Research: Is it bad to be ranked second?*

Hirokazu Kobayashi

CEO, Green Insight Japan, Inc.

Professor Emeritus and Visiting Professor, University of Shizuoka

In 2010, the then-ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) set up a "Government Revitalization Unit" to formulate a budget. The "Budget Screening" was conducted there, and Renho raised the above title’s question. Initially, high intelligence and curiosity are innate human traits that lead to pursuing research. This pursuit inevitably leads to competition, especially in areas tied to military and financial gain, though not limited to those areas.

Some prominent examples are Frederick Bunting (1891-1941) and Charles Best (1899-1978), who discovered insulin in 1921. Bunting's research group was eligible for the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Georg Ludwig Zuelzer (1870-1949), Ernest Lyman Scott (1877-1966), Israel Kleiner (1885-1966), and Nicolae Paulescu (1986-1931) also achieved the discovery of insulin-like substances.

Photosynthesis, the only solar energy harvesting system by living organisms, produces molecular oxygen and sugars from water and carbon dioxide in the air, respectively. Cornelis van Niel (1807-1985) published the general formula for this reaction in 1931. In the same year, Keita Shibata (1877-1949) published a similar formula, but because it was in Japanese, it did not attract worldwide attention.

The double helix structure of DNA was clarified in 1953. The world-renowned scientific journal "Nature" simultaneously published papers by the respective research groups of Maurice Wilkins (1916-2004) and Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958), in addition to the paper by James Watson (1928-) and Francis Crick (1916-2004). Watson, Crick, and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. In particular, Franklin's X-ray diffraction data provided important insights. In addition, this discovery was only possible with the earlier work of Oswald Avery (1877-1955) and Erwin Chargaff (1905-2002).

The simultaneous development of similar research topics is inevitable. Modern scientific research is based on technological methodologies. Once a method is developed, several researchers may apply it to unsolved problems simultaneously. In the 1970s, techniques for cloning DNA fragments and determining DNA sequences advanced, leading to an explosion of understanding of the genetic background of many biological activities. Beginning in 1983, I spent nearly two years studying plant gene expression as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. Much biological activity can be explained in terms of protein function. In the photosynthetic reaction, organisms use sunlight to synthesize sugars from atmospheric carbon dioxide; the enzyme that fixes the carbon dioxide is called Rubisco. This enzyme consists of sixteen units that must be assembled correctly to form an active structure. How this assembly process occurs has been a mystery. In 1985, as an assistant professor at Nagoya University, I led an effort to solve this problem. Using E. coli, a model microorganism unrelated to photosynthesis, we expressed the genes for these subunits and successfully formed an active sixteen-unit structure. Excited, we believed to publish our findings in "Nature." However, the editors informed us that a similar paper was scheduled for publication, so our work was published in another rapid communication journal. Later, I moved to the University of Shizuoka. In 1997, we were the first to elucidate the genetic information of the "sigma factor," essential for regulating Rubisco gene expression in photosynthesis. This achievement was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), where many Nobel Prize-winning studies appear. This research was conducted simultaneously in four laboratories worldwide, creating a competition.

Watson and Crick, who won the Nobel Prize for elucidating the structure of DNA, the blueprint of life, are almost gods for researchers like me who study genes and their expression mechanisms. Watson later became director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. This lab holds frequent research meetings, and Watson (nicknamed Jim) occasionally makes impromptu appearances at the famous outdoor wine parties. I met him twice. Crick, on the other hand, was a fellow at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California. When I visited the Salk Institute, I was shown a car with a "DNA" license plate that belonged to Crick. Watson's uninhibited nature is believed to have led to his outstanding achievements, and because of this, the world has often criticized his subsequent actions and statements. I hear that Watson, now 96, is still in good health.