又到了諾貝爾獎開獎的季節，有關諾貝爾獎的消息和獲獎科學家的名單不斷傳來，作為一個在諾貝爾的故鄉讀過博士，參加過2次諾貝爾獎頒獎儀式的人來說，自己的諾獎情節是不輕！在11月陸續宣布完獲獎名單後，12月初便是瑞典的諾貝爾獎節日和聖露西婭節日（各地各學校都會選一位美女作為當年的露西婭），12月 10日斯德哥爾摩頒獎儀式完後，獲獎者便會被邀請到包括我的母校在內的各個大學做演講，那些年，幾乎每年都能聽到諾貝爾化學獎和醫學/生理獎的科學家的精彩報告。 今年的諾獎獲獎名單陸續公布了，首先是醫學獎，兩位發現人類免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）愛滋病病毒的法國巴斯德研究所的科學家Françoise Barré-Sinoussi 和Luc Montagnier和發現人類乳突淋瘤病毒（HPV）導致子宮頸癌的德國癌症研究中心的科學家Harald zur Hausen獲獎。這也是幾年來的第一次，醫學或生理獎與美國無緣，美國似乎華爾街淪陷，諾貝爾醫學獎也沒份兒了。諾貝爾獎也又一次與被中文媒體炒做成科學聖殿的哈佛大學擦肩而過！哈佛大學已經10來年與諾貝爾獎無緣了，雖然她依然在眾多的大學排名中名列第一，還是全世界最富的大學，當然很多獲獎者都是哈佛大學的畢業生。兩位法國病毒學家的獲獎更使全世界正直的科學家鬆了一口氣！當年美國病毒學者中的大腕Robert Gallo博士不僅用法國人的照片發文章, 還用法國人的樣品測序, 測出來說是自己的樣品而發現了人類免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）愛滋病病毒品.----這些事其實學術界的人都清楚。我當年做研究生時就對這種Robert Gallo這種行為感到不解，上蒼有眼，諾貝爾獎沒有給予他。當然還是有很多人為他而鳴不平的...請看英文媒體的評論： Twenty-five years after the discovery of the virus that causes AIDS, two French researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine yesterday for their role in that scientific breakthrough. Perhaps more notable than who won the award is who did not: Dr. Robert C. Gallo, the University of Maryland virologist who has long been credited as a co-discoverer of the human immunodeficiency virus and whose early work led to a blood test for HIV that is believed to have saved millions of lives. Though many in the field said they thought that a long-simmering debate over Gallo's exact role in the initial discovery had been settled and that Gallo and the French team should share credit, the Nobel committee apparently felt differently. Some scientists said yesterday that Gallo deserved to at least split medicine's highest honor. "The people who won the prize are very deserving," said Dr. John E. Niederhuber, director of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, where Gallo did his AIDS research. "But it seems strange to have left Bob out." Acknowledging that Gallo had "done a lot of other work" in the field, Joernvall noted that he and the two French scientists now "agree that the discovery was made in Paris." But Montagnier, who has been a colleague and rival of Gallo's for decades, said the American researcher should have been recognized. "It is certain that he deserved this as much as us two," Montagnier told the Associated Press in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where he is attending an international AIDS conference. Gallo, who runs the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland's School of Medicine, told an AP reporter who woke him at home early yesterday that he was "disappointed." He later left for South Africa and could not be reached for further comment, but he released a statement congratulating the French scientists. Colleagues said Gallo was besieged with e-mails and phone calls from scientists around the world, many complaining that an injustice had been done. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, said the Nobel Prize tends to be given to those who first identify a new discovery. "I don't think it's a critique of Gallo. It's a statement about the very first observation that is made. This is how they decide," he said. "They generally make their decisions based on what they judge to be the first seminal observation as opposed to what came from that discovery. That's their judgment. "It does not detract from the contributions that Dr. Gallo has made." The Nobel Prize might not put to rest what at times has been a bitter scientific feud spanning two continents. And Gallo, while seen yesterday in some circles as a victim, has often been a less than sympathetic character, seen as abrasive and self-promoting. In the early 1980s, Gallo, whose research at NCI had focused on cancer-causing retroviruses, and Montagnier, at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, were each working on isolating the AIDS virus. In 1983, Montagnier identified a virus he called LAV but was unable to prove it caused AIDS. Gallo, nearly a year later, published a paper on his virus, called HTLV-3, establishing that it caused AIDS. Gallo is credited with being the first to grow the virus in a lab, which paved the way for HIV testing and the screening of donated blood. But a controversy erupted soon after Gallo's publication. There were allegations that Gallo's virus was actually Montagnier's and that he had improperly used it without credit to the Frenchman for first isolating the virus. The dispute triggered investigations by the National Institutes of Health and by Congress. There was a lawsuit. It was finally settled in 1987 by a highly unusual agreement between the United States and France, with a joint announcement by President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac. "I was on the original committee that examined the evidence against Gallo," said Edmund Tramont, who now directs the NIAID's division of AIDS. "We examined all the data and came to the unequivocal conclusion that he did all the work on his own. And that what he discovered and what he wrote, that HIV is a retrovirus that infects T-cells, that it was the cause of AIDS was unequivocal. "He had in his lab previous work that was necessary to isolate the virus and others followed in his footsteps and duplicated what he had done." 今年的諾貝爾物理獎授予了三位日本（裔）物理學家：美國芝加哥大學費米實驗室名譽教授南部陽一郎、日本筑波高能加速器研究機構名譽教授小林誠和日本京都大學湯川理論物理研究所名譽教授益川敏英。這也給了中國科學家當頭一棒，我們中國現在不是已是培養博士的世界第一了嗎，都超越了美國了，而且，在美國獲得博士的人中以中國學生居多。為什麼中國人離注重科學原創的諾貝爾獎遙遙無期呢！？至此，日本已經有15名諾貝爾獎獲得者，而中國依然是空白。我們中國的科學家們臉紅不紅呢..... 2008 年度諾貝爾化學獎授予美國日裔科學家下村修(Osamu Shimomura)、美國科學家馬丁·查爾菲(Martin Chalfie)，以及美國華裔科學家錢永健。他們三人在發現和研究綠色熒光蛋白(GFP)方面有突出成就。來自美國海洋生物實驗室的下村修和哥倫比亞大學的馬丁·查爾菲分別出生於1928年和1947年。 美國華裔錢永健教授1952年出生於紐約，現為美國科學院院士、醫學院院士雙院士，加州大學聖迭戈分校化學及藥理學兩系教授，是中國著名科學家錢學森的堂侄。他發明多色瑩光蛋白標記技術，為細胞生物學和神經生物學發展帶來一場革命。 錢永健教授的獲獎是這幾年科學界和媒體都看好的事情。饒毅教授已預測了錢永健會得諾貝爾化學獎，美國Thomson Reuters及英國博彩網站立博率先預測結果和開出賠率也預測了錢永健會得諾貝爾化學獎。在化學和生物學界，提起錢永健這個名字，許多不熟悉中文的人，都會覺得陌生，但是提到羅傑錢（Roger Tsien），就無人不知，無人不曉了。他在神經生物學，細胞生物學和化學生物學上的貢獻，使得他年年都是諾貝爾化學獎或醫學獎的熱門人選，今年終於花落錢家，又一次讓中國人感到欣慰。 錢永健1952年出生於紐約，後來全家搬到與紐 約相距不遠的新澤西州李文斯頓，在那裡上學長成。錢家的家譜，似乎就是一本工程師的花名冊。他的舅父，曾是麻省理工學院教授，他的堂叔，則是中國導彈之父，大名鼎鼎的錢學森，由此讓人不得不相信，聰明也是遺傳的。 錢永健年少時患有哮喘病，課餘時間不能像兄長那樣在外面跑來跑去，很多時間只能呆在室內。十六歲那一年，他以研究金屬與硫氰化合物結合方式的論文，獲得西屋天才少年科學獎的第一名，並得到全國榮譽獎學金進哈佛大學主修化學和物理。二十歲自哈佛畢業，錢永健得到了馬歇爾獎學金，像他的哥哥錢永佑一樣，飄洋過海，來到劍橋大學生理系跟隨阿德然教授讀博士。阿德然教授是世界著名的肌肉電生理學教授，也是一位世襲的伯爵，真正的英格蘭紳士，他知道錢永健的潛力，他也知道錢永健的興趣是在神經生物學方面，於是，經過一番摸索，錢永健充分應用他的化學特長，發明了鈣染料技術，可以直接標記觀察活體細胞內鈣離子信號的流動和變化，為活體細胞內心好傳導和功能研究，隨後，他又通過遺傳工程的方法，發明了多色瑩光蛋白標記技術，為細胞生物學和神經生物學的發展帶來了一場革命。最近幾年，他又致力於應用細胞滲透肽的瑩光標記技術，來發現觀察癌細胞，希望能為癌症的診斷治療帶來一場革命。 翻開錢永健教授在加州大學聖迭戈分校的網頁，可以看到他的實驗室是擁有20多人由科學家，博士後，博士生和技術人員組成的團隊，依染活躍在科學的前沿，發表着Nature-Protocol，Nature-Method, PNAS等著名雜誌的原創性文章和Science,Nature-Protocol和Methods in Enzymology 等雜誌書籍上的綜述性文章。錢永健教授的科研文章不下幾百篇，他的科學工作真是不僅多產，更是開創性和革命性的工作。錢教授手下很多學生都成了名校的 Faculty,像來自台灣的Alice Ting博士現在已是MIT化學系的副教授，Zhang Jin博士也是霍普金斯大學神經科學系的助教授。Robert E. Campbell博士是加拿大阿爾伯塔大學的助教授。錢教授最得意的學生恐怕是近年來被麻省理工學院評為頂尖青年科學家之一的王雷，這位來自北大的學子現在是Salk(索克研究所）的助教授，研究工作相當前沿。 每一年的諾貝爾獎獲獎名單下來後，中國人只要是關心科學的人不免都感到心涼和無奈！盤望和期待着何時才有中國科學家獲獎的一天。其實以海外華人頻頻獲獎的概率和中國巨大的人口基數和智力庫來論，中國人獲獎真是指日可待的。但是如果看看國內科研的浮誇，虛假和缺少原創的慘酷現狀，我們不得不苦笑，中國人獲獎的那一天還是需要等待一些年的！