2018 Nobel Peace Prize -- News Roundup

Daily Mail: Nobel Peace Prize is jointly awarded to a Yazidi former ISIS sex slave turned human rights activist and a Congolese doctor treating rape victims

* The winners are Nadia Murad, a 25-year-old from Iraq and Denis Mukwege, 63, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo
* They won for their 'efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war'
* Murad campaigns for the ISIS murders of Yazidis to be recognised as genocide
* She is the second youngest winner after Malala Yousafzai who won in 2014 at 17
* Mukwege has treated thousands of survivors of sexual violence in armed conflict
* He has called on the world to take a tougher line on rape as a weapon of war
* The prize, worth $1 million will be presented in Oslo, Norway on December 10

This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to a gynecologist treating victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a Yazidi human rights activist and survivor of sexual slavery by Islamic State.

The prize, worth nine million Swedish crowns ($1 million), will be presented to Nadia Murad, 25, and Denis Mukwege, 63, in Oslo on December 10.

On the reason for their choice, the Nobel committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said in Oslo that the pair one the prestigious award for their 'efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.'

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2018 Nobel Peace Prize -- News Roundup

The Latest: Peace winners praised by US envoy, not Trump -- AP
Nobel peace prize 2018 won by Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad - as it happened -- The Guardian
Congolese doctor, Yazidi activist, champions in fight against rape in war, win Nobel Peace Prize -- Reuters
Nobel Peace Prize for anti-rape activists Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege -- BBC
2018 Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Yazidi Activist and Congolese Doctor -- The New York Times
Nobel peace prize 2018 winners: who are Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad? – video profile -- The Guardian
Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad -- DW
Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad for efforts to end sexual violence in war -- ABC News Online
Nobel Peace Prize honours champions of fight against sexual violence -- AFP
Nobel Peace laureates demand end to sexual violence in war -- AP
Nadia Murad: from jihadist slave to Nobel laureate -- AFP
Nadia Murad, from ISIS sex slave to global human rights campaigner -- CNN
Congolese doctor dedicates Nobel Peace Prize to victims of sexual violence -- Reuters
Nobel's Mukwege hears news in surgery as wild cheers erupt -- AFP
'Dr. Miracle' Is The Co-Recipient Of The Nobel Peace Prize -- NPR
Who is Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege? -- DW
DR Congo hails Nobel win but says Mukwege 'politicises' his work -- AFP
DR Congo hails Mukwege Nobel win but says he's 'not infallible' -- AFP
Yazidis celebrate Murad's Nobel prize as they mark top ritual -- AFP
UN chief says Nobel Peace Prize winners 'defended our values' -- AFP
Sexual violence, a savage feature of conflict over centuries -- AP

Should The Nobel Prize Consider Diversity, Geography, And Gender When Awarding The Prize?

Nobel Prizes are the most prestigious awards on the planet. This year's announcements have further highlighted questions about why so few women have entered the pantheon, particularly in the sciences. (Fernando Vergara/Associated Press)

CBC: Nobel Prizes still struggle with wide gender disparity

Just 48 of 892 winners have been women, and 30 of those have won literature or peace prize

Nobel Prizes are the most prestigious awards on the planet but the aura of this year's announcements has been dulled by questions over why so few women have entered the pantheon, particularly in the sciences.

The march of Nobel announcements began Monday with the physiology/medicine prize.

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CSN Editor: The answer is no. The Nobel Prize should not consider diversity, geography, and gender. The focus should be on the merit of the science, or in the case of literature, the work and the impact that the author has been able to accomplish.

British University Scientists Win Nobel Prize For Physics For Discovery Of Atom-Thick Carbon Layer 200 Times Stronger Than Steel

The Swedish academy of sciences in Stockholm announces the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics today

From The Daily Mail:

* Graphene could lead to new super-fast electronics
* Bonds between carbon atoms are the strongest in nature
* Scientist: I'll just muddle on as before after win

Two British-based scientists have shared the Nobel Prize for physics for their discovery of a new material that is only an atom thick and which could change the future of electronics.

Russian-born Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, both from Manchester University, today won the prize for their 'groundbreaking experiments' with graphene - a microscopic flake of carbon.

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British IVF Pioneer Robert Edwards Wins Nobel Prize

Photo: Robert Edwards with the first "test tube baby" Louise Brown and her own child

From The BBC:

British scientist Robert Edwards, the man who devised the fertility treatment IVF, has been awarded this year's Nobel prize for medicine.

His efforts in the 1950s, 60s and 70s led to the birth of the world's first "test tube baby" in July 1978.

Since then nearly four million babies have been born following IVF.

The prize committee said his achievements had made it possible to treat infertility, a medical condition affecting 10% of all couples worldwide.

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Nobel Foundation: Why We Said No To Reform -- A Commentary

The Nobel Foundation responds to New Scientist's call for change
(Image: Oliver Morin/AFP/Getty Images)

From The New Scientist:

LAST year, a group of 10 scientists brought together by New Scientist wrote an open letter to the Nobel Foundation calling for an overhaul of the Nobel prizes. The group suggested that to keep the Nobels relevant, the foundation should introduce prizes for the environment and public health, and open them to institutions as well as individuals. It also suggested reforming the existing physiology or medicine prize to recognise contributions from across the life sciences, especially neuroscience and genetics.

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Nobel Prizes Hit By The Financial Crisis?

Nobel Prize Foundation Frets Over Its Finances -- ABC News

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The Nobel Foundation might have to reduce the money it awards winners of its prestigious prizes due to the effects of the global financial crisis, its director said on Saturday.

The foundation will give 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.5 million) for each prize this year as it has done for most of the last decade. But the downturn could strain resources for future prizes.

"It might be in the future we would be forced to lower the prize," Michael Sohlman, Executive Director for the Nobel Foundation, told a press briefing. "We have sailed the storm, but have taken on some water."

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Cambridge Laboratory of Molecular Biology: The Nobel Prize factory

Cambridge's Laboratory of Molecular Biology

From The Independent:

For the 14th time, the judges have honoured a member of the same lab.

Yesterday at tea time at Cambridge's Laboratory of Molecular Biology, something a little stronger than the usual brew was being glugged by the scientists gathered on the top floor overlooking Addenbrooke's Hospital.

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Nobel Prize: Ten Most Important Winners

Professor Marie Curie working in her laboratory at the University of Paris in 1925
Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

From The Telegraph:

As the 2009 Nobel Prize winners are announced, we look at ten of the most influential laureates in the history of the awards.

1. Marie Curie

The leading light in a family that between them amassed a remarkable five Nobel Prizes in the fields of Chemistry and Physics. She became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1903 when she was recognised, along with her husband Pierre and Antoine Henri Becquerel, with the Physics award for their research into radiation.

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Nobel Prizes For Chemistry Awarded -- News Roundup

From left, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England; Thomas A. Steitz of Yale University; and Ada E. Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel will share the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Reuters

Three Win Nobel For Ribosome Research -- New York Times

Three researchers whose work delves into how information encoded on strands of DNA is translated by the chemical complexes known as ribosomes into the thousands of proteins that make up living matter will share the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Swedish Academy of Sciences said Wednesday.

The trio are Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England; Thomas A. Steitz of Yale University; and Ada E. Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. Each scientist will get a third of the prize, worth 10 million Swedish kronors in total, or $1.4 million, in a ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10.

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More News On the Nobel Prize For Chemistry

Trio wins chemistry Nobel for solving ribosome riddle -- Reuters
2 Americans, Israeli share Nobel Prize in chemistry -- L.A. Times
Ada Yonath: first Israeli woman to win a Nobel -- AFP
US duo, Israeli win Nobel Chemistry Prize -- AFP
3 Scientists Share Nobel Chemistry Prize for DNA Work -- Voice of America
2 Americans, 1 Israeli win Nobel chemistry prize -- AP
Cambridge chemist wins Nobel prize for showing how proteins are made in cells -- The Guardian
Nobel Prize in chemistry awarded for ribosome research -- Science News
X-ray crystallography at the heart of the 2009 Nobel chemistry prize -- Physics Today
Nobel Prize In Chemistry: What Ribosomes Look Like And How They Functions At Atomic Level -- Science Daily
Unraveling the Ribosome: Chemistry Nobel Awarded to Modelers of Cells' Protein-Maker -- Scientific American
FACTBOX: Nobel chemistry prize - Who are the winners? -- Reuters
List of recent Nobel Prize in chemistry winners -- AP

Nobel Prize For Physics Awarded

Half of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics went to Charles K. Kao, center. The other half of the prize was shared by two researchers at Bell Labs, Willard S. Boyle, left, and George E. Smith. Reuters

Nobel Awarded for Advances in Harnessing Light -- New York Times

The mastery of light through technology was the theme of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored breakthroughs in fiber optics and digital photography.

Half of the $1.4 million prize went to Charles K. Kao for insights in the mid-1960s about how to get light to travel long distances through glass strands, leading to a revolution in fiber optic cables. The other half of the prize was shared by two researchers at Bell Labs, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, for inventing the semiconductor sensor known as a charge-coupled device, or CCD for short. CCDs now fill digital cameras by the millions.

The prize will be awarded in Stockholm on Dec. 10.

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More News On The Awarding Of The Nobel Prize In Physics

Excerpts from 2009 Nobel physics prize -- AP
‘Masters of light’ scoop Nobel physics prize -- Financial Times
3 Scientists Win 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics -- Voice of America
Nobel Prize in Physics -- Scientific American
3 win Nobel in physics for digital devices -- CNN
Nobel honours 'masters of light' -- BBC
Communication pioneers win 2009 physics Nobe -- Reuters
FACTBOX: The Nobel prize for Physics -- Reuters
Recent winners of the Nobel Prize in physics -- AP

U.S. Trio Wins Medicine Nobel For Ageing Research

The statue of Alfred Nobel at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Photo AFP

From Reuters:

STOCKHOLM, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Three Americans were awarded the Nobel prize for medicine on Monday for the discovery of a built-in protection device in chromosomes, a finding that sheds light on ageing and may help in the fight against cancer.

Australian-born Elizabeth Blackburn, British-born Jack Szostak and Carol Greider won the prize of 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.42 million), Sweden's Karolinska Institute said.

The institute said the three had "solved a major problem in biology", namely how chromosomes were copied completely during cell division and protected against degradation.

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More News On This Years Nobel Prize For Medicine

Excerpts from 2009 Nobel medicine prize -- AP
US trio win Nobel Medicine Prize for research on ageing -- AFP
Sharon Begley Predicts The Nobel Prize Laureates: Blackburn, Greider and Szostak Win For Telomeres Research -- Newsweek
Nobel Prize: Why Immortality Is a Bad Thing -- Wall Street Journal
Americans Win Nobel Medicine Prize For Insights Into Aging, Cancer -- NPR
U.S. trio wins medicine Nobel for ageing research -- Reuters
‘Immortality Enzyme’ Wins Three Americans Nobel Prize -- Bloomberg
Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded to U.S. trio -- CBC
FACTBOX: Winners of the Nobel prize for Medicine -- Reuters
Recent winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine -- AP

Experts Call For Nobel Prizes To Be Revamped

Where's the prize for fighting climate change?
(Image: Science and Society Picture Library/Getty)

From New Scientist:

THE Nobel prize system needs an overhaul. That's the conclusion of a group of scientists brought together by New Scientist to debate the future of the prizes.

In a letter to the Nobel Foundation, published on newscientist.com on 30 September, the group suggests that the foundation should introduce prizes for the environment and public health, and reform the existing medicine prize. "These suggestions will enable the prizes to remain influential for another hundred years," the group says.

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New Nobel Prizes Are 'Unlikely'

From The BBC:

Calls from a group of eminent scientists for new Nobel prizes look unlikely to prove successful.

The group had argued that the current range of prizes was too narrow to reflect the breadth of modern science.

The Nobel prizes are considered to be the most prestigious awards in science, and are limited to a few categories.

But a senior official from the Nobel Foundation has told BBC News that the categories were outlined in Alfred Nobel's will and would not change.

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Nobel Prize For Physics Announced

(Photo From The International Herald Tribune)

From left, Makoto Kobayashi, Toshihide Masukawa and Yoichiro Nambu. (Reuters)

2 Japanese, 1 American Share Physics Nobel -- CBS News

Prize Won For Subatomic Theories In Field Of Elementary Particle Physics

(AP) Two Japanese citizens and an American won the 2008 Nobel Prize in physics for discoveries in the world of subatomic physics, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Tuesday.

American Yoichiro Nambu, 87, of the University of Chicago, won half of the prize for the discovery of a mechanism called spontaneous broken symmetry. Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa of Japan shared the other half of the prize for discovering the origin of the broken symmetry that predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature.

In its citation, the academy said that this "year's Nobel laureates in physics have presented theoretical insights that give us a deeper understanding of what happens far inside the tiniest building blocks of matter."

Turning to Nambu, it said that his work in "Spontaneous broken symmetry conceals nature's order under an apparently jumbled surface," the academy said in its citation. "Nambu's theories permeate the Standard Model of elementary particle physics. The model unifies the smallest building blocks of all matter and three of nature's four forces in one single theory."

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More News On The Nobel Prize For Physics

Three Physicists Share Nobel Prize -- New York Times
1 American and 2 Japanese share Nobel physics prize -- International Herald Tribune
Nobel physics prize goes to 2 Japanese, 1 American -- Myway/AP
2 Japanese, 1 American Share Nobel Physics Prize -- American Scientist
Nobel Prize in Physics winners voice joy -- Daily Yomiuri
3 Win Physics Nobel for Subatomic Particle Research -- Live Science
U.S. scientist, Japanese pair share Nobel physics prize -- Mercury News
Nobel Honors Glimpse Into Universe's Design -- NPR
Nobel Prize for Physics Honors Subatomic Breakthroughs -- National Geographic
Nambu, Kobayashi and Maskawa Win Physics Nobel -- Scientific American
Nobel Prize in physics shared for work that unifies forces of nature -- Science News
Shy Japanese Nobel laureate has no passport: wife -- AFP
Physics Nobel snubs key researcher -- New Scientists

Nobel Prize For Chemistry Announced

Martin Chalfie of Columbia University, Osamu Shimomura of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., and Roger Y. Tsien of UC San Diego will share the 2008 Nobel Prize for chemistry.(Photo from L.A. Times)

Three Chemists Win Nobel Prize -- New York Times

One Japanese and two American scientists won this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for taking the ability of some jellyfish to glow green and transforming it into a ubiquitous tool of molecular biology to watch the dance of living cells and the proteins within them.

Osamu Shimomura, an emeritus professor at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. and Boston University Medical School, Martin Chalfie of Columbia University, and Roger Y. Tsien of the University of California, San Diego, will share the $1.4 million prize awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The green fluorescent protein, or G.F.P. for short, was observed in 1962 in the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, which drifts in the ocean currents off the west coast of North America.

Dr. Shimomura was able to identify the protein and showed that it glowed bright green under ultraviolet light.

Dr. Chalfie showed how the protein could be used as a biological identifier tag by inserting the gene that produces the protein into the DNA of an organism.

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More News On The Nobel Prize For Chemistry

Chemistry Nobel Prize Awarded for Glowing Protein Work -- National Geographic
Scientists Go for the Glow in Fluorescent Proteins -- Wired News
Three U.S.-based scientists share Nobel chemistry prize -- L.A. Times
Japanese, American Scientists Win Nobel Chemistry Prize -- Voice Of America
Green jellyfish protein scientists win Nobel -- Reuters
Chemistry Nobel Glows Fluorescent Green -- Scientific American
A Nobel for Illuminating Biology -- Technology Review
How Green Was the Nobel Prize in Chemistry -- Scientific American
Cell Illuminators Win Chemistry Nobel -- Wired News
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the Beauty of Fluorescent Protein -- Wall Street Journal
Nobel Prize in chemistry commends finding and use of green fluorescent protein -- Science News
Nobel prize for chemistry illuminates disease -- The Guardian
Chemistry Nobel Prize Awarded to Scientists Who Discovered and Developed GFP Fluorescent Protein -- GEN
Nobel won after 50 yrs, 100,000 jellyfish -- Daily Yomiuri
Nobel winners recall postwar struggles -- Japan Times
Nobel prize laureate finds winning news on internet -- AFP
Glowing Gene's Discoverer Left Out Of Nobel Prize -- NPR
Nobel Predictions: Score! -- Newsweek
US takes 2008 chemistry prize, Nobel league lead - October 08, 2008 -- Nature
Recent winners of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, and their research, according to the Nobel Foundation -- AP

No Nobel For You: Top 10 Nobel Snubs

King Carl XVI Gustaf presents the Nobel Prize at the Concert Hall in Stockholm.
Photo: Hans Pettersson/The Nobel Foundation/www.imagebank.sweden.se

From Scientific America:

As the 2008 laureates are announced, SciAm looks back at some of Nobel history's also-rans.

Every year, the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, announces up to three winners each in the scientific disciplines of chemistry, physics, and physiology or medicine. As of this morning, since 1901, 780 individuals have joined the hallowed ranks of Nobel laureates in these and other categories. And every year, there are murmurings—some louder than others—about the Nobel-worthy scientists who were overlooked. In 1974, when Jocelyn Bell Burnell was left out of the physics prize, her fellow astronomer and Nobel reject, Fred Hoyle, told reporters it was a "scientific scandal of major proportions." Physician-inventor Raymond Damadian famously took out full-page newspaper ads protesting his omission from the 2003 Nobel for MRI technology. This year, some will be asking questions about Robert Gallo, who did not share today's Nobel for medicine or physiology with Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi.

Nobel committee proceedings are notoriously shrouded in secrecy, so it's impossible to know all the details behind how each prizewinner is chosen, especially the more recent ones. But, according to Nobel historians, most award exclusions seem to relate to one or more of these criteria: limited slots available (Nobel rules limit the number of recipients to three for each category); ambiguity over who made the crucial contribution; and lack of experience and/or reputation within one's research community.

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Nobel Prize For Medicine 2008

From left, Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, Luc Montagnier and Harald zur Hausen. (Stephane De Sakutin/AFP; Olivier Maire/AP; Alex Grimm /Reuters ) (Photo From International Herald Tribune)

3 Share Nobel Prize For Work On AIDS And Cancer
-- Yahoo News/AP

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Three European scientists shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for separate discoveries of viruses that cause AIDS and cervical cancer, breakthroughs that helped doctors fight the deadly diseases.

French researchers Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier were cited for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, in 1983.

They shared the award with Germany's Harald zur Hausen, who was honored for finding human papilloma viruses that cause cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women.

U.S. researcher Dr. Robert Gallo was locked in a dispute with Montagnier in the 1980s over the relative importance of their roles in groundbreaking research into HIV and its role in AIDS. Gallo told The Associated Press that he was disappointed at not being included in the prize.

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More News On The Nobel Prizes

AIDS pioneers and cancer scientist win Nobel prize -- Yahoo News/Reuters
Research on AIDS virus and cancer wins Nobel Medicine Prize -- Yahoo News/AFP
3 Europeans share Nobel prize in medicine -- International Herald Tribune
3 Europeans Take Nobel Prize In Medicine -- CBS News
Nobel Prize awarded for AIDS, cervical cancer research -- L.A. Times
Nobel prize for medicine split between cervical cancer and HIV research -- The Guardian
Nobel Prize In Medicine For Major Virus Discoveries -- NPR
Nobels awarded for AIDS, cancer virus research -- Wired News
Nobel prize for viral discoveries -- BBC
Nobel Medicine prize goes to Germany and France -- Deutsche Welle
'There could be an Aids vaccine in four years,' says Nobel Prize winner -- Daily Mail
Nobel Medicine Prize row as HIV scientist is excluded -- Times Online
Nobel medicine prize reopens old AIDS wounds -- Yahoo news/Reuters
Human Papilloma Virus And Cancer, HIV Discoveries Recognized In 2008 Nobel Prize In Physiology Or Medicine -- Science Daily
FACTBOX - Nobel medicine prize - Who are the winners? -- Yahoo News/Reuters