Oct 08 2008 The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded this week to
two French virologists, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc A.
Montagnier, for discovering the AIDS causing virus, the Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). They will share half the prize of
1.4 million dollars, the other half going to three Dr. Harald
zur Hausen for discovering the human papilloma virus and its
relation to cervical cancer. The prize comes 25 years after
Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier, working at the Pasteur Institute
in Paris, published their paper identifying what was later
called HIV. The last quarter of a century has proven their
discovery to be a triumph of science-based medicine. The Nobel
committee is correct, in my opinion, in waiting such long
periods of time before granting such recognition. It reflects
that fact that, even in a fast-paced arena of science such as
medicine, it takes time for the meticulous process of science to
work itself out. It takes decades to garner the perspective
necessary to tell the difference betwe