LONG LIVE RIKEN

RIKEN, JAPAN'S PREMIER SCIENtific research institute, is celebrating its 88th birthday this year. That milestone may not strike Westerners as noteworthy, but in Japan, "one's 88th birthday is a particularly happy and joyous occasion," says Ryoji Noyori, RIKEN's president. To explain, he draws the characters for 88 next to the one that signifies rice—a venerated staple that symbolizes happiness and longevity in Japan—and points to their resemblance. "RIKEN is among the most important research institutes not only in Japan but also all over the world," says Noyori, who was recruited to lead the institute in 2003 after a long career at Nagoya University that culminated in his receipt of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. But he admits that RIKEN faces significant challenges, including how to reverse its historical isolation from the rest of the world. The institute was created in 1917 as the Institute of Physical & Chemical Research, the Japanese name of which ...