Osamu Shimomura and his colleagues used this dip net to capture large numbers of the jellyfish Aequorea aequorea to extract a substance that makes their edges luminous. The net was made in 1968 and was designed to be light and easy to drag through water. The jellyfish had to be captured in the right direction to avoid damaging their edges. The handle was painted black and orange, the colours of Princeton University.
Osamu Shimomura donated the net to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2009.
Osamu Shimomura's research on luminous biological substances started with the small, shelled organism Cypridina hilgendorfii. The test tube contains dried specimens of the organism.
When the sand-like material is moistened, it becomes luminous. The material was collected by Japanese soldiers during the Second World War to make discreet sources of light. At the end of the war, the U.S. Navy took over the material, and it eventually ended up at Princeton University.
These luminous shelled organisms also caught the interest of Japanese researchers after the war. In 1955, the young chemist Osamu Shimomura was given the task of discovering why these animals were luminous. After extensive work, he managed to find the cause: a luminous protein. Shimomura would later pursue his research on luminous biological substances at Princeton University.
Osamu Shimomura donated the test tube to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2009.
These plastic containers were used by Osamu Shimomura and his colleagues to extract luminous substances from the jellyfish Aequorea aequorea. The containers held solutions of ammonium sulphate and the acid EDTA.
From thousands of jellyfish, Shimomura and his colleagues managed to extract a few grammes of a luminescent protein, aequorin. They also succeeded in extracting small amounts of another protein that creates a pale green light. This discovery of green fluorescent protein (GFP) would have a great importance for research. GFP enables the study of processes inside the cells of living organisms.
Osamu Shimomura donated the plastic containers to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2009.
