The Nobel Prize

During his Nobel Prize lecture, physics laureate John Hopfield spoke about his scientific journey and how chance plays an important role in a scientist's life. Hopfield was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks. Hear his full story in his lecture: https://lnkd.in/gbJCp7tz

The work of two medicine laureates has enabled scientists to shed more light on heart disease. Konrad Bloch and Feodor Lynen independently showed that acetic acid is an important component in cholesterol and how the formation occurs in reactions with many steps, earning them the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1964. At the time, the Nobel Committee said, “your discoveries may provide us with weapons against some of mankind’s gravest maladies, above all in relation to cardiovascular diseases,” and they were proved correct. We now know that people with high cholesterol – when there is too much of the waxy substance in the blood – can develop fatty deposits in their blood vessels, putting them at a higher risk of heart disease. The knowledge that high cholesterol can be inherited but is often the result of unhealthy lifestyle choices, allows people to make healthier choices, making high cholesterol preventable and treatable. Learn more about the work of Konrad Bloch: https://lnkd.in/eiKvbhCR 

When Henri Becquerel investigated newly discovered X-rays in 1896, it led him to study how uranium salts are affected by light. By accident, he discovered that uranium salts spontaneously emit a penetrating radiation that can be registered on a photographic plate. Further studies made it clear that this radiation was something new and not X-ray radiation: he had discovered a new phenomenon, radioactivity. Henri Becquerel produced this image 123 years ago, showing his experiments with beta ray emission from uranium. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for his work, alongside Marie Skłodowska Curie and Pierre Curie. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3n8Lvtf

"I know that the most joy in my life has come to me from my violin." Influenced by his mother, Albert Einstein was a dedicated violinist from an early age. He often played classical music on his violin (that he named Lina) as a brainstorming technique. #WorldViolinDay

"I'm delighted that I could visit Astrid Lindgren's home - I felt much closer to her." This year's literature laureate Han Kang made a memorable visit to Swedish author Astrid Lindgren's apartment in Stockholm, Sweden earlier this week. Lindgren is famous for writing children's books about characters such as Pippi Longstocking, Emil and Ronja the Robber's daughter. To Han Kang, Lindgren has been a literary inspiration. Han Kang has spoken about how especially moved and influenced she was by Lindgren's 'Brothers Lionheart'.

"Although Midaq Alley lives in almost complete isolation from all surrounding activity, it clamors with a distinctive and personal life of its own. Fundamentally and basically, its roots connect with life as a whole and yet, at the same time, it retains a number of the secrets of a world now past." - An excerpt from 'Midaq Alley' by literature laureate Naguib Mahfouz. Mahfouz began writing when he was seventeen and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature when he was 76. He often used his hometown of Cairo as the backdrop for his stories. His prize motivation stated that he "through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind." Read an extract from 'Midaq Alley': https://bit.ly/36EhwlH

What sparked your interest in how the world works? In John Hopfield’s Nobel Prize lecture this week he recounted how he learned to think with his hands as a child: "I grew up taking things apart, seeing how they worked, repairing bicycles, exploring chemistry, building flyable model aeroplanes, crystal sets and simple radios..." Watch his full lecture: https://bit.ly/41n1niA

The laureates take their places for the dry run. Check out these moments from behind the scenes at the rehearsal for the 2024 Nobel Prize awards ceremony.

"Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names. Language alone is meditation." - 1993 Literature laureate Toni Morrison in her #NobelPrize lecture.

Vitamin K is a compound that is crucial for blood clotting. Nobel Prize laureate Edward Doisy was the first person to produce it in a pure form. By studying different analogues he established the distinction between vitamin K1 (shown) which was isolated from alfalfa, and vitamin K2, isolated from fish meal. His work became especially important in treating bleeding among small children. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3CB47cm