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Science at its best
Your Royal Highness, Ambassadors,Ladies and gentlemen, Friends of science.
It is an honour to be here for the Brain Prize 2015 ceremony.
A few years ago, four American brain-scientists conducted an unusual experiment.
They showed pictures of people with different emotions to a dead salmon.
And even though it was stone dead, the researchers actually detected small signs of brain activity in it.
For this surprising result they were awarded the "Ig Nobel" prize.
It is also called "the funny Nobel prize" and is given out every year at Harvard University to unusual achievements in scientific research. Of course, the results were not reliable.
As the researchers themselves pointed out, it was just random noise in the test that should be removed by further statistical controls.
Actually, the whole point of the study was to show the importance of these additional controls.
Nevertheless, they were awarded the prize for demonstrating that researchers with complex instruments can see meaningful brain activity anywhere — even in a dead salmon.
Today we are also celebrating the ability of brain researchers to see brain activity.
Not in a dead fish or as random noise. But in live brain cells affected by serious disorders – such as a blood clot or cancer.
Today we are celebrating world-class research and the results it can yield.
The 2015 Brain Prize winners are Winfried Denk, Arthur Konnerth, Karel Svoboda and David Tank. Congratulations.
Your research shows the value of long-term, persistent and dedicated work.
You are being given the prize for the invention, refinement and use of two-photon microscopy.
The technique of two-photon microscopy allows us to see what is happening in live brain-cells and in real time.
That is not an ignoble achievement – and deserves more than just a 'funny-prize'.
It creates real progress in our ability to understand and cure deadly disorders.
And as such, it is science at its best.
By enabling the study of tiny parts of the brain, you create the potential for significant health improvements.
The importance of brain research
The brain provides the foundation of our personality, of our thoughts and of our feelings.
But the brain is also the origin of many disabling diseases. Like Parkinson's and Alzheimer’s; depression and dementia.
It is a tragedy for those affected by these diseases – both for the individual and their family. I know from personal experience.
And it is very costly for society as a whole.
A study for the European Brain Council estimates that more than one in three Europeans are affected by brain disorders.
The total direct and indirect costs to European society are 800 billion euros.
But with scientific breakthroughs – such as your invention of the two-photon technique - the health and lives of these people can be changed
dramatically.
That is why your research is so important. That is why at a national level here in Denmark and on a European level, we are spending billions of public and private money on research to better understand the brain.
And that is why I am pleased, that the Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation is contributing in such an eminent way.
I would like to thank the Lundbeck Foundation for this generous and important support.
Inspiring the young researchers of tomorrow
Just a few weeks ago I attended the Drughunter Competition.
At the contest, high school students compete to better understand the brain and suggest new ways to tackle brain diseases.
The Drughunter competition is also created by Lundbeck and it is part of the wider effort to inspire young talents to engage in research and create positive change in our society.
As you can probably guess, I did not begin my speech to those hopeful young students by telling them about dead salmons.
Or the time spent by scientists searching for brain activity in them.
Instead, I compared great brain-researchers with the superheroes known from comic books.
Because like superheroes, researchers change the lives of ordinary people. Not with superpowers but through their research.
For me, it is important that we inspire and support our most talented youths to pursue a career in science.
The Brain Prize not only stands out because of its size, the importance of neuroscience or the brilliance of its recipients.
It also stands out for its ambition to disseminate the recipients’ knowledge to the research community and wider Danish society.
Over the coming year, the four recipients will contribute to knowledge exchange with Danish researchers, aspiring young scientists and the
Danish population at large.
In that way, the Brain Prize does not only recognize scientific results of the past. It also encourages new talents to pursue scientific goals and achievements of the future. That is important.
Great researchers like the four we are celebrating today play an important part as inspiration for new young talents.
Like the high school students at the Drughunter competition.
Winfried Denk, Arthur Konnerth, Karel Svoboda and David Tank – you are the real life superheroes I told them about.
And I hope some of them will have a chance to meet you when you come back later in the year.
On that note, I congratulate you once again with this great prize.
Thank you very much.