Nobel Prize

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has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 1997, in two equal parts, to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and to the campaign’s coordinator Jody Williams for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines. There are at present probably over one hundred million anti-personnel mines scattered over large areas…

In the course of 1991, several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals began simultaneously to discuss the necessity of coordinating initiatives and calls for a ban on antipersonnel landmines. Handicap International, Human Rights Watch, Medico International, Mines Advisory Group, Physicians for Human Rights, and Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation came together in October 1992 to formalize…

Professor Francis Sejersted delivering his speech. © Knudsens fotosenter/Dextra Photo, Norsk Teknisk Museum. Presentation Speech by Professor Francis Sejersted, Chairman of the , on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1997, Oslo, December 10, 1997. Translation of the Norwegian text. Your Majesties, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, There are those among…

Born 9 October 1950. ProfessionMs. Jody Williams is the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which was formally launched by six nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in October of 1992. Ms. Williams has overseen the growth of the ICBL to more than 1,000 NGOs in more than sixty countries. She has served as…

Prions are simple proteins that are much smaller than viruses. They are unique since they lack a genome. All other known infectious agents contain genetic material. Bacteria are often surrounded by a strong protective cell wall and replicate through simple cell division. Fungi may cause infections of the mouth, throat, lungs, and skin. Parasites thrive…

Contents: These pages are based on material from the 1997 Physiology or Medicine Nobel Poster.

  The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, has awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1997 to Stanley B. Prusiner, for his discovery of “prions – a new biological principle of infection”. Stanley B. Prusiner was born in 1942 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. Since 1968 he has been…

Prions affect different regions of the brain. A sponge-like appearance results when nerve cells die. Symptoms depend on which region of the brain is affected. Cerebral cortex When the cerebral cortex is affected, the symptoms include loss of memory and mental acuity, and sometimes also visual imparement (CJD). Thalamus Damage to the thalamus may result…

1. Through horizontal transmission from e.g. a sheep to a cow (BSE). 2. In inherited forms, mutations in the prion gene are transmitted from parent to child. 3. They can arise spontaneously. Route of infection When cows are fed with offals prepared from infected sheep, prions are taken up from the gut and transported along…