HIV/AIDS

French scientists Luc Montagnier (L) and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi walk in the courtyard at the Elysee Palace after a meeting with France's President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris October 8, 2008. The two French scientists, who discovered the AIDS virus, and a German who bucked conventional wisdom to find a virus that causes cervical cancer were awarded the 2008 Nobel prize for medicine on Monday October 6, 2008. Montagnier, director of the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention, and Barre-Sinoussi of the Institut Pasteur won half the prize of 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.4 million) for discovering the virus that has killed 25 million people since it was identified in the 1980s.