Nathaniel Rich wrote this week's cover story about a Japanese scientist who studies jellyfish that regenerate themselves. Rich is the author of the novel "The Mayor's Tongue"; Farrar, Straus & Giroux will publish his second novel this spring. His last article for the magazine was about the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans.
How did you become interested in the "immortal jellyfish"?
I read a fascinating and quite depressing deathbed essay in Harper's Magazine by Earl Shorris, who has since passed away. Shorris mentioned in passing that "Modern scientists tell us how somewhere near the bottom of the order of living things, immortality reigns." This comment baffled me: I didn't know that any living being could be immortal. This notion seemed to pervert the most basic law of the natural world. I did some research and discovered the immortal jellyfish. I was astounded that more wasn't known about the species. I spoke with a few specialists without much success, but finally one of them said: Well, there is this one guy in Japan.
It is such a seductive topic. Is it possible that some other scientists may be carrying out this research somewhere in private to stay out of the public eye? Hardly seems conceivable, but . . .
That scenario does seem inconceivable. If anything, hydroid experts hoping to receive grants for Turritopsis research are accused by other scientists of romanticizing their field with loose talk of "immortality." The truth is, we are still not very close to understanding whether the jellyfish's magic trick can have any application for human science.
Why is Shin Kubata so obsessed?
That's easy: he wants to be immortal. More specifically, he wants to be 20 years old again. He told me this about 80 times during the week I visited him.
Does he ever entrust the feedings of the jellyfish to any other person, for any reason? I hate to ask, but what would happen if he were to die suddenly?
All would be lost. Nobody has been able to replicate his success in the lab.
What was it like to spend a whole week with someone so obsessed with something so tiny?
As someone who spends every day with something as tiny as 12-point print on a computer screen, I empathized. I would only emphasize how kind, thoughtful and funny he is, how full of life and generosity. His project aside, he seemed to me heroic in his single-minded pursuit of wisdom. When I asked him why he wanted to be immortal, he told me, "So I can continue to study animals forever."
The twist at the end of your piece about Kubota having turned his scientific career into pop music was wholly unexpected. Do other scientists disparage his work because of this?
I don't think so. In my experience, scientists are not always the most socially adjusted people, and may have habits and fascinations outside of their work that others might consider odd. As long as Kubota does serious work, he'll be respected. People took Einstein seriously even though he refused to wear socks.
Were you lured to Japan by your own hopes to live forever?
I'm with Kubota: I would like to be 20 forever. Or perhaps 28.
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