Meet the laureate

“Writing my thesis was the worst time of my life”

Tim Hunt, Nobel Prize laureate in physiology or medicine 2001, met with PhD student Paulina Tan and spoke about what to do when you have ‘scientist’s block’, the difficulties of research and what caused the Nobel Prize laureate to pursue a career in science. Listen in on their conversation.

Nobel Prize-awarded work

Imagine life without these discoveries

From the glow of blue LEDs to the ‘miracle’ of IVF. These six discoveries not only improve our daily lives, but save them and help create new ones.

How X-rays and crystals revealed the true nature of things

Modern crystallography has underpinned many scientific breakthroughs.

Nobel Prize in Physics 1914

Unmasked the true identity of X-rays

Learn more about Max von Laue.
Nobel Prize in Physics 1915

A father-and-son team

The Braggs built on von Laues work.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962

Helped solve a biological riddle

X-ary crystallography helped discover the molecular structure of DNA.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1964

She could ‘see’ the molecules of insulin

Read about Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin.

Revealing secrets on a tiny scale

Microscopes play a key role in advancing research, in part thanks to the work of Nobel Prize laureates whose breakthroughs have allowed the tool to evolve.

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1930

Finding the key to safe blood transfusions

Today, we take it for granted that people have different blood types. But not so long ago, it was believed that all blood was the same – a fatal misunderstanding.

Close up of A positive blood in bag.

Credit: ER Productions Limited/Getty Images

Nobel Peace Prize 2022

“The most important thing is not to give up”

Ales Bialiatski received the news of his 2022 Nobel Peace Prize from jail in Belarus where he was being held as a political prisoner. After his recent release, he spoke to us about his time in prison and shared his views on how everyone can contribute to a better world. “We all have the opportunity to influence the opinion, to make decisions, or in a small circle of friends, a working group or a public organisation where we can be active.” Read more about Bialiatski’s work for human rights in Belarus

Nobel Prize Conversations

The discovery that opened up a new field of chemistry

Listen to the 2025 chemistry laureates talk about their Nobel Prize-awarded work and life learnings in this podcast conversation with Adam Smith.

Listen here

Discoveries 50 years ago: the 1976 Nobel Prizes

Nobel Prize in Literature 1976

Innovator of the American novel

Listen to Saul Bellow talk about his memories from 1920’s Chicago, the city where he grew up and used as a backdrop for his stories.

Nobel Prize in Physics 1976

A new elementary particle

The discovery of a new heavy particle, J/psi, opened a new field of research.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1976

Studies on boranes

This work improved our understanding of how atoms bind together within molecules.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1976

Origin of infectious diseases

Their work defined completely new principles for the behaviour of infectious diseases.
Banquet menu

Curious to know what was served at the 1976 Nobel Prize banquet dinner? Browse the banquet menu archive.

Nobel Peace Prize 1976

Building peace from below

A deadly tragedy motivated Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan to found a movement to put an end to the conflict in Northern Ireland.
Prize in economic sciences 1976

Founder of monetarism

An influential economist of the second half of the 20th century, Milton Friedman became one of the leaders of the Chicago school of economics.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1960

The clock that starts ticking when something dies

A help in solving crimes and a revealer of history’s secrets: radiocarbon dating is one of the keys that unlocks our world.

Montage showing a frog on a bamboo stick, a separate frog skeleton, and a countdown clock

Five spellbinding works by Nobel Prize laureates

Much like fairy tales, magical realism novels blur the lines between fantasy and reality.

Learn more

How microwaves let us tune into one another – and the universe

Nobel Prize-awarded work on microwaves revolutionised our ways of communicating and helped us understand the origins of the universe.

Image of beams of light depicting the cosmos, combined with a wave symbol.

Nobel Peace Prize documentaries

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Nobel Peace Prize 1917, 1944 and 1963

He gives hope to those who lost a limb

Makur Diet lost his leg to a bullet in war-damaged South Sudan.

UNHCR, Nobel Peace Prize 1954 and 1981

Helps reunite families

Kamal Hussein is a beacon of hope for Rohingya families torn apart by violence and ethnic cleansing.
ICBL, Nobel Peace Prize 1997

Clears the land of mines

For the all-female team of Yazidi deminers, one wrong move means certain death.
IPCC, Nobel Peace Prize 2007

Human effects on nature

Follow one team’s extraordinary mission to help understand how climate change is affecting our planet.
Nelson Mandela, Nobel Peace Prize 1993

Overcoming violence

This orchestra uses the power of music to help South Africa overcome decades of violence and division.

High hopes for quantum technologies

Applications of quantum technologies are anticipated to improve our daily lives and contribute to solving global challenges.

Women who changed science

Explore the contributions, careers and lives of women who have been awarded Nobel Prizes for their scientific achievements.

A woman in a laboratory — Photo: Johns Hopkins Medicine

The unseen enemy: navigating antimicrobial resistance

The hunt is on to find new antibiotics with the potential to save millions of lives.

More Nobel Prize-awarded work in medicine

Fighting polio

Follow Ishrat Rahim who vaccinates children against polio in Pakistan.
A century of medical breakthroughs

Over the years, Nobel Prize-awarded advances in medicine show that remarkable progress is possible.
Their work revolutionised cancer care

Read about how scientists found ways to use the immune system to treat cancer.

Spotlight on diabetes

“This is a death sentence for those who get amputated”

Despite the Nobel Prize-awarded discovery of insulin and advances in diabetes treatment, amputations continue to devastate communities around the world. Follow Dr Foluso Fakorede, who fights to save lives in the Mississippi Delta.