Stephen Schneider, a Noble Nobel
By Kevin O’Neill, Business Development Specialist, Stanford Blood Center
Stanford Blood Center had the privilege of hosting Dr. Stephen Schneider at a bi-monthly Cafe Scientifique discussion to share his unique perspective as both a climate studies expert and a cancer patient. As the host, I was on the lookout to greet and orient him to our protocol. I was surprised to discover him at a break room table partaking of lab staff pot luck! I found his informality and spontaneity enchanting, as did the staff!
Having read his “The Patient from Hell” treatise on his experience going through successful cancer treatment, I was well versed in the chronology of that ordeal. What most impressed me about its insights was two fold. First, because of his credentials as an accomplished scientist & a Stanford professor, he wasn’t intimidated to question his physicians about the logic behind his treatment protocols. Although initially surprised to be challenged by a patient, his doctors, in time, did grapple with his reasoning, and ultimately changed how they executed certain treatment protocols. Secondly, his winning reasoning was based upon rudimentary logic, leaving me with the question as to why illogical protocols would have been followed for so long seemingly without challenge from within or without the medical community.
Regarding his Nobel Prize-winning work on climate change, his pictures and presentation of data were irrefutably persuasive. However, my new learning on this topic that evening came in the area of understanding the opposition to the case for the phenomenon of global warming. He pointed out that with the common acceptance of the global warning case, oil-rich nations stand to lose not million of dollars, nor billions of dollars, but trillions of dollars. This truth underscored the enormous challenge facing the scientific community in its quest to remedy this ominous course our planet is heading towards. Stephen Schneider made profound contributions to the areas of cancer treatment protocols & the case for global warning that I am familiar with. No doubt these represent only a fraction of his scientific contributions to humankind. His loss will be manifest across his innumerable areas of professional interest.
For a closer look at Dr. Schneider’s life and accomplishments, see this article, beautifully written by John Unger Zussman, PhD.