Sometime in 1982, Dr. Barry J Marshall had an idea. While the rest of the medical world struggled to control stomach ulcers, blaming them on everything from stress to spicy food, he had a feeling bacteria were to blame.
To prove his idea, he did an extraordinary thing. He used himself as a guinea pig.
Dr Marshall swallowed a solution containing the bug. A week later, he began vomiting, as gastritis had set in. His thesis was proved. He then cured himself with antibiotics, giving the medical world one of its most significant breakthroughs.
Earlier this week, he was rewarded for that stomach-ache he had years ago. The 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Barry J Marshall and J Robin Warren for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori.
Nobel laureates Pathologist Dr Robin Warren (L) and Professor Barry Marshall walk to a press conference at the University of Western fAustralia.
Preetee Brahmbhatt | Photograph: TONY ASHBY/AFP/Getty Images