Turning Failure into Nobel Gold | Nat Geo Live

now the scientist who did discover their
green fluorescent protein shared in this
Nobel Prize for chemistry but even he
wasn’t looking for that and explained
how he found it and discovered that it
wasn’t through logic you think science
is all logic how did it happen so
definitely not the usual scientific
method although all to a lot of times
that this is the real way science is
done osamu shimomura was interested in
the fun of just a wonderful fundamental
question how is it that some organisms
can actually make light fireflies glow
worms bacteria fungi crustaceans and a
jellyfish that he was interested in this
jellyfish produced a wonderful green
light and he tried to understand to find
the protein that made that light so he
goes into the lab he works a very long
time and this is going to be a constant
refrain it didn’t work nothing worked at
all he goes and he tries and tries and
tries finally one evening he’s wait he’s
worked well into the night he’s tired
it’s failed again he takes all the
samples he throws them away in the sink
because they’re of no use to him the
sink has jellyfish parts of other stuff
in some sea water turns off the light
he’s about to go home but he looks back
at the sink and it’s glowing brightly
and he goes and he thinks about it he
says oh it seawater it has calcium I
never had any Kelsey would test that out
a couple days later and sure enough it’s
calcium so a complete accident throw it
in the sink it’s a great way for a Nobel
you
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