Nobel Prize Winners List for 2011
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.