Nobel committee accidentally awards prize to dead man

Recognition came just a little too late for a biologist at Rockefeller University in New York, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine today, three days after he died of pancreatic cancer.

The prize committee, which gave Canadian-born Bruce Steinman the award without knowing he had passed, must decide whether to rescind the award.

Tthe prize isn't allowed to be awarded posthumously.

Steinman, who would have shared the prize with two other researchers, had made significant discoveries about the activiation of the immune system that could be used for new treatments for many ailments including cancer.

For more: http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/10/03/nobel_prizes_bruce_steinman_died_3_days_before_award_in_medicine.html