 "Test-tube baby pioneer Robert Edwards dies aged 87")
British scientist Robert Edwards, who was awarded a Nobel prize for his pioneering work in developing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) leading to the birth of the first test tube baby, died today. He was 87.
"It is with deep sadness that the family announces that Professor Sir Robert Edwards, Nobel prizewinner, scientist and co-pioneer of IVF, passed away peacefully in his sleep on 10th April 2013 after a long illness," Cambridge University said in a statement today.
He was awarded the Nobel prize for medicine in 2010, three decades after the birth of the world's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, in 1978, and five decades after he first began experimenting.
In the late 1970s, Edwards and Dr Patrick Steptoe became famous after developing the technique of in vitro fertilisation, which resulted in the birth of Louise Brown - the world's first test tube baby - in 1978.
Their work won them the gratitude of many millions of people, but run into conflict with the Catholic Church.
"Bob Edwards was a remarkable man who changed the lives of so many people. He was not only a visionary in his science but also in his communication to the wider public about matters scientific in which he was a great pioneer. He will be greatly missed by his colleagues, students, his family and all the many people he has helped to have children," Martin Johnson, professor of reproductive science at the University of Cambridge and Edwards' first graduate student was quoted by the British newspaper 'the Guardian' as saying.
Born in Yorkshire in northern England on September 27, 1925, into a working-class family, Edwards served in the British army during World War II before returning home to study first agricultural sciences and then animal genetics.
Building on earlier research which showed that egg cells from rabbits could be fertilised in test tubes when sperm was added, Edwards developed the same technique for humans.
In a laboratory in Cambridge, eastern England, in 1968, he along with his research partner Steptoe, first saw life created outside the womb in the form of a human blastocyst, an embryo that has developed for five to six days after fertilisation.
"I'll never forget the day I looked down the microscope and saw something funny in the cultures," Edwards once recalled.
"I looked down the microscope and what I saw was a human blastocyst gazing up at me. I thought: 'We've done it'."
But Edwards and Steptoe, who died in 1988, were forced to defend their work in the face of severe opposition, from the media, the Catholic Church -- and fellow scientists.
He remained convinced to the end that the Catholic Church is wrong to object to IVF, saying clergy who condemn the technique are "totally mistaken".
"It is with deep sadness that the family announces that Professor Sir Robert Edwards, Nobel prizewinner, scientist and co-pioneer of IVF, passed away peacefully in his sleep on 10th April 2013 after a long illness," Cambridge University said in a statement today.
He was awarded the Nobel prize for medicine in 2010, three decades after the birth of the world's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, in 1978, and five decades after he first began experimenting.
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Edwards was too frail to pick up his Nobel prize in Stockholm in 2010, leaving that to his wife Ruth, with whom he had five daughters. However, he remained a fellow of Churchill College at Cambridge until his death.
In the late 1970s, Edwards and Dr Patrick Steptoe became famous after developing the technique of in vitro fertilisation, which resulted in the birth of Louise Brown - the world's first test tube baby - in 1978.
Their work won them the gratitude of many millions of people, but run into conflict with the Catholic Church.
"Bob Edwards was a remarkable man who changed the lives of so many people. He was not only a visionary in his science but also in his communication to the wider public about matters scientific in which he was a great pioneer. He will be greatly missed by his colleagues, students, his family and all the many people he has helped to have children," Martin Johnson, professor of reproductive science at the University of Cambridge and Edwards' first graduate student was quoted by the British newspaper 'the Guardian' as saying.
Born in Yorkshire in northern England on September 27, 1925, into a working-class family, Edwards served in the British army during World War II before returning home to study first agricultural sciences and then animal genetics.
Building on earlier research which showed that egg cells from rabbits could be fertilised in test tubes when sperm was added, Edwards developed the same technique for humans.
In a laboratory in Cambridge, eastern England, in 1968, he along with his research partner Steptoe, first saw life created outside the womb in the form of a human blastocyst, an embryo that has developed for five to six days after fertilisation.
"I'll never forget the day I looked down the microscope and saw something funny in the cultures," Edwards once recalled.
"I looked down the microscope and what I saw was a human blastocyst gazing up at me. I thought: 'We've done it'."
But Edwards and Steptoe, who died in 1988, were forced to defend their work in the face of severe opposition, from the media, the Catholic Church -- and fellow scientists.
He remained convinced to the end that the Catholic Church is wrong to object to IVF, saying clergy who condemn the technique are "totally mistaken".