2019 marks the eighth year of the Golden Goose Awards , accolades that honor scientific work that has significantly benefited fellowship but sound totally absurd .
Past winnershave observe thesex livesof screwworm flies , gentlymassaged baby rat , andstudied the maliciousness of the Gila monster . In doing so , they have help to eradicate the screwworm fly ( a foul critter that can kill animals and masses ) from the American South , meliorate the survival of preterm baby , and protected people from diabetes ’ bad complications . And that ’s just a small selection of the golden gaggle .
TheGolden Goose Awardscame about in reaction to the Golden Fleece Awards , which , between 1975 and 1988 , direct federally fund undertaking deemed to be wastes of money . Silly - vocalise scientific discipline was often selected despite the fact that outlandish , creative studies can have unbelievable results . So , Representative for Tennessee Jim Cooper create the Golden Goose Awards in an attempt to show that unusual , isolated enquiry can actually gain high society and save lives . The extract citizens committee is led by the American Association for the Advancement of Science ( AAAS ) .
So , who will be celebrated by2019 ’s honour ?
First off isDavid Sachar , whose body of work on batrachian skin , yes frog skin , has helped to save over 50 million lives . Back in 1966 , Sachar was operate as a US Public Health Officer in Dhaka , Pakistan . He had the goal of mould out the basic mechanism behind the terrible , potentially deadly , diarrhoea suffered by those infected with Indian cholera .
Adept at measuring galvanizing potential across frog tegument , he used salientian hide to see the electric potential drop of human intestines , which allowed him to bring out how well atomic number 11 could be absorbed by the sand ofcholerapatients . He discovered that sodium absorption was intact and could be boosted with glucose . Sachar realized that a glucose - Na solution could hugely profit those bear from serious diarrhea , eventually pass to the creation of oral rehydration therapy ( ORT ) , which is used to treat cholera and has saved millions of life around the domain .
Back in the ‘ 60s , half of the people who caught Asiatic cholera would pop off . If treated quickly with ORT , this form plumb bob to less than 1 percent .
Next up areJack LevinandFrederik Bang(who receives the award posthumously ) for their enquiry into promising bluehorseshoe crab blood and human drug . Horseshoe crabsare naive - looking sea beasties that have very particular blood . It is highly sore to endotoxin , toxin resign by bacterium that cause fevers in humans , and efficiently clot in response togram - negatively charged bacteria . Bang recognise this phenomenon in a crab louse he was studying and while working in his research lab , Levin created a test that uses crab louse blood to detect whether endotoxins are present . This run , called the LAL test , is now used all the time to check that drugs , injections , and pharmaceutical equipment are not foul with endotoxins before they ’re used to treat people .
The final Golden Goose of 2019 goes toNoel Roseand , posthumously , Ernest Witebskyfor their work on autoimmune diseases . This might sound less strange andHarry ceramicist - esque than frog skin or crabmeat blood , but the duo ’s discovery seems totally counterintuitive . In the 1950s , Rose , under guidance from Witebsky , acknowledge that animals ’ immune system can oppose to and fire cell within their own bodies , something scientist had no idea was potential . Their research has meliorate our understanding of autoimmune condition likelupus , MS , andtype 1 diabetes .
" scientific discipline can change the world in unpredictable ways,”saidAAAS Interim CEO Alan Leshner . “ These awards recognise the scientists whose piece of work leads to the tangible human benefits . "
