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In the face of scepticism from Johnson and others, Shimomura determined that the luminescent substance was a protein; he named it aequorin.

Until a way of making genetically engineered aequorin became available in the 1990s, Shimomura freely shared his carefully harvested stocks with laboratories the world over.

It was in the process of purifying aequorin that Shimomura discovered small amounts of GFP, which fluoresces green when aequorin emits its blue light.

The first and most promising protein, aequorin, was later used as an indicator for calcium.

“I didn’t know much about molecular biology or organic chemistry, so it didn’t matter to me which specialty I would study. I thought Professor Hirata’s words might be the direction given by heaven, and I decided to go to his lab. It seems that this decision determined my future, directing me to the studies of bioluminescence, aequorin and green fluorescent protein.”