Jellyfish & The Forgotten Researcher

"Current-borne, wave-flung, tugged hugely by the
whole might of ocean, the jellyfish drifts in the tidal abyss.
The light shines through it, and the dark enters it.
Borne, flung, tugged from anywhere to anywhere..."
~from The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

As someone who is very enamored of the elegant jellyfish (albeit an admittedly ignorant one), I was oddly pleased to hear of the scientists who were among this year's Nobel prize recipients, in this case for Chemistry. After studying the fluorescent qualities of some jellyfish, they were able to further their research in cancer cells. (I'm an English teacher--and no scientist to be sure--so please forgive any inaccuracies... check out this article by Dan Charles for NPR for better reporting!)

This morning on my ride into school, I caught a follow-up story by the same reporter about the (previously) unknown researcher who generated the initial protein gene used as the basis for the larger work which lead to the Nobel.

The interesting story of Douglas Prasher, now an unemployed scientist, and currently working at a car dealership is available here, also by Dan Charles. It tells of how he, in the 1990's, initially isolated the gene for the green fluorescent protein that helped three other scientists earn a Nobel Prize in chemistry... sort of like being the Pete Best of the scientific community.

Here's hoping somebody cuts this guy a break and gets him back in the labs... of course should McPalin win in November there will likely be little federal funding for anything other than oil exploration.

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!