Flickr, SnapThe truth-seeking Chinese science writer, Shi-min Fang, and British chronic fatigue syndrome researcher Simon Wessely this week (November 6) became the inaugural recipients of the John Maddox Prize, which honors individuals who promote science in the face of adversity, in honor of the former Nature editor who championed robust science.
Fang, a biochemist by training, turned into a scientific watchdog, exposing fraudulent research on his website New Threads. In 2010, he was physically attacked for challenging the efficacy of a urologist’s surgical procedures. In the award announcement, Nature lauded Fang’s work because it “imposes transparency on an opaque system. He has opened a forum for criticism and debate in a community that is otherwise devoid of it.”
Wessely, a researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry of King’s College London, studies the link between chronic fatigue syndrome and clinical depression, developing successful cognitive-behavioral treatments. But despite his advances, a vocal minority of the chronic fatigue syndrome community was outraged by his emphasis on neurophysiological aspects of the disease, rather than the physical symptoms. “All along the ...
