Verbal Reasoning Test Question 9

Barry James Marshall is an Australian Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine. He is currently Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the University of Western Australia. By far his most famous achievement – which in part contributed to him being made a Nobel laureate – was to demonstrate that a bacterium known as Helicobacter pylori is the cause of the majority of peptic ulcers. This discovery reversed years of medical doctrine which assumed that peptic ulcers were caused by too much acid, hence the popularity of antacid medications. Leading up to the discovery, the hypothesis had been largely ridiculed by the medical fraternity. The incredible thing about the discovery, however, is that Marshall intentionally infected himself with the bacterium to demonstrate its effects.