three Japanese and one Japanese born American who won the Nobel? Making it three japanese and one american? What does Aso mean when he says "four Japanese"? If you become an american citizen, are you still considered a citizen of japan?

  And another question, if the Nobel prize goes to the smartest dudes, who chooses among all the smart dudes who is the smartest, yet an even smarter dude? What exactly are the credentials of the nobel committee? If they get voted onto the committee, what are those voting dudes credentials. This whole shebang sounds kind of fishy to me.....

  All I know is those dudes are, like, way smarter than me, boy howdy. Fractionated structure of reality and all, my goodness.

• 

  seesaw at 11:08 AM JST - 9th October

  Bravo! I'm so proud of the 4 of them!

• 

  JackDorff at 11:18 AM JST - 9th October

  Wow - 4 Japanese getting the gong in the same year.

  I guess this means they can get the Japanese media roadshow over and done with in one go, rather than have them visiting, and annoying everyone, every other year.
  The Nobel hierarchy are indeed clever.

• 

  thepro at 12:57 PM JST - 9th October

  Science will be the new boom of the month. Remember when that skater doing the ina bauer was on TV ever day for weeks and weeks?

• 

  borscht at 01:31 PM JST - 9th October

  thepro,

  Yeah, but normal people can pretend to be ice skating like an Olympian but very few can think like Nobel prizewinner. Still, Tanaka (Chemistry, 2002) was on air for quite awhile, but then he was a unique individual in many ways.

• 

  timeon at 03:25 PM JST - 9th October

  bamboohat, the prize doesn't go to the smartest dude, there are IQ tests and TV puzzle shows for that. being smart is a necessary conditions, but there are tens of thousands of bright scientists around

• 

  Samuraiiki at 03:57 PM JST - 9th October

  I hope to see some kind of work in the area of human relations.

• 

  escape_artist at 04:57 PM JST - 9th October

  When Japanese people say "Japanese", I think they almost always are referring to it in a racial or ethnic sense, not in terms of citizenship. This is the mindset that Aso's comments come from.

Register or Login to leave a comment