You know who this guy is?

Well, let me ask you if you know who Dr. Phil is…Dr. Oz…Dr. Dre. I bet you know all those names.

But I bet you don’t know this guy.

Don’t worry, I didn’t either until today. This is Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi and he was announced the Nobel Prize winner today in the field of medicine.

So why did this guy win and not someone more famous….say….Dr. Who?

Well, Dr. Ohsumi discovered the mechanisms behind autophagy. Pretty cool, huh.

So the next question is this; what the hell is autophagy?

According to Spewipedia, autophagy (or ‘self-eating’) is the way cells can remain healthy through an internal recycling program where they destroy their own contents to make way for new cells and to fight off bacteria and viruses. Duh.

So what is special about knowing more about this? Well, with more knowledge about autophagy (or anything to do with how cell reproduction works), this can lead to explanations to other diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s as well as possible treatments or cures.

Dr. Ohsumi will be rewarded about $940,000 by the good people in Stockholm. This is about $150,000 less than what Brock Osweiler earned for his game yesterday.

Anyway, I think it is important we as Americans pay some attention to advances in technology and science because the more it is broadcast in the media, the more importance we place in these areas, and in turn want to see these things funded.

Right now we are obsessed with trying to maintain shitty coal mining jobs in West Virginia and out-dated manufacturing gigs in the Midwest. So there has been a lot of political discussion about that kind of stuff. But don’t you really think there needs to be more attention to funding the sciences? I mean we have political candidates that don’t even believe in evolution, much less the value of scientific advancement.

This stuff should be argued at the next presidential debate, but I guarantee that it won’t. Maybe it is best that it isn’t there maybe too many people out there that would actually side with the anti-science rhetoric.

So I will do my part today in promoting science. Thank you Dr. Ohsumi, you have indeed embiggined the world with your work.