Last week in Stockholm, Sweden, twelve men were awarded this year’s Nobel Prizes for their outstanding contributions to humanity. Prizes were awarded for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, economics, literature, and peace.
Three British physicists, David Thouless, F. Duncan Haldane, and J. Michael Kosterlitz, who all work in U.S. universities, were awarded this year’s prize in physics. The Nobel Prize website describes the prize being awarded “for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter,” or as described by CNN, “for revealing the secrets of exotic matter.” According to Thors Hans Hansson, of the Nobel Prize Physics Committee, this prize is important because their research “could be used in the next generation of electronics and supercomputers.”
Another trio was awarded the Prize in chemistry “for the development of the world’s smallest machines,” according to BBC. Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa “designed and synthesised molecular machines” that are “a thousand times thinner than a strand of hair.” These machines have the capability of entering the human body and directly delivering treatment to cells, but could also be used in the development of “smart materials” for use in vehicles and other commonly-used artifacts.
Yoshinori Ohsumi of the Tokyo Institute of Technology was awarded this year’s Prize in physiology or medicine. He is credited with discovering new methods of “autophagy.” Autophagy,, according to NPR, is a “fundamental process cells use to degrade and recycle parts of themselves.” The Japanese biologist’s work has “opened the path to understanding how cells adapt to starvation and respond to infection,” according to the Nobel awarding committee. Though scientists have known about the process since the 1960’s, the precise machinery used in the process were unknown. Ohsumi showed that instead of their being a “waste dump” within the cells, it is actually a “recycling plant,” according to the chair of the awarding committee, Juleen Zierath.
Two professors from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) share this year’s Nobel Prize in economics. Oliver Hart from Harvard, and Bengt Holmström from MIT,) were both awarded the prize for their contributions to contract theory, which, according to CNN Money, is “the agreements that shape business, finance, and public policy.” Holmström’s research focused on employment contracts, including those between CEO’s and shareholders. When asked in about the sizeable bonuses many CEO’s have taken as of late in a CNN article, he described them as being “extraordinarily high.” CNN reported Hart’s research as having“looked at whether providers of public services, such as schools, hospitals, or prisons, should be publicly or privately owned,” and determined that the “incentives for cost reduction are typically too strong,” which can lead to a decrease in the quality of services.
Colombia’s President, Juan Manuel Santos, was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. According to the awarding committee, he was recognized for his “resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year long civil war to an end.” According to the New York Times, the agreement the Colombian government reached with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) would have ended the “longest-running war in the Americas.”The efforts for peace seem to have been, at least temporarily, thwarted by the rejection of the agreement by the Colombian citizenry, whose approval is required for the peace-deal to take effect. However, in spite of this set-back, after receiving the award, President Santos was resolute in his commitment to the peace process, and stated “I invite everyone to join our strength, our minds and our hearts in this great national endeavor so that we can win the most important prize of all: peace in Colombia.” The chairwoman of the Prize committee shared the President’s feelings, and stated, “The committee hopes that the peace prize will give him strength to succeed in this demanding task.”
American singer, songwriter, and artist Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. The Nobel Prize organization stated this honor was bestowed upon Dylan “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”