The 1984 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine celebrated the important contribution of theory and practice in shaping our understanding of the body’s immune system. The hypotheses formulated by Nils Jerne presented a clearer image of the way in which a diverse range of antibodies can be engaged to fight an invader. Georges Köhler and…

Godfrey Hounsfield’s groundbreaking concept of viewing organs from outside the body was so ambitious that it would require the most successful pop band in history and visionary doctors to help his idea reach fruition. Few bands can rightly claim to have had an impact on the history of music, and even less can claim to…

The famous X-ray photograph Wilhem Röntgen took of his wife’s hand showed both the potential and the limitations of using X-ray images in medicine. The bones of Röntgen’s wife’s hand can be clearly seen, as can her wedding ring, but soft tissues, blood vessels and nerves are all invisible. Over 70 years later, computed tomography,…

As the workhorses of our internal defence system, we owe an enormous debt to antibodies. Responding to external threats such as disease-causing microorganisms, protein antibody molecules are released by specialized immune cells into the blood stream to disarm the threat. Their mode of attack is target recognition: millions of different molecules can be created, each…

Cmmunicating information between nerve cells occurs at breathtaking speed. To allow an electrical impulse to pass from one cell to another, chemical neurotransmitters are released at the nerve end, cross the narrow gap, or synapse, that separates the cells, pass on the message to the next cell – be it a nerve cell, muscle cell…

The nervous system behaves like a series of microscopic generators, with electrical pulses repeatedly created and fired along nerve cells in response to a stimulus, such as touch or heat. By showing how these impulses are generated and transmitted, the three scientists who received an equal share of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or…

In the mid-to-late 1940s, scientists began to suspect that the molecules that are responsible for heredity were not proteins, but in fact DNA, short for deoxyribonucleic acid. But how could a molecule long considered to be simple and inert hold the secret of life? The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 was awarded…

Erwin Schrödinger’s idea that physics could help solve biological riddles was the spark that led many researchers to try to unlock the secrets behind our book of life, the structure of DNA. The double helix structure of DNA is arguably the most recognizable icon in biology, so it might at first appear strange that two…

The immune system is charged with the task of recognizing and destroying a host of foreign and dangerous agents, but what prevents it from attacking any cells and tissues that belong to its host? The breakthroughs awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine revealed how self-discrimination is learned at the biological level, through…

When it comes to sending electrical nerve signals, some messages are more urgent than others. Our muscles need to be activated quickly when we are attacked, for instance, while our receptors for chronic pain do not require such a rapid response. To meet these various delivery requirements, nerve fibres differ considerably in the way they…