Martin Chalfie shared the prize with fellow U.S. scientist Roger Tsien and Osamu Shimomura of Japan. The prize was given for work with fluorescent protein from jellyfish, which is now a widely-used research tool.
Credit: Columbia University
WASHINGTON: U.S. scientist Martin Chalfie went on the internet to find out he was one of three co-winners of the 2008 Nobel Prize for chemistry, he said, after ignoring a telephone ringing he thought came from next door.
"A couple of days ago, I inadvertently adjusted my phone so it had a very soft ring," the Columbia University biologist told a press conference hours after he received the winning news yesterday.
"I was the schmuck"
"I woke up this morning ... and realised there was a phone ringing somewhere," he said, but he thought the call was from a neighbouring apartment. "I was a little bit annoyed that they were not answering their phone."
"Then I realised, that they must have announced the Nobel Prize in Chemistry," he said. "So I decided to find out what schmuck won this year... so I opened up my laptop and found out I was the schmuck."
Chalfie, who shared the prize with fellow U.S. scientist Roger Tsien and Osamu Shimomura of Japan.
The prize was given for work with fluorescent protein from jellyfish, which is now a widely-used research tool.
Glowing praise
Green fluorescent protein (GFP) has revolutionised research in medicine and biology, enabling scientists to get a visual fix on how organs function, the spread of disease and the response of infected cells to treatment, the Nobel jury said in Stockholm.
"GFP has functioned in the past decade as a guiding star for biochemists, biologists, medical scientists and other researchers," the jury said. "This protein has become one of the most important tools used in contemporary bioscience."
The telltale protein gives researchers an instant way of monitoring processes that were previously invisible. By tagging nerve cells, scientists can for instance follow the destruction caused by Alzheimer's disease.
Tumour progression can be followed by adding GFP to cancer cells. By adding GFP to a growing mouse embryo, they can see how the pancreas generates insulin-producing beta cells.
Spectacular experiment
In one spectacular experiment, researchers made a "brainbow," in which they tagged different nerve cells in the brain of a mouse with a kaleidoscope of colours.
Shimomura, born in 1928 and now a professor emeritus at Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) and Boston University, pioneered this tool with a study of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria in the 1960s.
He isolated a few precious grams of luminescent liquid from 10,000 jellyfish, which led to the discovery that its source was GFP, a so-called chromophore: a chemical group that absorbs and emits light.
Shimomoura was the third Japanese citizen to win a Nobel this year, after Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa won the Physics Prize Tuesday along with Japanese-born American Yoichiro Nambu for groundbreaking theoretical work in fundamental particles.
Schnook not schmuck
Chalfie said schnook and not schmuck which makes the comment much more interesting: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2008/chalfie-telephone.html.