There is a book I am currently reading on great and good ideas. One of the numerous example given is that of Dr Barry Marshall. The Australian doctor turned the treatment of peptic ulcers on its head and was subsequently awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. This doctor noticed that most of the patient with ulcers had a stomach bug Helicobacter pylori . It lives in the stomach and is shaped like a corkscrew and is able to burrow into the mucus lining of the stomach and hence avoid the acidic environment. The bacteria H. Pylori also uses chemotaxis to neutralize the acid producing a large amount of urease which breaks down the urea present in the stomach to form carbon dioxide and ammonia. These neutralise the acid. After Dr Marshall produces his report in Australia he was ridiculed by the established doctors and scientists. Most of them did not believe that any bacteria would survive in the hostile acidic environment of the stomach. The stomach does produc...