Shimomura Won the Nobel In Chemistry Because

[GCT]

He has his own lab at the basement of his home ... Chemistry 24/7.

http://www.conncoll.edu/ccacad/zimmer/GFP-ww/shimomura.html

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2008/

 

[gravenewworld]

I'm really really sick of seeing all these biologists win the nobel prize in chemistry.

 

[GCT]

The previous year it was surface , that was some what of a reassurance. But hey , you are going to win a prize if you have a lab in the basement of your own home , and by lab I'm not referring to a meth lab. I'm referring to a state of the art - making your own GFP - lab.

Biochemistry is highly funded afterall , many inorganic chemists go for biochemistry.

 

[rootX]

I think he deserved it.

 

[Topher925]

The secret is not to make your home into a lab but your lab into your home. That way you never have to pay rent.

Good on him though.

 

[WarPhalange]

I'm really really sick of seeing all these biologists win the nobel prize in chemistry.

Don't forget the physicists who win it, too.

 

[Monique]

I'm really really sick of seeing all these biologists win the nobel prize in chemistry.

Jealous? Life is based on chemistry, so naturally you will find that a (bio)chemical discovery will impact research in biology greatly.

 

[Gokul43201]

...he doesn't work at a car dealership?

Glowing Gene's Discoverer Left Out Of Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded this week to three scientists working in the United States with a jellyfish protein that glows in the dark. But the scientist who found the gene for that protein, and gave it to the eventual Nobel winners, is no longer working in the field. He now drives a shuttle bus for an auto dealership.

The three chemistry Nobel Prize winners have advanced our understanding of the inner workings of cells by using the jellyfish protein to tag the tiny, intricate parts.

But to do that, back in the 1990s, those scientists first needed the gene that creates the glowing protein.

One of the winners, Roger Tsien of the University of California, San Diego, says he was lucky. At just the right time, a researcher named Douglas Prasher at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts isolated the gene that Tsien wanted.

"So I found his phone number, called him up, and to my amazement he was willing to give out the gene," Tsien says.

Another of the Nobel laureates, Martin Chalfie of New York's Columbia University, also got the gene from Prasher.

But Prasher, it turns out, no longer works in science. He is now driving a courtesy shuttle for a car dealership in Huntsville, Ala.

"I got a hard luck story," he says.

Prasher doesn't have any regrets about giving away the gene. Tsien and Chalfie did great work, he says, which he probably couldn't have done because the National Institutes of Health had rejected his funding proposals.
...
He tried to find a job in science but failed. So he went to work at the car dealership.
...
But the job does not pay enough to support his family.

"Our savings is gone; just totally gone," he says.

Prasher is still looking for a research job, but he worries that after two-and-a-half years, his knowledge and skills may be out of date.

That's not what some of his former colleagues say. One called Prasher's current situation a "staggering waste of talent."

In December, Tsien and Chalfie, along with Japanese researcher Osamu Shimomura, will go to Stockholm and receive almost a half-million dollars.

Prasher says, "If they're ever in Huntsville, they need to take me out to dinner."

Full story here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95545761

So AIG's Martin Sullivan, Lehman's Richard Fuld and Fannie's Frank Raines all retire into multi-million dollar hammocks while Doug Prasher drives a courtesy shuttle and lives on a pittance.

 

[GCT]

...he doesn't work at a car dealership?


Full story here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95545761

So AIG's Martin Sullivan, Lehman's Richard Fuld and Fannie's Frank Raines all retire into multi-million dollar hammocks while Doug Prasher drives a courtesy shuttle and lives on a pittance.

What do they mean by out of date ... the field is no longer valuable or that his resume is out of date?

I would not be surprised to find many other stories like this , I've heard of people who have graduated from Harvard working menial jobs as well as other people with great credentials that are not able to obtain a job due to the tendencies of industry to either outsource their jobs or to seek a candidate who ... well ... pursue the interests of the company then adhere to the standards of scientific research and progress. Because the progress of science and the progress of a company are not always the same things.

A life in science does not always lead to , even decent , financial success.

 

[mrjeffy321]

A chemistry lab in one’s own home! There is no other possible reason for this besides illicit drug or firework manufacture.
[/End cynical sarcasm]

Sadly there is an unpleasant truth behind GCT’s joke about the meth lab; there is often an inherent suspicion surrounding individuals with home chemistry labs, be they amateur or professional.

 

[GCT]

A chemistry lab in one’s own home! There is no other possible reason for this besides illicit drug or firework manufacture.
[/End cynical sarcasm]

Sadly there is an unpleasant truth behind GCT’s joke about the meth lab; there is often an inherent suspicion surrounding individuals with home chemistry labs, be they amateur or professional.

Shimomura's lab is built for both biology and chemistry , he probably has high tech equipment for both types of projects ... some for cutting up jellyfish and others for isolating and analyzing the protein. Also , his lab probably gets audited not to mention all of those forms and protocols for waste management.

 

[Hippo]

Does anyone know how much it cost to have their very own Lab in the House?