I don’t know about you, but I have found that the Nobel Prize announcements this year have been more highly anticipated by the general public than those in past years. But first, a little background info; as you all know, the Nobel Prize was created by Alfred Nobel who was an excellent scientist, inventor and entrepreneur in Sweden. He laid the foundations of the Nobel Prize, by leaving most of his fortune to the Nobel Prize’s establishment. The first Nobel Prize was handed out 1901 and continues to be awarded every year, under the careful consideration of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm. The recipients are those who excel in physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature, economic sciences and, of course, peace. Unfortunately, Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences will not be covered in this article due to the timing of the announcement and the IW distribution.
This year’s award-recipients are especially distinguished, since they all vary greatly in age yet still contribute to the betterment of humanity and technology in such a way that it could be considered nothing less than pure genius.
The Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 2010 has been awarded to Mario Vargas Llosa “for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat.” In common prose, this means his fictional works ranging from mystery to comedic compositions tackled the political, social and economical issues of the average man. This Peruvian writer has become the voice of the Latin American generation with his best books becoming international sensations with a couple of those becoming feature films. With a long career among the great Latin American writers and as a political activist (as he actually ran for president in 1990), the Nobel Foundation, and I, now that I mention it, deem him more than worthy for this prestigious award.
This year, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded jointly to Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for their success in “palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis.” The significance of this breakthrough can be traced to academic research being conducted at present in the development of new drugs and materials and its use in chemical industry processes like the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and other such biologically active substances. The premise of this breakthrough was to create new carbon-carbon single bonds, which is essential to all life, with a palladium catalyst that can be used under mild conditions for a large number of functional groups. Due to its wide application, this cross coupled catalyst reaction has now been used to synthesize hundreds of new drugs, chemical substances and molecules that exhibit cytotoxic, anti-tumour and therapeutic properties. With a breakthrough at such a fundamental level, it is safe to say that this contribution definitely makes Heck, Negishi and Suzuki worthy recipients of the Nobel Prize.
The Nobel Prize in Medicine 2010 was a long time coming for Robert H. Edwards. His contribution to medicine began in 1960, as the architect behind in vitro fertilization (also known as test tube babies). You don’t need me to tell you what the implication of this contribution is; just ask the couples who are unable to conceive (which comprise approximately 10% of all couples worldwide). Edwards and his colleague, Steptoe, were the first to conduct research on the reproductive organs of a woman and to finally deduce that the ovum could mature and eventually be fertilized outside the body. Fast forward about 15 years and the first baby, Lorraine Brown, was born healthy via IVF. Considering the fact that there is still controversy regarding this procedure, no one can dispute that Robert H. Edwards’ medical breakthrough changed the lives of millions of people, thus making him a great choice for the Nobel Prize.
The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2010 caused quite the stir among the Engineering Faculty (especially the Nano classes) due to the recipients’ so-simple-it’s-genius discovery. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were both awarded the Nobel Prize “for their groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material grapheme.” Graphene is a 2D plane of carbons all bonded in a network that resembles a honeycomb which was, until 2004, thought to be impossible to isolate stably, reproduce, and characterize. Not only were Geim and Novoselov able to isolate graphene, they did so by essentially using Scotch Tape to repeatedly remove the layers of graphite (that’s right, graphite from a pencil) which was eventually deposited onto a silicon substrate. Graphene’s desirable properties include its mechanical strength (which happens to be 100 times stronger than the strongest steel), transparency (only 2.3% of all light is absorbed), high conductivity (it beats copper by a long-shot), flexibility, and its ability to be doped to suit any application. To give an idea of the use of graphene, it can be used as super-flexible touch screens, ultra-high frequency processes, composites for airplanes, tablets, solar cells, light panelling, ultra-sensitive sensors, and even electronic payment. Needless to say, this discovery is groundbreaking due to the wide number of applications from fundamental physics to the booming field of nanoelectronics. It is no wonder that Geim, Novoselov and their significant contribution (I still can’t believe that they got graphene with some pencil lead and Scotch Tape!) is Nobel Prize material.
Last, but not least, the Nobel Peace Prize this year was awarded to Liu Xiaobo for “his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.” As a poet and literary critic, Liu came into prominence over the last two decades as a visible leader for China’s post-democracy movement. His ascent to fame began when he relinquished his university education in the US to help lead the non-violent side of the student occupation in Tiananmen Square. Due to his involvement in this major event in Chinese history, he was sentenced to two years imprisonment and an additional 3 years of “re-education” through labour for campaigning against the one party rule in China. Currently, he is serving an 11 year prison term for “inciting subversion of state power” after writing an important petition that demanded political reform and increased recognition of fundamental rights in 2008. This petition, known as Charter 8, has gathered thousands of signatures from people of all walks of life. Before the official release of Charter 8, Liu Xiaobo was arrested and was sentenced a year later, about a month before the Nobel Prize nominations closed. Liu Xiaobo has continued to write in prison where one of his statements, “Opposition is not equivalent to subversion,” struck a chord among the Nobel Committee. Liu Xiaobo now joins the ranks of three others in history of being a Nobel Peace Prize winner while being imprisoned.
Each of the winners are extraordinary in their own right and have each made a contribution that has resonated their brilliance in their respective worlds. This year’s Nobel Prize recipients have greatly renewed my interest in the all things revolutionary which includes anything from physics to peacemaking. With the amazing landmarks that have been celebrated this year, I can’t wait to see what these crazy folks will do next!
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