The Medicine Nobel Prize Honors the Discovery of Temperature and Touch Receptors (npr.org) 17
The Nobel Prize in the field of physiology or medicine has been awarded to U.S.-based scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian. From a report: They were cited for their discovery of receptors for temperature and touch. The winners were announced Monday by Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Committee.Patrik Ernfors of the Nobel Committee said Julius, 65, used capsaicin, the active component in chili peppers, to identify the nerve sensors that allow the skin to respond to heat. Patapoutian found separate pressure-sensitive sensors in cells that respond to mechanical stimulation, he said. "This really unlocks one of the secrets of nature," said Perlmann. "It's actually something that is crucial for our survival, so it's a very important and profound discovery." The pair also shared the prestigious Kavli Award for Neuroscience last year. Further reading: California Scientists Share Nobel for Work on Sense of Touch.
Temperature and touch senses (Score:2)
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Good choice (Score:3)
This is a very important discovery.
The mRNA folks will also get theirs, but it may take a while.
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(The DDT prize really changed how they've handed out some of the prizes, but this is high profile enough that they won't want to miss it either)
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DDT?
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Pretty effective insecticide that unfortunately causes cancer in humans and kills other things too. Got banned in the US 1972 and world-wide in 2004. Discovery got a Nobel prize in 1948.
Re: Good choice (Score:2)
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The current take is that DDT is far worse than Malaria. Also because it accumulates in fatty tissue and does not really break down in the environment.
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Oops, posted too fast. For indoor use against Malaria-carriers it is actually approved by the WHO. The dosages that get into the environment with that are far lower though. But putting a lot of DDT on swamps or fields is probably a pretty bad idea.
As so often, the dosage makes the poison.
Re: Good choice (Score:2)
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Agreed. In a few years it should be amply clear whether there are any negative side-effects to mRNA and there should be other working applications besides the COVID vaccine as well.
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The Nobels are always a few decades slow it seems - all their awards have occurred long after the discovery. I suspect a lot of it is simply seeing how significant it is - a small discovery here may have big effects later on, but the Nobel committee generally waits to see if it was a game changer or just something that no one uses in the end.
mRNA vaccines are just newsworthy now. But if they lead to new vaccines
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As stipulated in Nobel's will, and thu spart of the rule, the Nobel prizes should be awarded to discoveries that are of significant positive benefit to humanity(all those people who say it's not, and argue that strictly theoretical research is what should be rewarded are utterly wrong).
As pointed out by another poster, the Nobel Prize awarded for DDT showed that awarding it too quickly can actually break the rules for the Nobel Prizes, and thus the science and medicine committees are a bit more careful. The
Capsaicin Benefits (Score:2)
As a Chile-head, I always extol the benefits of Chile peppers. And most importantly, their key chemical --> https://www.webmd.com/diet/hea... [webmd.com]. Its use in this scientific application is just another reason. It's wild how that natural plant life was used thousands of years ago for different medicinal purposes, and we are still learning more and more about them!
Another Nobel Prize for Caltech alums (Score:2)