American's Nobel crusade sparks vitriol

LONDON, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- British scientists Saturday lashed out against an American who spent thousands of dollars on ads denouncing the Nobel prize committee because he didn't win.

Raymond Damadian, a pioneer of magnetic resonance imaging, criticized the committee for awarding the prize for medicine to Britain's Peter Mansfield and America's Paul Lauterbur, Sunday's London Observer reported.

The award will be presented in Stockholm Wednesday.

"Yes, Damadian did some good work, but he is claiming ownership of the whole field. In fact, it was Mansfield and Lauterbur who did the crucial research," Peter Morris, professor of physics at Nottingham University, said.

Mick Brammer, professor of neuroimaging at King's College, London, said Damadian was merely expressing "sour grapes."

"Had I never been born, there would be no MRI today," one of Damadian's ads read. Damadian's supporters claim he was shunned because he is a creationist who thinks the world is 6,000 years old.