LASaryan

I own a set of "coins" dated 2004, 8 in number mounted in an attractive holder, that are being distributed for $20 to $30 per set in the numismatic marketplace. These are denominated in Euro, although Armenia clearly is not using Euro currency at present. The coins are designated as patterns (and so designated on each side), which means in essence that they are prototypes, which may or may not be struck for future use. They are not legal tender and cannot be used to purchase goods or services. The denominations are 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 Euro cents and 1 and 2 Euro. There are three designs: the Armenian coat of arms (struck in copper), a plant (struck in brass), and a man with a helmet and mustache (bimetallic brass and nickel). From the standpoint of numismatic art, the designs are horrible: the coat of arms lacks essential detail, the plant is nondescript, the man is unidentified and does not look particularly Armenian. The coins are accompanied by a historical sketch of Armenia that readers will find fairly accurate; however, the history ends around 1994 and thus is about ten years out of date. Undoubtedly, these pattern coins were issued by a private firm hoping to reap profits by obtaining the Armenian government coinage contract. (This has happened in a few other cases, such as the ARMENIACA coinage depicting Jesus Christ; so far the Armenian authorities have wisely refrained from adopting the proposed designs). The name of the firm and the authority under which the pattern coins were struck is not specified in the set I own. I am told that only 1000 sets of the Euro patterns were issued. Any reader with more information is invited to contact me at tramaked@aol.com.

My name is Leon (Levon) A. Saryan, Ph.D., and I am adding this post because my name has been mentioned on this webpage as one of the two Armenian "inventors" of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). I would like to clarify some facts in this matter for whomever might be interested. By way of background, I would like to mention that I am actively involved in Armenian community affairs, the Armenian Church, and Armenian organizations and have been for many decades, and my love for Armenia, Armenian heritage and culture, and the Armenians is beyond question. Beyond all else, science is a struggle to push back the frontiers of knowledge and a quest for truth. I am a scientist, and have worked continuously in the fields of cancer research and medical science for 35 years. My doctoral research, conducted between 1971 and 1975 in the laboratory of Dr. Donald Hollis at Johns Hopkins, attempted to verify the claim of Dr. Raymond Damadian of New York that MR measurements on biopsy tissues could be used to identify whether that tissue was normal or cancerous. My research demonstrated, I believe conclusively (and this has been confirmed by the passage of time), that Damadian's initial claim was false, not only in small animals such as rats and mice, but more importantly in humans. After I completed my research, Dr. Lauterbur and others developed the concept of differing relaxation times in tissues into a method to produce images of the internal organs of the human body. While Damadian was perhaps the first to observe the relaxation time difference between normal and cancer tissue in rodents, he was not the first to develop a viable, practical, working magnetic resonance human imaging machine, and as a result he did not share the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2003 with Lauterbur and Mansfield for this discovery. Prof. Lauterbur has stated on various occasions that it was experiments he watched me carry out in 1971 (in his lab at New Kensington, PA) that led him to the idea that an image of a body could be created on the basis of MR measurements. Thus I did play a minor role in the discovery of MRI, as did at least a hundred other scientists around the world. I do believe my research was significant in that it helped point others in this field in the right direction, but that is a far cry from the claim that some are making here that I should be considered one of the two Armenian inventors of MRI. Damadian feels that he was slighted by not being included in the prize, and that his contribution will be written out of the historical record. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is my personal belief that Dr. Damadian's contribution, while very important, did not rise to the superlative level required by the Nobel Committee for this award. I believe that the decision to award the Nobel to Lauterbur and Mansfield was the correct one, and I believe it will stand. Most scientists work hard, day in and day out, with no hope of receiving this highest scientific honor, but that in no way demeans the significance and importantce of their contributions to society and mankind. For those who wish to get a balanced view of this controversy, the book "Abusing Cancer Science" by Donald Hollis, is essential reading. Any comments on the above may be addressed directly to me at LASaryan@aol.com.