Science

struggle4progress

(118,295 posts) Sat Nov 28, 2015, 09:52 PM Nov 2015

Nobel Prize In Chemistry Sparks Questions About How Winners Are Selected

Volume 93 Issue 45 | pp. 35-36 | Latest News
Web Date: November 11, 2015
By David Kroll

... Many .. pointed out that the DNA repair field is a large one whose original discoveries were made more than 50 years ago, before even the eldest winner — Lindahl — had earned his PhD ... Lindahl, Modrich, and Sancar built on earlier discoveries ...

... Moran expressed displeasure that ... the Nobel Committee ignored ... contributions of Philip Hanawalt ... Moran cited reviews .. describing critical experiments carried out during the 1960s by .. Howard-Flanders .. and .. Setlow .. that revealed how a repair system in bacteria could excise DNA bases damaged by UV light ...

... Rupert at Johns Hopkins University was studying how UV light kills bacteria in the late ’50s ... By 1960, Rupert reported that an enzyme, which he dubbed photolyase, was responsible for this photoreactivation process and could reverse thymine dimers in bacterial DNA ...

By 1974, Hanawalt had organized the first conference on DNA repair ... Modrich and Sancar were not yet working in the field ...

Sancar says .. Rupert .. was the second person he called after the .. announcement. “He was ecstatic” ...

... Hanawalt objects to the characterization that he was overlooked by Nobel ...

http://cen.acs.org/articles/93/i45/Years-Nobel-Prize-Chemistry-Sparks.html

7 replies

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Nobel Prize In Chemistry Sparks Questions About How Winners Are Selected (Original Post) struggle4progress Nov 2015 OP

All science is derivative and built on the work of other people Warpy Nov 2015 #1

I just thought it was an interesting article struggle4progress Nov 2015 #3

Everyone stands on the shoulders (work) TexasProgresive Nov 2015 #2

True, no matter the field of endeavor. bvf Nov 2015 #5

Thanks for that-I will read up on Perelman after I get home. TexasProgresive Nov 2015 #6

Controversy over the Nobel Prizes is not that uncommon Fortinbras Armstrong Nov 2015 #4

Happens often Seattle_photog Dec 2015 #7

Warpy

(111,277 posts)

1. All science is derivative and built on the work of other people

Reply to struggle4progress (Original post)

Sat Nov 28, 2015, 10:01 PM

Nov 2015

Sometimes the earlier work was passed over by Nobel committees simply because the prizes are so few and more important research needed to be recognized. Sometimes its results were considered to be curiosities without practical application. Likely these guys were just doing the right thing at the right time.

However they're awarded, they allow researchers to continue doing pure research, unburdened by corporate expectations of the outcome.

struggle4progress

(118,295 posts)

3. I just thought it was an interesting article

Reply to Warpy (Reply #1)

Sat Nov 28, 2015, 10:28 PM

Nov 2015

TexasProgresive

(12,157 posts)

2. Everyone stands on the shoulders (work)

Reply to struggle4progress (Original post)

Sat Nov 28, 2015, 10:18 PM

Nov 2015

of those who have gone before them. They are no purely original discoveries.

bvf

(6,604 posts)

5. True, no matter the field of endeavor.

Reply to TexasProgresive (Reply #2)

Sun Nov 29, 2015, 01:41 PM

Nov 2015

I've always liked the account of Grigori Perelman, who turned down the Fields Medal and Clay Millennium Prize ($1,000,000) in mathematics for his proof of the Poincaré conjecture, citing the work of a predecessor (Hamilton), who developed the method central to the proof.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Perelman

TexasProgresive

(12,157 posts)

6. Thanks for that-I will read up on Perelman after I get home.

Reply to bvf (Reply #5)

Sun Nov 29, 2015, 01:47 PM

Nov 2015

Fortinbras Armstrong

(4,473 posts)

4. Controversy over the Nobel Prizes is not that uncommon

Reply to struggle4progress (Original post)

Sun Nov 29, 2015, 05:51 AM

Nov 2015

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_controversies for a write-up

Seattle_photog

(4 posts)

7. Happens often

Reply to struggle4progress (Original post)

Thu Dec 3, 2015, 09:51 PM

Dec 2015

One or more important scientists are always left out of the Nobel. One of my colleagues experienced that disappointment several years ago. The first thing he did was send congratulatory notes to the winners. I knew he was disappointed and hurting, but he was also happy that his field had been recognized.

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