The Nobel Duel: Two Scientists' 21-Year Race to Win the World's Most Coveted Research Prize

I was a member of Roger Guillemin's Nobel Prize winning research team for several years at the Salk Institute, and was later invited to also work with and in the laboratory of the Nobel-laureate Andrew Schally at Tulane University/Veterans Administration Medical Center in New Orleans for several more years. As far as we know, I am the only one who was a member of both teams for years each. I know what happened because I was directly involved in a little more than the last half of the book. I have also conducted research in other similar laboratories, both independently and collaboratively for decades. Nicholas Wade wrote more about the spirit of the activities which occurred, as compared with what actually happened. This book did provide, however, some insight into the almost incomprehensible pressures, the phenomenal strivings toward a stellar goal (reaching for the stars), the dreams and the unimaginably grueling work (24 hours a day, 7 days a week - nonstop) which inherently resides at these intellectual levels, and did in our research groups. I felt, however, that THE NOBEL DUEL did not go far enough in some instances, and was simply incorrect in other instances. This book does, however, provide the general public with a glimmer of what it is like at these levels, and what is involved in winning the most coveted research award in the world, The Nobel Prize (in Medicine/ Physiology).

. . .of the behind-the-scenes research activities and fierce competition behind two teams of scientists both on the same 'track', racing for the greatest scientific prize of them all -- the Nobel. One thing is certain -- human nature is as evident in the laboratory as it is everywhere else!Having had a long friendship with the lead chemist to one of the teams, the late Roger Burgus, led even more enjoyment to this book.

This book is a fascinating blend of actual science and human passion and spirit. Scientific research used to seem so cold and unhuman but after reading this book, you realize that many people put all of their lives...money, heart and soul...into the pursuit of science and in this case, the Nobel Prize. Makes for fine reading.