For more than a century, scientists searched in vain for way to unleash the natural power of the immune system to fight cancer. Their dream is now a reality after two laureates found methods that block the brakes of the immune system and allow it to wage war against tumours. Their work has revolutionised cancer…

Richard Kuhn and the Chemical Institute: Double bonds and biological mechanisms On October 1, 1929, became first of the four KWImF research directors to move into the new laboratory on the banks of the Neckar River. At twenty-eight years of age, he was also by far the youngest. In addition to a growing reputation as…

by Gunnar Grant This article was published on 12 September 1999. was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine as early as 1901, when the first prize was awarded. After that, his name came up every year until 1906, when he was finally awarded the prize together with . There were four proponents…

by Øivind Stenersen* From the very beginning the Norwegian Nobel Committee chose to define humanitarian efforts as an essential part of promoting “fraternity among nations”. In awarding half of the 1901 Peace Prize to the founder of the Red Cross, , the committee focused on a basic aspect of the word “humanitarian”: helping victims of…

by Øyvind Tønnesson Nobelprize.org Peace Editor, 1998-2000 A committee of five Since the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, the Peace Prize has, in accordance with Alfred Nobel’s , been awarded by a committee of five, appointed by the Storting (the Norwegian Parliamant), but without the committee being formally responsible to the Storting. According…

by Erik B. Karlsson What is physics? Physics is considered to be the most basic of the natural sciences. It deals with the fundamental constituents of matter and their interactions as well as the nature of atoms and the build-up of molecules and condensed matter. It tries to give unified descriptions of the behavior of…

by Jan Lindsten and Nils Ringertz* Introduction “…The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during…

“While the invading forces marched in the streets of Copenhagen, I was busy dissolving Laue’s and also James Franck’s medals.” Since 1901, the Nobel Prize medals have been part of many remarkable stories. Three Nobel Prize medals had to be dissolved in Denmark to keep them hidden from the Nazis. Two Nobel Prize medals were…

This is not a spade: The poetry of Seamus Heaney by Ola Larsmo This article was published on 20 February 2007. At the core of Seamus Heaney’s poetry a profound experience is revealed – that a gap exists between the totality of what can be said and the totality of all that can be witnessed,…

by Per Olof Hulth Introduction Mankind has studied the universe for thousands of years by looking at the fascinating night sky, guided by the visible light emitted from myriads of stars and other phenomena. During the last century new pictures of the night sky have been discovered by scientists using different wavelengths of light which…