Chesley Bonestell, “The Exploration of Mars” (1953), oil on board, 143/8 x 28 inches, gift of William Estler, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Reproduced courtesy of Bonestell LLC.

Yeast Yields a Nobel Prize

October 7, 2016

 

10/7/16 – A Japanese biologist has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for a series of “brilliant experiments” using yeast that revealed for the first time a key mechanism in cells that plays an important role in cancer, diabetes, and numerous other devastating diseases. Indeed, yeast has an illustrious history in research, as a scientist-writer team has detailed in Issues, but funding woes may hinder turning lessons learned from these tiny organisms into practice.