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Richard Scolyer Has Died

bbc.com

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Re: Richard Scolyer Has Died

#21

Post by dotcoma »

rswail wrote: post #16

His open letter, released after his death: My fellow Australians, I pen this letter as a final goodbye to all those I have had the immense privilege of loving, sharing life’s adventures with, working alongside and meeting during what can only be described as a life filled with happiness, optimism, opportunity and passion. My intention is for this letter to be published upon my passing – as my final farewell. I’ve spe…

Great letter, but not a word for his friend, colleague and co-Australian of the Year, Professor Georgina Long?

Re: Richard Scolyer Has Died

#24

Post by rob74 »

dsign wrote: post #13
lukan wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"because we've eradicated lots of things that killed people before they were old enough to develop cancer" The other reason might be, we introduced lots of new cancer inducing compounds. Also cancer is very complex and a broad term. "Solving" it likely requires solving the human body first, as in understanding every mechanism to the finest details.

Not to subtract from anything you said, but something that could help us, in the aggregate, as a society, is to frame things differently. Today, most people say "human biology is a thing of wonder" "Humans are built for longevity". And when a terrible ailment strikes, they explain it with "The meaning of life/God/The devil/We must die of something!" In my mind, we could create a human systems biology profession where…

It's actually both - a thing of wonder wrought up by tens of millions of years of mindless evolution. And most scientists would already be happy to be able to "hack" this incredibly complex system to achieve a certain goal (e.g. cure cancer), not "refactor" the whole code, as you seem to be suggesting.

Re: Richard Scolyer Has Died

#25

Post by djanogo »

dotcoma wrote: post #21
rswail wrote: post #16

His open letter, released after his death: My fellow Australians, I pen this letter as a final goodbye to all those I have had the immense privilege of loving, sharing life’s adventures with, working alongside and meeting during what can only be described as a life filled with happiness, optimism, opportunity and passion. My intention is for this letter to be published upon my passing – as my final farewell. I’ve spe…

Great letter, but not a word for his friend, colleague and co-Australian of the Year, Professor Georgina Long?

I would bet he wrote a private letter to her.

Re: Richard Scolyer Has Died

#27

Post by eptcyka »

ainiriand wrote: post #4

As a brain tumor survivor I count each day as a blessing. I was diagnosed at 14 and your chances are slightly better as a kid. Even then it came back at 16 again but now I do not even do checks anymore and I am 44 now. People like Dr. Scoyler or my own doctor are always in my heart, we owe them so much.

Survival need not mean a happy life either. My brother had one before he could speak - at 1 year old. It was removed, but he has been suffering from epileptic seizures ever since.

Re: Richard Scolyer Has Died

#28

Post by ainiriand »

eptcyka wrote: post #27
ainiriand wrote: post #4

As a brain tumor survivor I count each day as a blessing. I was diagnosed at 14 and your chances are slightly better as a kid. Even then it came back at 16 again but now I do not even do checks anymore and I am 44 now. People like Dr. Scoyler or my own doctor are always in my heart, we owe them so much.

Survival need not mean a happy life either. My brother had one before he could speak - at 1 year old. It was removed, but he has been suffering from epileptic seizures ever since.

Sorry to hear that :( In my case I only lost hearing from one side due to nerve damage, it also impacted balance in those early years but interestingly enough that improved a lot just by using the other inner ear.

Re: Richard Scolyer Has Died

#29

Post by perilunar »

onion2k wrote: post #8
dsign wrote: post #7

I have a habit of reading obituaries and of getting a small reprieve when the cause of death is not cancer. I have the feeling that, for something that kills one in four people, we should be doing more as a society, and not leave the problem to a small group of people desperately fighting in the shadows. Thank you for your service, Dr. Scoyler.

One of the reasons cancer kills 1 in 4 people because we've eradicated lots of things that killed people before they were old enough to develop cancer. If we ever manage to cure cancer (or some cancers, because it's a taxonomy rather than a thing) then people will die of something else. No doubt we'll then wonder why we never spent enough effort curing whatever that is. There will always be a reason why people die, a…

> If we ever manage to cure cancer ... then people will die of something else.

Well yes, people will still die, but in the process average life expectancy goes up. I think Aubrey de Grey once said that if you cured cancer and aging then the average life span would be seven hundred years or so, based on death rates due to accidents and murder, etc.

Re: Richard Scolyer Has Died

#30

Post by Tade0 »

dsign wrote: post #7

I have a habit of reading obituaries and of getting a small reprieve when the cause of death is not cancer. I have the feeling that, for something that kills one in four people, we should be doing more as a society, and not leave the problem to a small group of people desperately fighting in the shadows. Thank you for your service, Dr. Scoyler.

It's an old person's disease. 30% of all cancers occur after the age of 74, 50% after 50.

I used to work in the pharmaceutical industry and my experience is that people in this field in particular are extremely passionate - you can immediately tell who lost loved ones to cancer.

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