Australian scientist wins Nobel Prize for curiosity
Posted on October 7th, 2009 by MichaelTHE MERCURY:
TASMANIAN-born Nobel prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn is one of the world’s leading medical researchers.
The molecular biology researcher, who now lives in the US, is this year’s Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine, sharing it with two other researchers. Their award was for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said yesterday: “Australia has made frequent contributions to the world’s great discoveries and Professor Blackburn’s work continues that proud tradition,” he said. “She must also be acknowledged for her reputation as an Australian scientist who places as much weight on the ethics of research as on the practice of science.”
Professor Blackburn was famously appointed, then removed, from then US president George W. Bush’s bioethics advisory council because she objected to the practice of having religion rather than science guide its work, especially in the field of embryonic stem cell research, which was tightly restricted by the Bush administration.
••• Click here to see, in her press conference, how the Nobel laureate discusses the difference between academic research and commercial research – between curiosity and business-planning … watch?v=7jVKUIJOlMs