100 | December 2021 www.facs.website EK: An interesting theory claims that the main difference between Western and Asian cultures goes back to the fundamental differences between wheat and paddy rice. Wheat-based agriculture involves low yields, is less nutritional, depends on rainfall irrigation and easy labor, and can support only a small population per square kilometer. As a result, Western culture people are more individualist, ideological, aggressive, and opportunistic. In contrast, paddy rice agriculture involves high yields, is more nutritional, intensive, and can support a dense population. It is also labor-intensive, requiring seasonal group efforts, planning, construction, and maintenance. As a result, people of the Asian culture are more socially responsible, pragmatic, tolerant, and flexible. I assume that you value social awareness and social responsibility in light of these ideas. Also, I guess you agree that it is essential to improve the community, promote science teaching, and attract the young generation to choose a career in science and technology. Although these are non-trivial tasks, nobody can do the job better than scientists, certainly better than administrators and politicians. Have you invested efforts in these directions? EN: I have been keen about this issue for a long time and have tried to influence society through research funding and undergraduate education. Together with my colleagues, we transformed our Department Chemistry at the University Tokyo into English teaching, first for graduate students and then undergraduate students. We invite international students to the third year of the undergraduate program to mix with the Japanese students, and we have recently hired Prof. Robert Campbell from the University of Alberta in Canada to be a regular faculty member. We have many non-Japanese junior faculty. Hopefully, what we have done in the past ten years could serve as a model for opening Japanese science education to the world. We are starting to utilize our “molecular movies” to make chemistry more familiar to school kids. EK: The public looks at scientists as people who could help solve problems at national and global levels. In Taiwan, for example, the President and many Ministers regularly consult with top scientists at the Academia Sinica and other universities, not only on scientific issues but almost everything. They trust those professors for their knowledgeable and objective opinions. Similar consultations with the local academy also happen in Isreal, although to a lesser extent. Is something like this happening in Japan? Did you and your colleagues try to help your country and the world with novel ideas and capabilities? EN: Unfortunately, the current Japanese government does not seem to respect scientists very much. In the past, the Prime Minister and cabinet members had communicated much with various scientists when reorganizing the Japanese system. For example, about 20 years ago, Prof. Noyori worked very hard with the Prime Minister. But in the past decade, that tradition has almost gone. I think that the main reason for that is the financial problems of our government. Due to extraordinary social and national security expenditures, they are running out of money. People are aging, and tensions are increasing in the seas around our country. Perhaps, I am opening up a new era of “cinematic chemistry” for studying and teaching chemistry by using motion pictures at atomic resolution. EK: It’s a global phenomenon that politicians think they are brilliant and know better than others, so they don’t need to consult with anybody. Regardless of their field, all scientists can serve as a think-tank, producing new ideas and participating in brainstorming sessions. And we know that global problems cannot be solved by politicians but by scientists and engineers through international collaboration. How open are the Japanese scientists to international cooperation? EN: I think Japanese scientists are very open to international collaboration. The question is how we define international? I don’t believe that collaboration among European countries is truly international. If we consider only trans-continental and trans-cultural cooperation, Japan is quite international. Of course, there’s a language barrier, and Japanese scientists are very close to each other historically and structurally. Still, we are ready to accept any talented professor and student, and I don’t think there are any barriers. The Japanese system is very open now, and you can see many Chinese professors as faculty in Japanese universities. So, nationality doesn’t matter in Japan. The situation is the same as in Germany, where you need to communicate in German for teaching at the undergraduate level. And research rapidly becomes more international with joint programs with many countries. EK: Let’s talk about your music. I know that music is essential for you, and it is a very significant part of your life. I watched the recent movie “A Scientist and a Musician” which focuses on you and your friend Watanabe and realized that you take music very seriously. I know very few scientists worldwide who adopted such a “schizophrenic” lifestyle of science and music, and you have done it very successfully. How do you share your attention between the two worlds? EN: Unfortunately, I cannot afford to spend more than 5%of my time on music. Every day I spend at least ten hours on chemistry and only 15 minutes on music. Admittedly, I make many mistakes when playing music, and I’ve never thought I’d become a professional musician. In addition to music, I did oil painting, but this art is very different from music. One needs a story and logical thinking for painting, whereas music is more sensational. Painting requires logic and a plan to convert the 3-dimensional world into a limited 2-dimensional space. Probably because of this complexity, I cannot relax with painting or drawing, but I can relax by playing music. For me, music is like going to the mountains. I can liberate myself and forget about science. I focus only on music when I play my flute, totally forgetting about chemistry. EK: So, where do you place your interest in railroads on that landscape of various hobbies? EN: My interest in the history and technology of railroads has never been complementary to science. It has been an intellectual activity similar to scientific research, and this experience in my college years helped me a lot to do chemistry research later. Music, however, is entirely orthogonal to science unless you really go deep. EK: Although music and science use the emotional and analytical halves of the brain, I can think of several known scientists who were also musicians. Albert Einstein was a violinist. Alexander Borodin was an organic chemist, a cellist, and a composer. JeanMarie Lehn and Gerhard Ertl are talented pianists in our times, and I can add many more names to this list. EN: Many scientists who do intensive intellectual work need relaxation and temporary escape mechanisms, so they go to the arts. But the arts are not one homogeneous domain. There are types of art that are more emotional and others more analytical. Some even require physical capabilities, like playing the piano, which sometimes seems like a sport. EK: Let’s switch to your current science, where you focus all your energy now. The ability to watch molecules in action and see something that people have only imagined is fascinating. It opens new windows to inaccessible areas and may support or disprove many hypotheses on how molecules behave and look. Therefore, it is not too difficult to predict that your dynamic EM technology will result in global recognition. We know that
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