Niels K. Jerne's
speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1984
Your Majesties,
Your Royal Highnesses, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The
Nobel Prize is a precious gift, and it is wonderful to receive this gift rather
late in life: one does not then have to carry for a very long time the burden
that this distinction imposes. This does not apply to my friends César
Milstein and Georges Köhler with whom I have the pleasure to share the prize
in Physiology or Medicine. We represent three scientific generations. In fact,
I was already working in an immunological laboratory before Georges Köhler
was born. That this year's prize is given for work in immunology follows a long
tradition. The first Nobel Prize in our field was given, in 1901, to Emil von
Behring who, together with Shibasaburo Kitasato, discovered the presence of specific
antibody molecules in the cell-free scrum of immunized animals. This demonstration
had a tremendous impact on the direction into which immunology developed. It turned
the attention of two following generations of scientists towards antibodies and
away from the cells which produce them. These antibodies were polyclonal because
many different cells participate. My two fellow-laureates have introduced a marvellous
technique which permits the production of antibodies by a single cell and its
clonal descendants. I have had no part in this monoclonal invention. Of course,
biologists are not just laboratory people that mix liquids in test tubes. Most
of their time is devoted to the discussion of ideas and to the replacement of
these ideas with better ones. My concern has always been synthetic ideas, trying
to read road-signs leading into the future. Thinking back over my own years, my
thoughts now often return to a happy childhood. My parents died thirty years ago,
and I wish to dedicate my part of this Nobel Prize to them, with a poem from Jutland
in Denmark. As we are here in Scandinavia, I hope you will permit me to do this
in the language of the poet Jeppe Aakjær:
Her
vendte far sin plov, å så mangen, mangen gang, Nar grålærken
højt over sandmarken sang. Her gik min stille mor i sin grove grå
kjol, Og så med tynget blik mod den synkende sol. Thi satte
eders søn denne liden grå sten, Til minde om en færd
der som duggen var ren.
(English translation:
Here did my father turn his plough, oh, so many, many times, While the grey
lark sang over the sandy fields. Here walked my silent mother in her coarse
grey dress, And turned a heavy look towards the sinking sun. Thus
placed your son this little grey stone, In remembrance of your journey that
was pure as the dew.)
From
Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1984, Editor Wilhelm
Odelberg, [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1985
The
Nobel Prize is a precious gift, and it is wonderful to receive this gift rather
late in life: one does not then have to carry for a very long time the burden
that this distinction imposes. This does not apply to my friends César
Milstein and Georges Köhler with whom I have the pleasure to share the prize
in Physiology or Medicine. We represent three scientific generations. In fact,
I was already working in an immunological laboratory before Georges Köhler
was born. That this year's prize is given for work in immunology follows a long
tradition. The first Nobel Prize in our field was given, in 1901, to Emil von
Behring who, together with Shibasaburo Kitasato, discovered the presence of specific
antibody molecules in the cell-free scrum of immunized animals. This demonstration
had a tremendous impact on the direction into which immunology developed. It turned
the attention of two following generations of scientists towards antibodies and
away from the cells which produce them. These antibodies were polyclonal because
many different cells participate. My two fellow-laureates have introduced a marvellous
technique which permits the production of antibodies by a single cell and its
clonal descendants. I have had no part in this monoclonal invention. Of course,
biologists are not just laboratory people that mix liquids in test tubes. Most
of their time is devoted to the discussion of ideas and to the replacement of
these ideas with better ones. My concern has always been synthetic ideas, trying
to read road-signs leading into the future. Thinking back over my own years, my
thoughts now often return to a happy childhood. My parents died thirty years ago,
and I wish to dedicate my part of this Nobel Prize to them, with a poem from Jutland
in Denmark. As we are here in Scandinavia, I hope you will permit me to do this
in the language of the poet Jeppe Aakjær: