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The Nobel Prize in Physics 2024

This year’s laureates used tools from physics to construct methods that helped lay the foundation for today’s powerful machine learning. John Hopfield created a structure that can store and reconstruct information. Geoffrey Hinton invented a method that can independently discover properties in data and which has become important for the large artificial neural networks now in use.
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© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Interview – First reactions
Shortly after the prize announcement, 2024 physics laureate John Hopfield talks about how he found out about the prize when he was going through his e-mails. “It didn’t sink in until I got to the fourth e-mail!” Hopfield reflects on how to tackle big questions, such as how the mind works.

John Hopfield.

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

Interview – First reactions
Moments after finding out about the prize, 2024 physics laureate Geoffrey Hinton talks about the state of machine learning, the pressing need for safety research, and his hopes that the award might make people take the fears he voices more seriously.

Geoffrey Hinton.

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 is about proteins, life’s ingenious chemical tools. David Baker has succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have developed an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins’ complex structures. These discoveries hold enormous potential.

© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Interview – First reactions
Listen to 2024 chemistry laureate Demis Hassabis, moments after finding out about the prize. He talks about the interplay between AI and individual scientists.

Demis Hassabis.

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

Interview – First reactions
2024 chemistry laureate John Jumper talks about being the youngest chemistry laureate in over 70 years, and about AI’s role in science.

John Jumper.

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation. Their groundbreaking discovery in the small worm C. elegans revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation. This turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans. MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function.
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© The Nobel Committe for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén

Interview – First reactions
Victor Ambros speaks about the joy of basic research and the ever-expanding fascination of RNA. Recorded just after Ambros found out about the prize, we also discover how the news was broken to the new laureate by his son.

Victor Ambros

Victor Ambros.

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

Interview – First reactions
Minutes after hearing the news, Gary Ruvkun talked about the pleasure of finding things out, the electrifying growth of the microRNA field over the years, and the benefits of taking time out.
Gary Ruvkun

Gary Ruvkun.

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

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The Nobel Prize in Literature 2024

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 is awarded to the South Korean author Han Kang, “for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”

In her oeuvre, Han Kang confronts historical traumas and invisible sets of rules and, in each of her works, exposes the fragility of human life. She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead, and in her poetic and experimental style has become an innovator in contemporary prose.

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Biobibliography
Han Kang

Han Kang.

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

Interview – First reactions
Han Kang had just finished dinner with her son at her home in Seoul when she received the news. In this interview, she reflects on being the first South Korean literature laureate and talks about how writers as a collective have influenced her: “All their efforts and strengths have been my inspiration.”
Han Kang

Han Kang.

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

Book recommendations
Curious about 2024 literature laureate Han Kang but unsure which of her books to pick up first? Here Steve Sem-Sandberg from the Swedish Academy gives his recommendations.
A collection of books

Books by Han Kang.

© Nobel Prize Outreach

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The Nobel Peace Prize 2024

The grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again. The extraordinary efforts of Nihon Hidankyo and other representatives of the Hibakusha have contributed greatly to the establishment of a nuclear taboo.

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Prize announcement

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

First reactions
The prize came as a big surprise, says Masako Wada, a representative from Nihon Hidankyo. In this interview shortly after learning about the prize, she shares her deep concerns on the world’s backlash on nuclear disarmament, not least after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “Rather than anger, I feel sorrow and fear how deep humans will fall into darkness.”

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

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The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2024

This year’s laureates have provided new insights into why there are such vast differences in prosperity between nations. One important explanation is persistent differences in societal institutions. By examining the various political and economic systems introduced by European colonisers, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson have been able to demonstrate a relationship between institutions and prosperity. They have also developed theoretical tools that can explain why differences in institutions persist and how institutions can change.

© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Interview – First reactions
Daron Acemoglu, economic sciences laureate 2024, had just given a talk in Athens, Greece when he learnt about his prize. Listen to him talk about the importance of democracy and his fears regarding AI.
Daron Acemoglu

Daron Acemoglu.

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

Interview – First reactions
Simon Johnson, economic sciences laureate 2024, highlights the importance of participatory decision-making in making the most of human potential.
Simon Johnson

Simon Johnson.

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

Interview – First reactions
James Robinson discovered he was a 2024 economic sciences laureate when his wife, Maria Angélica Bautista, woke him up.  Listen to him talk about the root causes of poverty.
James Robinson

James Robinson.

Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach

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Discover Nobel Prize Lessons

Discover more about the Nobel Prizes with the easy-to-use Nobel Prize Lessons. Watch the videos, look through the manual and slides, print the texts for students and start the class.

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Nobel Prize Dialogue, Sydney
In October, the Nobel Prize Dialogue comes to Sydney for the first time to bring together minds from science and beyond.
Nobel Prize Museum, Stockholm
The Nobel Prize Museum is displaying a large selection of items from its collection of artefacts from Nobel Prize laureates. 
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Nobel Peace Center, Oslo
The Nobel Peace Prize medal is shown in all its glory in the Medal Chamber. Here, visitors can experience the world’s foremost symbol of peace.
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In memoriam

Tsung Dao Lee passed away on 4 August, age 97. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1957 for his “penetrating investigation of the so-called parity laws which has led to important discoveries regarding the elementary particles.”

Biography
Tsung-Dao (T.D.) Lee
J. Robin Warren passed away on 23 July 2024. He was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease

Biography
Robin Warren
Bengt Samuelsson passed away on 5 July 2024, age 90. He was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related biologically active substances.

Biography
Bengt I. Samuelsson
Canadian author Alice Munro passed away on 15 May 2024. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2013 with the motivation “master of the contemporary short story”.

Biography
Alice Munro