This book is a must not only for neuroscientists and historians but also for physicians all around the world who are interested in the history of medicine, the Karolinska Institute, and the two Swedish contemporaries Axel Key and Alfred Nobel. It provides enjoyable and informative reading, and, with a large number of portraits, it puts faces to the nerves, cells, microbes and diseases that have been named after their famous discoverers.
A Karger 'Publishing Highlights 1890-2015' title This superbly illustrated book gives insights into the political and medical background of the history of the mid to late 19th century scientific efforts in Europe. The biographies of Axel Key and Alfred Nobel among others are artfully intertwined within this history. Focusing on the struggle for recognition by Axel Key for the Karolinska Institute, the book also describes the intimate relationships of academia in promoting their dreams to fruition. Axel Key, a professor of pathology at the Karolinska Institute and the main player in this book, takes us on an exciting, informative historical romp through Europe, describing in detail his meetings with the most eminent scientists of the era whose names have become household in every facet of medicine today - one of the most prominent of which was Alfred Nobel. After Nobel's death, Axel Key played a decisive role in the final implementation of his will and the association of the Karolinska Institute with the Nobel Prize in Medicine. The text is laced with literally hundreds of tiny, albeit very interesting details of considerable significance. The appendix must be given special attention as it provides biographies of all the numerous scientists who are mentioned in the book - fascinating data hard to find in current reference books. This book is a must not only for neuroscientists and historians but also for physicians all around the world who are interested in the history of medicine, the Karolinska Institute, and the two Swedish contemporaries Axel Key and Alfred Nobel. It provides enjoyable and informative reading, and, with a large number of portraits, it puts faces to the nerves, cells, microbes and diseases that have been named after their famous discoverers.
Attributing Excellence in Medicine discusses the aura around the prestigious Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. It analyzes the social processes and contingent factors leading to recognition and reputation in science and medicine. This volume will help the reader to better understand the dynamics of the attribution of excellence throughout the 20th century. Contributors are Massimiano Bucchi, Fabio De Sio, Jacalyn Duffin, Heiner Fangerau, Thorsten Halling, Nils Hansson, David S. Jones, Gustav Källstrand, Ulrich Koppitz, Pauline Mattsson, Katarina Nordqvist, Scott H. Podolsky, Thomas Schlich, and Sven Widmalm.
The present book discusses the prizes in physiology or medicine 1963-65. The 1963 prize recognized milestone discoveries in the field of neurosciences, the way electrical impulses are generated and spread in nerves. The impressive developments of insights into tantalizing brain functions, like consciousness and memory, is discussed in the perspective of prizes both before and after the 1963 prize. The prize in 1964 marked the advanced biochemical venture that led to a full understanding of the synthesis of cholesterol, a central molecule for providing flexibility of the membranes of the trillions of cell in our body. The importance of this molecule for the appearance of cardiovascular diseases and the possibilities to prevent them is presented in the light of other prizes earlier and later in this field. The 1965 prize recognized three impressive French intellectuals, Lwoff, Monod and Jacob. Their contributions allowed the full maturation of the initial phase of the emerging field of molecular biology. The comprehension of the information flow from DNA via RNA to proteins was the source of a revolution of life sciences and of medicine.
The Nobel Prizes m natural sciences have achieved the reputation of being the ultimate accolade for scientific achievements. This honk gives a unique insight into the selection of Nobel Prize recipients, in particular the life sciences. The evolving mechanisms of selection of prize recipients are illustrated by reference to archives, which have remained secret for 1) years. Many of the prizes subjected to particular evaluation concern awards given for discoveries in the field of infectious diseases and the interconnected field of genetics. The book illustrates the individuals and environments that are conducive to scientific creativity. Nowhere is this enigmatic activity'-- the mime mover in advancing the human condition highlighted as lucidly as by identification individuals worthy of Nobel Prizes. --Book Jacket.
Each year the Nobel Prizes in the natural sciences reveal amazing discoveries. Nominations are kept secret for 50 years after the awards have been made. Covering the awards from 1960 to 1962, this book reveals discoveries relating to the control of infectious diseases and the advent of organ transplant organs, as well as advances in molecular biology.
We are swamped with information and each day seems to bring new discoveries that must be considered. Never before in the history of science have so many scientists been as active as today. It has become a major problem for the expert just to keep up with the literature in his or her own field of research. Why, then, should experts and their poor students worry about the pioneers of microbiology, those half-forgotten scientists who a century ago devoted their lives to a new science that was on its way to revolutionizing medicine?With so many new facts and problems screaming for our attention, it is easy to lose sight of the long road that we have travelled in order to get to the point where we are now. Tracing the path of those who have gone before us will help us to see our own scientific goals and efforts in a more revealing perspective.The great figures who are at the center of interest in this book — Robert Koch, Emil von Behring, Paul Ehrlich and Elie Metchnikoff — were far from uncontroversial during their lifetimes. It is interesting to see how they were judged by their peers at the Karolinska Institutet when they were considered for the Nobel Prize.Pioneers of Microbiology and the Nobel Prize has been written in such a way that it can be enjoyed even without an extensive knowledge of microbiology and medicine. In fact, a considerable part of the book portrays the state of medicine during the middle of the 19th century, when bacteriology can be said to have made its debut on the medical scene.
The present book discusses the Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine from 1969 to 1971. The 1969 prize recognized Max Delbrück, Alfred Hershey and Salvador Luria. Their pioneering studies of viruses infecting bacteria, bacteriophages, from the mid-1940s through the 1950s laid the foundation for the wide field of molecular biology. The nature of the gene was finally understood. Insights into the biochemistry of the critical information molecules, the nucleic acids, opened wide vistas for interpreting their expression and the interaction of their product with other gene products.The contact between the endings of a nerve and a target cell, the synapse, has always stirred the imagination of scientists. A number of the insights gained have been highlighted by Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine. In 1970 the prize recognized Bernard Katz, Ulf von Euler and Julius Axelrod. They had revealed how signaling substances in the nerve terminals were stored in packages, released by membrane fusion and inactivated or reused by particular metabolic events.The recipient of the 1971 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was a single scientist, Earl Sutherland. He had identified critical molecules in cells that allow signals elicited at their surface via a number of internal steps to influence the expression of specific genes in the nucleus. The new kind of information transmitting molecules were referred to as 'secondary messengers'. They represent a critical part of a highly complex network of signaling controlling the operative conditions of the cell by adjustments of the so-called intermediary metabolism.The widening insights into functions of specialized cells and their complex interactions have led to the development of many kinds of remedies.
