Why the Google doodle today reminds Dr. Georgios Papanikolaou

Google today reminds Greek doctor Georgios Papanikolaou with a doodle. The doctor, specializing in cytopathology, developed, with his wife Andromachi Mavroyenis, the Papanicolaou test, an early detection test for cervical cancer.

Today, Georgios would be 136 years oldBorn May 13, 1883 in Kimi, on the island of Euboea, he studied medicine at the University of Athens, where he graduated in 1904.

He first studied music and the humanities, then turned to science, respecting the family tradition.

He served as a surgeon during the Balkan War, and in 1913 he went with his wife to the United States. At first, to keep up, he played the violin in restaurants and sold carpets; while Mary was sewing buttons and was earning $ 5 a week.

Finally, Georgios found a job at Cornell University and, with Mary, who worked as a technician, they developed the famous Pap test.

The discovery occurred during the study of a group of friends of the couple who volunteered for this research project. During the study, Georgios noticed malignant cells in one of the samples and thus detected, to a friend of his wife, a cervical cancer.

Nowadays, the papanicolau, simple and economic test to realize, is still used all over the world to detect this type of pathologies in the time.

Papanikolaou received the Albert Lasker Prize in 1950 for his scientific discoveries and was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize. His image appeared on the Greek bill of drachmas (money replaced by the euro in 2002) of 10,000 euros and on a US postage stamp in 1978. In addition, a cancer research institute in Miami also bears his name , like Remember in the Google blog.