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  • Category: Miscellaneous

    Barry Marshall took a very risky decision to win the Nobel Prize

    Barry Marshall, an eminent Australian physician and scientist, had been conducting research on the Helicobacter pylori bacteria at the Freemantle Hospital and Royal Perth Hospital (both in Australia) for a very long time. After his painstaking research, he was fully convinced that this bacteria causes stomach ulcers, but no one believed him.

    It was illegal to test his theory on humans, so he was forced to take a very risky decision. Marshall himself drank a broth containing cultured H. pylori, expecting to develop an ulcer. He was surprised when only after three days he developed vague nausea and halitosis. After repeated endoscopy it was found that the bacteria colonised his stomach. Marshall began to take antibiotics. Ultimately he recovered. This experiment was published in 1985 in the Medical Journal of Australia.

    For this very risky experiment on himself, Barry Marshall was awarded Nobel Prize for medicine in the year 2005.
  • #776942
    I read about that long back in the newspaper and it was a viral news at that time. It is remarkable for a researcher or doctor to offer himself for the testing of some research finding. In scientific research especially in medical sciences there is always a problem of testing to establish the results. First these tests are made on the animals and then only are required to be tested or prescribed on human beings.
    Knowledge is power.

  • #776944
    Generally, when a new molecule is discovered until it is test verified, it is not allowed to be administered to humans. When new vaccines were discovered for COVID-19, a lot of time was spent on proving their reliability.
    But in this particular case, it is to identify the nature of a particular bacteria which is not good for humans, the scientist himself consumed the doses of the same. It is very risky and there is nothing wrong with giving him the Nobel prize. His research might have saved many lives. I salute Barry Marshall for his act and congratulate him on winning the prize.

    drrao
    always confident


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