The Nobel prize in 1908 was awarded jointly to llya Metchinikoff and Paul Ehrlich in recognition of their work on immunity. Metchinikoff was one of the most eminent of Pasteur's pupils. He was not medically qualified but taught zoology at Odessa and St Petersburg and from 1873–82 was Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Odessa. He was an outspoken Darwinist and in the university's deteriorating political atmosphere at the time was labelled a “red”. The Tsar's assassination in 1881 unleashed the reactionaries and antisemites. Metchinikoff tried suicide, on …