［文獻分享］下村脩談科學研究

這次要分享的文獻是諾貝爾化學獎剛宣布得獎名單時，獸醫系的王孟亮教授寄給我的。我隨即轉寄給生物物理期刊俱樂部郵寄名單上的成員。有些人可能因為不在這個名單上，所以沒收到。沒關係，這篇文章可以在此免費下載。

這篇文章是剛出爐的化學獎得主下村脩在2005年寫的，回顧了他的研究生涯。他在文章中詳細地描述了當時的工作情形、遇到的挫折、以及心路歷程，值得大家好好玩味。我覺得最有意思的有兩段，第一段談到1961年夏天他們在Friday Harbor實驗室（四十多年後的夏天紀老師也在這個地方工作）的工作流程：

We collected jellyfish from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m., then after a quick breakfast we would cut rings from the jellyfish until noon. We devoted all afternoon to the extraction. After dinner, we again collected jellyfish from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and the catch was kept in an aquarium for the next day. We soon found that the bottleneck in the operation was the step of cutting rings with scissors, which is a delicate and very slow process. Even after considerable practice, it took more than 1 min to cut one jellyfish ring, and 3 h work by four people could not produce more than 500 rings. To increase productivity, we hired several highschool students, trained them and paid them 2 cents for each ring they cut. We also decided to buy jellyfish from local children, paying a penny per jellyfish. However, just when our operation was in full swing, the jellyfish suddenly vanished from the area. We therefore extracted only about 10 000 specimens of Aequorea in the summer of 1961.

這段文字告訴我們，科學研究有時候講究的是細密的規劃與軍隊般的作息（去問施老師當年在Brookhaven做實驗的情形），而且隨時會出現人算不如天算的意外。

第二段其實比第一段先出現，但我覺得比較第一段更有意思，講的是在他如何面對在那之前所遇到的瓶頸：

I spent the next several days soul-searching, trying to imagine the reaction that might occur in luminescing jellyfish and searching for a way to extract the luminescent principle. I often meditated on the problem on a drifting rowing boat under clear summer skies. Friday Harbor in summer at that time was quiet and peaceful, quite different from the present-day, when it is saturated with busy pleasure boats and noisy seaplanes. Meditation afloat was safe but if I fell asleep the boat was carried away by the tide so that I had to row for a long time to get back to the laboratory.

大家就自己去體會吧。