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Nobel Prize in Physics 2017

”I was always interested in big problems"

When Kip Thorne collected his Nobel Prize medal, he was overcome with emotion while looking at an image of fellow Nobel Laureate, Albert Einstein. A century ago, Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves. On 14 September 2015, Thorne and a collaboration of more than 1,000 physicists finally observed gravitational waves for the very first time.

Listen to Kip Thorne discussing Albert Einstein’s importance to the field of science, whether time travel is actually possible, and what it was like to be the physics guru inside the blockbuster film ’Interstellar’.

Kip Thorne at the Nobel Foundation reading the guestbook — © Nobel Media. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud

With a little help from our (insect) friends

When Medicine Laureate Michael Young spoke to students at an event in China, he expanded his acknowledgements to include his oldest colleague, Drosophila.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009

"I was described as a dreamer, a fantasist"

In the late 1970s, Ada Yonath decided to focus on one of the mysteries of living cells: protein biosynthesis. She began with ribosomes, where protein synthesis occurs – still a puzzle to scientists – and Yonath was considered a dreamer or a fool for trying. It took 25,000 tries …

Photo: Ashish Ailawadi

Play a game!

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1930

The Blood Typing Game

Learn more about blood groups in the blood typing game! The game helps you understand how blood groups work.

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1904

Pavlov's Dog

In this game you can train a dog to drool on command! It’s all about conditioned learning.

News

2021 Nobel Prize announcements

This year’s Nobel Prize announcements will take place 4-11 October.

See the full schedule

Nobel Prize Concert 2021

Cellist Sol Gabetta soloist at the Nobel Prize Concert

Acclaimed Argentina-born cellist Sol Gabetta will be performing at this year’s Nobel Prize Concert on 8 December.

The Nobel Prize Concert is an annual concert which is part of the Nobel Week official programme celebrating that year’s Nobel Laureates.

Nobel Prize Summit

Our Planet, Our Future

The first Nobel Prize Summit brought together Nobel Prize laureates, scientists, policy makers, business leaders, and youth leaders to explore the question: What can be achieved in this decade to put the world on a path to a more sustainable, more prosperous future for all of humanity? Read more about the event here.

Nobel Prizes 2020

Black holes and the Milky Way’s darkest secret

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 was awarded with one half to Roger Penrose “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity” and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy”.

© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Genetic scissors: a tool for rewriting the code of life

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing”.

Hepatitis – a global threat to human health

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020 was awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus”.

© The Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén

A prominent poet in American contemporary literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 was awarded to the American poet Louise Glück “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal”.

Combatting the threat of hunger

The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 was awarded to the World Food Programme (WFP) for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.

The quest for the perfect auction

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2020 was awarded to Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats”.

Nobel Prize Lessons

Easy to use lessons about the 2020 Nobel Prizes

From genetic editing to combatting world hunger. An unmistakable poetic voice to black holes. New treatments for hepatitis C to the quest for the perfect auction. Now you can bring the discoveries and achievements made by the 2020 Nobel Laureates into the classroom.

The lessons are free and so easy to use that a teacher can look through the manual, watch the slides, print the texts for students and then start the class.

Nobel Medal — The Nobel Prize Medal

Photo: Alexander Mahmoud

Alfred Nobel – Established the Nobel Prize

Alfred Nobel's last will

On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will in Paris, France. The Swedish dynamite millionaire, who thought that his invention would end all wars, had now realised that it was a very deadly product. Wanting to make amends, he did what no man of such wealth had done before …

The very first Nobel Prizes

On 10 December 1901 the first Nobel Prizes were awarded, in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. Read more about the first prizes.

The first Nobel Prize Award Ceremony was held in 1901 at the Royal Academy of Music, Stockholm.

Alfred Nobel – scientist and inventor

Chemist, engineer and industrialist Alfred Nobel left 31 million SEK (today about 265 million dollar) to fund the Nobel Prizes. Read more about his life and work.

Nobel destinations

Stockholm, Sweden

Nobel Prize Museum

The Nobel Prize: Ideas Changing the World (3) — The museum showcases the discoveries and creativity of the Nobel Laureates.

Photo: Åke Eson Lindman

Oslo, Norway

Nobel Peace Center

NPC Nye Nobels Hage 10 — The story of each Peace Laureate is told at the museum.

Photo: Johannes Granseth / Nobel Peace Center

In memoriam

Ei-ichi Negishi , 1935-2021

Chemistry Laureate Ei-ichi Negishi passed away on 6 June. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2010 for developing new, more efficient ways of linking carbon atoms together to build the complex molecules that are improving our everyday lives.

MRI developer Richard Ernst dies

Richard Ernst, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1991 for his contributions to the development of high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, passed away on 4 June.

Robert Mundell passes away

Economist Robert Mundell passed away on 4 April. He was awarded the 1999 Prize in Economic Sciences for work on monetary dynamics and optimum currency areas. His theories had relevance for the introduction of the euro as the European Union’s currency.

Isamu Akasaki, inventor of blue LED, dies age 92

Isamu Akasaki passed away on 1 April. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 “for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources.”

Nobel Peace Prize 2010