
Nobel Prize in Medicine 2015: Therapies against roundworm and malaria [pdf] - globuous
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2015/press.pdf
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sasvari
I submitted the press release [0], which has a bit more information about
their discoveries.

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10330710](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10330710)

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dang
Thank you. We've changed the URL to that from
[http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/20...](http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2015/).

Edit: see also
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10332900](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10332900).

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druml
s/Medecine/Medicine

~~~
dang
Fixed. Thanks.

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zaczac
Congrats China!

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ISL
Congrats, world! These are drugs that have been doing a lot of good for
decades.

~~~
zaczac
Yes, that is true. However, China had been putting it's whole country's effort
to make this happen. Thanks, China!

~~~
druml
Ms Tu's work was done during the Cultural Revolution. While most of the
scientific research and higher education activities were utterly disrupted by
the politics, this research project was well protected and allocated resource
because Mao needed this to help the communist side in the Vietnam war. Ms Tu
does deserve the prize, and it is a great news for the country, but IMO China
would have contributed much more to science if it was not "putting it's whole
country's effort to make this happen".

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xiaq
> IMO China would have contributed much more to science if it was not "putting
> it's whole country's effort to make this happen".

How do you come to this conclusion? If China was not "putting it's whole
country's effort to make this happen", then Ms Tu's work will be delayed, but
hopefully the funds can now go into some other research. But does that
necessarily mean "much more to science" in the net outcome?

~~~
druml
I should rephrase my last sentence as "China would have contributed much more
to science if the Cultural Revolution did not happen."

Referring to the historical context, Mao just introduced the Revolution at
that time. As a consequence research institutions and universities were shut
down, and scientists and intellectuals were sent to villages to be "re-
educated" by farmers. Later Ho Chi Minh asked Mao for medical help for
malaria, and Mao assembled 600 scientists who were still available, including
Ms Tu, to start a military research project.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_523](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_523)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technol...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science_and_technology_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China#Tensions_in_the_1950s_to_1970s)

If the Cultural Revolution did not happen, most of the scientists in China at
that time would be doing their own research, instead of being banished,
humiliated and tortured. And Ms Tu would have more colleagues and a better
scientific environment to work with.

