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----------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. scientists win awards for battling the skeptics ----------------------------------------------------------------------- WASHINGTON (December 16, 1997 11:24 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) - The 14 winners of the top U.S. science and technology awards, whose discoveries range from how planets are born to non-invasive medical techniques, have one thing in common -- no one thought they could do what they did. The researchers were presented the National Medal of Science or the National Medal of Technology on Tuesday for discoveries ranging from what President Clinton called "new ways to chart the universe to exploring the internal universe of human nature." Many of them frail, most of them rumpled, the science and technology pioneers sported self-deprecating grins as they accepted their medals, but later made clear their achievements did not come without a fight. "When I built the CT scanner not only did people say that it couldn't be done, but six months after it was completed and we had scanned maybe 1,000 patients, somebody published an article that said 'It can't be done.' I was already doing it!" laughed Robert Ledley of the National Biomedical Research Foundation at Georgetown University Medical Center. Ledley's 1973 invention of the computed tomography scanner (CT) allowed doctors to see inside the body for the first time without surgery or dangerous X-rays. But he said the idea, although badly needed, was not obvious to fellow researchers. "It's things that people wanted to do, but many biomedical engineers felt in many of these cases couldn't be done," he told Reuters in an interview. "When somebody says to me, 'Oh, it can't be done,' that's like a red flag. So I go after it." Ledley, who trained as a dentist, is currently working on new prenatal tests for genetic irregularities and an ultrasound scanner he hopes will let neurosurgeons "see" inside the brain while they are operating. George Wetherill of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who developed theories on how planets like the Earth formed, said he, too, got little encouragement from peers. "When I first started suggesting (the importance of) comets and asteroids (in planetary formation) in the late fifties and early sixties, it was just ridiculed by most of the planetary science community," he said. Now probes are being built to visit comets in the hope of finding the seeds left over from the early universe. Outright resentment greeted Harold Johnston of the University of California at Berkeley, who first warned of holes in the Earth's protective ozone layer. Johnston's testimony to Congress in the 1970s about how minute quantities of chemicals could wreak havoc on the atmosphere, helped kick-start research that led to the discovery of growing holes in the ozone layer which let in the sun's ultraviolet radiation at levels that can not only damage crops, but cause cancer in people. "I was one of the early ones to say ... if you look at this mechanism, you can affect the entire globe. That was heresy. No one believed that anything you could do immediately could really affect the atmosphere," he said. "In the old days when you had pollution problems you just built a taller smoke stack." He said he was gratified to see people taking his warnings so seriously today. By MAGGIE FOX, Reuters Copyright 1997 Nando.net Copyright 1997 Reuters <http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/health/121697/health6_7459_noframes.html> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- janet [log in to unmask]