It’s that time again! The day when nerds and labbos everywhere look towards Sweden and patiently await the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this coming Monday, October 5th at 9:30 a.m. GMT. As in years past, I am running my annual Nobel Nostradamus Pool and it is off to a good start (YOU may already be a winner!). I’ve received no real surprise entries this year save for one submitted anonymously that cannot be mentioned in polite company.
Thus far, here are the front runners (in no particular order):
Gary Ruvkin and Victor Ambrose – miRNAs
James Till and Ernest McCulloch – the CFU-S assay/functional proof of stem cells
Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak – telomerase and telomeres
Brian Druker (and others) – targeted cancer therapeutics/CML – this one is quite interesting as depending on the entry I’ve received, Druker would share this award with a variety of different individuals (i.e. the pool of second and third co-laureates contains more than two other names). Of course, the Nobel can go to no more than three living people (and no deceased ones).
Who WILL it be? Who WON’T it be? Who SHOULD it be?
I got lucky and won my own pool in 2007. I always put in a variety of entries where my own dark horse this year is Britton Chance ! YEAH! Cellular respiration!
I predict that I will not win the nobel prize for 2009 in any of the categories.
I agree with Mark above – the chances of either me or my mate the Pasty Muncher being offered a Nobel Prize is slim