8 ms·

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021

213 points by OrangeTux 5y ago

dschiavu 5y ago
I was expecting the prize to be awarded to mRNA vaccines related work.
bitzlab 5y ago
We need more advanced technology in medicine especially. And, what do you think? We do have it! Human understanding of body pathology is crucial factor on our journey for discovering a long and healthy life. Psychology as well is playing alongside biology producing impressive results. If all these knowledge's we have could help the organic food evolution Researches and development might create natural products like ( ex: https://www.natrmd.com/product/daily-greens-organic-superfood https://www.natrmd.com/product/daily-greens-organic-superfoo... ) with possible natural remedy effects offering us the resources we need to achieve higher quality on every aspect. Imagine your body with no toxins powered with best quality food rigorously farmed.
sz4kerto 5y ago
I believe Nobels for mRNA vaccines will come next year or in the year after. There's no urgency when it comes to awarding Nobel Prizes.
- giarc 5y ago
  Some urgency since they don't give the award to people that have passed away.
  - tiborsaas 5y ago
    Katalin Karikó is 66 now and not 99 ;)
- Zitrax 5y ago
  Related: Here is an article investigating the delay between discovery and award: https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.5.2012/full/ https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.5.2012/full... As can be seen there the delay is often measured in decades. For medicine many awards around 20 years or more after discovery.
OskarS 5y ago
Seems to me like maybe a more worthy recipient of this prize might be the vaccines that are currently saving hundreds of million of people from dying in the worst pandemic in a century? You know, the miracle vaccines that were developed many times faster than any other vaccine in history? The ones that (despite being perfectly safe, effective, and arguably the greatest achievement in medicine since antibiotics) are subject to an epidemic of skepticism, where a Nobel Prize could really help?
- MontyCarloHall 5y ago
  In general the Nobel committee really dislikes awarding scientific prizes to applied research. People have been pointing out for years that they ignore this at their own detriment [0]. [0] https://www.nature.com/articles/nmat2602 https://www.nature.com/articles/nmat2602
- mlang23 5y ago
  I stopped taking the nobel prize seriously when they awarded the peace nobel prize to Obama.
  - OskarS 5y ago
    The Peace Prize has it’s fair share of whoppers (Henry Kissinger!), but the science ones are usually not quite that clueless. This oversight though, this one is pretty baffling to me.
  - Kelteseth 5y ago
    We live in a world where the Nobel Peace Prize winner, bombed another Nobel Peace Prize winner. - https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/world/asia/obama-apologizes-for-bombing-of-afghanistan-hospital.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/world/asia/obama-apologiz...
  - jeltz 5y ago
    Isn't that exactly why they should not give a prize for mRNA vaccines. The Norwegian Nobel Committee (the people who hand out the peace prize) has a history of handing out the prize too early (Obama, Arafat, etc) while the Swedish Research Council are much more cautious when handing out prizes.
siva7 5y ago
I would have appreciated this year's one going for mRNA vaccine research as this would have been clearly the one to meet Nobel's will.
- T3RMINATED 5y ago
  mRNA kills humans whats wrong with you
- ChemSpider 5y ago
  I agree, but I guess the challenge here is who are the 3 scientists to credit? Katalin Karikó is certainly one of them, but who are the other two? Weissman? Ugur Sahin? Özlem Türeci? Ingmar Hoerr? Noubar Afeyan? And then there is the weirdo guy that calls himself "mrna vaccine inventor"? I guess the committee needs another 1-2 years time to decide on that, with the benefit of hindsight.
  - benrapscallion 5y ago
    If you look at the past awards, the Nobel committee prefers awarding those who published the earliest, fundamental results. Even if it was published in some obscure non-English language journal (see the artemisinin prize, for example).
  - OskarS 5y ago
    They've given it to organizations before (Doctors Without Borders won in 1999). Give it to Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford University then. Or "front line COVID-workers" or something. Exactly who gets it is not the main point, the main point is rewarding this incredible achievement in medicine (both the science of it, but also the work in testing, manufacturing and delivering it to patients).
    - ChemSpider 5y ago
      > They've given it to organizations before No, never (You are confusing it with the Peace Nobel)
    - 5y ago
matsemann 5y ago
I like how they always present the work in a readable way for laymen. Look forward to the various awards each year just because it's interesting to dive into all the different stuff. The talks are also often worth a watch.
- harscoat 5y ago
  eg. Explaining topology with bread donut and bretzel https://phys.org/news/2016-10-nobel-physics-prize-awarded-topology.html https://phys.org/news/2016-10-nobel-physics-prize-awarded-to...
chrisweekly 5y ago
Mods: title typo "Discoveres" -> Discoverers
Mindwipe 5y ago
Are there useful possibilities opened up by increased understanding of how the touch receptors work? I can imagine that our ability to manipulate those more effectively could have a lot of useful applications.
dav_Oz 5y ago
Before it gets hijacked by zealots on both side in saving or depopulating the planet. It was a quite conservative pick given the complexities and interwovenness of discoveries in a given field: Citation Index and some fundamental property (TRPV --> Temperature/Heat/Pain & PIEZO--> Touch/Proprioception), it was relatively easy to pinpoint those two (no pun intended). The mRNA technology would not be so clear cut in terms of persons involved since it had to go through many hurdles. There are two illustrative roadmaps [1][2] (And yes, Malone et al. was a early contributor as well (1989)[3]) [1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7554980/bin/ijms-21-06582-g001.jpg https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7554980/bin/ijm... [2]https://media.springernature.com/full/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fnrd4278/MediaObjects/41573_2014_Article_BFnrd4278_Fig1_HTML.jpg?as=webp https://media.springernature.com/full/springer-static/image/... [3]https://www.pnas.org/content/86/16/6077 https://www.pnas.org/content/86/16/6077
docdocgoose 5y ago
I appreciate that some Nobel selections, like this one, are for core biological discoveries rather than hot topics. How our bodies perceive / interface with the world is fundamental to our human experience: Pain, temperature, positioning. And that these perceptions can be significantly modulated by how our bodies process them (eg pain). Not only is their actual body of work impressive, as it cuts across so many methodologies to get a glimpse at “how things work,” their discoveries opened up fields for others.
- ramraj07 5y ago
  Hard disagree. These are for lack of better word standard discoveries that the high intensity labs discover with pretty much standard methodologies and no Innovations worthy of a Nobel. Of course we have receptors for heat and touch, and of course someone eventually found them. What’s original in that process? This is not RNAi, or CRISPR, or GFP. One of the more underwhelming Nobels in recent times. Somehow worse than superresolution.
  - baktubi 5y ago
    Hard disagree your hard disagree. If you throw a vase in the air it will fall down and shatter: like, duh it’s gravity. But how many years to figure the equations? To tie the how/why to the obvious? Don’t trivialize their work because your work didn’t receive a Nobel. K thanks. These discoveries could be game changers for prosthetics, brain computer interfaces, augmented reality, etc.
    - ramraj07 5y ago
      I’m trivializing their research based on their inherent triviality. Any new gene could be game changers for a plethora of ailments. The correct gravity comparison would be trying to celebrate someone finding the value of g in Oxford when the original measurement was in London. I didn’t say I am sour I didn’t get one. When did a film critic need an Oscar before he could criticize moviemakers?
      - 5y ago
parsimony 5y ago
The TRPV1 and TRPV8 receptors are fascinating. Genetic variants in these receptors explain why we experience things differently. https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/are-you-a-spicy-food-wimp/ https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/are-you-a-spicy-food-wimp/

213 points by OrangeTux 5y ago

I was expecting the prize to be awarded to mRNA vaccines related work.

We need more advanced technology in medicine especially. And, what do you think? We do have it! Human understanding of body pathology is crucial factor on our journey for discovering a long and healthy life. Psychology as well is playing alongside biology producing impressive results. If all these knowledge's we have could help the organic food evolution Researches and development might create natural products like ( ex: https://www.natrmd.com/product/daily-greens-organic-superfood https://www.natrmd.com/product/daily-greens-organic-superfoo... ) with possible natural remedy effects offering us the resources we need to achieve higher quality on every aspect. Imagine your body with no toxins powered with best quality food rigorously farmed.

sz4kerto 5y ago

I believe Nobels for mRNA vaccines will come next year or in the year after. There's no urgency when it comes to awarding Nobel Prizes.

giarc 5y ago
Some urgency since they don't give the award to people that have passed away.
- tiborsaas 5y ago
  Katalin Karikó is 66 now and not 99 ;)
Zitrax 5y ago
Related: Here is an article investigating the delay between discovery and award: https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.5.2012/full/ https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.5.2012/full... As can be seen there the delay is often measured in decades. For medicine many awards around 20 years or more after discovery.

OskarS 5y ago

Seems to me like maybe a more worthy recipient of this prize might be the vaccines that are currently saving hundreds of million of people from dying in the worst pandemic in a century? You know, the miracle vaccines that were developed many times faster than any other vaccine in history? The ones that (despite being perfectly safe, effective, and arguably the greatest achievement in medicine since antibiotics) are subject to an epidemic of skepticism, where a Nobel Prize could really help?

MontyCarloHall 5y ago
In general the Nobel committee really dislikes awarding scientific prizes to applied research. People have been pointing out for years that they ignore this at their own detriment [0]. [0] https://www.nature.com/articles/nmat2602 https://www.nature.com/articles/nmat2602
mlang23 5y ago
I stopped taking the nobel prize seriously when they awarded the peace nobel prize to Obama.
- OskarS 5y ago
  The Peace Prize has it’s fair share of whoppers (Henry Kissinger!), but the science ones are usually not quite that clueless. This oversight though, this one is pretty baffling to me.
- Kelteseth 5y ago
  We live in a world where the Nobel Peace Prize winner, bombed another Nobel Peace Prize winner. - https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/world/asia/obama-apologizes-for-bombing-of-afghanistan-hospital.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/world/asia/obama-apologiz...
- jeltz 5y ago
  Isn't that exactly why they should not give a prize for mRNA vaccines. The Norwegian Nobel Committee (the people who hand out the peace prize) has a history of handing out the prize too early (Obama, Arafat, etc) while the Swedish Research Council are much more cautious when handing out prizes.

siva7 5y ago

I would have appreciated this year's one going for mRNA vaccine research as this would have been clearly the one to meet Nobel's will.

T3RMINATED 5y ago
mRNA kills humans whats wrong with you
ChemSpider 5y ago
I agree, but I guess the challenge here is who are the 3 scientists to credit? Katalin Karikó is certainly one of them, but who are the other two? Weissman? Ugur Sahin? Özlem Türeci? Ingmar Hoerr? Noubar Afeyan? And then there is the weirdo guy that calls himself "mrna vaccine inventor"? I guess the committee needs another 1-2 years time to decide on that, with the benefit of hindsight.
- benrapscallion 5y ago
  If you look at the past awards, the Nobel committee prefers awarding those who published the earliest, fundamental results. Even if it was published in some obscure non-English language journal (see the artemisinin prize, for example).
- OskarS 5y ago
  They've given it to organizations before (Doctors Without Borders won in 1999). Give it to Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford University then. Or "front line COVID-workers" or something. Exactly who gets it is not the main point, the main point is rewarding this incredible achievement in medicine (both the science of it, but also the work in testing, manufacturing and delivering it to patients).
  - ChemSpider 5y ago
    > They've given it to organizations before No, never (You are confusing it with the Peace Nobel)
  - 5y ago

matsemann 5y ago

I like how they always present the work in a readable way for laymen. Look forward to the various awards each year just because it's interesting to dive into all the different stuff. The talks are also often worth a watch.

harscoat 5y ago
eg. Explaining topology with bread donut and bretzel https://phys.org/news/2016-10-nobel-physics-prize-awarded-topology.html https://phys.org/news/2016-10-nobel-physics-prize-awarded-to...

chrisweekly 5y ago

Mods: title typo "Discoveres" -> Discoverers

Mindwipe 5y ago

Are there useful possibilities opened up by increased understanding of how the touch receptors work? I can imagine that our ability to manipulate those more effectively could have a lot of useful applications.

dav_Oz 5y ago

Before it gets hijacked by zealots on both side in saving or depopulating the planet. It was a quite conservative pick given the complexities and interwovenness of discoveries in a given field: Citation Index and some fundamental property (TRPV --> Temperature/Heat/Pain & PIEZO--> Touch/Proprioception), it was relatively easy to pinpoint those two (no pun intended). The mRNA technology would not be so clear cut in terms of persons involved since it had to go through many hurdles. There are two illustrative roadmaps [1][2] (And yes, Malone et al. was a early contributor as well (1989)[3]) [1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7554980/bin/ijms-21-06582-g001.jpg https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7554980/bin/ijm... [2]https://media.springernature.com/full/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fnrd4278/MediaObjects/41573_2014_Article_BFnrd4278_Fig1_HTML.jpg?as=webp https://media.springernature.com/full/springer-static/image/... [3]https://www.pnas.org/content/86/16/6077 https://www.pnas.org/content/86/16/6077

docdocgoose 5y ago

I appreciate that some Nobel selections, like this one, are for core biological discoveries rather than hot topics. How our bodies perceive / interface with the world is fundamental to our human experience: Pain, temperature, positioning. And that these perceptions can be significantly modulated by how our bodies process them (eg pain). Not only is their actual body of work impressive, as it cuts across so many methodologies to get a glimpse at “how things work,” their discoveries opened up fields for others.

ramraj07 5y ago
Hard disagree. These are for lack of better word standard discoveries that the high intensity labs discover with pretty much standard methodologies and no Innovations worthy of a Nobel. Of course we have receptors for heat and touch, and of course someone eventually found them. What’s original in that process? This is not RNAi, or CRISPR, or GFP. One of the more underwhelming Nobels in recent times. Somehow worse than superresolution.
- baktubi 5y ago
  Hard disagree your hard disagree. If you throw a vase in the air it will fall down and shatter: like, duh it’s gravity. But how many years to figure the equations? To tie the how/why to the obvious? Don’t trivialize their work because your work didn’t receive a Nobel. K thanks. These discoveries could be game changers for prosthetics, brain computer interfaces, augmented reality, etc.
  - ramraj07 5y ago
    I’m trivializing their research based on their inherent triviality. Any new gene could be game changers for a plethora of ailments. The correct gravity comparison would be trying to celebrate someone finding the value of g in Oxford when the original measurement was in London. I didn’t say I am sour I didn’t get one. When did a film critic need an Oscar before he could criticize moviemakers?
    - 5y ago

parsimony 5y ago

The TRPV1 and TRPV8 receptors are fascinating. Genetic variants in these receptors explain why we experience things differently. https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/are-you-a-spicy-food-wimp/ https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/are-you-a-spicy-food-wimp/