The following table shows the Nobel Prize winners 2010 list along with their wok for ready reference. A little bit of explanation about their work here especially in sciences with out repeating the table data:

Chemistry: Organic chemistry deals with carbon structures and carbon being a very neutral element, the reactions with carbon are very difficult to be ensured. The 2010 chemistry Nobel Prize winners found that Palladium can be used as a catalyst in such reactions. This helped in ensuring better reactions in organic chemistry, helping in medicine, plastics and almost every field as organic chemistry is all expansive.

Economics: Understanding markets such as realty, job market etc is not easy. On one side there will be vacancies in the companies and on the other hand, the jobless list grow. If there are vacancies, why don’t they just recruit? In a large economy it is not easy. The Economics prize deals with an analysis of such situations which can help in better solutions going forward.

Continue reading after the table.

Table: Nobel Prize Winners 2010 List

Robert Edwards Nobel Prize 2010 Medicine

Physics: The physics Nobel Prize winners, the student-teacher duo discovered Graphene, a variation of carbon and a ground breaking material. Graphene is a better electrical conductor than copper, much stronger and much thinner as well. Already Graphene is experimentally used in TV screens and some other places. Probably after some time, Graphene will occupy an important place in our day to day gadgets like laptops, mobile phones etc, making them more efficient and smaller size.

Physiology or Medicine: Dr Robert Edwards developed IVF as a solution to fertilization problems. This discovery helped millions of couples across the world. This discovery was made almost forty years back and IVF is well established in medical area now.

Refer to the table above for Nobel Prize Winners 2010 List.

Nobel Prize in Peace 2011

Nobel Prize Peace 2011 awarded to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work

Nobel Prize 2011 in Physiology or Medicine

awarded to

(1) Bruce A. Beutler and Jules A. Hoffmann for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity

(2) Ralph M. Steinman for the  discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity

Immunity is a part of our system. We have natural immunity built into our bodies which gives the ability to face the diseases. At the same time, we also get allergies because some times immune system can misunderstand healthy food items as well.  This years Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2011 found new discoveries in the area of immunity systems which can help us to find new vaccines and medicines.

Nobel Prize winners 2011 in Physics

was awarded jointly to

(1) Saul Perlmutter

(2) Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess

for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae

The interesting part of  this years Physics Nobel prize is – it brought new insights on the future of Universe. Much to the surprise of scientists, the findings indicated that universe is expanding faster than we had thought. While this could be cause for concern, this discovery also brought new understanding into the working of the Universe.

Nobel Prize 2011 Chemistry

awarded to Daniel Shechtman for the discovery of quasicrystals

Normally crystals are regular in their structural pattern. The very definition of crystal includes repetition of a single pattern. When Shechtman discovered that some crystals can have irregular patterns, scientific community did not accept him. Such crystals were called quasicrystals. It took many years of scientific proof to validate Shechtman’s discovery.

Nobel Prize 2011 in Literature

was awarded to Tomas Transtromer fromSweden, “because, through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality”.

2011 The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

was awarded jointly to Thomas J Sargent,USAand Christopher A. Sims,USA “for their empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy”

In economy, it is very difficult to establish cause and effect. Stock market may go up or down based on prediction rather than performance. Similarly interest rates my be adjusted based on expected industrial production rather than past performance.With these practical considerations, it is very difficult to establish the long term cause and effect as well as evaluation patterns in economy. This years 2011 Economic sciences winners Sargent and Sims developed a model in macro economy which can be used to identify cause and effect and so can help in improving long term performance off economic policies.

Like every year, this year also the findings of  Nobel Prize Winners 2011 provided much needed inspiration and encouragement to budding scientists.

Have you ever wondered what is happening to the Universe? The observations made by Nobel Prize Winners physics 2011 show that the Universe is disintegrating fast. Does it cause of worry? There is no need for worry now but the discovery was a bit of surprise even for the scientists.

Some historical Background for Nobel Prize Winners Physics 2011

How do they measure the distance to stars?

During the beginning of 20th century, there were no means of measuring the distance to stars easily. American astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt was working on analyzing photographs of pulsating stars, called Cepheids and she found that distance of a star can be estimated using the brightness of a star. The dimmer the star, the more distant it is. Then scientists developed a standard candle for the purpose of comparison and then it became easy to measure the distance of any star.

Universe is growing

In the 1920s, astronomers could get the larget telescope Mount Wilson inCaliforniaand with its help checked up the galaxies. They found that the galaxies are moving away from us concluding that universe is growing.

Albert Einstein’s Genius proved once again by Nobel Prize Winners Physics 2011

What was observed in 1920 was already demonstrated in theory by Albert Einstein. According to his calculations while working on general theory of relativity, he found that universe is not stable and it much be either growing or shrinking. To factor this in his calculations, he used a constant called the cosmological constant.

In later years Einstein felt that he was wrong in assuming such a constant. However the 2011 physics nobel prize work proves that Einstein was right!

So What did they find in 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics

2011 Nobel Prize Physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2011 was awared to

(1) Saul Perlmutter, The Supernova Cosmology Project

LawrenceBerkeleyNational Laboratory andUniversityofCalifornia,

Berkeley,CA,USA

and

(2) Jointly to

Brian P. Schmidt

The High-z Supernova Search Team

AustralianNationalUniversity,

Weston Creek,Australia

and

Adam G. Riess

The High-z Supernova Search Team

JohnsHopkinsUniversityand Space Telescope Science Institute,

Baltimore,MD,USA

“for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae”

As the announcement states, both the above teams observed Supernovae or exploding stars and found that Universe is fast expanding.

They expected to find that Universe is more stable compared to last century’s observations but to thier surprise, they found in the contrary.

This new discovery made by Nobel Prize Winners Physics 2011  is going to throw more understanding on the nature of Universe in the coming years.

The following table contains Nobel Prize Winners born in Russia. As the geographical division changed over time, the last column contains the details of present country as well.

The most interesting is the two times award of Marie Curie in 1903 and 1911. What is significant is that she won both Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics.

There are six Nobel Prize Winners from Egypt.

3 prizes were in Peace, 2 in Chemistry and one in Literature.

Here below is the list of Nobel Prize Winners born in Egypt.

The following is a list of Australian Nobel Prize Winners.

Actually the list represents Nobel Laureates born in Australia, so a few of them might be staying elsewhere either.

There are a total of 10 Nobel Prizes from Australia. It is interesting to note that majority of prizes, that is 7 among 10 were in the area of Physiology or Medicine.

During 2005, two from Australia shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Since 1901 to 2011, a total of 124 Nobel Laureates have received Nobel Peace Prize.

Among this list, organizations got the Nobel Prize 23 times.

International Red Cross association got Nobel Prize for Peace three times.

Here is the full Nobel Peace Prize Winners List

Nobel Prizes were inaugurated in 1901.
Since 1901 to 2010, in these 110 years, a total of 543 Nobel Prize Winners have been awarded across all disciplines.

As per the Nobel Prize guidelines, the awards need not be given every year. If no one is found suitable for a particular year, the award can be skipped.

A few times no one got the award. Also during first and second world war times, some prizes were not awarded.

How many times Nobel Prize was shared ?

Out of the prizes awarded, 332 times, the award is given to a single laureate.

The award was shared by two people 129 times.

The awards was shared by three people 84 times.

In case of Nobel Peace Prize, it is second time this year (2011) that the award is shared by three people.

What is the total number of Nobel Prize Winners?

In the last 110 years, between 1901 and 2010, a total of 840 Laureates have been awarded the prestigious Nobel prize.

How many women got Nobel Prize ?

Till 2010, only 41 women got Nobel Prize. With the Nobel Peace prize 2011, this number of women Nobel Prize winners increases to 44.  Still considering the total number of Nobel Laureates, this number is quite small, only at around 5% of the total Nobel prize winners.

Who was the oldest Nobel Laureate ?

The oldest person to win Nobel Prize was Leonid Hurwicz. He was 90 years old when he was awarded Prize in Economic Sciences in 2007. He along with two others – Eric S Maskin, Roger B Myerson, got the award for laying the foundations of mechanism design theory.

Who was the Youngest Nobel prize Winner ?

Lawrence Bragg was just 25 years old when he got the Physics Nobel Prize in 1915 along with his father, William Henry Bragg. Both worked together on analyzing crystal structures using X-rays.

A note about Economic Sciences ‘Nobel’ Prize

The Prize in Economic sciences was not a part of original Nobel Prize. It was established in 1968 by the Sverigesiksbank in memory of Alfred Nobel.

This prize is called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences. Though the name is slightly different,  the winners of Sveriges Riksbank Prize are considered Nobel Prize winners.

2011 Nobel Peace Prize Winners

The Award is shared by three women, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman for their non-violent struggle for the rights and safety of women.

Nobel Peace Prize 2011

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the first democratically elected woman president of Africa. Since she took the position in 2006, she put efforts for establishing peace in Liberia and strived for promoting economic and social upliftment and for greater participation of women in the development.

The second Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee worked hard to bring peace in Liberia. She mobilized women across all sections of the society in order to gain support to stop the long war. She enrouraged women’s participation in elections.

Similarly, Tawakkul Karman, the third awardee, took up active lead in the struggle for democracy and rights of women in Yemen.

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize helps in encouraging more women for active participation in their countries and to bring out the hidden potential

Nobel Prizes are established by Alfred Nobel and started in 1901. For more than hundred years,  Nobel Prizes have been encouraging research, creativity and development. We can say that Nobel Prizes are the most popular awards across the world today.

Alfred Nobel, The Founder of Nobel Prize

Nobel Awards- How they started?

Alfred Nobel was a scientist and industrialist of 19th century. He invented Dynamite and due to high demand at that time, his dynamite business flourished and he became one of the richest during his times.

In his will before his death in 1896, Nobel wrote that all his money should be kept in safe deposits and the income from them should be utilized to honor achievers across the world in various fields, who contributed positively to human development.

After his death, it took some time to make the arrangements and establish the Nobel Prize. And the first Nobel prize was given in 1901 fulfilling the final wish of Alfred Nobel.

What are the areas Nobel Prizes are awarded?

Nobel in his will mentioned five areas – Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace. He also mentioned how the organization should be formed and how the prize selection should be done. Accordingly Nobel Foundation had been awarding Nobel Prizes in these areas, every year. During 1968, an additional Prize was inaugurated in Economic Sciences in the memory of Alfred Nobel. This prize is called the ‘Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences’. Since then every year, Nobel Prize is awarded in six areas.

Nobel Prize Winners 2011

The 2011 Nobel Prize winners are just announced and you can find more detailed information in these pages.