New ideas in science and medicine and the renal control of acid-base balance

October 3, 2005 - 9:10PM : Australians Barry J. Marshall and Robin Warren won the 2005 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine today for showing that bacteria are the cause of painful stomach ulcers in most people. "In 1982, when this bacterium was discovered by Marshall and Warren, stress and lifestyle were considered the major causes of peptic ulcer disease," the assembly said in its citation. "It is now firmly established that Helicobacter pylori causes more than 90 per cent of duodenal ulcers and up to 80 per cent of gastric ulcers." When the investigators proposed that peptic ulcer disease was an infectious disease, their hypothesis was widely ridiculed.