A professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine was one of three Americans awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday.
Carol Greider won the prize with Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.
But Greider said the work didn’t start as way to find new treatments. Instead, she just wanted to find out how the cells worked.
The resulting Nobel prize is “a victory for curiosity-driven science,” Greider told The Associated Press.
… “It’s really very thrilling, it’s something you can’t expect,” Greider told the AP by telephone.
People might make predictions of who might win, but one never expects it, she said, adding that, “It’s like the Monty Python sketch: ‘Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!'”
October 5th, 2009 at 9:31AM
Nobody except Homer SImpson. When, meaning to call Professor Frink, the Nobel Committee got Homer instead and informed him that he had won, he just said, "Finally!"
October 5th, 2009 at 9:50AM
Alan: LOL.
October 5th, 2009 at 11:53AM
When Richard Feynman got The Call he hung up on the dude.
Then he bought a beach house in Baja.
October 5th, 2009 at 2:19PM
Our two weapons are logic and curiosity…and the scientific method…. Our *three* weapons are logic, curiosity, and the scientific method…and an almost fanatical devotion to the truth…. Our *four*…no… *Amongst* our weapons…. Amongst our weaponry…are such elements as logic, curiosity…. I’ll come in again.
October 5th, 2009 at 2:23PM
I’m laughing way out loud, GTWMA.
October 5th, 2009 at 4:52PM
Except Kary Mullis:
"People don’t realize that molecules themselves are somewhat hypothetical, and that their interactions are more so, and that the biological reactions are even more so."
K. M. received the Nobel Prize for discovering PCR, the polymerase chain reaction. This discovery allows the amplification of minute quantities of DNA for purposes such as identification of people who leave minute samples at, say, crime scenes…
October 5th, 2009 at 5:56PM
And my favorite part of that skit is the "..Amongst our weapons..Amongst our weaponry…"
October 5th, 2009 at 5:58PM
Can I just mention here how much I hope the upcoming Chemistry Nobel is given to actual chemists this time, and not biologists or medical types? That approach is an ex-parrot.
October 5th, 2009 at 10:51PM
I hope that this finding leads to further research. It would be nice to see some advancements on disease, aging (especially the brain) and most of all cancer. It is about time.