The Nobel Prizes: a big thank-you to the world
The Nobel Prizes: a big thank-you to the world
Alfred Nobel was born in Sweden almost 200 years ago. He invented dynamite, which helped workers blast through rock to build roads, tunnels and railways. Before he died, he wrote that his money should pay for prizes every year, for people whose work helps the whole world. The first prizes were given in 1901. Winners get a gold medal on 10 December.
Three scientists found a way to switch brain cells on and off using light! The tiny “switch” was first found in green algae that live in ponds.
Francis Halzen leads IceCube, a giant detector buried deep in the ice of Antarctica. It catches neutrinos, tiny bits from space. When one bumps the ice, it makes a flash of blue light.
Your left glove won’t fit your right hand! Some tiny bits of matter are mirror twins like that. Henri Kagan (95, France) and Kenso Soai (76, Japan) found ways to make just the twin we need, which helps make medicines.
Anne Carson, a poet from Canada, retells very old Greek stories in fresh, surprising ways.
Navi Pillay, from South Africa, won the Nobel Peace Prize. Read her story on page 9.
The last prize, for economics (how money works), will be announced on Monday 12 October. Watch out for it next week!
To make something new that nobody has made before.