We would like to express our heartfelt congratulations to microbiologist Satoshi Omura and physicist Takaaki Kajita, who were chosen as co-winners of this year's Nobel Prize in medicine and physics, respectively. The news is both cause for celebration and offers a chance for the general public to consider that science, with its diverse fields, contributes to both expanding human knowledge about fundamental matters like the universe and improving our well-being.

The discovery separately made by Kajita and his co-winner "has changed our understanding of the innermost workings of matter and can prove crucial to our view of the universe, " while Omura and his co-winners helped develop "therapies that have revolutionized the treatment of some of the most devastating parasitic diseases," according to the Nobel committee. The occasion also should prompt politicians and education officials in particular to consider whether their policies are conducive to strengthening the foundation for scientific research in Japan and make changes if they're not.

Omura, 80, a professor emeritus at Tokyo's Kitasato University, shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with William C. Campbell of Drew University in New Jersey and Tu Youyou of the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine.