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Controversy about This Year's Nobel Prize in Medicine

The Nobel Prize in Medicine in October 2003 was awarded for Magnetic Resonance Imaging( M.R.I.) research which is a widely used procedure to visualize the body's soft tissue without using X-ray radiation.  This Year's Nobel Prize for M.R.I. was awarded to an American, Doctor Paul C. Lauterbur of the University of Illinois and a Briton Sir Peter Mansfield of the University of Nottingham in England.

A distinguished scientist and a MRI researcher Dr. Raymond Damadian was left out of the Noble Prize although his achievements in MRI research were monumental. 

This happened many times in history, that the Nobel Prize was not awarded to the right person.  Lev Tolstoy - the greatest Russian writer and one of the most productive writers of all time - did not receive the Nobel Prize. 

There was a tragic mistake during the 1915 Nobel Prize involving Nikola Tesla and Edison.  The report of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1915, to be jointly shared by Edison and Tesla, was carried in the Literary Digest and The Electrical World of New York.  On November 14, 1915 Reuter's dispatch from Stockholm reported that the Nobel Committee announced The Nobel Prize for Physics  would not be given to Edison and Tesla.   Instead two scientists by the name of William Henry Bragg of the University of Leeds, England and his son W. L. Bragg of Cambridge University were awarded the Nobel Prize for their use of X-rays to determine the structure of crystals.

The Nobel Foundation never gave any explanation for the controversy of the 1915 Nobel Prize for Physics.

The International Unit for Magnetic Flux Density was named Tesla (T=W/m2).  Nikola Tesla discovered the rotating magnetic field in Budapest, Hungary in 1882.  With this monumental discovery, he laid the foundations for electro-magnetism.   All MRI machines in the world are calibrated in Tesla Units.  Tesla is replacing the old unit of Gauss (1 Tesla = 10,000 Gauss).  The medical application for MRI was discovered by Columbia University professor in New York - Isido Rabi who received the Nobel Prize for this discovery and his work.  The significance of MRI will increase in the future because MRI machines are an indispensable tool for the diagnosis of many soft tissue disorders and diseases in the body.

Tesla's name as the "Tesla Unit" will live on forever.

1. Click here for the Nobel Prize for MRI (Article, New York Times)

2. Click here for New York Times advertisement for "The Shameful Wrong that must be Righted"