Established by Alfred Nobel, Nobel prizes started in 1901. They are given every year for worldwide achievements in Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature and for Peace. The Nobel prize is administered by Nobel Foundation, Sweden. In 1968, an additional prize for Economics was added in memory of Alfred Nobel.
Nobel Prize includes an award, Nobel diploma and a cash prize. The prize money is distributed from the interest generated from funds originally initiated by Alfred Nobel. For 2010, the prize money is stipulated at Swedish kronor (SEK) 10 million per full Nobel Prize equivalent to 1.5 mil USD.
Nobel prize 2010 announcements were made this week and this hub is about the winners and their works.
Nobel Prize 2010 Physiology or Medicine goes to the father of the test tube baby
Nobel Prize 2010 for Physiology or Medicine – Robert G Edwards
The Nobel prize 2010 for Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Robert G Edwards.Robert G Edwards was awarded the Nobel prize for medicine for his work ‘in vitro fertilization (IVF)’.
He started work on IVF as early as 1950s. Due to his efforts, world’s first test tube baby was born during 1978. In later years he and his team improved the process further and made it available to all.
The IVF technology discovered by him is used as a treatment for infertility. More than 10% of the couples worldwide are infertile and his discovery has been a boon to such people. Approximately 4 million people have been born using IVF till now.
Robert G Edwards is currently professor at the University of Cambridge.
Nobel Prize 2010 Physics Andre Geim
Nobel Prize 2010 Physics Konstantin Novoselov
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010 was awarded jointly to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene”Andre and Novoselov, the teacher-student duo, derived the material ‘graphene’ from graphite. The black writing material used for pencils is graphite, which is a form of carbon. They extracted a thin layer of carbon particles from graphite, actually as thin as on atom width, making a new material graphine.
Andre and Novoselov discovered that Graphine has many interesting properties. It is as good a conductor as copper. It is the best conductor of heat as of now. It is completely transparent and yet, it does not allow the thinnest gas Helium through it.
Because of its unique properties, graphine will have vast range of applications starting from electronics to satellite. A computer chip made of graphine is expected to outperform the present silicon made chips, which means that in future we will have even faster computers. Already a test transistor was developed using graphine and its performance was equal to that of silicon transistor. A paper thin TV monitor screen can be made using graphine. This new material, a form of carbon is a miracle that can find great usage in future.
Nobel Prize 2010 Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010 was awarded jointly to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki “for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis”.Organic Chemistry is one of the most important branches of chemistry finding applications in our day to life including paints and plastics. Organic chemistry essentially involves various arrangements of carbon atoms together in multiple configurations.
During the initial years, one of the main challenges in organic chemistry was to successfully combine carbon atoms together as carbon would not easily react with other similar atoms due to its structural configuration.
These three scientists discovered possible reactions using a catalyst Palladium so that in its presence, carbon reacts more easily. This tool has been in use for many decades though further improvements are still going on. This tool has been extensively used in chemistry labs as well as medicine factories in order to get the desired combinations.
Nobel committee stated that with the discovery of this tool, a major obstacle hindering progress in organic chemistry was removed.
Nobel Prize 2010 Literature – Mario Vargas Llosa
Nobel Prize 2010 in Literature was awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa.Mario Vargas Llosa was born on March 28, 1936 in Peru. After graduating from Colegio Nacional San Miguel in Piura, Mario Vargas Llosa studied law and literature in Lima and Madrid. As an author, he became internationally popular through his novel La ciudad y los perros (1963; The Time of the Hero, 1966), though this novel created big controversy in his home land.
He has lectured and taught at a number of universities in the USA, South America and Europe. His well known works include Conversación en la catedral (1969; Conversation in the Cathedral, 1975), La guerra del fin del mundo (1981; The War of the End of the World, 1984) and La fiesta del chivo (2000; The Feast of the Goat, 2001). He is also a noted journalist and essayist.
Nobel Prize for Peace 2010 – Liu Xiaobo
The Nobel Committee announced that the Nobel Peace Prize 2010 was awarded to Liu Xiaobo “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”.For last few decades, China has experienced enormous economic growth and grew to become second largest economy in the world. However China’s record in following international agreements as well as maintaining human rights internally has been questioned time and again.
Liu Xiaobo strongly advocated for fundamental rights in China. He took part in the Tiananmen protests in 1989; he was a leading author behind Charter 08, the manifesto of such rights in China which was published on the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 10th of December 2008. The following year, Liu was sentenced to eleven years in prison and two years’ deprivation of political rights for “inciting subversion of state power”. Presently Liu is in prison due to this sentence. Following the Nobel Prize announcement recognizing his efforts for human rights and peace, the world has been requesting China to release him.
Nobel prize in economics 2010
Normally any market is based on demand and supply. But many times, in reality, we find that there are many people looking for employment but at the same time there are many vacancies in companies, not able to find candidates. There are many who want to buy a house and there are many who want to sell and both conditions exist at the same time. This year’s nobel laureates developed a theory to answer these questions, which may help better solutions in these areas. They formulated a theoretical framework for search markets. Peter Diamond has analyzed the foundations of search markets and Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides have expanded the theory and have applied it to the labor market.
Their theory is not just applicable to labor market but also to house, monitory theory and various areas of economics.
About the laureates:
Peter A. Diamond, is Institute Professor and Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA.
Dale T. Mortensen, is from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Ida C. Cook Professor of Economics at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
Christopher A. Pissarides, is a Professor of Economics and Norman Sosnow Chair in Economics, all at London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
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