B IOMEDICAL RESEARCH HAS BECOME INCREASINGLY SO-phisticated andour understanding ofbasic biologic process-es and disease mechanisms is growing exponentially. It is likely that we are living in a golden age of the biomedical sciences. The achievements ofthese sciences are likelyto be long remembered as high points of Western civilization in the last part of the 20th century. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine rewards top achievements in this area and is therefore eagerly awaited each year by scientists and the public. The number of scientists engaged in biomedical research is larger than ever. The Nobel Committee is likely to face difficult problems in its selection because of the relatively large number of outstanding scientists who have per-formed exciting work of Nobel Prize caliber. An additional problem relates to the nature of the achievement that is considered prizeworthy. There are certain fundamental discoveries by basic scientists that are awarded the prize because they dearly form the basis of biologic and medical progress (such as the structure ofDNA as the basis ofheredity). Most Nobel Prizes fall in this category, even if they reward somewhat less epochal research. Other discoveries honored by a Nobel Prize have been strictly medical in their application and were initiated from a technical rather than from a biologic starting point (such as computed tomography as a diagnos-tic tool).

There is another class of discoveries that is somewhat different. The investigators see a problem posed by a specific disease, ask the right questions, and by utilizing advanced concepts and methods of basic science solve the problem. But since diseases often are experiments of nature, the solution of a disease-associated problem may elucidate basic biologic phenomena offundamental significance that were disturbed by the disease. The solution of such problems followed by manipulation of a previously obscure process to prevent disease or restore health is not only highly satisfying intellectually but is socially useful and is therefore the quest of many biomedical scientists.