The Nobel Prize

Which candy bar best describes your collaboration with your closest work colleague? We asked medicine laureates Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó about how they first met. The two laureates were awarded the 2023 medicine prize for research that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. #NobelPrize

Six days. Six prizes. One month away. 🎉 Keep an eye on our social channels starting on 7 October to find out who has become a 2024 Nobel Prize laureate. See the full list of announcement dates: https://lnkd.in/gqBEABN #NobelPrize

“In July 1969, then on vacation in the French Basque region, my grandmother woke me up to watch the first landing on the moon. This was incredibly exciting for a 10-year-old girl with an interest in science. I was amazed by the technology and science that had gone into enabling this endeavor. The fact that it was broadcast live on television to hundreds of millions of people on Earth was also fantastic!” – physics laureate Anne L’Huillier L'Huillier was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter. Is there an event that inspired you? Learn more about L’Hullier’s life and work: https://lnkd.in/egnFT-SC

Can you name three organisations that have been awarded the peace prize? Don't miss the announcement of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize on 11 October.

In 2022, Svante Pääbo learned he had received the medicine prize while he was enjoying a cup of tea. After the shock wore off, his first thought was to share the news with his wife, Linda. Where will our next medicine laureate(s) be when they get the call from Stockholm? Mark your calendar for 7 October and stay tuned to our social channels to find out who will receive the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Photo: Linda Vigilant

"We will not give up on justice and freedom. We will not surrender love, femininity and motherhood to the hands of the monstrous religious despotism. We will live. We will kiss the sun and we will fill the world with vitality and hope. We will win." - a message from peace laureate Narges Mohammadi delivered by her son Ali. More than 20 years of fighting for women’s rights has made Mohammadi a symbol of freedom and standard-bearer in the struggle against the Iranian theocracy. In 2003, she joined the Defenders of Human Rights Center, founded by that year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shirin Ebadi. In the years that followed, Mohammadi helped imprisoned activists, led a campaign against the death penalty and criticised the regime’s use of torture and sexualised violence. The freedom struggle cost her dearly. She was arrested 13 times and sentenced to 31 years in prison and 154 lashes. In October 2023, when her selection as the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was announced, she was locked in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. She is still under arrest. At the 2024 Nobel Peace Conference earlier this week a new coalition was launched aimed at securing her release. Watch the full event: https://lnkd.in/eurrFqQA

On 8 September 1969, Willard Boyle and George Smith outlined the basis of an image sensor on a blackboard in Boyle’s office. They intended for their invention, the CCD, or chargecoupled device, to create a better electronic memory. Instead the CCD became a breakthrough for digital camera technology. Its use in applications ranging from digital cameras to the Hubble space telescope completely transformed image processing. Boyle and Smith were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009 for their groundbreaking, but unanticipated, invention. Learn more: https://bit.ly/2EJPpqV Photo: The Hubble Space Telescope's image of the star V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon) reveals dramatic changes in the illumination of surrounding dusty cloud structures. The effect, called a light echo, has been unveiling never-before-seen dust patterns ever since the star suddenly brightened for several weeks in early 2002. Credit: NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (AURA/STScI)

"I taught myself to read, I’m not sure exactly when, as if it were something as natural as walking. I have often wondered whether the ability to read is built into our brains as a potential skill, or whether perhaps we inherit it from our ancestors who learned to read during their lives, in which instance I suspect it would only go a few generations back. In my case this ability was definitely to do with the fact that I was brought up among books – my dad ran the school library, and I dug around in them from early childhood. They weren’t books for children at all. One of my favourite early books was a collection of partisan songs. I knew how to sing them, so reading with understanding came to me naturally and easily. Among the hundreds of volumes eagerly borrowed by the pupils there were also art books and encyclopaedias. I can boldly say that encyclopaedias were my favourite literary genre throughout my childhood – my first “constellation” reading matter." When did you learn to read? Olga Tokarczuk tells us about how learning to read opened up a new world for her: https://bit.ly/3cQzHcB #InternationalLiteracyDay

“The Odyssey is a great book whose themes have worked its way into the ballads of a lot of songwriters … and my songs as well.” - Literature laureate Bob Dylan. In his Nobel Prize lecture, Dylan explores the themes of Homer’s epic poem which he describes as “a strange, adventurous tale of a grown man trying to get home” in his inimitable, lyrical way. “He’s always being warned of things to come. Touching things he’s told not to. There’s two roads to take, and they’re both bad. Both hazardous. On one you could drown and on the other you could starve. He goes into the narrow straits with foaming whirlpools that swallow him. Meets six-headed monsters with sharp fangs. Thunderbolts strike at him. Overhanging branches that he makes a leap to reach for to save himself from a raging river. Goddesses and gods protect him, but some others want to kill him. He changes identities. He’s exhausted. He falls asleep, and he’s woken up by the sound of laughter. He tells his story to strangers. He’s been gone twenty years. He was carried off somewhere and left there. Drugs have been dropped into his wine. It’s been a hard road to travel. In a lot of ways, some of these same things have happened to you.” Listen to Dylan’s Nobel Prize lecture in his own voice: https://lnkd.in/e-_Sy-Ww Who will be awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature? Don't miss the announcement on 10 October. #NobelPrize

"My fish and chips were just put down in front of me when someone rang and said, 'Hello this is Stockholm speaking, you've won the Nobel Prize this year.' I could feel my face going white." Robin Warren was sitting in a pub in Perth, Australia opposite collaborator Barry Marshall when he got the Nobel Prize call – letting them know that they had both been awarded the 2005 medicine prize for their discovery of how stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria, not stress. On 7 October someone will receive a call to tell them they have received this year's medicine prize. Follow us to hear the news first.