I heard the news today, oh boy
I just can’t hide it. Vicariously, but the excitement is tangible.
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan shares the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. This is for his super work on the ribosome structure. I’m excited because Venki is joint Head of Division at the MRC-LMB, where I spent what were probably the six happiest years of my scientific career.
The staff of the otherwise excellent Cafe Macchiato didn’t seem to appreciate my joy, just now. This is the thing about science, isn’t it? Something big, something really, really important (to us) is nothing to the general public, until it directly affects their life. But I can’t keep quiet about it.
I’m surprised that’s considered ‘chemistry’…but I’ve met him before on an editorial visit and found him very sharp – even though he didn’t submit the manuscript I was after!
Heh. We’ve had an argument about this on Twitter. I take the line that structure is more chemistry than ‘physiology’.
He’s a very bright guy. Shame about your MS.
Some ex-laureates also make the point that it’s not easy to recognize all the important areas of modern science with the few areas stipulated in Nobel’s will. See http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427284.000-experts-call-for-nobel-prizes-to-be-revamped.html.
Thanks for the link! Looks like good quote fodder for the main page of LabLit.