A Scientist's Paradise: RIKEN - Hokkaido University's First Female Student, Setsu Kato

Told that she was "too beautiful to be a scientist,"
she succeeded as a renowned chemist,
Hokkaido University's first female student, Setsu Kato.

After leaving Hokkaido University, what happened to her?

Setsu moved from Sapporo to Tokyo and
became the first female scientist at the "Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN)."

RIKEN was,
in pre-war Japan,
truly a temple of science.

Universities at the time had education as their primary mission.
"Passing on the wonderful knowledge and technology of the West to students"
was the most important thing.

RIKEN was completely different.
"Creating new inventions and discoveries from Japan"
was its mission—research itself.

RIKEN gathered
the most brilliant minds,
who are now legendary.

Kikunae Ikeda, who invented "Ajinomoto."

Umetaro Suzuki, a true pioneer of "vitamins."

Hantaro Nagaoka, who predicted the "true nature of the atom."

These were among the illustrious great scientists.

Although Setsu was a junior member,
she diligently devoted herself to research
while receiving guidance from such learned scholars.

About three years after she started working at RIKEN,
she found her lifelong research theme
after being teased by a physics researcher.

"Absorption spectrum analysis," a technique used in both physics and chemistry.

Sunlight looks white, but
when passed through a prism,
it splits into seven colors like a rainbow.

White light is actually made up of a mixture of various colors.

On the other hand, when you pass light through red strawberry syrup and
separate it with a prism,
the green to yellow colors are completely missing.

This is because the pigment dissolved in the syrup
absorbs only the light of those specific colors.

The remaining light is what appears red.

The colors that are absorbed are unique to each substance.

Conversely,
if you investigate "which colors were absorbed,"
you can determine
what the substance in the path of the light was.

This is "absorption spectroscopy."

The foundation for understanding the principle of "absorption spectra"
was the then-newly born quantum mechanics.

Setsu was shocked and captivated
by the world described by quantum mechanics.

It is no wonder.

For those who learn of it for the first time,
it is a field of study that fundamentally overturns
one's perception of the universe and the world.

Setsu was a chemist, but
fortunately,
RIKEN had not only a chemistry department but also a physics department,
and there were many first-class physicists there.
Absorption spectroscopy
has a longer history of being used as a means to study "atoms" and the "universe,"
and it was a technique that belonged more to the realm of physics.

Nine years after becoming a RIKEN scientist,
Setsu earned her doctorate in science.

And so, she rapidly stepped into the spotlight
and began her path to becoming a star scientist.

(The title image has been AI-colored and upscaled.
The illustrations were generated by AI.)