Author: Moira Doran.
Publisher: Huacheng Press.
Subtitle: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine That Changed the World, 1901-1950
Original title: Boneheads and Brainiacs: Heroes and Scoundrels of the First 50 Years of the Nobel Prize in Medicine
Translator: Du Xingping.
The book covers the first 50 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine between 1901 and 1950. The book tells 40 chapters, 39 of which are stories of Nobel laureates in physiology or medicine and the new methods they invented and the lives that relate to them.
In his will, Nobel stipulated that the annual prize would be paid in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace and arms reduction, as well as "medicine or physiology". The Nobel Prize in Medicine can be awarded either for clinical applied medical research, which directly benefits patients, or for biological research that breaks cognitive limitations. Many of the winners have been awarded for their early research, and some have been awarded decades ago.
The decision-making body for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is a 50-member Nobel Assembly elected from the staff of the Karolinska Institutet, a large medical school and research center in Stockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Conference then elects five members to serve on the Nobel Committee, each serving a term of two to three years.
Nominations for awards are not allowed to be self-nominated. As far as nominations for the Physiology or Medicine Prize are concerned, the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institute shall annually invite nominations to members of the Academy, university professors, scientists and former Nobel laureates. When the experts have completed their evaluation, a five-member committee will nominate the winners to the 50-member conference.
The Nobel Prize in the first 50 years has made significant progress in understanding the human body, its health and disease prevention. Nobel laureates have developed and manufactured medicines that have saved countless lives
Sulfonamides, penicillin, and hormones – insulin, cortisone, and thyroxine – have been found to be life-saving.
Precise blood grouping, aseptic procedures during surgery, and vascular suturing have evolved so that surgery is no longer a death sentence for the patient, but a life-saving option.
Over the years, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has witnessed many achievements: the recording of many elements of the immune system, the in-depth study of genetics, the discovery of electrical and chemical conduction of nerve impulses, the identification of various vitamins, the identification of vectors of malaria and typhus insects
The invention of the electrocardiogram machine and cerebral angiography surgery, as well as biochemistry, have also made great progress in the level of cognition at the cellular level, respiratory system, heart rate, optometry, balance system, and muscle physiology.
A book that allows us to understand the history of popular science and the stories behind these winners, let us see that medical scholars are selflessly dedicated to the cause they love, and because they love it, they persevere.