Okay, a few points:
(0) Many Asian names have the family name first followed by their
given name while Europeans-Americans reverse the order. So,
the Asian name Tu Youyou follows traditional Chinese order while
in the U.S. we would say Youyou Tu. The Japanese also follow
this practice and the most confusing example of this is given by
the great baseball player Ichiro Suzuki (U.S. order) who has a
baseball jersey with his first name on it instead of the traditional
last name; for example, see:
http://shop.mlb.com/product/index.jsp?productId=23260256&CAWELAID=820564910000237863&CAGPSPN=pla&kpid=16570160&pla=pla_16570160&KPID=16570160
Apparently he used Suzuki Ichiro when he signed up and Americans
being American thought Ichiro was his last name.
(1) Again, one source to check for background info as a starting
point is Wikipedia which has an up to date entry on Tu Youyou; see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_Youyou
Note that she is referred to by her family name "Tu" and not Youyou
which would probably be annoying at a number of levels.
(2) Tu's research is based on Traditional Chinese Medicine and not
homeopathy -- I don't know how Prof. Sylvester got them mixed up
but for background on Traditional Chinese Medicine see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_medicine
And for background on Homeopathy which has nothing to do
with Chinese medicine, traditional or otherwise, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy
Homeopathy is considered a pseudoscience while the status of
Traditional Chinese Medicine is more complex with the understanding
that some treatments are only placebos while others, like Tu's,
are valid. The problem is determine which ones are valid.
(3) Tu does not have any formal medical or advanced degrees,
(she has a B.A. in Pharmacy) hence she cannot be called "Dr. Tu"
while "Prof Tu" may be acceptable today. The reason for this is,
as the Wikipedia entry states, she grew up during the Cultural
Revolution and intellectuals (i.e., academics, degreed folks, etc.)
were a despised group -- one of the "nine black categories"; see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinking_Old_Ninth
Kinda like the way U.S. conservatives treat academics today. ;-)
The NY Times does call her "Dr Tu"; see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/science/william-c-campbell-satoshi-omura-youyou-tu-nobel-prize-physiology-medicine.html?_r=0
But the BBC gets it right, highlighting her status of the "Three Noes":
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-34451386
Unfortunately, there is some controversy about what exactly
it was that she did to earn the Nobel Prize and whether it was
her work or others on the team she worked with; see:
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1864382/tu-youyou-nobel-prize-winning-chemist-and-malaria-controversy
(4) Project 523 was a secret Chinese military medical program
set up by Mao Zedong to develop new antimaliarial treatments
partly in response to the request by the North Vietnamese during
the Vietnam War because so many of their soldiers caught malaria
and traditional treatments apparently no longer worked; see Tu's
entry above and:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_523
(5) According to Tu's entry,
|Scientists worldwide had screened over 240,000 compounds
|without success. In 1969, Tu, then 39 years old, had an idea of
|screening Chinese herbs. She first investigated the Chinese
|medical classics in history, visiting practitioners of traditional
|Chinese medicine all over the country on her own. She gathered
|her findings in a notebook called A Collection of Single Practical
|Prescriptions for Anti-Malaria. Her notebook summarized 640
|prescriptions. Her team also screened over 2,000 traditional
|Chinese recipes and made 380 herbal extracts, which were
|tested on mice.[2]
The key wording above is that over 2,000 traditional Chinese
treatments for malaria were identified and, ultimately, only one
was found to actually work.
Traditional Chinese Medicine 0, Science 1
(6) As always, check sources, don't go by "word of mouth" for
information because that is usually just gossip or someone's
biased misconstrual of what they think they might have heard
or read somewhere but can't remember the source.
On Thu, 08 Oct 2015 10:01:08 -0700, michael sylvester wrote:
One of the recipients of this year's Nobel prize for Medicine is a
Chinese
lady who is 85.Going far back into the literature on Chinese
medicine
practised centuries ago, she focused her attention on the Sweet Worm
wood
plant which had long been a staple in chinese cooking.She was able
to
extract an ingredient that was definitive in treating malaria.
We love you,Dr.Oz.
What does Dr. Oz have to do with anything?
-Mike Palij (member "Stinking Old Ninth")
New York University
[email protected]
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