Interviewer: Mr. Tanaka, I heard that you enjoyed collecting plants in your childhood.

Tanaka: I don't know if I can call it COLLECTION. Toyama, where I spent my childhood, was a region richly endowed with nature. We had rice fields and a variety of weeds growing on the riversides. There were various plants in our garden, too. They changed day by day, and I liked to watch it. Unconsciously, I became curious about observing nature.

Interviewer: Mr. Okada, you collected insects?

Okada: I’ve known a lot about insects since I was a kid. For example, about how many kinds of insects there are in Shimogamo Shrine, Kyoto. Some people can find 100 or 200 species, and some people can't find even one species. I belonged to the former and that's why I got interested in the insects. One of the most famous studies by JT Biohistory Research Hall, where I served as the director-general, is insect taxonomy by using DNA. We achieved considerable success.

Interviewer: Both of you are interested in railways, right?

Tanaka: As I had talked about my interest in railways (after receiving the Nobel Prize), I expected some interviews, but in vain. Once I mixed up the Nozomi 500 series with Nozomi 800, and that might make people dismiss my interest in railways as being frivolous.

Okada: I have been sorting out my various interests, and so far there are three left: insects, music and railways. I am not a railway buff, but I really love them.

Interviewer: Do you think that kind of curiosity is useful for you as a scientist?

Tanaka: It may sound like a little stretch, but I can at least say that curiosity served as the basis for my studies. The world is veiled in mystery. The pleasure of learning something which you didn't know and of solving its mechanism becomes a driving force for research. How could living organisms create such a wonderful system? If you have this type of curiosity, it becomes the driving force.

Okada: I don't take it to that extent, but when people are impressed with my gazing at tissues for 40 days without losing interest, I find some kind of love similar to the one I had for insects. I can hardly say that the love has nothing to do with my studies.