g.mccarthy550 comments

I dreamt last night that I was in 2014, but then I woke, read this article and realised it was still 1974.

This is really saddening news, it doesn’t matter from whichever perspective one views this from, it’s so sad. The pressure that scientist are under to achieve results coupled with the media pressure (who was it that said we get the media that we deserve?) and the ingrained societal behaviours in Japan probably made this all the more likely if not inevitable. Fleischmann and Pons made an even more catastrophic error when claiming to have discovered cold fusion; it all but ended their careers. All we can do is offer the family, friends and colleagues of Yoshiki Sasai our condolences and wish that Haruko Obokata well for the future.

There’s a disappointing lack of sympathy and humanity in a lot of these comments. If people want to look and feel their best, howsoever they do this then good for them. I for one have sympathy for them and wish them well. I don’t quite understand why Japanese people want to look more pale but if they do they shouldn’t suffer for it.