Nobel winner Barry Marshall praises ‘smart’ Michael Mosley, after UK doctor’s body found in Greece

WA Nobel Prize winning scientist Professor Barry Marshall has paid tribute to friend Michael Mosley, describing the UK TV doctor as smart enough to “dig out the real science”.

Dr Mosley, whose body was found on Sunday after he went missing for four days on the Greek island of Symi, was believed to have succumbed to heatstroke after going on a walk in the heat.

“It just makes you think you need to appreciate people and acquaintances — because they don’t live forever,” Professor Marshall saiod

“Something terrible can happen from time to time and so he’s just very unlucky to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Professor Marshall said it was likely as an Englishman, Dr Mosley was not fully aware of the dangers of the heat on the island last week, which was reportedly as high as 40 degrees.

“You can go unconscious, and if you’re (fall) down and you’re just there by yourself without any supervision, you can see that would be heatstroke and if nobody cools you off within a few minutes you can get brain damage and die,” he said.

“His is a classic case of that. I can’t be sure that that was what happened.”

Professor Marshall praised Dr Mosley’s ability to understand and communicate science to the masses.

“He was a smart, smart guy. He was well versed in all the medical arts, and he could see through a lot of the hocus pocus that went on in the diet and medical news and medical literature or in the literature, and he decided that someone like him could actually dig out the real science makes it presented in a way that people could understand and not be frightened of,” Professor Marshall said.

“I think you would remember him as a person who communicated health information and medical science to the general public and to medical professionals giving them some understanding, and a lack of fear, allowing them to get involved and be proactive with their own healthcare.

“He was benefiting millions of people.”

Professor Marshall told Perth radio he had first met Dr Mosley when he came to Perth with a BBC film crew in 1993.

Dr Mosley’s own self-experimentation was inspired by Professor Marshall’s own dramatic consumption of live bacteria.

Professor Marshall and colleague Dr. Robin Warren made a major discovery: Helicobacter pylori is a cause of stomach ulcers.

Prof. Marshall last saw him when he introduced Dr Mosley on stage at the Science on the Swan medical conference in 2019.

Dr Mosley, who popularised the 5:2 diet, last visited Perth in April last year for his A Life Changing Experience show at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre’s Riverside Theatre.