Opposites attract for Japanese Nobel winners

The two Japanese winners of the Nobel Prize for physics on Tuesday were research partners of differing styles, with one having his eureka moment while soaking in the bathtub.

Toshihide Maskawa of Kyoto Sangyo University and Makoto Kobayashi of the High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation near Tokyo shared the Nobel with Yoichiro Nambu, a Japanese-born American at the University of Chicago.

Kobayashi, 64, and Maskawa, 68, studied at Nagoya University in central Japan. They were said to have opposite personalities, with Maskawa brilliant in mathematics and Kobayashi excellent in experimental skills.

TOKYO, Oct 7, 2008 AFP