Hard pill to swallow?
The announcement of this year's Nobel Prize in medicine has triggered a new debate on traditional Chinese medicine, and reminds us that modern medical science depends on inspiration from every possible source.
A Chinese scientist winning the Nobel Prize for an anti-malarial drug based on an ancient remedy has rekindled the debate about traditional Chinese medicine.
Amid reports on crowded tourist destinations and shopaholic crazes typical of the "golden week" holiday, the news that a Chinese pharmacologist just won this year's Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine sent notes of congratulations flying through cyberspace like a blizzard in deep winter. Tu Youyou is the first Chinese national to win a medicine Nobel, and the first Chinese woman to win any Nobel. Pride was running high.
