Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou helped by ancient Chinese remedy
Tu Youyou, in China, is being called the "three noes" winner: no medical degree, no doctorate(博士头衔), and she's never worked overseas. However, it was she that was the first female Chinese scientist who had won the Nobel Prize. When it comes to her work, she is totally devoted.
In 1967, malaria(疟疾) spread by mosquitoes was killing Chinese soldiers fighting Americans in the jungles of northern Vietnam. A secret research unit was formed to find a cure for the illness and Tu was instructed to become the new head of Mission 523. She went to the southern Chinese island of Hainan to study how malaria threatened human health. For six months, she stayed there, leaving her four-year-old daughter at a local nursery. Her husband had been sent away to work at the countryside at the height of China's Cultural Revolution, a time of extreme political disorder.
Despite much failure, finally, she with her team members found a brief reference to one substance, sweet wormwood (in Chinese Qinhao), which had been used to treat malaria in China around 400 AD.
The team tested the drug but they didn't succeed until Tu Youyou returned to the original ancient text. After another careful reading, she heated the extract without allowing it to reach boiling point.
Without any hesitation, Tu Youyou volunteered to be the first human recipient of the new drug." As the head of the research group, I had the responsibility," she explained to the Chinese media. Tu Youyou is typically described in China as a "modest" woman. Her work was published anonymously(匿名地)in 1977, and for decades she received little recognition for her research.
In any case, Tu Youyou is consistently praised for her drive and passion. One former colleague says Ms Tu is "unsociable and quite straightforward", adding that "if she disagrees with something, she will say it".
Another colleague who has worked with Tu Youyou for more than 40 years, describes her as a "tough and stubborn woman".
She is actually stubborn enough to spend decades piecing together ancient texts and apply them to modern scientific practices. The result has saved millions of lives.
