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Medicine/Physiology Nobel Laureates Announced

Posted by timothy on from the hey-that-smells-good dept.

Seehund writes "Today, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced the laureates of this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck are jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for their discoveries in the field of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system."

2 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's all great...... by reagank · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I thought that at first, too, but it turns out there are plenty of practical things here. First, it gives some pretty interesting insight in how the brain processes smell. Beyond the knowledge of brain function, which could be useful in other arenas, it's also possible to use this to create an "artifical nose", which could be used to sniff out bombs or, and I know this sounds loopy, but it's true, to detect disease. There are already mice trained to sniff out cancer in litter-mates, so if we knew HOW they did it, then we could create something to do it for humans.

  2. Shape vs. Vibration Theories by Sigfried · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Axel, et al are firmly in the predominant "Shape" theory camp regarding smell. There is also a small but resilient camp that wonder why certain substances (e.g hydrogen cynanide and bitter almonds) smell very similar but have no common molecular structure. There is no doubt that the huge genetic pool discovered by Axel produce a large variety of receptors that do *something*, and thanks to their work the pathways to the brain are now known, but exactly *what* is being detected is not well understood.

    Luca Turin is the current proponent of the theory that olfaction is at least influenced not only by molecular shape, but also by the vibrational modes and spectra of the molecule. Recent double-blind experiments in March '04 put doubt on this theory, but had no absolute proof of the "shape" theory either. Clouding the whole scientific controversy is the cult-following Turing has acquired following the publication of Chandler Burr's book about Turin, "The Emperor of Scent".

    You can find discussions of this and other theories of smell here.