When I was a kid, my dad had an ulcer. At the time, everyone knew ulcers were caused by excess stomach acid and brought on by stress. We still talk about them sometimes as if we think that’s what causes them.
But guess what? They’re not. They’re caused by bacteria, H. pylori, to be precise, and the Australians who discovered that fact have just been awarded the Medicine/Physiology Nobel Prize for their discovery.
Ulcers were thought to be chronic, and could only be treated by inhibiting gastric acid production and avoiding certain foods–and they often came back. Now we know how to to cure them. And, as happens so often in science, something “everyone knows” turned out to be wrong.
What does “everyone know” today that, turned on its head, will win someone else a Nobel tomorrow? (Via In the Pipeline).
