A Nobel Cause

After my earlier post about anti-intellectual Horowitzism, I offer you this cautionary tale with a happy ending....

Rita Levi-Montalcini is a world-renowned neuroscientist, best known for her groundbreaking studies of Nerve Growth Factor and cell growth. She faced extremely adverse conditions during the early part of her career in war-torn Italy. The following excerpt is from her autobiography:

"In 1936 Mussolini issued the "Manifesto per la Difesa della Razza", signed by ten Italian 'scientists'. The manifesto was soon followed by the promulgation of laws barring academic and professional careers to non-Aryan Italian citizens. After a short period spent in Brussels as a guest of a neurological institute, I returned to Turin on the verge of the invasion of Belgium by the German army, Spring 1940, to join my family. The two alternatives left then to us were either to emigrate to the United States, or to pursue some activity that needed neither support nor connection with the outside Aryan world where we lived. My family chose this second alternative. I then decided to build a small research unit at home and installed it in my bedroom."

Dr. Montalcini conducted experiments in her home until the end of the war. She then moved to Washington University at St. Louis, where she enjoyed a long and illustrious career. In 1986, Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini won the Nobel Prize for Medicine. At age 95, she remains an emeritus professor, active in Fondazione Levi-Montalcini and efforts to provide educational opportunities for women in Africa.