MOLECULAR SCIENCE

Mol. Sci. 1, A0004 (2007)

ArticleWhat Makes “Science” Science?
Takayoshi Amanoa

1.

hydrogen maser.

Prologue
To begin with, read the following, although it is a bit long.

This has been one of most accurately

measured physical quantities that human beings have everachieved, together with a more recent measurement of the“First of all, a clear distinction should be made between science

Rydberg constant by Hänsch. For this remarkable achievement,

and technology. This is a very important distinction which so

Ramsey was awarded the 1989 Nobel Physics Prize.

many people are not making, including many of our politicians,

maser line is now serving as a frequency standard and we are

and it is at the basis of much misunderstanding between

benefited from this everyday as the frequency standard of GPS.

This

There is an interesting table which lists the historicalscientists and the public.
As far as science is concerned there is, in my opinion, no

development of measurements of the Rydberg constant in a

way in which we can concentrate more money and morebook “Hydrogen: The Essential Element” (Harvard University

scientists for long-term benefits to the nation and to mankind.

Press) written by Rigden2.

The reason is that nobody ----not even scientists----can predict

constant was made by Rydberg as the name suggests and we allwhat discoveries in science will be made in the next 10 or 50

know.

years, nor can they predict what the importance of these

109675 cm-1. A most recent measurement listed in the tablediscoveries will be for benefits to the nation and to mankind.

was done by Hänsch and coworkers and the value is

The important point is that we should give our scientists---- and109737.31568639(91) cm-1.

I don't mean technologists ---- the freedom to tackle what theyHe was awarded the Nobel Physics Prize 2005 for “theconsider to be significant problems, and we may have a chancedevelopment of laser-based precision spectroscopy”. This kindto reap benefits in economic terms from their work. If we don'tof extremely accurate measurements is only made possible bygive them freedom, then no new discoveries will be made and“fanatic” persistent pursuit of innovation of experimental

no resultant long-term benefits will accrue."technique developed over years by John Hall and others, andThe first determination of theIt was in 1890 that Rydberg determined the value to beThis measurement is awesome.

naturally Hall was also awarded the Prize together with Hänsch.
This message sounds quite contemporary. But this is an

This is completely my own speculation, but I cannot keep thisexcerpt from an interview with Dr. Herzberg at the occasion

thought within my mind.

that he was awarded the Nobel prize which appeared in, I guess,might have been awarded the Prize either.

“Weekend Magazine" of Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaperand higher accuracy for measurements of the speed of light,

on June 10, 19721.

and eventually led to the international agreement of defining

Conflict between bureaucrats (andIf Ken Evenson had been alive, heHe pursued higher

politicians) and scientists is not new, and that is a conflictthe speed of light.

He played a central role in that movement.

between the people who place more value to maintain or

We all knew that he really liked to work in the laboratory for

perfect the current system and the people who like to break thehimself. Such fanatic pursuit of accuracy and development of

current situation to create something completely new.

instrumentations and methodology which make such extreme

Herzberg was a staunch fighter against bureaucracy.

accuracy possible are not quite appreciated in this country.
This kind of fanatic research is the essence of natural science to2.

unravel the mystery of Nature. The fact that it is not regarded

Act 11420405751.786 Hz. This is the transition frequency of thehighly is indicative of ignorance of general public and in

21-cm line of H (hydrogen atom).

particular some influential science policy-makers about what

This is the transition

between the F=1 and F=0 hyperfine levels of the ground 1snatural science is.

state.

It is an extremely important astronomical probe into

Tycho Brahe (1546.12.14-1601.10.24) was born in Denmark3.

physical conditions of the Universe. It was N. F. Ramsey that

He was said to be an astronomer, but his occupation was rather

determined the frequency very accurately by devising aheavily involved in astrology. He was not satisfied with theaccuracy of the measurements prevailed at that time.

a

Department of Chemistry and Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Waterloo, Waterloo. ON, Canada N2L 3G1
e-mail: tamano@uwaterloo.ca©Japan Society for Molecular Science

Astrologers at the time lived on inaccurate shoddy data. (It does
not really matter, does it? ) He was determined by any means toPage 1 of 5
(page number not for citation purpose)Mol. Sci. 1, A0004 (2007)

Articleattain the highest accuracy conceivable without telescope (!!).

Newton.

Every night (weather permitted) he went up to his observatory

later was regarded as the beginning of astrophysics andFraunhofer could predict in no way that his workand recorded the positions of stars and planets with astonishing

spectroscopy, which eventually led to discovery of quantum

accuracy. (Remember, in Japan the battle of Sekigahara tookmechanics. Life is similar.

place in 1600.) Analysis of vast amount of data accumulatedeven for immediate future.

No one can predict his/her fateover 16 years was assigned to his followers. In particular,
data

on

Mars

was

given

(1571.12.27-1630.11.15).

toJohannes

KeplerHe meticulously analyzed the data

Act 2
Of course there are research areas which aim at improving orTheinventing useful devices based on already known principles.

For long time, the orbits of the planets

Such research is no doubt important and its significance isand determined the orbit of Mars, then that of Earth.
results were striking.

3.

relatively easily recognized.

Such area of research is

discovered that the orbit was not a perfect circle but an ellipse.

technology or engineering.

It would be easier to assess

In classes, I usually write a much flattened ellipse on board toimportance of such applied research and to decide which

represent the orbit of Earth.

should be funded how much.

had been believed a priori to be a perfect circle.

He

In fact if we draw the earth’s

However, the ultimate

orbit on the floor with 1m radius, the difference between theobjectives of natural science are to unravel fundamental

major axis and the minor axis is only 140-μm.

It cannot be

principles or mechanism that Nature presents to us, and to

High precision

accumulate or establish knowledge which can be shared by allof Tycho Brahe observation enabled Kepler to conclude thehumankind. Such basic science intrinsically has characteristics

orbits of planets are ellipse not perfect circle.

of unpredictability and no one can tell if it leads to some usefulperceived (by ordinary people) as an ellipse.

Joseph Fraunhofer (1787.3.6-1826.6.7) was born to a glassconsequences or useful devices.

It would be a great tragedy,

Often he is cited as a German

if public were not quite educated about how science or ourphysicist, but he was more a glass craftsman himself. He

civilization had been developed. Majority of people may havewanted to check the quality of his glass prism by dispersing thea notion that scientific discoveries were made by geniuses who

Solar light.

could foresee the consequence, could plan ahead, and pursued

craftsman in Bavaria.

Then he found dark lines in the spectrum which

now we call “Fraunhofer lines”.
in the entire visible region.
Napoleon in Europe.

He recorded 576 such lines

It was in 1814.

It was an era of

Beethoven was at his prime ofexactly what they wanted to do. This is a largely wrong notion.
That is why science education is important.

Development ofscience is unpredictable, similar to our own life.

We have tocomposing, and Berlioz was eleven years old. Imagine there

become a story teller on how science evolved. The law ofwere no spectrometers with electric or electronic recording

gravity was not discovered suddenly by Newton by looking at adevices or photographic plates. So he must have recorded all

falling apple.

the spectral lines by hands. His beautiful spectra did not mean

We have to establish the notion that science is a culture, likemuch at all to his contemporaries including himself at that time.

music, opera, and literature. The utmost mandate of universities

There was no way to understand them.

It was almost ais to produce torch bearers to pursue such science as a culture.

century too early for the Fraunhofer lines to be fully understood

Forcing natural science to be short term mission oriented

by means of quantum mechanics.

research

In between, works by such

is

not

fit

to

basic

science.

Unfortunately,

giants as Kirchhoff and Bunsen, Ångstrom, Balmer, and Bohr,

policy-makers, politicians, bureaucrats often are preoccupied

made tremendous progress before reaching Heisenberg andby completely wrong notion that science should be directed by

Schrödinger. We scientists all understand that even works bymaking detailed planning.

those giants must have been benefited from many other steps

has ideas and plans to pursue. However, we all know and havemade by investigators like us (sorry for people who do notexperienced that the plan is often not realized as it was planned.

belong to “us”.) whose names were not usually surfaced.

If everything went well exactly as planned, what a boring thingThat

is the nature of science.
When we look back history, it seems at first glance that

it would be!

Of course every scientist actually

Research should not be evaluated by looking at

how many of the initial objectives have been achieved.

This

everything has come out naturally or very orderly fashion.

kind of evaluation criteria is the one that bureaucrats or

However, Tycho Brahe had never carried out his persistentbureaucratic scientists would like. If this kind of evaluation

observation day and night by anticipating future progress inprevails, it eventually ruins not only basic science but also

which Kepler discovered now we call Kepler’s three

applied science which has its base on basic research. Rather it

fundamental laws, which together with Galileo-Galilei led toshould be evaluated depending on if interesting unexpected
Page 2 of 5
(page number not for citation purpose)Mol. Sci. 1, A0004 (2007)

Articleresults have been obtained, even though they were notdifferences in academic levels among high schools have been

mentioned at all at the initial plan.

rarely an issue.

This is the way science

Research fund should be granted basically to

The current Japanese situation is highly alarming. One time I

individuals not group of people. Once decided who should bethought grade average or recommendations from high school

funded, give them complete freedom. Behind recent project

should be weighted more.

oriented science policy, there haunts phantom of bureaucratic

time alarmed me that such data from high schools were notscientists. We should keep it in mind that evaluation criteria arereliable, often modified to look better.

naturally different for basic science and for applied science orastonishing to hear such comments openly. Then I realizedengineering which could have clear objectives.

such things were already in public domain. Even a newspaper4

evolves.

In basic

Then colleagues of mine at theIt was reallyscience it is less important whether it achieved the initial goal

reported

as it planned, but it is more important if it yielded very

recommendations and interviews by universities are behind ininteresting and exciting results.

“academic level” compared with students who were admittedthat

students

admittedthroughhighschoolthrough the entrance examination. Whatever this “academic
4.

level” means, it appears that high schools usually try to send

Act 3
Is the Japanese situation peculiar to this country? Not

students through a channel of admission by recommendations

particularly, but definitely something very unique feature is

who were not quite up to certain level for the competition to

lying deep underneath our culture.

universities.

I have no way to describe

So, according to the newspaper article4, several

it clearly. However, even with my very limited experience, I

cram schools such as Kawai-juku now offer classes for suchcan say that a great deal of the problems which are peculiar to

students to make up their academic levels before entering

this country originates from the notion of education which

universities. The classes are said to be held on behalf ofdeeply rooted in culture.

At the center of this country's

universities in between the graduation from high schools andeducation there is the entrance examination system. Entrance

the entrance to universities. For several weeks???!!! Don’t

examinations are pain in the neck for majority of people.

university professors and high school teachers get angry about

Extremely few people have ever thought abolishing the current

this?

examination system completely. There is at least one country

This kind of situation together with various “irregularities” thatwhich does not have entrance examinations at all, so far as I am

surface from time to time is a vindication of total failure of theaware.

current education system in which the entrance examination

That is Canada.

There may be other such countries

No one seems to be thinking deep enough and critically.

or states or regions, but I have not done enough home work to

occupies a gargantuan post.

list them all.

grades in high schools were a general practice, they would be a

In Ontario a central office handles all the applications to alluniversities in Ontario.
ndperjury, a serious criminal offence.

st

In short, the current examination system in Japan distorts the

Applicants usually indicate his/her 1 ,rd

If the mark-ups or alteration of

The university which isentire education. Some people genuinely believe that, because

listed up in the application as either one of the three choices isof this “strict” examination, the Japanese students excel in

all notified with all the relevant information, which includes themany areas in particular in science and mathematics.

grade average mostly in the last one or two years of the highother hand, many people think that now the education in Japan

school with grades on individual subjects together with special

is not working, so the level of proficiency of students is rapidlycomments on extra curricula activities or specific merits of thedeclining.

applicant. Selection process is done by Dean’s office, in case ofus.

Waterloo.

performance at the time.

2 , and 3 choices in the application.

This is a kind of many body processes.

On theBut this kind of comments has been always aroundOur generation was also to blame for declining level of
My limited experience tells me that

Applicants wait for offer(s) from either one of the three choices.

Japanese students are in general not a deep thinker, rather a

Universities try to entice best students available by examining

superficial congenial thinker.

the data sent from high schools.

Often even though the

deep skeptical thinkers may not succeed in the current system.

student lists University A as a third choice, if the Dean’s office

Education in the current form might have worked well tothinks he/she is an excellent student not to be missed, then try

regenerate workers who could perform well in carrying out

to steal him/her by enticing him/her by offering goodwhat was told to do.

scholarship or something attractive offer.

routine tasks may be becoming noticeable).

It would be natural

It is understandable, because(Nowadays some signs of failure of such
My shortthat grade average fluctuates from one high school to another,conclusion is that abolishing the current examination system isbut universities have accumulated calibration factors. So

urgent. The sooner,

the better.

The Canadian system canPage 3 of 5
(page number not for citation purpose)Mol. Sci. 1, A0004 (2007)

Articlehindrance in promoting individual's free creative activities.

be a model.

The line of commands in Japan is arranged vertically, so we
5.

usually encounter many middle managements between us and

Act 4
The nature of the position JOSHU is now in the majority of

those higher up. The middle managements do little in decision

universities reviewed and has been altered. JOSHU appears

making and simply pass on the issue to one step higher. Thisto be mostly called JOKYO (What an odd naming!).

is largely the source of frustration and inefficiency.

English translation of JOKYO
professor.

Fine, finally.

And theis, I am told, assistant

But looking into the situation alittle deeper, then I realize that this may not be quite equivalent

As aresult, routine procedures which yet have no precedents are
difficult to deal with.
The university administration system is by no means an

to an assistant professor of US or Canadian universities. I can

exception.

speculate why they use such an odd naming as JOKYO rather

country has its own red tapes, but at least my experience tells

than JOKYOJU.

It is embedded in the “Kasumigaseki”.

Each

They (who?) do not like to treat JOKYO

me that administration here in Canada is more transparent

entirely like a professor, but like them merely to give courses.

about which administrator deals with what and what authority

So in a way that its English translation is assistant professor ishe/she has.

mean and sneaky.

easier and more straightforward to solve the problem and it is

I wish my speculation be wrong, but I

cannot help mentioning this. Probably JOKYO in majority ofuniversities is not quite independent faculty member who
operates an independent research group.

So, when we encounter some dispute, it is much

much faster.
Whatever the reason, then-National universities are now
transformedtoanindependent

(from

the

Ministry?!)

It is long overdue to make a drastic change in the system.

organization. However, upon the transformation, as far as I

JOKYO and other junior faculty members would not speak out.

am aware and I witnessed, not a small number of universities

Speaking out under the current situation is very likely a suicidal

took a careful measure to minimize the change by adopting

act.

That they are silent does not mean that they are content.

how they were doing and what they were. Surely the current

It is exactly why established senior faculty members should

administration system has not been conceived with simple andtake drastic action, not this lukewarm ambiguous changing

efficient supporting system for faculties in education andnaming JOSHU to JOKYO.

research in mind.

Why not simplify the system.

Under powerful and innovative leadership,

Professor, associate professor and assistant professor (and may

it would be possible to implement a drastically different

be lecturer) are equal in the sense that they all equally operate

administrative system.

their own research group, and all should enjoy equal

trusted, almost all the faculty meetings and committees would

opportunity for applying for research grants.

be unnecessary.

This kind of

If it works and democracy can be

In the current system, it appears that therevision of the system should be initiated by established seniorleaders, presidents, deans, and department chairs, are largely

members.

directionless, sitting at the center of mass which is undergoing

Established senior professors used to be a junior faculty or

Brownian motion. Everyone knows this system is the real

alike and must have felt a kind of aspiration at some stage ofhindrance in doing education and research in many respects.

their career at early stage in pursuing research activities on

Yet in the past many decades no significant improvements havetheir own.

been realized.

Senior establishments should make all efforts at

any cost not to regenerate and impose similar frustration that

It is really neither a purpose of this short article nor within

they experienced to young generation. Quite a few research

my capacity to discuss more about how to revise or improve thescientists have experiences to have spent some extended period

university administration in some length.

of time in outside the country, mostly in US, Canada, or

would like to say here that a system should be created, in which

European countries. Majority of them must have felt a great

professors do not have to treat junior faculties, postdocs, andsense of liberation in outside the country.

graduate students in daily operation of the group as if they were

The most

compelling difference is the way to treat young scientists.
Certainly the system has been changing constantly, but thechange has been too little too slow, and often incoherent.

However, at least I

secretaries or technicians, in which senior professors canconcentrate themselves on their own education and researchwithout worrying about the administrative burdens which are
under current system mostly unnecessary and seem to be

6.

complete waste of time.

EpilogueIn various aspects of daily life, we are exposed to all sorts of

micromanagements.

Micromanagements often act as aSo, when a more reasonable systemwere to be implemented, we would never hear again such an
outrageous comment as “Professors usually do not know the
Page 4 of 5
(page number not for citation purpose)Mol. Sci. 1, A0004 (2007)

Articledetails of research done by their young staff members.

References

Professors are in charge of larger scale planning of the research.

(1)

Globe and Mail, June 10, 1972.

So it is not surprising to hear that the professor did not know

(2)

Rigden, J. S. Hydrogen. The Essential Element; Harvard(3)

Historical development and physical insight are presented in awhat his assistant (JOSHU) was actually doing”5.

University Press: New York, 2003.
book by Tomonaga, S. What is Physics?; Iwanami Shoten:

I thank Carol Huber for making newspaper and magazine clips

Tokyo, 1979.

Conversations with my(4)

Nihon Keizai Shinbun, February 8, 2007.

colleagues, in particular, with R. L. LeRoy are greatly(5)

Close-up GENDAI; NHK, January 10, 2007. The program wasabout Herzberg available to me.
appreciated.

transmitted in Japanese. Therefore this English translation is by
no means an official transcript, and I am solely responsible tothis translated content.
(Accepted: April 10, 2007)

Takayoshi Amano
Affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo
Research field(s): Molecular Spectroscopy
Mailing address: Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 3G1
E-mail address: tamano@uwaterloo.ca

Page 5 of 5
(page number not for citation purpose)