英国《自然》社论：约翰·马多克斯奖

两名意志坚定的人是一个捍卫科学奖的首届获奖者

《自然》2012年11月6日

　　英国精神病医生西蒙·威斯利和中国科学作家方是民（方舟子）是约翰·马多克斯奖的首届获奖者。该奖由《自然》和科恩基金会赞助，由英国慈善机构“理解科学”推动和组织，纪念《自然》前主编约翰·马多克斯。约翰在倡导可靠的科学方面贡献突出。该奖奖励那些倡导与公共兴趣有关的可靠科学和证据，特别强调那些在从事这一事业时面临困难和反对的人。在今年首次颁发时，评委们奖给了两个人，每人奖励2000英镑（3200美元）。

　　中国的快速现代化以及共产党政府对科学技术的赞赏让其牢牢地接纳科学家和科学成就，有时到了不加辨别的程度。有太多的投机分子进入这一宽松环境之中，随时准备用夸大其词的履历、造假论文和剽窃论文、假药以及没有临床证据的医疗方法为自己牟利。

　　2000年，方是民开始在他的新语丝网站上曝光这些胆大妄为之举。方曾受训成为一名生物化学家，但改行成为科学作家和评论员。作为一个局外人，他做了科学界想做但是经常做不成的很多事情——根除造假者。

　　例如，方曾质疑DNA保健品，当时该保健品大作广告，声称它能让疲劳的人、孕妇以及老人重获活力。最终，政府对此保健品发出了警告。方看上去尤其有兴趣抨击那些有权势或很知名的科学家。他甚至挑战政府对中国传统医学的支持。但是他的目标进行反扑，有一个案例尤其显得歹毒。在2010年夏天，受雇于一个泌尿科医生的暴徒用铁锤袭击了方，据方说，暴徒试图杀死他。方之前不仅挑战该泌尿科医生开展的一项外科手术的有效性，还质疑了他的履历。

　　方让一个模糊的体系变得透明。他在一个缺乏批评和争论的社会开辟了一个论坛。

　　西蒙·威斯利是伦敦国王学院精神病研究所的精神病医生，其专业主要涉及两个领域——军事人员和退伍军人的心理健康，以及慢性疲乏综合征。他和同事证明了慢性疲乏综合征和抑郁症的症状存在高度重叠。他从事一项重大而艰巨的研究来检验常见病毒感染和后来的疲乏之间的联系，发现并不存在简单的因果关系。随后他研发出了一种使用认知行为治疗技术的疗法，在许多病例中都有显著改善，有一些病例患者获得新生。这一疗法经过了大型临床试验的检验，被收入了英国国家健康与临床成就研究院的指南。

　　“一直以来，”提名他获奖的人说，“威斯利遭受到了来自一小部分有权势的人持续不断的虐待和阻挠，这些人把自己打扮成自助组织，对该疾病提倡一种极端而狭隘的观点。这一观点否认任何心理的和精神病的因素，到了把精神病学当成是一门抹黑精神病患者的卑鄙学科的地步。二十年来，威斯利收到了充满敌意的信件、电子邮件甚至死亡威胁。他和他的临床团队受到恶意投诉，议院也对其提出站不住脚的疑问。他在互联网上遭受恶毒的攻击，有组织地试图把他变成一个让人憎恨的人物。他被比作约瑟夫·门格尔——这一比较特别伤人，因为西蒙是纳粹大屠杀幸存者的儿子。也许很天真，西蒙面对这些攻击时，大多尝试与其对话，试图进行教育、让其放心，而不是以牙还牙。”

　　威斯利是第一个承认在这个领域从事研究的人也受到了类似的甚至更糟糕的虐待的。尽管如此，该奖认可威斯利对这些问题采取的非常公开的立场。

　　《自然》对西蒙·威斯利和方是民的获奖表示祝贺。

NATURE | EDITORIAL

John Maddox prize

Two strong-minded individuals are the first winners of an award for standing up for science.

06 November 2012

The British psychiatrist Simon Wessely and the Chinese science writer Shi-min Fang are the two inaugural winners of the John Maddox Prize. Sponsored by Nature and the Kohn Foundation, and stimulated and organized by the UK-based charity Sense About Science, the prize commemorates a former Editor of Nature, John Maddox. John was distinguished for his championing of robust science. The prize rewards individuals who have promoted sound science and evidence on a matter of public interest, with an emphasis on those who have faced difficulty or opposition in doing so. In this inaugural year, the judges (see go.nature.com/9rvd1t) were able to make two awards, each of ￡2,000 (US$3,200).

China’s rush to modernize and the communist government’s celebration of science and technology have firmly embraced scientists and scientific achievements, sometimes uncritically. And into that permissive milieu has walked a plethora of opportunists ready to take advantage of the situation with padded CVs, fraudulent and plagiarized articles, bogus medicines and medical procedures carried out without clinical evidence.

In 2000, Shi-min Fang started to expose these escapades in his New Threads website. As an outsider, trained as a biochemist but turned science writer and commentator, he has done much of what the scientific community aims, but often fails, to do — root out the fakers.

For example, Fang called into question DNA supplements that were widely advertised as a means to rejuvenate the tired, the pregnant and the old. Eventually, the government issued warnings about the supplements. Fang seemed to especially relish smacking down powerful or popular scientists. He even challenged official support of traditional Chinese medicine. But his targets fought back, in one case with particular hostility. In the summer of 2010, thugs hired by a urologist attacked Fang with a hammer and, according to Fang, tried to kill him. Fang had previously challenged not only the efficacy of a surgical procedure developed by the urologist, but also his CV.

Fang imposes transparency on an opaque system. He has opened a forum for criticism and debate in a community that is otherwise devoid of it.

Simon Wessely is a psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, who has specialized in two areas above all — the mental health of military personnel and veterans, and chronic fatigue syndrome. He and his colleagues demonstrated substantial overlap in symptoms between chronic fatigue syndrome and clinical depression. He carried out a massive and ambitious study to test the link between common viral infections and later fatigue, and found that there is no simple causal association. He subsequently developed a treatment approach using cognitive-behavioural therapy techniques, which in many cases brought about substantial improvement and in some was life transforming. This treatment was tested in large clinical trials and can now be found in the guidelines of the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

“All along the way,” says the individual who nominated him for the prize, “Wessely has had to suffer continued abuse and obstruction from a powerful minority of people who, under the guise of self-help organizations, have sought to promote an extreme and narrow version of the disorder. This version repudiates any psychological or psychiatric element to the extent that psychiatry is viewed as a contemptible discipline, which, by association, denigrates psychiatric patients. Hostile letters, e-mails and even death threats have been directed at Professor Wessely over two decades. Mischievous complaints have been made against him and his clinical team, and bogus questions raised in the Houses of Parliament. He has suffered a vigorous Internet assault and coordinated attempts have been made to turn him into a hate figure. He has been compared to Josef Mengele — particularly hurtful since Simon is the son of holocaust survivors. Simon has, perhaps  naively, tried to deal with most of these by seeking dialogue and trying to educate and reassure, rather than by responding in kind.”

Wessely is the first to acknowledge that others working in this field have received similar or even worse abuse. Never-theless, the prize recognizes the very public stand that Wessely has taken over these issues.

Nature congratulates Simon Wessely and Shi-min Fang on their awards.

Nature 491, 160 (08 November 2012) doi:10.1038/491160a