新教材 | 2019 北师大版 高中英语 B2-U6 L1 A Medical Pioneer

新教材 | 2019 北师大版 高中英语 B2-Unit6 The Admirable 电子课本

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A Medical Pioneer

At the Nobel Prize Lecture on 7 December, 2015, an 84-year-old Chinese woman walked slowly on to the stage. She began to talk about the life-saving drug, artemisinin, which she had discovered with the help of her team in the 1970s. The woman was Tu Youyou, the first Chinese female scientist to be awarded a Nobel Prize for her work. A scientist who was on the Nobel Prize Committee called Hans Forssberg explained that “the discovery of artemisinin has led to the development of new drugs which have saved the lives of millions”. When thanking the Committee for the honour, Tu Youyou said, “This is not only an honour for myself, but also recognition and encouragement for all scientists in China.”

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Tu Youyou was born in Zhejiang Province, China, on 30 December, 1930. She studied medicine at Peking University Health Science Centre. After graduation, she became a member of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Later, she studied Chinese medicine for two and a half years with experts in the field from whom she gained a deep knowledge about traditional practices.

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In 1969, Tu Youyou was chosen to establish a team to find a cure for malaria — a disease that killed millions of people every year. Across the world, scientists had been trying to find a cure. They tested more than 240,000 chemicals with no success. However, Tu Youyou had an idea that Chinese herbs might hold the secret. She studied ancient Chinese medical literature and visited experts in traditional Chinese medicine. She researched hundreds of traditional recipes connected to anti-malarial cures. Then Tu Youyou and her team began using modern research methods to study these Chinese herbs one by one.

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This was not an easy task. The reason why this was difficult was that the team had limited resources. They did not have enough staff, and the laboratory in which they worked had poor air quality. However, after hundreds of failed experiments, they eventually came across a promising chemical. It worked well in experiments on animals, but they had to know if it was safe for humans. Tu Youyou bravely volunteered to be the first human subject when they were ready to start testing and the rest of her team followed her. The test was a success.The medicine they discovered, artemisinin, has now become the world’s most effective drug for fighting malaria.

Even though Tu Youyou is not interested in fame, she has become a scientist whose work is internationally renowned. In 2019, she was selected by the BBC as one of the most influential figures of science in the 20th Century along with Albert Einstein and Alan Mathison Turing. Tu Youyou was noted for her bravery in being a scientist during a difficult time for science in China, her ability to use old wisdom and new methods to achieve her goals and the fact that her work bridged the Eastern and Western worlds, saving millions of lives. Today Tu Youyou continues to conduct research despite her age. According to Tu Youyou, “From our research experience in discovering artemisinin, we learnt the wisdom behind both Chinese and Western medicine. There is great potential for future advances if these two kinds of wisdom can be fully integrated,” she said.

Tu Youyou: China's First Nobel Prize Winning Female Scientist 

As the first Chinese female scientist to win a Nobel prize (in physiology or medicine) in 2015, what were Tu Youyou’s formative experiences and the major events that shaped her life? How did this remarkable woman − without a medical degree, doctorate or overseas work experience – make such a valuable contribution to the control of malaria? This book explores the extraordinary career of this modest, frugal and very unconventional scientist and records her inspirational work.

During early clinical trials, Tu traveled to malaria-endemic areas of Hainan and was the first to test her medicine on herself to ensure it was safe after the drug had shown promising results in mice and monkeys. Only then were the clinical trials expanded to include other humans.

Afflicted with tuberculosis at the age of 16, Tu Youyou recovered two years later with a determination to make up for lost time. In fact, the illness was the making of her in that it sparked an interest in medicine and pharmacology and a desire to help save the lives of others. Indifferent to fame and wealth, and courageous in the pursuit of truth, she went on to make remarkable scientific achievements.

Although born in Ningbo at a time of turmoil, Tu Youyou was among the first intake of female college students in the new China. She made the most of this good fortune by devoting herself to decades of quiet and patient labor in which she embraced Chairman Mao Zedong’s quest for the country to combine traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine.

Separated from her family, she led a national research group codenamed ‘Mission 523’ tasked with developing antimalarial drugs from Chinese medicines. Exposing themselves to considerable hardship and danger, the team’s pioneering work led to the discovery of artemisinin, a drug therapy that has since saved millions of lives across the globe, especially in developing countries.