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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 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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