诺奖官网对2015年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖得主威廉·坎贝尔的采访

Interview with William C. Campbell

 

[William Campbell] Hello.

 

[Adam Smith] Oh, hello, my name is Adam Smith, I’m calling from Nobelprize.org, the official website of the Nobel Prize, in Stockholm.

 

[William Campbell] Yes?

 

[Adam Smith] Have you heard the news?

 

[William Campbell] Yes.

 

[Adam Smith] Where were you when you heard this news?

 

[William Campbell] I was asleep.

 

[Adam Smith] What was your first reaction?

 

[William Campbell] Well, the first thing I said was ‘You must be kidding!’ and, I thought, the first thing I did after that was to ask for a way to verify that this could be genuine because it just seemed impossible.

 

[Adam Smith] [Laughs] And how long did it take to convince you?

 

[William Campbell] Not very long, because they told me to go on the website. And one of the reasons I thought it was impossible is that I believe the Nobel Prize cannot be given to a group except for one particular area, and this work was the product of a group. And it often is, but in this case especially.  

 

[Adam Smith] The production of a drug from start to finish requires so very many people, doesn’t it?

 

[William Campbell] Yes, exactly, and so I think of it as an award that I’m the representative of the Merck Company’s research team.

 

[Adam Smith] That’s lovely. Can you describe the difference you think that the drug, that Ivermectin in particular, has made to the world? 

 

[William Campbell] Well, it has made a huge impact in preventing blindness. Blindness anywhere, and especially in certain areas of the world, is likely to be calamitous and fatal because people cannot be productive and make a living when they are blind in some circumstances. So it has certainly changed lives and changed the ability of people to live in certain fertile areas of land which they had had to abandon because of the disease, and this enables them to repopulate areas that had been abandoned, so that has been another way it has been important.

 

[Adam Smith] That’s a very important point to emphasise, thank you. And one key step in all this was that you turned to nature to provide the anti-parasitic drugs. Do you think that nature is a store of tremendous numbers of as-yet unknown medicines?

 

[William Campbell] Yes, and I have written about that, and I have works in press about that. I feel very strongly about that. I think one of the big mistakes we’ve made all along is, and I’ve been writing about that for 40 years, is that there is a certain amount of hubris in humans thinking that they can create molecules as well as nature can create molecules in terms of the diversity of molecules, because nature consistently produces molecules that have not been thought of by humans.

 

[Adam Smith] Lastly, I can hear in your voice that lovely Irish lilt [Laughs].

 

[William Campbell] I don’t suppose there’s much of it left any more.

 

[Adam Smith] Well, actually I was thinking there was a rather surprisingly nice amount. So I guess they’ll be celebrating in Ireland as well today.

 

[William Campbell] Currently in Ireland, my brother and his wife, who got this before I did, and so I was awakened and put on a radio show in County Donegal. Nobody else, including me, knew about it properly, so my family there were thrilled. They called me to tell me about it.

 

[Adam Smith] That’s nice, I guess you’ll be receiving calls throughout the day and the week and the months ahead.

 

[William Campbell] My phone is ringing, my cell phone and my landline number are both ringing constantly and it’s a great thrill and a great honour, and a great honour to have been part of this team effort.

 

[Adam Smith] That’s lovely, well thank you.

 

[William Campbell] And that’s the point I want to emphasise.

 

[Adam Smith] Thank you. Well, we very much look forward to welcoming you to Stockholm in December and when you come then we’ll have a chance to talk more.

 

[William Campbell]When?

 

[Adam Smith] In December. So the Awards ceremony is on December 10th.

 

[William Campbell] What, of this year?

 

[Adam Smith] Yes, of this year. So it’s in...

 

[William Campbell] 2015?

 

[Adam Smith] 2015.

 

[William Campbell] No kidding! Wow. Oh, gosh. That’s a shock. I look forward to being there, of course.

 

[Adam Smith] Thank you.

 

[William Campbell] Thank you so much.

 

[Adam Smith] I look forward to seeing you in December. Thank you, bye bye.