Nobel Prize

by Øyvind Tønnesson Nobelprize.org Peace Editor, 1998-2000 1 December 1999 Stable socialist dominance, strong commitment to the western military alliance and support for the United Nations were central features of Norwegian politics after the Second World War. To what extent did these features similarly apply to the Nobel Committee? Who were the committee members, what…

By Klaus Biedermann* Prize-awarded methods Among the Nobel Prizes in Physics, two scientists have been honored for their remarkable methods to record and present images: , awarded in 1908 “for his method of reproducing colours photographically based on the phenomenon of interference,” and , awarded in 1971, “for his invention and development of the holographic…

By Øyvind Tønnesson, Nobelprize.org Peace Editor, 1998-2000 1 December 1999 What do we know about the Nobel Peace Prize, the laureates and why they were selected? How has the Norwegian Nobel Committee interpreted the concept of peace and Alfred Nobel’s in the changing historical context of the 20th century? In the following we will briefly…

by Lewis Wolpert How responsible are scientists for science and its applications? In a recent issue of the journal Science the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, , proposes a Hippocratic oath for scientists. He is strongly opposed to the idea that science is neutral and that scientists are not to be blamed for its misapplication.…

by Frank Fenner and Suzanne Cory Medical research in Australia in the early 20th century Although politically independent since 1901, in the 1920s Australia was still culturally, scientifically and industrially a dependency of the United Kingdom. The total population then was some 7 million and there were three medical schools, in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.…

by Gösta Ekspong The research leading to an understanding of the nature of light and the emission and absorption processes has been of paramount importance. It led from a beginning in 1900 to the development of quantum physics, reaching a high peak in the 1920s and a fruition towards the mid-century years with the completion…

Frederick Grinnell UT Southwestern Medical Center In early 1985, when philanthropist Ralph Rogers spoke with Texas billionaire Ross Perot to ask for a “considerable” amount of money for UT Southwestern Medical School, he anticipated no great difficulty. Rogers, who recently had led the $80 million campaign to modernize Parkland Memorial Hospital, was friends with Perot…

by 1962 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Haphazard growth On a summer day in the late fifties a delegation from the Soviet Union appeared in Cambridge demanding to see the “Institute of Molecular Biology”. When I took them to our shabby prefabricated hut in front of the University Physics Department, called Cavendish Laboratory after its nineteenth…

by Sture Packalén* This article was published on 30 November 2005. Record number of prizes Within a space of ten years at the beginning of the twentieth century, four writers in German were awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature: (1902), (1908), (1910) and (1912). This is a record that has yet to be surpassed by…

The Max Planck Institute for Medical Research is the direct descendent of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research and member institute of the Max Planck Society. The four departments contribute their unique expertise in complementary areas: the determination of atomic structures (Ilme Schlichting), optical nanoscopy (), design of new reporter molecules (Kai Johnsson) and…