2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi [pdf]
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Re: 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi [pdf]
#2I wish they'd rename the prize to "Nobel Prize in Fundamental Biology". Medicine is important but this is clearly a fundamental biology discovery.
Re: 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi [pdf]
#3I wish they'd rename the prize to "Nobel Prize in Fundamental Biology". Medicine is important but this is clearly a fundamental biology discovery.
This leans more to the physiology side of the prize I believe.
Re: 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi [pdf]
#4Not to CRISPR - again!...
Re: 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi [pdf]
#5I wish they'd rename the prize to "Nobel Prize in Fundamental Biology". Medicine is important but this is clearly a fundamental biology discovery.
The physiology/fundamental biology is the area that needs /deserves the academic praise and where the public support and attention will do the most good. The application of that information by Pharmaceutical companies and physicians is often (not always) much more routine and intellectually incremental. This ia a great choice for the prize.
I fully acknowledge that I'm very biased as a 'scientist type'.
Re: 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi [pdf]
#6I wish they'd rename the prize to "Nobel Prize in Fundamental Biology". Medicine is important but this is clearly a fundamental biology discovery.
This leans more to the physiology side of the prize I believe.
right I'm saying that 'biology' is a more appropriate term than physiology.
Re: 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi [pdf]
#7Not to CRISPR - again!...
While CRISPR is an incredible technology with plenty of current exposure, the Nobel Prize in Medicine tends to move slowly; often discoveries that first debuted 20 years ago are only finally recognized. CRISPR will have its day in the Nobel sun, but unlikely in this decade.
Re: 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi [pdf]
#8I wish they'd rename the prize to "Nobel Prize in Fundamental Biology". Medicine is important but this is clearly a fundamental biology discovery.
Yes and no. You can argue that genetics of autophagy are fundamental but it is clear that the prize is being given in recognition of the fact that this led to better understanding of neurodegenerative disorders and so on. For better or worse, the Nobel doesn't really go to discoveries that don't have applications somehow.
Re: 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi [pdf]
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
This leans more to the physiology side of the prize I believe.
right I'm saying that 'biology' is a more appropriate term than physiology.
Except it's not. Autophagy as a process happens at the cellular level but the whole reason it's important is because it has emergent ramifications for the entire living organism, impacting on metabolism, senescence, carcinogenesis and a number of other endpoints that operate at organismal scale. Your characterisation of this as "fundamental biology" obscures this emergence.
Appropriateness aside, I think the real reason we don't have a Nobel for Biology is probably a result of the fact that Alfred Nobel cared more about the pursuit of knowledge for the betterment of the human condition, rather than for its own sake. I imagine he learned the limitations of the latter approach the hard way through personal experience considering his most (in)famous invention...
Re: 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi [pdf]
#10Not to CRISPR - again!...
I think we'll wait until a practical application sees adoption before handing out Nobels.