Awarded for “the greatest benefit to humankind”
Since 1901, the Nobel Prizes and the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel have been awarded 627 times to 1,012 individuals and organizations. The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, and based on the fortune of Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor and entrepreneur. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize. Each prize consists of a medal, a personal diploma, and a cash award.
Physiology or Medicine
On 2024-10-07, The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet decided to award the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to
Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun
“for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.”
The information stored within our chromosomes can be likened to an instruction manual for all cells in our body. Every cell contains the same chromosomes, so every cell contains exactly the same set of genes and exactly the same set of instructions. Yet, different cell types, such as muscle and nerve cells, have very distinct characteristics. How do these differences arise? The answer lies in gene regulation, which allows each cell to select only the relevant instructions. This ensures that only the correct set of genes is active in each cell type.
They discovered microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation.
Physics
On 8 October 2024, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 to
John J. Hopfield
Princeton University, NJ, USA
Geoffrey Hinton
University of Toronto, Canada
“for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks”
They have used tools from physics to develop methods that are the foundation of today’s powerful machine learning. John Hopfield created an associative memory that can store and reconstruct images and other types of patterns in data. Geoffrey Hinton invented a method that can autonomously find properties in data, and so perform tasks such as identifying specific elements in pictures.
This technology was originally inspired by the structure of the brain. They have conducted important work with artificial neural networks from the 1980s onward.
Chemistry
On 9 October 2024, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with one half to
David Baker
University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA
“for computational protein design” and the other half jointly to
Demis Hassabis
Google DeepMind, London, UK
John Jumper
Google DeepMind, London, UK
“for protein structure prediction”
David Baker has succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have developed an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins’ complex structures. These discoveries hold enormous potential.
Literature
On 10 October 2024, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the
South Korean author Han Kang,
“for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”.
Peace
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2024 to the
Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo.
This grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, also known as Hibakusha, is receiving the Peace Prize for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.
Economic Sciences
On 14 October 2024, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to
Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
James A. Robinson
University of Chicago, IL, USA
“for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity”
They have helped us understand differences in prosperity between nations They have demonstrated the importance of societal institutions for a country’s prosperity. Societies with a poor rule of law and institutions that exploit the population do not generate growth or change for the better. The laureates’ research helps us understand why.
Reducing the vast differences in income between countries is one of our time’s greatest challenges. The laureates emphasizes the importance of robust institutions for reducing global income disparities and fostering economic growth.
They all exemplify Alfred Nobel’s vision, making transformative contributions to humanity.
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