00:12
Have you always been this way? 昔から理系、いわゆる理系でした? Like, have you always been this way? Like, have you always been this way? Like, 昔から理系,いわゆる理系でした?
Not really, because when I was an undergrad student, my major was like literature.
So it was literature. I was in the department of literature, so it was very different from what I do right now.
Were you studying, like, Shakespeare or Japanese literature?
No, it was like, I wanted to do psychology, and that is why I entered the literature department.
サイコロジーって文学部なんだ、日本の。 サイコロジーって文学部なんだ、日本の。
That's so interesting, I think. そうなんですよ。
So it is science, but it's under the department of literature.
Right, I think in my undergrad, psychology fell under, like, you are able to choose two paths within psychology.
You can do behavioral psychology or, like, developmental psychology.
And developmental is more like, like, little kid psychologyとか、なんか、あの、アンザイリーとかを
studyするところで、behavioralは、なんか、もうちょっとニュアルサイエンスと
overlapしてる感じで、like, you know, it was just more sort of traditional science side of psychology.
And whereas the developmental people study, like, trauma psychology and stuff like that.
So, like, including clinical psychology?
Yeah, clinical psychology, like, therapy, like, talk therapy studies and stuff like that.
But you, if you wanted to, you know, study brain sciences or, like, how psychological behavior
impacts society and stuff like that, then you went for the behavioral track,
where you had to take, like, biology, you know, statistical mechanics, like, stuff like that.
Right, right, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was the start of my undergrad, yeah.
And then...
So then, yeah, and at the end of undergrad, when you decided to go for further studies...
Right, so there were some interesting courses during my undergrad, and one of them was,
it was like a summer workshop, and there was a, I don't know how you call it,
03:03
it was like a lab tour, where I had a chance to visit many, many labs, including biology,
chemistry, I think, even, and physical astronomy and stuff like that. So those
were very different from where I was, like, literature department. And it was really,
really fun. So I get to do some basic experiments. I had a chance to have discussions with the
professors and the students there, like, grad students there. And I think that changed how I
looked at my future research, I think, very much.
That's so important, that exposure to research is so important, because
as an undergrad, you don't get a ton of opportunity unless you really go out of your
way to seek for it. And now that I am a grad student, I can see what a baby I was as an
undergrad, you know, I didn't know anything at all. But also, that's the time you have to decide,
you know, if you want to become a career scientist or not. So that's really interesting
timing. And it's funny that you sort of identified as bunkei up until that point. And then, you know,
switched to your, you know, tapped into your more scientific side of yourself.
Yeah. So that was when I realized, even among a very different
like research fields, we use a very similar analysis, like statistics and analysis methods,
and like a basic Fourier transformation and spectrums and stuff like that.
So we're all after that signal. Yeah, so we treat the like, we analyze the
spectrum. And yeah, so I was intrigued by the experiences in very different labs.
Would you say you were like, or you already possessed at that point, sort of mathematical
disposition for things? Like, did you like looking at data? Or was data just sort of part of
your study? And, you know, you were more interested in the bigger story and picture of things?
06:02
That's an interesting question. I think I liked already that, you know, looking at data and
treating data, looking at figures, like making figures, and, you know, thinking about hypothesis,
and then testing it. And then I really liked the data.
That's, that's something. Yeah. So you probably already knew somewhere that you wanted to be
like a researcher of some kind. And just so happened that the choice of your field
ended up in a scientific one. Yeah, I think so. How about you? How about you?
I was not a math oriented kid. I was not. Like, I liked science. But with a lot of other things,
as with a lot of other things that I, you know, one does in like, under elementary and middle school,
I was a very村家のある子供. Like, I didn't have a 得意科目. I had a 得意トピック
within the 科目. So I, like, some weeks I love math, and some week I freaking hate math.
I loved, like, 彫刻, but I hated お絵かき. Yeah. Or like things like that, you know, I would
have things where, like, it wasn't exactly confined to the discipline. Yeah, yeah. That
kind of confused me, because I generally did well at school, but my teachers would be like,
and I'm like, I mean, I don't know, what can I say? So, so yeah, I don't know if I already liked
it, but I do know that I really liked doing 調べ物. Like, I love 夏休みの自由学習.
I really liked doing that. I was a weird kid loving doing that. And I would study, like,
random things, like, you know, 世界遺産のこととか、魚の名前とか。 Like, not even about
魚, I was talking about, I was researching about where the name of the 魚 came from.
And things like that. So I don't think I was naturally scientific, but I think I was definitely
a curious kid. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. But from there to where I ended up, I have no idea how I
09:03
did it. Oh, I see. Yeah. So were you always interested in your research field? When did
you decide your, you know? You know what, that's gonna have to be another episode, because it's
gonna be a long story. But yeah, well, I think that's it for this one. That's a good place to
stop. That's it for the show today. Thanks for listening, and find us at 英語でサイエンス
on Twitter, that is E-I-G-O-D-E, S-C-I-E-N-C-E. See you next time!
