Nobel Prize

Portrait for @jfunez
by @jfunez
2020-10-13T09:19:52+00:00
Science
Robert Wilson knocked on Paul Milgrom's door in the middle of the night to inform him he won the Nobel Prize
Robert Wilson knocked on Paul Milgrom's door in the middle of the night to inform him he won the Nobel Prize
Credit: Stanford University courtesy of Twitter

The Nobel Prize committee couldn't reach Paul Milgrom to share the news that he won, so his fellow winner and neighbor Robert Wilson knocked on his door in the middle of the night.

Milgrom and Wilson have been awarded the Nobel Prize in economics awarded for their work on auction theory.

Portrait for @christoph
by @christoph
2020-10-09T09:15:08+00:00
Health
The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 goes to World Food Programme (WFP)
The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 goes to World Food Programme (WFP)
Credit: Courtesy World Food Programme

The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 has been awarded to the United Nation's World Food Programme (WFP) "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict".

Portrait for @tom
by @tom
2020-10-08T19:00:02+00:00
Science
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 awarded for the gene editing method CRISPR/Cas9
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 awarded for the gene editing method CRISPR/Cas9
Credit: NIH Image Gallery from Bethesda, Maryland, USA / Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to the Frenchwoman Emanuelle Charpentier and the US-American Jennifer Doudna for the development of the CRISPR/Cas9 gene scissors. This was announced by the Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy on Wednesday afternoon in Stockholm.

The two scientists developed the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors that enable the quick and precise editing of genes.

Claes Gustafsson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, has stated that "there is enormous power in this genetic tool, which affects us all. It has not only revolutionised basic science, but also resulted in innovative crops and will lead to ground-breaking new medical treatments,".

Portrait for @christoph
by @christoph
2020-10-06T12:00:02+00:00
Science • Space
Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 goes to three black hole researchers
Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 goes to three black hole researchers
Credit: Event Horizon Telescope / Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0)

Half of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Roger Penrose (UK) and the other half to Reinhard Genzel (Germany)and Andrea Ghez (USA) for their "discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy". This was announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on Tuesday. Reinhard Genzel is director of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching near Munich.

Portrait for @christoph
by @christoph
2020-10-05T11:00:02+00:00
Science • Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to three virologists
Michael Houghton, one of the three winners
Michael Houghton, one of the three winners Credit: Julio.frasneli.silva / Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0)

The virologists Harvey J. Alter (USA), Michael Houghton (Großbritannien) and Charles M. Rice (USA) have received the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work discovering the hepatitis C virus.

The Nobel Committee stated that "prior to their work, the discovery of the Hepatitis A and B viruses had been critical steps forward, but the majority of blood-borne hepatitis cases remained unexplained. The discovery of Hepatitis C virus revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis and made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives".