True passion?
Japanese Nobel laureate shrugs off prize
TOKYO - Toshihide Maskawa is not interested in the Nobel Prize _ despite having won it this year.
The Japanese physicist said Wednesday that he only hoped the honor would encourage an interest in science among young people.
"The Nobel Prize is just a social event," the 68-year-old professor said Wednesday. "I pursued physics simply because there were intriguing questions I wanted to answer _ not to win the prize,"
Maskawa said he wanted the achievement to spark young people's curiosity, recalling that Albert Einstein's theory of relativity inspired him to become a scientist.
"The key is to teach young people the wonders about science and cultivate their desire to learn," he told the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.
Maskawa shared the Nobel in physics last month with colleague Makoto Kobayashi and mentor Yoichiro Nambu, a Japan-born American citizen.
Kobayashi and Maskawa took half the physics prize for a 1972 theory that forecast the discovery of a new family of subatomic particles. Nambu of the University of Chicago got the prize for his mathematical research in the field of symmetry.
Along with the three physicists, Osamu Shimomura was awarded the Nobel in chemistry _ a record number of laureates for Japan.
Japanese Nobel laureate shrugs off prize
TOKYO - Toshihide Maskawa is not interested in the Nobel Prize _ despite having won it this year.
The Japanese physicist said Wednesday that he only hoped the honor would encourage an interest in science among young people.
"The Nobel Prize is just a social event," the 68-year-old professor said Wednesday. "I pursued physics simply because there were intriguing questions I wanted to answer _ not to win the prize,"
Maskawa said he wanted the achievement to spark young people's curiosity, recalling that Albert Einstein's theory of relativity inspired him to become a scientist.
"The key is to teach young people the wonders about science and cultivate their desire to learn," he told the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.
Maskawa shared the Nobel in physics last month with colleague Makoto Kobayashi and mentor Yoichiro Nambu, a Japan-born American citizen.
Kobayashi and Maskawa took half the physics prize for a 1972 theory that forecast the discovery of a new family of subatomic particles. Nambu of the University of Chicago got the prize for his mathematical research in the field of symmetry.
Along with the three physicists, Osamu Shimomura was awarded the Nobel in chemistry _ a record number of laureates for Japan.
