Few Americans can explain how polymerase chain reaction (PCR) works or who invented it. But for those involved in the criminal justice system, few will deny the contributions made by Kary Mullis Ph.D that led to his 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. As a result of his invention, The Innocence Project has helped to clear 280 people previously convicted of serious crimes in the United States.
Seventeen of those innocent men were sentenced to death.
Dr. Mullis started to ask questions about HIV and AIDS while developing tests that used PCR. But when AIDS researchers got angry when he asked basic questions about HIV and AIDS, he knew something was amiss.
Mullis:
The people that are AIDS researchers now are getting neurotic if you ask them any questions. There was a time when I first started asking questions that all I wanted was, “where are the papers… just tell me the papers that you read that convinced you that HIV was the cause of AIDS, ‘cause I need to reference those papers…”
I was working on a test for HIV with PCR and I needed to write a little report to the NIH and say, “Here’s the progress we’ve made…” And the first line of it was, “HIV is the probable cause of AIDS..” And I thought that was true this is before I got involved and I said, “What’s the reference for that quote?” And I looked for it for two or three years and I never did find it…”
And by the end of two years I’d asked everybody at every meeting that I’d gone to that talked about AIDS… there is no reference – there is nobody who should get credit for that statement. Now that’s a pretty weird situation in science where, getting credit for a discovery is the most important in your life as a scientist… The way to get rid of AIDS is to stop funding it.”
Gary Null Ph.D interviews Dr. Mullis: ”
For more information about Dr. Mullis, visit www.karymullis.com.
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Tags: AIDS, Chemistry, Corruption, HIV, Kary Mullis, Nobel Prize, PCR, research