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A Scientific Smorgasbord of Nobel Distinction
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18198 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
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11 / 1990 |
3,176 Words |
| Author
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David Finer
David Finer is a science writer based in Stockholm. |
Most people know H20 is a good thirst quencher and wish they had some Au in the bank, but whoever heard of the Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius (1779-1848), who devised the system of chemical symbols standing for water, gold, and all the other elements and compounds on which life depends?
But Berzelius, a founder of modern chemistry, made another enduring contribution by championing the founding of Karolinska Institute (KI) in Stockholm, Sweden, today one of the world's top-ranking centers of medical research, perhaps best known for awarding the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The story of KI (named after the Swedish King Carl XIII) starts with the aftereffects of a war with Russia (1808-1809), a Swedish defeat and the loss of Finland. Casualties from wounds and disease could not be treated properly due to lack of doctors, and in April 1810, the Swedish Parliament decided to found "an educational establishment for the creation of skilled army surgeons."
Today, KI is the largest institution for health-care-related training and research in Scandinavia. It has a School of Dentistry with 143 departments spread throughout greater Stockholm, 170 professors, 800 other teachers and researchers, and a technical/administrative staff of 1,700 people. Some 3,500 students follow one of six undergraduate curricula - in medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy and rehabilitation, speech therapy, psychotherapy or toxicology, and there are some 1,200 postgraduate students. The annual budget is around 1 billion Swedish kronas or Skr (approximately $130 million), and at any one time, many more than one thousand research projects are being conducted here.
Driving north from Stockholm toward the nearby municipality of Solna, the peaceful, parklike main campus would be easy to miss. Here are the preclinical departments of medical research and teaching, housing some of the best minds in the world in fields like neurobiology, molecular biology, genetics, tumor biology, allergy research, and toxicology. Also on this campus are the administration offices and the main library with its 7.5 miles of bookshelves and over half a million books and other publications.
East of the main campus you will see the Karolinska Hospital which houses a major part of KI's clinical research programs, principally directed to ward endocrinology (hormones), cardiovascular diseases, neurosciences (the brain), and
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