Greetings from the Director　　December 14, 2008

The Surprise of a Lifetime

Tatsuo Murakami, Director

There are many amazing events that occur in this world, and at nearly 70 years old I’ve witnessed a few, but just the other day I had the surprise of a lifetime.

It was October 24th and there had been recent excitement over the Nobel Prize awarded for research involving belt jellyfish. In the afternoon when the number of aquarium visitors was growing, the telephone began ringing. Everyone was too busy to answer it, so I hurried to pick up the phone.

The voice on the other end was soft spoken, and I couldn’t catch what the caller was saying. I could only make out, “This is Osamu Shimamura.” I thought the name sounded familiar, and as I spoke with the caller he said his name again.

This time I clearly heard him say, “This is Osamu Shimamura. You sent me a letter and telegram.” I was so surprised my heart nearly stopped. At the same time, I remembered having sent a congratulatory telegram and letter. The caller was the esteemed scientist living in Massachusetts, USA who had been awarded a Nobel Prize for discovering fluorescent protein in jellyfish.

However, at that moment I thought, “It can’t be that the Nobel Prize winner is calling me. It’s probably a crank call.” It was terrible of me to have thought so, but I asked, “Is this really you?” I heard the relaxed voice answer, “That's right.”

I was the most nervous I had ever been in my life. I can’t clearly recall the conversation that followed, but in a gentle, warm voice that puts others at ease he continued talking on the phone as if he were enjoying speaking with a grandchild.

The words written in the letter of congratulations, “remote northeastern countryside,” “small and weak,” “aging,” and “bankruptcy” had made an impression on him. His desire to help led him to the notion, “Why don’t I do something?” He taught us how to make the jellyfish glow.

We did as instructed and were excited to see the jellyfish on exhibit light up with a fluorescent luminosity. Newspapers throughout Japan featured it in their papers, generating great interest.

The impact was tremendous. People were eager to see the glowing jellyfish. It was like an unexpected gift, or something out of our wildest dreams. The number of visitors swelled to close to 200,000, nearly the same as when it first opened 45 years ago.

Though the Japanese adage expressing the idea that “any event can bring about an effect in an unexpected way” does not quite fit, without our having done anything to deserve it, our small aquarium benefited enormously from Mr. Shimamura’s Nobel Prize.