Some arguments for why Carl Woese (and probably Norm Pace) deserves a Nobel Prize

Compiling posts and articles discussing why Carl Woese deserves a Nobel Prize.  Will be writing a new article on this but felt like I should share the articles in case I don't get done in time

• A Tale of Woese by Douglas Page in 1998
• Here's hoping molecular classification of cultured and uncultured microbes wins #NobelPrize in medicine  by me in 2010
• And the winner should be... : Article Darwin Nature Reviews Microbiology in 2011
• Darwin's Disciple from Amherst Magazine in 2002 

I note I do not think Woese should win a Nobel for discovering the archaea.  That was a groundbreaking finding but it does not fit well with the Nobel Prize categories.  I think he should win it for the concept of molecular classification of microorganisms and applying this in general to the microbial world around us.  This concept (expanded by Norm Pace and colleagues to uncultured microbes) revolutionized our approach to studying single microbes in the environment, to studying single microbes infecting people and to studying communities of microbes in and on people.  And thus Woese and Pace in my opinion deserve the Nobel Prize for Medicine.  I will be expanding on this in a future post ...