Baruch S. Blumberg

Blumberg discovered "Australia antigen," which he thought was a marker or cause of leukemia. Years later, Alfred Prince concluded that the antigen was actually part of the hepatitis B virus. Using this knowledge, Maurice Hilleman developed the vaccine against hepatitis B that is used to this day. Blumberg, who won the Nobel for discovering something without ever knowing what it actually did, mentions these two incredible men only in an aside.