Americans Andrew Fire and Craig Mello just learned that they’ve won the 2006 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine, so where does that leave immunologist Peter Doherty? Still dividing his time between the University of Melbourne in Australia and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis after winning the Nobel in medicine in 1996 (along with Rolf Zinkernagel).
1996 to 2006 … that’s enough time to author a book, and Doherty has: The Beginner’s Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize (Columbia University Press). It’s a memoir, but it’s also an argument for the proper role of science in education and society and an argument against its improper use by corporations, governments, and religious leaders.
And what’s one way to win a Nobel? A good upbringing, a good public-school education, and some good pig wrestling. As a veterinary scientist researching animal diseases, it worked for Doherty.