Because NHK TV recently made a documentary reviewing Japan's 30 years of scientific achievements, the youngest Nobel Prize winner in Japan, Tanaka Koichi became popular again.
In China, the story of his winning of the Nobel Prize was packaged as a counterattack of a poor student. The general rendering is as follows:
He was an adopted son, and his mother died shortly after he was born; he had no talent since he was a child, and failed in undergraduate studies. Later, he had no money to study for graduate school, so he went to an ordinary Japanese company to work as an employee;
He accidentally made a mistake in his experiments one day, and posted a paper in the wrong way. One or two decades later, he was still an ordinary worker, suddenly received a call informing him that he had won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He appeared under the flash in his work uniform. It turned out that the company that only gave him a reward of 10,000 yen. The boss rushed back from another place quickly, and added a bonus of 100 million yen, and set up a special laboratory for him. Of course, a large number of flowers and honors came one after another.
The whole process looked like a drama, and it seemed that the Nobel Prize suddenly fell from the sky and hit a Japanese Erlenzi .
I have to say that the domestic version of Tanaka's Nobel Prize rendering story basically meets all the key elements of public fantasy. You see, the other person's grades are so poor and he is doing so miserably, and he can still win the Nobel Prize. What a great black humorous story that can give those who do not study hard and are eager to get something for nothing.
But if you have read Tanaka's autobiography - "The Most Awesome Failure", it is not difficult to find that even Tanaka himself may not agree with this kind of fantasy in China. Any success must be behind it that ordinary people may not see. There has never been a pie in the sky that falls in vain, and the same is true for him.
Rendering 1: I haven’t had talent since I was a child, but failed in college?
Tanaka Koichi is from Toyama Prefecture in central Japan. In his self-report, he said that he had been living in Toyama before he was 18 years old.
He recalled his experience in school in Toyama. Judging from his memories of this experience, it actually conveyed a very obvious signal, that is, he loves to do experiments and has strong hands-on skills. He has a habit since he was a child. Until he did the experiment that eventually led to the Nobel Prize, it was actually a lineage, not that he was really a talented student.
This is also what impressed Tanaka's teachers and classmates. He said this:
"When I was in junior high school and high school, classmates from the same level often said to me: 'Tanaka, when you were in experimental classes, why did you always do some experiments that were different from the content of the textbooks!' The reason they said this is entirely because I was developed in elementary school and could freely exert my imagination. Whether I went to junior high school or high school later, I always wanted to try to do some textbooks. What kind of experiments are beyond the content? The students discovered my characteristics so accurately. I really want to thank them. "
" The characteristics of like to do experiments are constantly like this in college, and now it is the same. There is no way, I just like it. Because I have done it myself, the results of the experiment will immediately appear in front of me." Tanaka also said, "I have liked to assemble or make all kinds of things since I was a child. The first time I assembled the radio was about ten years old."
Later, Tanaka was admitted to university. When he chose which university to apply for in high school, he said that his teacher's advice was to apply for , Kyoto University, and universities included in his application scope were also universities with active research atmosphere and high social evaluations. After he went to Sendai for on-site inspection, he finally chose Northeastern University .
From this passage of his self-report, we can see that during the college entrance examination, he had already determined his career, that is, doing research, and his direction was electronic engineering. If you have any understanding of the two universities he mentioned at that time, you will basically be clear that his college entrance examination scores are not bad.
Whether it is Kyoto University or Tohoku University, they are ranked in the top 100 in the world. Not only will Tanaka apply for the exam, but the latest rankings are the same.According to the 2019 world university rankings released by the British education organization Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Kyoto University ranks 35th in the world, second in Japan, and fifth in the world, Tohoku University ranks 77th in the world, and fifth in Japan.
versus the 2019 rankings of domestic universities, there are only 5 before Tianzhong’s alma mater, Northeastern University, namely Tsinghua University , Peking University , Fudan University , Shanghai Jiaotong University and Zhejiang University. Therefore, when Tianzhong went to university, he was not an ordinary student, but an absolute top student.
As for failing colleges, they may be a bit different from those who fail online games in some universities. The main business of failing colleges is often a bit different. There is indeed one in Tianaka that is like this, but it is not the main business of "electronics engineering" he learned, but German. The Japanese English is enough, let alone German. Tanaka later stayed in the grade for a year, but he was still studying professional knowledge.
Tian Nakakoichi said this:
"Because I didn't get enough German credits in the education course, I had to stay for one year. However, during this period, my emotions changed a lot, and I also devoted myself to the study of professional knowledge in advance. Professional courses such as circuits are particularly interesting, and I am very enthusiastic when I learn it." It is not easy for me to get into the top 100 engineering universities in the world, and students after entering will generally receive very rigorous scientific research and academic training. From Tanaka's self-report, it can be seen that he was indeed devoted to it. This kind of rigorous training at the university is also related to his later award-winning research. The so-called failure of the subject is not the kind of useless thing some people understand.
Rendering 2: Just an ordinary company employee?
: After graduating from Tanaka University, he initially chose a home appliance company related to electronic engineering, but they all failed. He said himself: "Maybe it was because he lacked self-confidence that the interview failed."
Later, his teacher Anda introduced him to his current unit, Shimazu Production Institute . He actually wanted to work in the medical department of this production center because it could match his college feelings - "Maybe because of my mother's experience of dying from postpartum, I always seem to have a feeling of cherishing my life and health and willing to contribute to the medical industry in any way. This feeling started from the university, but it can also be said that it was formed naturally."
was not assigned to the medical department later, but went to the Central Research Institute, which focused on the development and development of new technologies with more medium and long-term benefits. At first, he was somewhat disappointed, but later he found out that what he had to do from morning to night was his favorite experimental work. "This made me fall in love with the Central Research Institute in a flash," said Tanaka.
How should I say Shimazu Production Company?
It is not an ordinary company, but an old Japanese basic scientific research company that produces high-tech products, and is a multinational enterprise. It's quite awesome when you look at its official website information.
It was established 20 years ago when the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 was launched, that is, in 1875. The purpose at that time was to "contribute to the society with science and technology". To this day, it has its own top high-tech products in the fields of analytical and testing instruments, medical instruments, and aviation industry machinery, and is quite competitive around the world. Currently, it has 60 branches, more than 30 overseas institutions, and more than 200 agents around the world.
When Tanaka first came to the company, the project he assigned to him was to develop a quality analyzer, that is, to use lasers to measure the weight of metals, semiconductors and organic compounds molecules.
As mentioned earlier, Tanaka especially likes to do experiments. He quickly entered the state of various measurement experiments that had been in Shimazu thousands of times and used lasers to do experiments thousands of times. He said, "I like to do it very much, and I am happy with it."
, who finally won the Nobel Prize, discovered that "measures the mass of biological macromolecules" in the second year he entered the company. In February 1985, he measured the mass of a large molecule like a protein for the first time.
After this breakthrough discovery, both Tanaka and Shimazu Productions did not just publish a paper, but did a lot of work.
Tanaka also said in his self-report, "In Japan, there are many engineers in the same situation as me, at least more than 100,000 people, and my company alone has more than 2,000 people." This reminds people of Huawei, a company that does basic research and development and the backbone of the engineer team is really not an ordinary company.
Rendering 3: Only a reward of 10,000 yen?
Tanaka said that Shimadzu decided to productize the technology they developed, that is, to use this technology to develop a mass spectrometer.
In 1988, using the discovery of Tanaka, the mass spectrometer (LAMS-50K) was launched on the market, with a single unit priced at 50 million yen. But no one bought this kind of sky-high-priced instrument in Japan, and later it was promoted and promoted internationally. Until 1989, Mr. Terry from an American research institute bought one of their instruments.
"The mass spectrometer sold to Mr. Telly was both the first and the last one, and no one has ever bought it since then. Soon, the instrument had to be stopped selling," Tanaka said.
can be seen that the instrument developed based on Tanaka's discovery did not bring 100 million yen profits to Shimazu Production, but only sold a 50 million yen instrument. Although the
machine did not sell for a lot of money, his discovery applied for a patent in a timely manner. Tanaka recalled that it was in August 1985, and until June 1993, the patent was approved in Japan. "Part of the reason for applying for patents is the importance foreign countries attaches importance to patents. If a technology does not have a patent, its value will be greatly reduced."
Tanaka said that Shimazu Production gave him about 10,000 yen to apply for and register a patent. "Although the patent reward is not high, given my contribution in sales and technology, the company has received many commendations, and the total bonus is hundreds of thousands of yen."
So, when one product is sold, Shimazu company is still quite good to Tanaka, which is completely different from the outside world's imagination and fabrication.
After all, it is a scientific research company. It is productized and patent application. At the same time, "the company discussed whether the instruments we developed should be productized. After this discussion, the company believed that 'it can be announced to the outside world'." In May 1987, a five-person group of Tanaka was in published the paper they found at the Japan Quality Analysis Joint Symposium.
Because of the timely publication, Tanaka and another colleague Kaichi Yoshida received a reward from the Japan Quality Analysis Society in 1989, which is also the highest reward in the Japanese industry. "It has made people feel honored, but this is only in Japan, and our achievements have not received the attention they deserve."
But Tanaka's discovery has been valued by the Western world.
was the year he published his paper. In September 1987, he went to Takatsuka City, Hyogo Prefecture alone to attend the Japan-China joint quality analysis seminar. His findings were published in English and also included data on the research results. At this seminar, he debated Robert J. Coott, an authoritative figure in the quality analysis industry of Johns Hopkins University in the United States, and attracted Kuott's attention to his new discoveries. In this way, his research was known to the Western research community.
At the strong request of Professor Takeki Matsuo from Osaka University, Tanaka wrote another paper on his research results in English, and published it in the British academic journal "Mass Spectrometry News" in August 1988.
This process is called "the paper publishing that wins thousands of miles away."
Of course, if Shimazu Company had not applied for a patent in time and the repeated discussion of the paper later, the Nobel Prize might have missed Tanaka, so this is still inseparable from hard work. If it weren't for the academic literacy that Tanaka had developed in college, it would probably be more difficult to write a paper, but it was written in English and published.
Rendering 4: A Nobel Prize fell from the sky? More than a decade later after the paper was published, in 2002, Koichi Tanaka was told to have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Why is it Kazuichi Tanaka, rather than other academic figures who are more prestigious in the international academic circle? Is this Nobel Prize really just a component of luck? In Tanaka's self-report, he also gave a negative answer. He said this:
"I mentioned earlier that I also had questions about my award. One of the reasons is, 'Why is it not Mr. Hillenkamp and Mr. Carlas who won the award, but I, I, I, Kyoichi,?'"
"For this reason, I asked many researchers. From the conversation with them, I think it may be such reasons that I was selected as the winner."
"When Mr. Hillenkamp and Mr. Carlas published their name "MALDI" in 1985, the molecular weight that could be measured was only below 2,000, which is fundamentally different from our method. Use two Mr. Yi’s original method, macromolecules with molecular weight of more than 10,000 like proteins cannot be measured at all. As for our method, since its discovery in 1985, we can measure protein molecules with a maximum molecular weight of 35,000. That is to say, our method is the earliest method to measure protein mass. "
" There is another reason, which is a bit complicated to say. "
" Mr. Hillenkamp and Mr. Carras published the earliest time when they could measure protein macromolecules in October 1988, which was two months after our paper was published in the British professional journal. Their paper was published in the American academic journal "Analytical Chemistry". In this article, Laser Desorption Ionization of Proteins with Masses Exceeding 10000 In the paper by Daltons (using laser analytical ionization technology to measure proteins with molecular weight of more than 10,000), they announced that the ionization experiments conducted without destroying proteins with molecular weight of more than 66,000 were successful. "
" In terms of submission, this paper was a month earlier than our paper published in Mass Spectrometry News. But the publication date is different. Our paper was published on June 6, 1988, and their July 5th. "
" When the European and American academic circles judge who was the earliest inventor , generally based on the publication of English papers. Therefore, although we published papers in 1987 at the Japan Society and the Joint Quality Analysis Conference on Quality Analysis in China, this does not count. The order of the papers is to look at the date of submission and publication of the papers, so the question of which side of our paper and Mr. Hillenkamp and their papers is now subtle. If we only look at the time, it is not surprising that Mr. Hillenkamp and Mr. Carras were pioneers of 'using lasers for ionization of protein molecules'. "
" Then, why did the winner fall on me? I guess it is because in the 1988 papers by Mr. Hillenkamp and Mr. Carras clearly recorded the line of words "referred to the content published by Koichi Tanaka at the Takatsuka-Ji-China Joint Quality Analysis Conference in 1987". It is this line that ensures my lead and is also the fundamental basis for winning the Nobel Prize this time. Here, I would like to express my respect to the two gentlemen’s open and honest academic attitude. "
Rendering 5: The winning highlights are not recognized by himself?
Tanaka himself also said that in fact, there were signs in the year before he won the Nobel Prize. For example, when he attended an international academic conference, he found that his research results were extremely valued by the Western academic community, etc. But he never thought about it that way until the phone call before getting off work the next year.
And he appeared in front of the media in uniform that night, which was indeed completely unexpected, because facing the sudden news that day, he first came down to a remote small room under the escort of his colleagues. Later, the situation was out of control. In the end, he couldn't come out, and he happened to be wearing uniforms. That night, his house was surrounded by reporters, so he had to spend the night in the hotel.
"If I knew I had won the award in advance, I would have to find two suits no matter what, choose one of them and change them, and at least I would shave... But a week ago, I happened to dye my hair and my hairstyle is still there, it is not ugly, I am grateful!" Tanaka teased himself.
And the call he answered when he met the media was called by his wife, which was somewhat different from the domestic version. He said this:
"There was another scene during the meeting. My wife called my phone. She didn't know that I was meeting with the media and asked me, "Can you accept an interview tomorrow?" Toyama is her mother's home and my hometown. There are many people who want to interview, and it seems that they are still gathering together. I only said, "Anyway, I don't have time now, you can do it." Then I hung up. I heard that my wife was also very panicked at the time. Looking back now, I regretted it. She was worried about me. Later, someone said that I still brought my phone with me when I met with the reporter. In fact, this is the first time I attended a reporter meeting in my life. , how could he think so thoroughly. "
" At the press conference, I was already trapped in a 'selfless dream'. Although I answered a series of questions, as for how to answer and what I answered, I can't remember it now."
In Tanaka's autobiography, he did not think that he was not worthy of winning the Nobel Prize, but had thought and entanglement. Later he figured it out and said a few very powerful passages:
"In my previous Nobel Prize winners, at least the Nobel Prize winners in Japan are either honorary professors or famous writers, and no one has a high social status.
"In short, before I finally understood the reason for winning the prize, I must ask the relevant person about the situation of the award."
"For example, in November, I happened to meet Ingma Gurendi, Honorary Professor of the Royal University of Technology at Sweden, . At that time, he was invited by Rimingkan University to give lectures. He was also one of the members of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. He said to me: 'Even if it is found that it is small, it is a fuse, and this fuse is the most important.''Nobel himself is not a theorist, but an experimenter and engineer'. This meeting made me begin to understand the reason for winning the award."
"Now, I think this way, even if it is just a small beginning, even if the theoretical evidence is not sufficient, if technology is produced later, it is valuable to win this award."
"I am just a technician who makes a living by working hard. I have no particularly smart mind and limited professional knowledge. I don't care about it and work hard, but I have encountered an opportunity, an opportunity to make a major discovery, and I won the Nobel Prize, that's all."
"The research that made me win was not done by a genius or elite, but by the victory of a team composed of my colleagues and me. The team is an advantage of a Japanese organization and a great wealth."
Seeing this, Tanaka actually published the new research results of his and his team in the journal Nature last year - it was no surprise that he could detect signs of Alzheimer's disease 30 years in advance from just a few drops of blood. In fact, it is not because he feels that he is not worthy of the Nobel Prize, but because he has always adhered to the true nature of an engineer, and is down-to-earth and accumulated over time.
Ask another question, who has time let go?
Reference: Tian Naoko Yizhu, translated by Qi Geping and Li Xiaowu, "The Most Awesome Failure - The Nobel Prize Road of the Working Worker Tian Naoko Yizhu", Science Press, January 2012.
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