Anyone who doubts that depression is a disease, or that it interferes with productivity to the detriment of the sufferer, the nation, and humankind, should consider the story of Douglas Prasher, a scientist who might well have won the Nobel Prize and who today earns less than ten dollars an hour driving a shuttle bus for a Toyota dealership in Huntsville, Alabama. I had not been aware of Prasher's story until I read about it in the Science Times today, but apparently it has been covered in the local press and on National Public Radio. This month, Roger Tsien, of UC San Diego, Martin Chalfie of Columbia University, and Osamu Shimomura, of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work on a fluorescent jellyfish protein that can be used to tag cell constituents. Their discoveries were based on Prasher's.He isolated the relevant gene — and gave the information away freely. He understood how the protein the gene codes for could be used as a tracer molecule. And he began to elaborate the gene and protein structures. Generously, Chalfie has said, "They could've easily given the prize to Douglas and the other two and left me out." Another colleague is has called Prasher's current situation a "staggering waste of talent."
