Nobel Week 2024 started on October 7. The first laureates were American scientists who were awarded the prize in the Physiology or Medicine category for their work on the discovery of microRNA. On Monday, October 14, the prize was awarded to three economists who explained why some countries are poor and others are rich. All winners will receive a medal, a personalized diploma, and a cash reward of about $1.1 million. Let us recall that the prize was established by Alfred Nobel in 1901, and its previous laureates included such outstanding scientists as Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. One of the most prestigious international awards in the world, according to the will of the Swedish chemist and inventor of dynamite, is awarded annually for outstanding achievements in various fields of science: chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, economics, social activities (peace prize) and literature.
We tell you who was awarded the prize for outstanding contribution to science and the development of humanity in 2024. Image: entechonline.com
Contents
- 1 The main scientific prize in the world
- 2 Physiology or medicine
- 3 Physics
- 4 Chemistry
- 5 Literature
- 6 Peace
- 7 Economics
The world's main scientific prize
The history of the Nobel Prize began with the will of one man – the Swedish chemist, inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel (1833–1896). He became famous for inventing dynamite and amassed a considerable fortune, which he bequeathed to reward those who had brought the greatest benefit to humanity. Since 1901, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded prizes in physics and chemistry. The Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institutet awards prizes in physiology or medicine, the Swedish Academy awards prizes in literature, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Peace Prize, and the Bank of Sweden has awarded prizes in economics since 1968.
The award ceremony takes place annually on December 10 in Stockholm (for all categories except the Peace Prize) and Oslo (for the Peace Prize). Last year, the winners of the physics prize were Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier, for experimental methods for creating attosecond light pulses (to study the dynamics of electrons in matter).
The Nobel Prize is one of the most outstanding awards in history. Image: i.guim.co.uk
Chemists Mungi G. Bauendi, Louis E. Bruce and Alexey Ekimov were awarded for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots. The discoveries of Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman allowed the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19, for which the Nobel Committee awarded them the prize in physiology or medicine.
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All Nobel Prize laureates become part of the history of science and culture. The prize, however, is not awarded posthumously, unless the laureate dies after the announcement of the award. In 2023, the monetary reward was 11 million Swedish kronor for each category. Read more about the 2023 Nobel Prize laureates here, don't miss out!
Physiology or Medicine
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNAs, tiny biological molecules that tell cells in the human body how to behave by 'switching' certain genes on and off.
Victor Ambros, professor of molecular medicine and chair of the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of Massachusetts (USA), published his work in 1993, but it was not until 2024 that he was awarded the Nobel Prize for it. Then, more than 30 years ago, he was studying mutations in the body of a small roundworm C.elegans in an attempt to understand how cells receive the necessary instructions from DNA during their development.
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Victor Embros and Gary Ravkan for the discovery of microRNA molecules. Image: Niklas Elmehed, Nobel Prize Outreach
Years of research have shown that microRNA, a new dimension of gene regulation, is behind the process by which genes are turned on and off in certain cells. The discovery provides insight into the impact microRNA has on disease development.
It is worth noting that microRNA, like many other processes, can go wrong and is associated with diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, kidney failure and cancer.
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Of course, the winners of the 2024 Physiology or Medicine Prize are hardly impressive to the general public. However, their discovery is of great importance for our understanding of the origin and treatment of genetic diseases and cancers – a real scourge of our time.
Physics
One of the most interesting and high-profile awards of the outgoing year was the Nobel Prize in Physics. The fact is that it was awarded to the real pioneers of artificial intelligence – John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton – they developed the tools that formed the basis of modern machine learning. The latter, we recall, allows machines to find and recognize patterns in extremely large arrays of data.
A Canadian of British origin, Geoffrey Hinton is also known as the “godfather of artificial intelligence” – a method that allows you to autonomously find properties in data and thus identify certain elements in images – his merit.
These artificial neural networks have been used to advance research in such diverse areas of physics as particle physics, materials science and astrophysics. They have also become part of our everyday lives, for example in facial recognition and language translation, Ellen Moon, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, explained at a press conference.
John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton. Image: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Representatives of the Nobel Committee also noted that powerful technological progress is associated with risks, since the rapid development of AI raises serious concerns about the future of humanity. Interestingly, Hinton himself has repeatedly spoken about the dangers of artificial intelligence. At the Nobel Prize, the scientist even stated that people should worry about a number of possible negative consequences, in particular, AI getting out of control.
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His colleague John Hopfield, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, became the oldest Nobel laureate (he is 91). In 1982, he invented an associative neural network that can store and restore images and other types of structures in data.
Chemistry
One of the most interesting awards this year was given to David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John M. Jumpers for “cracking the code of amazing protein structures.” This means that the scientists used machine learning to solve one of the most difficult problems in biology: predicting the 3D shape of proteins and designing them from scratch.
Note that most previous Nobel Prizes in Chemistry have been awarded to scientists from academia. Many laureates have gone on to found start-up companies to further expand and commercialize their groundbreaking discoveries, such as CRISPR gene editing and quantum dots (though the research was not conducted in the commercial sphere from start to finish).
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureates: David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John M. Jumper. Image: Nobel Prize Outreach
Although the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry are awarded separately, the new discoveries are linked: the Physics Prize was awarded for the foundations of machine learning, and the Chemistry Prize for its use in understanding how proteins fold.
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Proteins are the molecular machinery of life that make up a large part of the human body, including muscles, enzymes, hormones, blood, hair and cartilage. Understanding their structure has important implications for science and medicine – if a protein folds incorrectly, it won't work properly. This, in turn, can lead to diseases such as Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis or diabetes.
Moreover, the shape of a protein depends on minute interactions between the amino acid atoms that make it up: the protein twists and folds into its final shape based on many thousands of such chemical interactions. Predicting protein shape has been considered one of the greatest challenges in biology for decades.
Predicting protein shape has huge implications for future medical and biological research. Image: embl.org
The new discovery thus sheds light on how proteins form and function, and is crucial for the development of new drugs. By predicting the shape of a protein, researchers can understand where small molecules – potential drug candidates – might bind to it. The work of the Nobel Prize winners in chemistry also proves that machine learning is not just a tool for computer scientists, but an integral part of the future of biology and medicine.
Read also: How are lasers, space and molecular chemistry related?
Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded since 1901. Since its inception, 121 authors have received the prize, only 18 of whom have been women. This year, the Nobel Committee honored South Korean writer Han Kang for her rich, poetic prose that confronts historical trauma and reveals the fragility of human life.
In 2016, Han Gang won the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction for her novel The Vegetarian, which became her first international success and deals with issues of identity, sexuality and violence. It should be noted that Gang's career began in 1993 with the publication of poetry, and her first collection of short stories was published two years later (in 1995).
Han Kang's rich, lyrical prose explores historical trauma and the invisible rule sets that continually expose the fragility of human life. She has a unique understanding of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead. Her poetic and experimental style is a pioneering innovation in contemporary prose, the Nobel Committee said.
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to South Korean writer Han Kang. Image: i0.wp.com
Previous Nobel Prize winners in literature include such outstanding writers as Ernest Hemingway, Ivan Bunin, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Mikhail Sholokhov and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Soviet writer, translator and poet Boris Pasternak was awarded the prize in 1958 for his novel Doctor Zhivago, but was forced to refuse it under pressure from the Soviet authorities.
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World
Next year, it will be 80 years since the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This horrific event marked the end of World War II and killed 120,000 people. Thousands more were injured. The figures from the Japanese Ministry of Health are even more ruthless – today there are more than 106,000 people in the country who survived the bombing. Their average age is 85.6 years.
In 1956, local Hibakusha organizations united to form the Japan Confederation of Atomic Bomb and Hydrogen Bomb Survivors' Organizations, later shortened to Nihon Hidanke. The group issues resolutions and public statements, and sends annual delegations to the United Nations and peace conferences to advocate for nuclear disarmament.
The Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo received the Nobel Peace Prize 2024. Image: cms.apln.network
This year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said the group had provided “strong evidence that nuclear weapons should never be used.”
This touching message comes at a time of heightened global instability and mistrust. The tense geopolitical situation and the threat of global nuclear conflict are not just words, but a frightening reality.
Did you know that there is no Nobel Prize in Mathematics? Read the answer in my colleague Ramis Ganiev's article!
Economy
The Nobel week traditionally ended with the Prize in Economic Sciences, which was awarded to Simon Johnson, James Robinsonchi and Daron Acemoglu. Their studies of inequality revealed a striking connection between social institutions and prosperity. In simpler terms, the award was given to scientists whose work clearly explains why some countries are rich and others are poor.
Daron Acemoglu is the author of a book called “Power and Progress: Our Millennial Struggle for Technology and Prosperity,” which was published in 2023. In it, the scientist describes how the fate of former colonies has changed. Representatives of the Swedish Academy of Sciences also noted that reducing the huge income differences between countries is one of the most important tasks of our time.
This year's laureates have demonstrated the important role of public institutions in the prosperity of countries and have voiced new causes of inequality and differences in well-being in the world. One important explanation is persistent differences in public institutions. Societies with a weak rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not contribute to economic growth and change for the better, the Nobel Committee explained its decision.
Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson have been awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Image: rudolphina.univie.ac.at
The Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded 55 times from 1969 to 2023. It has been awarded to 93 people, including Robert Mundell (for demonstrating how exchange rates and interest rates affect economic activity), Harry Markowitz (for his theory of the optimal portfolio of securities), and Theodore Schultz and William Arthur Lewis (for their research on economic development and growth).
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In September 2024, economists published a paper reporting a weakening (37%) of the global economy, rather than a strengthening (9%). The main obstacles to growth, according to the researchers, are the lack of political consensus or will (91% of respondents), as well as the lack of global cooperation (67%).