Nobel Prize - Neuroscience

Nobel Trivia

When Santiago Ramon y Cajal was 11-years-old, he destroyed a neighbor's gate with a homemade cannon and spent three days in jail.3 Santiago Ramon y Cajal joined the army as a doctor in 1873 and he was sent to Cuba where he contracted malaria and dysentery. He recovered when he returned to Spain.6 Santiago Ramon y Cajal failed twice before becoming a professor of descriptive anatomy in 1883.6 In 1898, Camillo Golgi reported that he discovered a ribbon-like apparatus inside neurons of the cerebellum. This structure now bears his name as the "Golgi apparatus." As a soldier in the Polish army during World War II, Robert Barany was taken prisoner in 1915 and sent to Central Asia.1 Robert Barany suffered a stroke that left him nearly paralyzed.6 Julius Wagner-Jauregg received a diploma of Doctor of Law.2 Antonio Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz was shot in the leg by a patient. He spent the rest of his life in a wheel chair. Edgar D. Adrian was a descendent of Scottish philosopher David Hume.1 The word synapse was first used in a book called A Textbook of Physiology, part three: The Central Nervous System, by Michael Foster and assisted by Charles S. Sherrington, in 1897. It was probably Charles S. Sherrington who coined the term synapse. The word "synapse" comes from Greek: "syn" meaning "together" and "haptein" meaning "to clasp." The oldest daughter of Henry Dale married Alexander Todd. Todd was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1957.1 The idea for an experiment to demonstrate chemical neurotransmission came to Otto Loewi in a dream. Joseph Erlanger's parents immigrated from Germany to the US during the gold rush.1 Spencer Gasser was a student of Joseph Erlanger.1 Daniel Bovet spent time in South America to learn how curare was used.1 Georg von Bekesy worked in the research laboratory of the Hungarian Post Office.2 John Eccles was knighted in 1958.1 Alan Hodgkin married the daughter of Peyton Rous. Peyton Rous won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1966.1 Andrew F. Huxley was knighted in 1974.1 Ragnar Granit studied with Charles Sherrington.1 Haldan Hartline used horseshoe crabs in his early experiments about the visual system. Julius Axelrod helped develop the pain reliever called acetaminophen (Tylenol).1 Bernard Katz served as a radar operator in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II.1 As a student, Alfred Gilman was a member of the Yale University Concert Band.4 Martin Rodbell contracted malaria in the Philippines while serving in the Navy during World War II.4 Nikolaas Tinbergen was sent to a concentration camp during World War II.1 Andrew V. Schally has over 2200 publications; more than 1200 were published after he received the Nobel Prize.2 Allan McLeod Cormack never received an MD or PhD. Godfrey N. Hounsfield served as a radar expert for the Royal Air Force during World War II.1 Although David H. Hubel had never taken a biology class in high school or college, he was accepted into medical school at McGill University.2 Torsten N. Wiesel was president of his high school's athletic association.2 As a child, Bert Sakmann designed and built model motors, sailing ships and remote controlled airplanes.4 Eric R. Kandel played soccer and was co-captain of the track team at Erasmus Hall High School.2 As an undergraduate at the University of Washington, Linda Buck wanted to become a psychotherapist.2 Richard Axel delivered false teeth to dentists at the age of eleven, laid carpets at twelve and served sandwiches in a delicatessen at thirteen.2 In 1938, Otto Loewi was jailed by the Nazis in Austria. Only when he transferred his Nobel Prize money to a Nazi-controlled bank was he allowed to leave Austria.5 The Nobel Prize medal that was awarded to Alan Lloyd Hodgkin in 1963 was sold at auction in 2015 for $795,614 (Source: Scientific American). When John O'Keefe was an undergraduate student at the City College of New York, he took classes during the day and drove a taxi cab in the evening.2 May-Britt Moser was accepted into dental school, but decide not to attend.2 Edvard Moser was born on an island off the west of Norway that had only 500 people.2 References: 1 Leroy, F., A Century of Nobel Prize Recipients. Chemistry, Physics and Medicine, New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc., 2003. 2 Nobel Foundation web site 3 Rapport, R., Nerve Endings. The Discovery of the Synapse, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2005. 4 Ringertz, N., Nobel Lectures in Physiology or Medicine (1991-1995), Singapore: World Scientific, 1997. 5Meyers, M.A., Happy Accidents. Serendipity in Modern Medical Breakthroughs, New York: Arcade Publishing, 2007. 6Worek, M., Nobel. A Century of Prize Winners, 2nd Edition, Buffalo (NY): Firefly Books, Ltd., 2010.

Information about the 2014 Nobel Prize: Nobel Prize Announcement Additional information about Nobel Prize winners: Julius Axelrod Linda Buck Paul Greengard Roderick MacKinnon Lab Stanley Prusiner Roger Sperry Torsten Wiesel

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