Journalist and psychiatrist awarded prize for bravery

Death threats and libel suits are not usually the stuff of a career in science. But this week two people who have faced violence and intimidation simply for trying to uphold scientific values became the first recipients of the John Maddox Prize, an award that recognises exceptional courage and bravery in science anywhere in the world.

The award was given to Shi-min Fang, a biochemist and freelance science journalist in Beijing, who survived an attack by an assailant with a hammer after exposing bogus medical treatments and fraudulent scientific practices in China, and Simon Wessely of King's College London. He received death threats and professional smears for offering people with chronic fatigue syndrome a psychiatric treatment at a time when a mouse leukaemia virus had been implicated as the cause. The virus link has since been discredited.

Fang and Wessely beat 47 other nominated individuals, and each was awarded a prize of ?2000.

Sile Lane of Sense About Science, the UK watchdog that combined with Nature to set up the award, said Wessely and Fang stood out as being "exceptional".

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