Winners get ready as the Nobel season begins with Medicine Prize
No Literature Prize will be given out for the first time in 70 years because of a #MeToo scandal.
By PTI | Updated:
Agencies
STOCKHOLM: The announcement on Monday of the Nobel Medicine Prize opens this year's amputated awards season, with no Literature Prize for the first time in 70 years because of a #MeToo scandal.
Like every year, Nobel aficionados have speculated wildly about possible winners, given the number of worthy candidates in the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, peace and economics.
The medicine prize committee at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute is the first to reveal its choice of laureates, on Monday at 11:30 am (0930 GMT).
But its announcement risks being at least partially eclipsed by a Stockholm court's verdict around the same time against Frenchman Jean-Claude Arnault, charged with rape.
His close ties to the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Literature Prize, have caused a scandal and deep rift in the Academy, prompting it to postpone this year's prize for a year. It is the first time the prize has been postponed since William Faulkner's 1949 honour was awarded in 1950.
ADVERTISEMENT
Without the Literature Prize this year, the most highly-anticipated award will be that for peace, announced on Friday in Oslo.
But before that come the science prizes, traditionally dominated by men working at US institutions.
Swedish public radio SR tipped however the medicine prize could go to two women for the gene-editing technique known as the CRISPR-Cas9 DNA snipping tool, a type of genetic "scissors" used to cut out a mutated gene in a human embryo and replace it by a corrected version.
However, the discovery could be too early for a Nobel, with a recent study suggesting the technique may damage DNA more than previously thought. A legal dispute is also raging over who discovered the technique.
ADVERTISEMENT
It has been claimed on the one hand by the French-American research duo of Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, and on the other by Chinese-born American Feng Zhang.
#MeToo Hits 2018 Nobel Prize For Literature, No Award In 75 Years
1/2
Japanese author Kazuo Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2017. The man behind seven novels, a short-story collection and screenplays, Ishiguro was born in bomb-hit Nagasaki in 1954, and moved to England at the age of 5.
Japanese author Kazuo Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2017. The man behind seven novels, a short-story collection and screenplays, Ishiguro was born in bomb-hit Nagasaki in 1954, and m..
Read More
The physics prize was divided, one half awarded to Rainer Weiss (L), the other half jointly to Barry C. Barish (C) and Kip S. Thorne (R) "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".
They received the prize for the discovery of gravitational waves released in the world by violent events in the universe such as the mergers of black holes. Weiss, professor emeritus of physics at MIT, along with Thorne and Barish, California Institute of Technology physicists, pioneered LIGO, or the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, the scientific project that made gravitational wave detection possible.
The physics prize was divided, one half awarded to Rainer Weiss (L), the other half jointly to Barry C. Barish (C) and Kip S. Thorne (R) "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the obser..
- Hearing, genes, opiates? - Other research mentioned as Nobel-worthy include the cochlear implant, which can help deaf people to hear again, and gene sequencing, already honoured with a chemistry Nobel in 1980 but a field whose vast progress has revolutionised medical, biological and evolutionary research since then.
Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet meanwhile cited research on opiates and pain relief, new blood vessel growth, and the creation of a giant gene and genome database as other possible award-winning fields.
The physics prize will follow on Tuesday.
SR suggested the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences could give the nod to research on zero dimensional quantum dots -- very small semiconductor particles that play a key role in data communications, light diodes, solar cells and medical imaging.
Svenska Dagbladet meanwhile said the discovery of the so-called "spin Hall effect" in semiconductors could be honoured, or pioneering methods to determine the age, size and distance between galaxies.
Work on the mechanisms behind supercapacitators, a type of battery that can store large amounts of electricity, was also seen as a possibility.
The chemistry prize, to be announced on Wednesday, could meanwhile go to recurring favourite John Goodenough, a 96-year old electrochemist whose work led to the invention of rechargeable lithium ion battery present in cell phones, computers and electric cars, SR said.
From Buying A Holiday Home To Getting A Motorbike, Here's How Nobel Winners Spent $1mn Prize Money
1/6
Wheels of fortune
The 2001 winner of Physiology or Medicine invested a large chunk of his award money in acquiring a powerful motorbike. He also owns a Kawasaki 500, and reportedly flies a plane when visiting the family home in Oxfordshire.
Wheels of fortune
The 2001 winner of Physiology or Medicine invested a large chunk of his award money in acquiring a powerful motorbike. He also owns a Kawasaki 500, and reportedly flies a plane whe..
Read More
Having a ball
The 1993 Physiology or Medicine category co-winner used his winnings to create a 8,000 sq ft croquet lawn in front of his house. "I had always wanted one, and this seemed like it might be my only opportunity to afford it," he told a news magazine.
Having a ball
The 1993 Physiology or Medicine category co-winner used his winnings to create a 8,000 sq ft croquet lawn in front of his house. "I had always wanted one, and this seemed like it might..
Read More
Fitting home
For Phillip Sharp, the co-winner in Physiology or Medicine category in 1993, the prize money was enough to add to the money he received from the sale of his home, to buy a century-old Federal style house. "I took that money and bought a bigger house... It's a beautiful old place," he told a news agency.
(Image: www.nobelprize.org)
Fitting home
For Phillip Sharp, the co-winner in Physiology or Medicine category in 1993, the prize money was enough to add to the money he received from the sale of his home, to buy a century-old F..
Read More
Freedom
For the Belarusian 2015 literature category winner, the $9,53,000 prize money meant freedom. "I use the award money to buy freedom. (sic) I write books for a long time, and that takes money — go around and print. Now I can work quietly without thinking how to earn money," she said.
(Image: www.nobelprize.org)
Freedom
For the Belarusian 2015 literature category winner, the $9,53,000 prize money meant freedom. "I use the award money to buy freedom. (sic) I write books for a long time, and that takes money ..
Read More
Holiday home
Physicist Leon Lederman, who won the award in 1988, used the prize money to buy a vacation cabin in Idaho, which is where he and his wife live. Interestingly, Lederman's gold medal was auctioned in 2015 to pay for his medical expenses. It fetched $7,65,002.
(Image: www.nobelprize.org)
Holiday home
Physicist Leon Lederman, who won the award in 1988, used the prize money to buy a vacation cabin in Idaho, which is where he and his wife live. Interestingly, Lederman's gold medal was ..
Read More
Fine furnish
The 2010 winner in economics revealed that he used up a part of the roughly $3,30,000 prize money on "lavish furnishings" for his new apartment. He spent another chunk on clothes and travel expenses for his family, who accompanied him to Stockholm to receive the award.
(Image: www.nobelprize.org)
Fine furnish
The 2010 winner in economics revealed that he used up a part of the roughly $3,30,000 prize money on "lavish furnishings" for his new apartment. He spent another chunk on clothes and tr..
- Peace Prize to Korea? - For the Peace Prize, the only Nobel announced in Oslo, there are 329 candidates this year but their names are kept secret.
US President Donald Trump has been mentioned as a possibility for his efforts to bring peace to the Korean peninsula.
But Dan Smith, head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), said he believed it would be "inappropriate" to honour Trump after he withdrew the US from international agreements on the climate and Iran's nuclear programme.
In addition, the only known Trump nomination submitted to the Nobel committee turned out to be a fake.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has also been mentioned for his rapprochement efforts with North Korea.
But Smith said that would be "premature," recalling the dashed hopes after Moon's predecessor Kim Dae-jung won the prize in 2000.
Nobel-Winner Kazuo Ishiguro: The Man Behind The Magic
1/1
Ishiguro tied the knot with social worker Lorna MacDougall in 1986. He met her at the West London Cyrenians homelessness charity in Notting Hill, where Ishiguro was working as a residential resettlement worker.
The couple has a daughter Naomi.
(Image: Facebook/KazuoIshiguro)
Ishiguro tied the knot with social worker Lorna MacDougall in 1986. He met her at the West London Cyrenians homelessness charity in Notting Hill, where Ishiguro was working as a residential resettlem..
Other names circulating include Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege and Yazidi activist Nadia Murad, who both campaign against sexual violence, as well as the World Food Programme, the UN refugee agency UNHCR, jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, organisations defending the media and Russian human rights champions.
The 2018 Nobel season wraps up on October 8 with the announcement of the economics prize.
This year, each Nobel comes with a nine million kronor ($1.01-million, 871,000-euro) prize sum, to be shared if several laureates are honoured in the same discipline.
