诺贝尔生理和医学奖：罗斯巴什

Telephone Interview with Michael Rosbash Telephone interview with Michael Rosbash following the announcement of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2 October 2017. The interviewer is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer of Nobel Media. [Michael Rosbash] Hello. [Adam Smith] Hello, may I speak to Michael Rosbash, please? [Michael Rosbash] You’re speaking to him. [Adam Smith] Thank you very much. My name is Adam Smith, calling from Nobelprize.org, the website of the Nobel Prize. So I suppose it’s funny in a way that a prize for working out the molecular mechanisms of the circadian rhythms is announced in a way that disrupts your own sleep cycle. [Michael Rosbash] Indeed. [Laughs] Ironic, yes. I hadn’t thought about that, I must confess, but…but absolutely, yes. [Adam Smith] How did you hear the news? [Michael Rosbash] The phone…the phone on the night table by my bed woke me out of a deep sleep. And the gentleman Thomas Perlmann, yes, he…he told me the news. And I…I was shocked, breathless, really. Literally, my wife said, “Start breathing.” [Adam Smith] In a way, this is something that everyone takes for granted, their adaptation to night and day. But it’s sort of the original adaptation to environmental influence, isn’t it? [Michael Rosbash] Yes, it is. Before the atmosphere has its current constitution and before nutrition was anything like it is today, the…the Earth rotated on its axis and the light dark cycle impinged on the beginnings of life, yes. [Adam Smith] And I suppose it’s hard for people to imagine how different it was 30 years ago when you were starting this work that, you know, you were real pioneers in linking genes to behaviour. [Michael Rosbash] Right, it’s…it’s true, it’s true. We didn’t think of ourselves as that, you know, everybody...There’s…there’s an element of craft to the work, you know, we’re putting one foot in front of the other, trying to…trying to, you know, get more experiments to work than fail, but…but in hindsight, yes, there’s some truth in that. [Adam Smith] And the prize is also a celebration, I suppose, of your close working relationship with Jeffrey Hall. Does… [Michael Rosbash] It is, it is. Yes, long, long, long partnership. [Adam Smith] What made you such a strong team? [Michael Rosbash] We were very, we had very…Two things, we were very good friends personally, before, in fact, we started to work together. And secondly, we had complimentary skill sets. [Adam Smith] I gather he’s a bit of a maverick, riding Harley-Davidsons and the like. [Michael Rosbash] That sort of thing, yes. And the like. Yes, that’s…that’s…that’s a good way to put it. Very British and very appropriate. [Adam Smith] Will we look forward to welcoming you to Stockholm in December? [Michael Rosbash] Of course, you will. [Adam Smith] Great. Okay, well, enjoy your day and thank you for speaking to us. [Michael Rosbash] Thank you very much. [Adam Smith] Thank you. Bye bye. [Michael Rosbash] Bye bye.