Notes

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1 Brecht B. (1987), Questions of a worker who reads in Poems, 1913-1956, London, Methuen.

2 I wish to thank Sabato Aliberti, Bianca Arcangeli, Salvatore Casillo, Massimo Del Forno and Cinzia Massa for their extremely valuable suggestions.

3 The institutes and centres that make up Riken were reorganised in April 2008. One of the results of this reorganisation was the fusion of the Frontier Research System and the Discovery Research Institute in the Advanced Science Institute.

4 As is generally known, Erving Goffman is the author of the idea that to understand a flux of events we need a cognitive framework that allows us to place it in a social context; that the transition from one level of reality to another and the handling of social complexity can be translated into the activity of removing and adding frames.

5 Characteristic of the internal or external environment of an organisation that has an important influence on achieving its aims.

6 See Rogers C.R. (1951), Client-centered therapy: Its current practice, implications and theory, Boston, Houghton Mifflin; Lumbelli L. (1972), Comunicazione non autoritaria, Milan, Franco Angeli.

7 President of Riken, Nobel Prize 2001 for Chemistry for his study of the production of chiral catalysts, Member of the Japan Academy, Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Honorary Member of the Chemical Society of Japan, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (Great Britain), Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Honorary Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

8 Fellow at Hitachi Ltd., Member of the Science Council of Japan and the Japan Academy, Director of the Single Quantum Dynamics Research Group (which includes the Dml).

9 Director of the Omics Science Centre and the Genome Science Laboratory, Director of the Genome Exploration Research Group, Director of the programme of Functional Rna Research.

10 Leader of the Functional Genomics Technology Team and the Omics Resource Development Unit, Vice-Director of the Lsa Technology Development Group.

11 Team leader of the Digital Materials Laboratory (since April 2008 Digital Materials Team).

12 Director of the Personnel Division of Riken.

13 Member of Research Priority Planning at the Research Priority Committee.

14 First Chief Advisor of the Science & Technology Section of the Eu delegation in Japan.

15 Attaché Science & Technology Italian Embassy in Japan.

16 Professor of Physics at the University of Camerino, Commendatore of the Italian Republic for scientific merits, Visiting Professor at Loughborough University (Great Britain), former Fellow of the American Physical Society (United States), the Institute of Physics (Great Britain), and the Alexander von Humboldt (Germany).

17 Team leader of the Dulbecco Telethon Institute, President of the Italian Society of Biophysics and Molecular Biology; he was the only one of the contributors not to be interviewed in Japan but in Naples.

18 For mainly objective reasons an in-depth analysis of the context analysed, as well as the presentation of the model proposed and its premises will be published in a later volume.

19 Wittgenstein L. (1978), On Certainty, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, para. 248

20 See Goffman E. (1974), Frame Analysis, an essay on the organization of experience  London, Harper and Row.

21 This is not to deny, of course, that the two authors are very different, and have different value systems and attitudes towards rationality and modernity.

22 See Moretti V. (2008), Dizionario del pensiero organizzativo, third edition revised and extended, Rome, Ediesse.

23 See March J. (2002), Prendere decisioni, Bologna, Il Mulino; Moretti V. (2008), op.cit., pp. 70-77.

24 The cast included Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, E.G. Marshall and Martin Balsam.

25 See Garfinkel H. (1967), Studies in ethnomethodology, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs (New Jersey).

26 Weick K.E. (1997), Sensemaking in organizations, Thousand Oaks, Sage.

27 Equally interesting are the arguments used by Angelo Volpi to explain why the decision-making process in Japan is extremely slow in the phase of undertaking the decision, and becomes extremely fast in the execution phase: being based on the search for large-scale agreement, it requires all those taking part in the process to be heard and to accept to some extent the solution. If one side loses completely, there is no harmony in the process; when all are involved, no part of the question can be reopened.

28 See Weick K.E. (1997), op.cit.

29 See Merton R.K. and Barber E. (2004), The travels and adventures of serendipity, Princeton, Princeton University Press.

30 Merton R.K and Barber E. (2004), op.cit.
31 Merton R.K. and Barber, E., op.cit.
32 Quoted in Merton R.K. and Barber E. (2004), op.cit.

33 The reference, of course, is to Matrix Reloaded (directed by Lawrence and Andrew Wachowski).

34 In this case the film is 2001 A Space Odyssey (directed by Stanley Kubrick).

35 The reference is to the short story by J.L Borges. (2004), The Aleph and other stories, London, Penguin.

36 In Matrix (directed by Lawrence and Andrew Wachowski).

37 See Sen Amartya K. (1999), Development as freedom, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

38 See Granaglia E. (2008), Il merito: talento, impegno, caso, le ombre dell’Italia, in La Rivista delle Politiche Sociali, no. 2, April-June.

39 It includes the Centre for Intellectual Property Strategies, Next-Generation Supercomputer R&D Centre, SPring-8 Joint Project for XFEL, Riken Singapore Representative Office, and Riken China Office.

40 It includes the Advanced Science Institute, Brain Science Institute, and Nishina Centre for Accelerator-Based Science.

41 It includes the BioResource Centre.

42 It includes the Riken SPring-8 Centre.

43 It includes the Plant Science Centre, Centre for Genomic Medicine, Research Centre for Allergy and Immunology, Omics Science Centre, Systems and Structural Biology Centre, Bioinformatics and Systems Engineering Division, and the Centre of Research Network for Infectious Diseases.

44 It includes the Centre for Developmental Biology, and the Molecular Imaging Research Program.

45 Apart from the human and social sciences.

46 This is a crucial characteristic of research institutes that seek excellence.

47 Including Visiting Researchers.

48 Around 580 million euros.

49 The Brain Science Institute is particularly active in this field.

50 If – and, unfortunately, it is a big if – it is still possible to refer politically to our dear old continent as such.

51 This topic will recur several times in the article; Philippe de Taxis du Poët, for example, recalls the decision of the Eu delegation in Tokyo to create a network of European researchers in Japan and Japanese researchers in Europe with the declared aim of putting them in touch with each other.

52 Protocols to transform Rna into information.

53 Guanine, Adenine, Cytosine, Thymine.

54 The messenger Rna that produce proteins.

55 The sequences that let the genome perform its main function: producing Rna, every type of Rna, which not only has the function of carrying and translating information, but also that of helping to regulate the expression of Dna, coordinating the complex work of integrating the thousands and thousands of active components of the cell and making them efficient. In practice, the promoter is a switch that says “switch on”, “switch off”, and if it is “on”, how much needs to be produced. The various tissues express different Rna and hence different proteins. For example, the muscle expresses proteins needed for muscular contraction, the brain expresses proteins that are important for neuron activity. Different promoters control the expression of different Rna (and hence proteins) in different tissues; in this context the Rna that do not codify retroact with Dna, modifying the expression of mRna from Dna and so modifying the level of proteins produced by Rna.

56 Of course, being aware that the knowledge and talent of researchers are the fundamental resources does not mean losing sight of the fact that the knowledge of any researcher, however extraordinary his talent may be, is by definition limited.

57 Much has been done with this end in view, starting from summer courses for business students from abroad.

58 The synchrotron, the Omics accelerator and the quantum computer are some examples (www.riken.jp).

59 The Mext (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) handles 66% of government funds for research and development (15.4 billion euros, out of a total of 23.4 billion euros in 2007); even though Riken’s budget depends formally on the Finance Ministry, when Riken makes a request for financing of a programme or research project it is really the Mext that sets up an Advisory Board to evaluate and decide whether to accept and how much to provide. The iter of the financing can be summed up roughly as: Finance Ministry-Mext-Riken; at present most research budgets last for around five years.

60 These are public funds open to all competitors with the necessary requisites; in 2007 15% of Riken’s budget came from this type of fund.

61 Each centre has a research promotion division and a planning division. The latter also negotiates its budget with the Mext. The requests for financing must respect the maximum limits fixed by the Mext for the overall budget and the Policy Planning Division must make the necessary adjustments for the various projects to remain within these limits. Even though the planning division belongs to the administrative and not the research section, at Riken these positions are held by graduates in scientific disciplines who are able to discuss seriously both with researchers and with the officials from the Mext.

62 The evaluation system that is the basis of the reviews was created at Riken about 15 years ago and is now a very important link in the system’s chain.

63 A body created to indicate to the President the priorities for financing.

64 As we have already observed, biological papers are usually cited more often.

65 Of course, this was possible thanks to decisions, choices and activities begun long before.

66 Oversimplifying, it can be described as a series of machines, instruments and computers.

67 A series of morphological and functional characteristics in an organism resulting from the interaction of its genotype, in effect all the genes that make up the hereditary characteristics of an organism or a group of individuals, with the environment.

68 It means isolating the few cells (neurons) of the brain that are similar and using various methods to observe what they do specifically.

69 In the sense of studying the expression of all genes at the same time.

70 It is very important to adopt methods shared by the team, discuss with them and those who have done the work, and evaluate the different contributions until agreement is reached. Usually this is easy, but sometimes there is conflict.

71 The final author is the coordinator and director of the group.

72 In Japan the University works like this too.

73 Watson J.D. (1982), The Double Helix, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

74 Tautomerism: type of isomerism (phenomenon by which compounds of the same molecular weight and empirical formula have a different structural formula, and hence different physical and/or chemical properties) between a compound containing a ketone group and the compound deriving from it due to the migration of hydrogen atoms, thus transforming the ketone group into a tertiary alcohol group.

75 The Rna bring the Dna the information necessary for it to release information in its turn.

76 Moretti V., Massa C. (2006), Per genio e per caso, in Technology Review Italia, IV, no. 1, January-February.

77 Rna messenger; during the transcription it converts the information contained in Dna into protein.

78 Towards the end of the 1990s.

79 Complementary Dna, i.e. Dna copied from an mRna.

80 Common domestic mice.

81 Moretti V., Massa C. (2006), op.cit.

82 Butterfield H. (1949), The Origins of Modern Sciences, 1300 -1800, London, G. Bell & Sons, p. 1; cited in Merton R.K. and Barber E. (2004), op.cit., p. 265.

83 Actually, as Merton would say, thanks to theoretically aware researchers able to see the universal in the particular.

84 Splicing is the mechanisms that cuts and re-sews the eukaryotic mRna in shorter pieces that are then used by the cell in this form to produce protein.

85 We owe to A.N. Whitehead the idea that “thinking is an extraordinary form of excitement”.

86 A process that significantly reaches it maximum level of effectiveness, in childhood.

87 A member of Carninci’s team as researcher (Ph.D.) at the Genome Science Laboratory and now at the Omics Science Centre.

88 In practice, this “suicide” is induced thanks to its dimensions, smaller than the Rna that are being studied.

89 Everyone examines his own results, presents data, roles and paths followed and starts the discussion with the others; everyone can suggest alternative procedures, different implications of their work, or discuss an article published by another research group, etc.

90 One of the characteristics of sensemaking processes.

91 Those who do most of the experimental and computer work appear first, followed by those who helped in various things but not as leaders. The senior figure who often had the initial idea and who coordinated the resources appears as the final author.

92 The position of junior researchers is slightly different.

93 It is counterproductive and hence rare for a researcher to leave his team before completing the research cycle.

94 The projects on which the Dml is currently working include quantum computing, the study of the superconductors of qubits by means of the Josephson-junction, scalable quantum circuits, vortex dynamics in superconductors the new fluxtronic devices, and devices that can control quantum movement.

95 Comparisons, obviously, are made for each sector, as the dynamics and ecology of each group are different: usually in physics seven citations a year is considered very good; for mathematics even fewer, while for biology more are required.

96 Of course, if asked, he will reply that he plays too sometimes, but usually it is the other members of the team who are kicking the ball.

97 In January 2002 four people worked at the Dml, including the secretary; by the end of the year there were between 6 and 10, in 2004 between 12 and 16, and in March 2008 between 12 and 20.

98 Some remain a week, some a month, some 2-3 months, some 6, some 1 year, some 2-3 years; in March 2008 the record belonged to a Russian scientist who had been with the Nori group for 5 years.

99 Being able to tackle complex problems that cannot be defined in a few weeks or months is an important opportunity for Riken researchers.

100 It is worth emphasising that these are researchers who usually have a permanent relation with institutions and research centres in their own country; it is, of course, a different matter if and when a researcher leaves his country to transfer full-time to Riken.

101 Thus there are usually three levels, in some rare cases four; the fourth level consists almost entirely of students.

102 The leader must be able to handle the pressure, above all on himself: three years spent quickly and working flat-out every day is very important.

103 The Advisory Council is made up of distinguished scientists, experts and consultants; usually the research centre being evaluated has the right to put forward the name of one member of the council.

104 Of course, the universities too publish in Nature, Science etc., but their approach is usually more focused.

105 Total number of the research team minus the lab technicians, secretaries and students, who are in various ways important for the successful outcome of the research but who, naturally, do not publish.

106 This open approach is also extended to the results, in the sense that all data is made public at the time of publication, with significant contributions to Japanese, American and European databases.

107 2 yens of additional financing from Riken for every yen of financing obtained.

108 Associate researchers, for example with a master.

109 In Japan the paths are more or less the same.

110 For example, those asking for financing for projects that are the same or too similar to those already financed are inexorably penalised in the following appeals. The control is made using a database accessible with an ID that connects all the finance bodies, verifies the successful requests for financing and automatically excludes those that are the same or too similar; wasting one’s time in duplicating a project already on the database is not only useless but also harmful.

111 As an example we might take that barring competition between groups within the same institute.

112 Patenting often without obtaining commercial results can be counterproductive in the reviews too, because it is regarded as wasteful.

113 The two examples are not chosen casually; they are two companies whose research activity is directed towards producing goods and that have developed over the years strong interactive systems like those of Riken.

114 Riken also has a generous system of distributing some of the royalties to the inventor, but this is not usually sufficient to engage strong interest among the researchers.

115 His awards and recognitions include the Riken Eminent Scientist Award (2002), the Canon Foundation Award (2003), the Alexander von Humboldt Award (2006) and the Outstanding Reviewer Award (2007).

116 A longer version of the conversation with Marchesoni was published in May 2008 with the title Italiani nel mondo: così si sprecano i cervelli, in Il Mese di Rassegna Sindacale, no. 5.

117 See the open letter to the then Minister for Scientific Research Fabio Mussi by Gianfranco Bertone, Giacomo Cacciapaglia, Marco Cirelli, Pier Stefano Corasaniti, Lara Faoro, Alessio Figalli, Marcella Grasso, Riccardo Spezia, Simone Speziale, Dario Vincenzi and Francesco Zamponi, winners of a competition by the French Cnr (Cnrs); on http://www.marcocirelli.net/lettera_ministero.html.

118 Certainly the experience of the Media Lab Europe in Dublin is not encouraging. According to many it failed precisely because it lacked a connective and innovative tissue of high-level students, graduates and post-doctorial students.

119 In chess, of course.

120 The trust is not easy to win; in Japan it is regarded as essential to make all necessary checks before establishing a relationship or beginning a transaction.

121 See Ouchi W. (1980), Markets, Bureaucracies and Clans, in Administrative Science Quarterly, no. 25, March.

122 In Japan when business cards are exchanged it is the organisation that one belongs to that is regarded as most important, because, logically, the best people are in the most important and prestigious organisations.

123 Of course, even the best have to respect shared rules and values, starting from seniority, but in the end they are the ones who will leave their mark.

124 Now national director of Feltrinelli’s Travel sector, all his life a member of Naples’ real governing class, the one used to relying above all on itself, defining oneself in terms of goals and results. Significantly, the political world has difficulty in noticing this class.

125 See in this connection Hume D. (1739), Treatise of human nature, London, John Noon.

126 Mauss M. (1923-24), “Essai sur le don. Forme et raison de l’échange dans les sociétés primitives”, L’année sociologique, seconde série, p. 92.

127 Gorz A. (2003), L’immatériel. Conaissance, valeur et capital, Paris, Galilée.

128 According to a Bbc survey at the time of the May 2005 elections in Great Britain, 60% of electors regarded appearance as the main requirement of a candidate.

129 See Sennett R. (2002), Respect, London, Penguin

130 See De Biase L. (2003), Edeologia, Roma-Bari, Laterza.
131 Berman M. (1983), All that is solid melts into air: the experience of modernity, London; New York: Verso.

132 Abravanel R. (2008), Meritocrazia, Milan, Garzanti, p. 291.
133 Ibidem, p. 293.

134 On the subject education-learning-merit some very interesting facts and analysis can be found in Gabriele S., Raitano M. (2008), La trasmissione intergenerazionale dei titoli di studio nell’Unione Europea, in Granaglia E., op.cit.

135 Dorso G. (1977), La rivoluzione meridionale, Turin, Einaudi.

136 Cuoco V. (1966), Saggio storico sulla rivoluzione napoletana, Milan, Bur, p. 293.

137 See Ceris Cnr (2007), Scienza e tecnologie in cifre, Rome.

138 When Californian venture capitalists are invited to evaluate a start-up that needs financing, there are three questions they always ask: “What is your business plan?”, “What is your management plan?”, and “What are your international networking capabilities?”. It is also significant that the European Commission’s most recent financing programmes have been more open to international cooperation than ever before.

139 In game theory this kind of strategy underlines how and why cooperative behaviour will produce more satisfying results for each of the participants.

140 Philippe De Taxis du Poët says that Japanese students who have studied in Europe with the Erasmus programme for a year have found that when they returned to Japan it was difficult to find work because their experience in Europe, though satisfying to them, was not seen as positive; it was almost as if they had to show that they were still good students although they had been in Europe for a year.

141 See Casillo S., Aliberti S., Moretti V. (2007), Come ti erudisco il pupo, Rome, Ediesse.

142 Of course, we are referring here to all disciplines.

143It is worth recalling in this connection that part of Riken’s mission is the search for connections with universities and industry.

144 Conceived and created by Tonomura.

145 From 1991 to 1997 he worked in the laboratory of Molecular Genetics of Development at the Centre for Molecular Biology at Heidelberg University; from 1997 to 2001 he coordinated a research group at the Dibit, San Raffaele Hospital in Milan; since 2002 he has been team leader at the Istituto Dulbecco Telethon, first in Naples, and now in Rome.

146 Obviously we mean researchers who have completed their training and have a doctorate, have done post-doctoral work and are ready to direct a research group, even if small at first.

147 One of the tools used for this are the training networks of the European Union, which, on the basis of scientific proposals from the network of laboratories, finance the journeys of the researchers from one country to another.

148 Calvino I., 1988, Six memos for the next millennium, Cambridge, Ma, Harvard University Press.

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