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A comment on 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi [pdf]. Parent comment

Re:2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to ... by jhbadger on Monday October 03, 2016 @12:52PM (#12629100)
Yes and no. You can argue that genetics of autophagy are fundamental but it is clear that the prize is being given in recognition of the fact that this led to better understanding of neurodegenerative disorders and so on. For better or worse, the Nobel doesn't really go to discoveries that don't have applications somehow.
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Re:2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to ... by dekhn on Monday October 03, 2016 @02:11PM (#12629860)
It's disappointing that the "prize is being giving in recognization ... better understanding of neurodegenerative diseases".

My point is that I think the prize itself should honor scientific achievements, rather than medical ones, and that this discovery, on its own, stands as a fundamental biological understanding. That it helped understand neurodegenerative disorders is ancillary, and unecessary to justify the prize.

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Re:2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to ... by zhemao on Monday October 03, 2016 @05:55PM (#12631686)
Alfred Nobel apparently disagreed, and it's still the interest on the money bequeathed by his will that funds the prize. So it's unlikely that the name will be changed.
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Re:2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to ... by dekhn on Tuesday October 04, 2016 @09:28AM (#12635299)
Neither kind of restriction is applied to the physics or chemistry prize (they do not require some sort of nebulous "medical benefit" to qualify).
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Re:2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to ... by zhemao on Wednesday October 05, 2016 @01:47AM (#12641794)
I'm not talking about the medical benefit, I'm talking about the name specifically. His will stated that there should be prizes for chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine.
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