Posted on 10/06/2008 8:40:31 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Three scientists who discovered the causes of the two most lethal sexually-transmitted infections, Aids and cervical cancer, have been honoured today with the Nobel Prize for Medicine.
Professor Luc Montagnier and Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, both from France, were awarded the prestigous accolade for identifying HIV, the virus that causes Aids, while Professor Harald zur Hausen was recognised for tracing the human papillomavirus (HPV) as the cause of cervical cancer.
While the prizes have been welcomed as richly deserved, the HIV part of the award has caused controversy because the Nobel Assembly has overlooked the claims of a third scientist who played a pivotal role in the discovery of HIV.
Professor Robert Gallo, an American, is widely accepted to have identified the human immunodeficiency virus independently of Professor Montagnier and Professor Barré-Sinoussi, though he published his first paper a year after his French rivals.
The two teams fought bitterly over which deserved priority, and a compromise that shared the credit was eventually brokered in 1987 by President Reagan and Jacques Chirac, who was then the French Prime Minister.
Professor Gallo, whose earlier work on the virus family to which HIV belongs was also important to the French team’s discovery, was not mentioned at all in today’s Nobel citation.
He described it as “a disappointment” not to have been included, though he said he accepted that all three of the recipients deserved their honours.
The Nobel Prize is never awarded to more than three people. On this occasion, the judges decided first to split the medicine award between the HPV and HIV discoveries, and then had to select three individuals to honour. Professor Gallo appears to have been the odd one out.
Most scientists in the field tend to give priority to the French team, and their paper is more heavily cited
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
I was in Biotech back then and the word on the grapevine was Gallo is a first class a-hole.
Well, Barack Obama HUSSEIN is Thrilled! since the American was put down in favor of the Leftist French Socialists!
Merci ber Cuop to the Chicago Thug:-(
Gallo STOLE the credit for supposedly discovering HIV from Montagnier. Gallo should be driven out of science for his holier-than-thou SOB attitude. And of course the schmucks at FDA didn’t look at science but went after the political glory in backing Gallo’s claims. For once, I agree with the Nobel Committee’s decision and Professor Luc Montagnier rightly deserves the honor, not Gallo.
Gallo was beyond a first class a-hole. His arrogance had no bounds and his science was community college at best.
The jokes just write themselves....
In “And the Band Played On,” Randy Shilts discussed Dr. Gallo at length. According Mr. Shilts, Dr. Gallo was interested in HIV research only for the recognition and benefits it could bring him, and sought to discredit other researchers with competing theories. It’s been over fifteen years since I read that book, and Dr. Gallo still stands out prominently as a first-class SOB. In light of recent developments, I should probably read it again. I remember it as a well-written and fairly-reported book account of the early days of AIDS.
Oh well, maybe next time I'll get the Nobel (or whatever I fish out of a Cracker Jack box.).
God help me if I ever did anything that brought me to the attention of the awards committees for the Nobel prizes, because they are so TOTALLY POLITICAL that I would deliberately wait until I was selected and then have a big public affair to tell them what as&*^%$$%^&s they are. Who, just watching their selected winners cannot see the huge stench of politics in it all???
A Lady Named Irena
There recently was a death of a 98 year old lady named Irena.
During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist.
She had an ulterior motive...
She KNEW what the Nazi’s plans were for the Jews, (being German).
Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of her tool box she carried, and she carried in the back of her truck a Burlap sack, (for larger kids).
She also had a dog in the back, that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in, and out of the ghetto.
The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog, and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.
During her time and course of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.
She was caught, and the Nazi’s broke both her legs, and arms, and beat her severely.
Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out, and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard.
After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it, and reunited the family.
Most of course had been gassed.
Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes, or adopted.
Last year Irena was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
She LOST.
Al Gore won, for doing a slide show on Global Warming.
She LOST.
Al Gore won, for doing a slide show on Global Warming.”
That truly $uck$. If algore was any sort of man he would have given up the prize for her. If he didn't know before winning he should have publicly given her the prize when ha found out.
Just totally unbelievable, or too believable.
And yet I believe she is now receieving glories and honor far surpassing anything that mere man can bestow.
And Al Gore is still an #ssh#l#.
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