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Nobel Prize for green genes
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:45 pm
by Bob Juch
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28056265/
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - A scientist-turned-van driver in Alabama whose work helped two other men win this year's chemistry Nobel Prize is headed to Sweden to watch them collect the award.
Douglas Prasher told The Huntsville Times he was flying to Stockholm on Thursday at the invitation of winners Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien.
Prasher was a researcher in the 1980s when he isolated and copied a gene that makes some jellyfish glow green. His grant money ran out and he gave a copy of the gene to Chalfie and Tsien.
Chalfie and Tsien won the $1.4 million prize for figuring out how to use the glow to study cells. A third scientist shared the award for discovering the protein in the 1960s.
The 57-year-old Prasher has struggled to find work as a biochemist and now drives a courtesy van for a Toyota dealership in Huntsville.
Re: Nobel Prize for green genes
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:54 pm
by ToLiveIsToFly
Bob Juch wrote:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28056265/
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - A scientist-turned-van driver in Alabama whose work helped two other men win this year's chemistry Nobel Prize is headed to Sweden to watch them collect the award.
Douglas Prasher told The Huntsville Times he was flying to Stockholm on Thursday at the invitation of winners Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien.
Prasher was a researcher in the 1980s when he isolated and copied a gene that makes some jellyfish glow green. His grant money ran out and he gave a copy of the gene to Chalfie and Tsien.
Chalfie and Tsien won the $1.4 million prize for figuring out how to use the glow to study cells. A third scientist shared the award for discovering the protein in the 1960s.
The 57-year-old Prasher has struggled to find work as a biochemist and now drives a courtesy van for a Toyota dealership in Huntsville.
Too bad Captain Kangaroo didn't live long enough to see this.
Re: Nobel Prize for green genes
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:59 pm
by Captain Planet
Oh, so that's how my hair got this color....
Whoopee, now how 'bout giving me the nobel prize for saving your damn planet!
Re: Nobel Prize for green genes
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 4:03 pm
by Al Gore
Captain Planet wrote:Oh, so that's how my hair got this color....
Whoopee, now how 'bout giving me the nobel prize for saving your damn planet!
They don't just give Nobel prizes to anyone, Blueboy....
Maybe your old boss Ted Turner can give you one of his leftover medals from the Goodwill Games.....
Re: Nobel Prize for green genes
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 4:06 pm
by littlebeast13
ToLiveIsToFly wrote:Bob Juch wrote:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28056265/
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - A scientist-turned-van driver in Alabama whose work helped two other men win this year's chemistry Nobel Prize is headed to Sweden to watch them collect the award.
Douglas Prasher told The Huntsville Times he was flying to Stockholm on Thursday at the invitation of winners Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien.
Prasher was a researcher in the 1980s when he isolated and copied a gene that makes some jellyfish glow green. His grant money ran out and he gave a copy of the gene to Chalfie and Tsien.
Chalfie and Tsien won the $1.4 million prize for figuring out how to use the glow to study cells. A third scientist shared the award for discovering the protein in the 1960s.
The 57-year-old Prasher has struggled to find work as a biochemist and now drives a courtesy van for a Toyota dealership in Huntsville.
Too bad Captain Kangaroo didn't live long enough to see this.
But Mr. Green Jeans is well aware of the honor.....
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11082
lb13
Re: Nobel Prize for green genes
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 4:08 pm
by Captain Planet
Al Gore wrote:Captain Planet wrote:Oh, so that's how my hair got this color....
Whoopee, now how 'bout giving me the nobel prize for saving your damn planet!
They don't just give Nobel prizes to anyone, Blueboy....
Maybe your old boss Ted Turner can give you one of his leftover medals from the Goodwill Games.....
Hey hair gel, hows about you just shut the hell up.
Ted Turner couldn't hold my blue jockstrap. What did he have, one Turner Field?
Have you ever counted all the PLANETariums? Have you?
So you just keep bitching and moaning about how inconvenient things are for you and how you really won the 2000 election and leave the planet saving to the big boys.
Re: Nobel Prize for green genes
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 4:13 pm
by Catfish
Bob Juch wrote:Prasher was a researcher in the 1980s when he isolated and copied a gene that makes some jellyfish glow green
Isn't this the Toutant Gene?
Re: Nobel Prize for green genes
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 4:36 pm
by ghostjmf
It was classy of them to invite him
It would be classier of them to have given him a job on the project
Or now
Yeah, I know, I don't know what his life circumstances are etc that lead to the career ending, but I'd be willing to bet he didn't self-destruct, & just wasn't as good at kissing A** as others in the field are, or didn't get the right opportunity at the right time, or something
Re: Nobel Prize for green genes
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 4:39 pm
by ghostjmf
Also: How come the person who discoverd the protein in the 60s gets to share the prize, but the guy who isolated the gene in the 80s doesn't?
You can't win the Nobel if you're dead. That's the reason always given for Rosalind Franklin not being given it along with Watson & Crick.
"Driving a Van" is not "Dead".
Re: Nobel Prize for green genes
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 4:45 pm
by Bob Juch
ghostjmf wrote:It was classy of them to invite him
It would be classier of them to have given him a job on the project
Or now
Yeah, I know, I don't know what his life circumstances are etc that lead to the career ending, but I'd be willing to bet he didn't self-destruct, & just wasn't as good at kissing A** as others in the field are, or didn't get the right opportunity at the right time, or something
I have to wonder why he stayed in town. He should have been able to get a job somewhere else.