Star quality

摘要

Some three decades after sharing the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on tunnelling by electrons in semiconductors, Leona Esaki is still a hot property. Caught after giving a talk in Tokyo in 2000, he politely declined 'Nature's request for an interview. "Maybe in a couple of months," he apologized. "I'm just too busy." A gruelling schedule of lectures and social engagements, combined with his role as president of the Shibaura Institute of Technology, left him with precious little spare time. "It's the duty of a Nobel laureate in Japan," Esaki explained. At least today, there are a few others to share that duty. Between 2000 and 2002, four Japanese scientists received Nobel prizes ― just one less than the country's researchers gained over the previous century. Remarkably, this followed hard on the heels of an official government target to win 30 Nobel prizes over the next 50 years (see Nature 413, 560-564; 2001).