THE FIRST LAW OF
SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY
Event: You're a brilliant young scientist who's just discovered a free cure for cancer made from a line of hamster cells and papaya.
Which of the following is true?
- You announce your discovery to the world, receive the Nobel Prize, become rich and famous and live happily ever after.
- Another scientist steals your discovery, claims he made it first and wins the Nobel Prize.
- The pool boy steals your discovery, your wife and receives the Nobel Prize.
- A camera crew, a scientist wearing a bow tie and a magician show up at your lab and inform you that they want to confirm your test results. What they don't tell you is that they rig your test equipment and place a curse on your lab. The test fails, first in front of a single camera, and then the entire world. A month later you're a member of an Alabama chain gang picking up road litter.
The correct answer, number 4, is called the First Law of Scientific Discovery, Especially Cancer.
"More people are making a living from cancer than are dying from it...If someone found a free cure for cancer our entire economy would collapse." — D.J. Browne, The Reptile and The Rose
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