I think the biggest eye-opener this semester came from an exercise we did. This activity helped me understand the inner working of science. The eye-opening exercise was the building block activity, Before I participated in this activity, I was reading Deadly Feasts and reading about Dr. Stanley ftmner. I really dislike this man because of his dishonesty. He was willing to lie, cheat, and steal in order to get what he wanted. I was sure that he did not belong in science.

In our class, as we discussed the interaction between Prusiner and Carleton Gajdusek, there was a lot of Prusiner-bashing going on. He went to New Guinea to meet up with Gajdusek and Alpers. Prusiner and Gajdusek constantly discussed the future of kuru, scrapie, and CDJ. Gajdusek shared with Prusiner what he believed. Gajdusek, however, would not name the disease agent until he was sure of its molecular structure. With the knowledge of Gajdusek's passiveness, Prusiner went back to the United States, finished up his scrapie research, and quickly and boldly wrote a paper and named the disease. This was a very dangerous venture. If he were wrong, which he very well could have been, he would lose all hope of the Nobel Prize, what he was so desperately striving to receive.

When I first read about his theft, I really had no respect for him. However, now, I see Prusiner's bold, perhaps foolish, gamble as almost admirable. He put everything ,on the line for his dream. Sometimes you just have to give all or none. Even Gajdusek said, "It was a clever political move on his part to jump the gun." I commend Prusiner on his proud leap into the pit of critics. His paper was no failure either, and because of its earliness, he might have saved human lives through bringing awareness to the public.

In our ethics exercise with the building blocks, I noticed that every single person who would have condemned Prusiner for what he did, would do the same thing if he or she had the chance. I know I would have. If someone from another team confided in me the correct sequence of blocks, I would have run straight to my blocks and set them up correctly; I think everyone would have. In a world where winning is everything, you have to give it your all. In the room where the blocks were set up, there was a lot of pushing and shoving going on. ,,--one' of my group members' fingers were twisted. It actually.. got physical, well beyond anything Prusiner did.