Make it sing 3: The words of two great Australians
December 7th 2008 06:04
Barry Marshall and Macfarlane Burnet have three obvious things in common: they are Australian, they have won Nobel prizes for science, and they know how to make words sing.
Frank Macfarlane Burnett, who died in 1985 aged 86, won the 1960 Nobel Prize for Medicine for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance.
Barry James Marshall, born in 1951, shared the 2005 Nobel Prize for Medicine with Robin Warren for their discovery of the bacterium helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.
Barry Marshall's acceptance speech was short, witty and charming, due in some measure to the inclusion of part of Burnet's acceptance speech from 45 years earlier.
How do you impress a live audience which includes kings and queens and some of the best minds on the planet, along with a global academic community keen to hear your thoughts and a future ready to judge you forever for your words?
You make your words sing.
The text of Barry Marshall's acceptance speech is eight paragraphs long. The first paragraph starts, "Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses ...", which is not the way many of us are called upon to start a speech. The next two paragraphs acknowledge his fellow laureate Robin Warren and the wives of both men.
What follows is the rest of speech.
"Robin and I follow in the footsteps of other notable Australians and I would like to quote the words of Australia's most honoured scientist, Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet. These are the words he spoke 45 years ago on the night of his award.
" 'I think that this occasion has a rather special significance for my own country, a middling small country a little bigger than Sweden but only now beginning to create an image of itself in the eyes of the world. Some day I hope that we will take our place along with Sweden as one of the centres where knowledge can go along with social progress to the good life that we all seek.'
"I like to think that I have benefited from the expansion of knowledge and social progress that Macfarlane Burnet hoped for, and I hope that in my own way I will contribute to its development in the future.
"Let me clarify here, while it is true that Macfarlane Burnet injected himself with the rabbit myxoma virus, and I did actually infect myself with helicobacter pylori, I don't suggest to other aspiring Aussie scientists that this process will guarantee a Nobel Prize. But to young people listening tonight I would say, find passion in your work - whatever it is. If, like me, you are working in the area of science, I can promise you that it can be the most exciting and rewarding of careers.
"So work hard, keep balance in your life and, just in case, always be nice to Swedish people."
abc.net.au, Reuters, Wikipedia, www.msnbc.msn.com
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