There are still obstacles to the development of an AIDS vaccine, in the meantime we must help the patients in Africa

This is what the discoverer of the AIDS virus, Robert Gallo, said at the ceremony of winning the Dan David Prize * Tony Blair promised to provide half of the prize amount to the association he heads that works to prevent malaria in Africa * Three researchers in the field of experimental cosmology won the prize for the past tense

At the Tel Aviv University, the Dan David Prizes were awarded this evening, Sunday. The prizes, at the rate of one million dollars per prize, are awarded to winners in the various time dimensions - past, present and future, with different criteria being set for each time dimension each year. This year there was a contribution from three researchers in the field of experimental cosmology - Prof. Paul Richards, Prof. Paulo de Bernardis and Prof. Andrew Lang to share the prize in the past time dimension; former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his performance as a leader in the present time dimension; and Prof. Robert Gallo, the discoverer of the AIDS virus, in the time dimension of the future. The event took place in the presence of the President of the State, Shimon Peres.

Prof. Gallo said in his winning speech that at first the scientific community was in euphoria, in three years 1982-1985 so many discoveries were made and the way to cures for AIDS was paved, that everyone was convinced that developing a vaccine was a matter that would be easily resolved. Thirty years later there are several vaccine candidates but they are not sufficiently effective and safe enough to use.

Already in 1985, the first drug was developed and the cocktails were prepared that extended the lives of many AIDS carriers, although today side effects such as susceptibility to lung cancer in non-smokers are beginning to be discovered. Every month 160-170 thousand people die from the disease, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. According to him, many volunteers have started working in Africa and today they treat about half a million patients who without the help would soon die.

Gallo praised the activities of Bill Gates, but said that these amounts are not enough. He announced that he will donate a portion of the prize amount to organizations that help develop drugs for AIDS, or help patients, as well as to organizations working in the field of mental health (for family reasons).

Gallo says that in 1972 an Israeli researcher, Yaffe Kidar, convinced him to stay another day in Israel, to spend time in Tel Aviv after several days in Jerusalem (he still maintains contacts with universities and hospitals all over the country). He accepted the request. One of the connecting flights on which he was supposed to board on the original date was a TWA flight that was hijacked and whose plane blew up on its passengers.

The winners of the past tense award were represented by Prof. Richards (a separate report from a scientific seminar held three hours earlier at the Faculty of Exact Sciences at Tel Aviv University will be published soon): "On my behalf and on behalf of my colleagues, I would like to thank the Dan David Foundation for awarding the award for the expansion of knowledge in understanding the past. Our field is experimental cosmology. If you were to see in the microwave field, you would not see the stars, but you would see a glow that is a remnant of the Big Bang."

"We build small telescopes, fly them on helium balloons to look for patterns of small changes in this glow - the cosmic background radiation. Some of these spots are the size of the full moon, others are smaller. They give us clues about the structure of the universe. Our field of experimental cosmology is mainly influenced by the results of studies of impressive satellites such as Kobe and WMAP. Last Thursday the European Space Agency launched the Planck spacecraft to measure these changes. But the committee chose to award the prize to planners of small experiments that later led to experiments carried out from space."

Tony Blair told President Peres that he was his hero when he decided to run for politics. Later he explained that he is completely ignorant in the field of science but he knows how to evaluate the consequences of scientific discoveries. Nice to see what science has achieved. When I was prime minister I tried to promote science. The alliance between science and government policy is very important for our future.

Blair announced that half of the prize amount would be transferred to an organization that helps fight malaria in Africa - while the hospitals and clinics are very far from the population on the black continent, every village has a church, mosque or temple of some kind. The idea is to use these facilities to distribute life-saving kits and medicines. The second half will be directed to the organization that equips young people in backward areas in the north of England for sports and in the process improves their self-confidence.

President Peres also admitted that he does not understand science when he addressed the winners in the fields of science (the three cosmologists and Gallo) "I read the reasons why you won the prize, I did not understand anything from what I read. But I understood what you contributed. Because I asked myself what science and technology actually is. It is a continuous fight against blindness. No technology existed when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. Science constantly struggles with blindness. You open humanity's eyes, so that we can see better in the past, in the future inside our bodies, but we are still blind as to the past - the big bang, as to the future - the parts of nature that we have not yet discovered. It is not because of nature but because of our failure to see all the wonders of nature - in space, in the depths of the sea, in our minds. Future generations will have more opportunities and will understand better."

Prof. Zvi Galil - President of Tel Aviv University: "Past, present, future, yesterday, today and tomorrow, we use these combinations without thinking. They are incorporated into the language in which we articulate our thoughts. This model represents a number of philosophical problems, and does not fit with scientific theories such as the theory of relativity. In this ceremony we refer to both the linguistic aspect and the scientific aspect. The past is certain, but knowledge about it is limited due to the blurring of memory, the ability to survive artifacts, and the temporality of buildings, cities, continents, and even planets and solar systems. The universe has a flat geometry, following an event in the early universe - inflation - that swelling of the universe. And for that we award the Past Time Award. We give Tony Blair an award for his contribution to peace - aid to peace in Ireland, Kosovo and his ongoing effort to resolve the crisis in the Middle East. The future for us is unknown, it represents our hope. We influence him with our actions today. Prof. Gallo's research will make it possible to improve human health in the future."

"We must understand the past, act in the present to achieve a better future." Prof. Galil concluded.