Two Americans win Nobel economics prize

Americans Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley were awarded the Nobel economics prize  for research that helps explain the market processes at work when doctors are assigned to hospitals, students to schools and human organs for transplant to recipients.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the two economists for "the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design".

Roth, 60, is a professor at Harvard University in Boston. Shapley, 89, is a professor emeritus at University of California Los Angeles.

"This year's prize concerns a central economic problem: how to match different agents as well as possible," the academy said.

Shapley made early theoretical contributions to the field of study, and Roth took it further by applying it to the market for US doctors. 

The economics prize was created by the Swedish central bank in Nobel's memory in 1968, and has been handed out with the other prizes ever since. Each award is worth 8 million Swedish kronor, or about $1.2 million.  

Recent winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, and their research: 

2012- Americans Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design.

2011- Americans Thomas Sargent and Christopher Sims for their research on cause and effect in the macro economy.

2010- Americans Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides, of Britain and Cyprus, for their analysis of markets with search frictions.

2009- Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson for their analysis of economic governance.

2008- American Paul Krugman for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.

2007- Americans Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson for laying the foundations of mechanism design theory.

2006- American Edmund S. Phelps for furthering the understanding of the trade-offs between inflation and its effects on unemployment.

2005- Robert J. Aumann, of Israel and the United States, and American Thomas C. Schelling, for their work in game-theory analysis.

2004- Finn E. Kydland, Norway, and Edward C. Prescott, United States, for their contribution to dynamic macroeconomics.

2003- Robert F. Engle, United States, and Clive W.J. Granger, Britain, for their use of statistical methods for economic time series.

2002- Daniel Kahneman, United States and Israel, and Vernon L. Smith, United States, for pioneering the use of psychological and experimental economics in decision—making.

2001- George A. Akerlof, A. Michael Spence and Joseph E. Stiglitz, United States, for research into how the control of information affects markets.

2000- James J. Heckman and Daniel L. McFadden, United States, for their work in developing theories to help analyze labor data and how people make work and travel decisions.

1999- Robert A. Mundell, Canada, for innovative analysis of exchange rates that helped lay the intellectual groundwork for Europe’s common currency.

1998- Amartya Sen, India, for contributions to welfare economics, which help explain the economic mechanisms underlying famines and poverty.

1997- Robert C. Merton and Myron S. Scholes, United States, for developing a formula for the valuation of stock options.

European Union wins Nobel Peace Prize

The European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to promote peace and democracy in Europe despite being in the midst of its biggest crisis since the bloc was created in the 1950s.

The Norwegian prize committee said the EU received the award for six decades of contributions “to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe. 

The EU rose from the ashes of World War II, born of the conviction that ever-closer economic ties would make sure that century-old enemies never turned on each other again. It’s now made up of 500 million people in 27 nations, with other nations lined up, waiting to join.

The idea of a united Europe began to take on a more defined shape when, on May 9, 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed that France and the Federal Republic of Germany pool their coal and steel resources in a new organization that other European countries could join.

“Today war between Germany and France is unthinkable. This shows how, through well-aimed efforts and by building up mutual confidence, historical enemies can become close partners,” the committee said.

The citation also noted the democratic conditions the EU has demanded of all those nations waiting to join, referred to Greece and Spain when they joined the 1980, and to the countries in Eastern Europe who sought EU membership after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

The prize focused on the EU’s historical role as a builder of peace at a time when the union’s existence is under challenge from the financial crisis that has stirred deep tensions between north and south and when there are questions about the form in which the EU will survive.

“The EU is currently undergoing grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest,” Jagland said. “The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to focus on what it sees as the EU’s most important result- the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for democracy and human rights. 

Recent winners of the Nobel Peace Prize

2012- The European Union.

2011- Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen.

2010- Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

2009- U.S. President Barack Obama

2008- Martti Ahtisaari

2007- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Al Gore

2006- Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank

2005- International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei

2004- Wangari Maathai

2003- Shirin Ebadi

2002- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter

2001- United Nations, Kofi Annan

2000- Kim Dae—jung

1999- Medecins Sans Frontieres

1998- John Hume, David Trimble

Chinese author Mo Yan wins Nobel Prize for Literature

Chinese author Mo Yan has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature. The Swedish Academy praised his work which "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary".Mo Yan is the first Chinese resident to win the prize. Chinese-born Gao Xingjian was honoured in 2000, but is a French citizen. Mo is the 109th recipient of the prestigious prize, won last year by Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer. Presented by the Nobel Foundation, the award - only given to living writers - is worth 8 million kronor (£741,000).

Born Guan Moye, the author writes under the pen name Mo Yan, which means "don't speak" in Chinese. He began writing while a soldier in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and received international fame in 1987 for Red Sorghum: A Novel of China. Made into a film which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1988, the novella was a tale of the brutal violence in the eastern China countryside where he grew up during the 1920s and 1930s. Favouring to write about China's past rather than contemporary issues, the settings for Mo's works range from the 1911 revolution, Japan's wartime invasion and Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. Mo's other acclaimed works include Republic of Wine, Life And Death Are Wearing Me Out and Big Breasts and Wide Hips. The latter book caused controversy when it was published in 1995 for its sexual content and depicting a class struggle contrary to the Chinese Communist Party line. The author was forced by the PLA to withdraw it from publication although it was pirated many times. After it was translated into English a decade later, the book won him a nomination for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Despite his social criticism Mo is seen in his homeland as one of the foremost contemporary authors, however critics have accused him of being too close to the Communist Party.

Americans Lefkowitz, Kobilka win Nobel chemistry prize for work on protein receptors

Americans Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka won the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry on October 10 for studies of protein receptors that let body cells sense and respond to outside signals. Such studies are key for developing better drugs.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the two researchers had made groundbreaking discoveries on an important family of receptors, known as G-protein-coupled receptors.

About half of all medications act on these receptors, so learning about them will help scientists to come up with better drugs.

The human body has about 1,000 kinds of such receptors, which let it respond to a wide variety of chemical signals, like adrenaline. Some receptors are in the nose, tongue and eyes, and let us sense smells, tastes and vision.

Dr. Lefkowitz, 69, is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Kobilka, 57, is a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in California. 

The academy said it was long a mystery how cells interact with their environment and adapt to new situations, such as when adrenaline increases blood pressure and makes the heart beat faster. Scientists suspected that cell surfaces had some type of receptor for hormones.

Using radioactivity, Dr. Lefkowitz managed to unveil receptors including the receptor for adrenaline, and started to understand how it works. Dr. Kobilka’s work helped researchers realize that there is a whole family of receptors that look alike a family that is now called G-protein-coupled receptors. 

The Nobel Prizes were established in the will of 19th century Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Each award is worth 8 million kronor, or about $1.2 million. The awards are always handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896. 

Haroche, Wineland win Nobel prize for physics

Frenchman Serge Haroche and American David Wineland have won the 2012 Nobel Prize in physics for inventing and developing methods for observing tiny quantum particles without destroying them.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the two scientists on Tuesday “for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.”

“Their ground-breaking methods have enabled this field of research to take the very first steps towards building a new type of super fast computer based on quantum physics,” the academy said. “The research has also led to the construction of extremely precise clocks that could become the future basis for a new standard of time.”

This year’s Nobel Prize announcements got under way on Monday with the medicine prize going to stem cell pioneers John Gurdon of Britain and Japan’s Shinya Yamanaka. Each award is worth 8 million kronor, or about $1.2 million. 

Recent winners of the Nobel Prize in physics, and their research, according to the Nobel Foundation:

2012- Serge Haroche of France and David Wineland of the U.S. for “for ground-breaking experimental methods” that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems

2011- American physicist Saul Perlmutter, U.S-Australian researcher Brian Schmidt and American professor Adam Riess “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae.”

2010 – Russian-born scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for “ground-breaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene.”

2009 – British-American Charles K. Kao, Canadian-American Willard S. Boyle and American George E. Smith for breakthroughs in fiber optics and the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit.

2008 - U.S. citizen Yoichiro Nambu and Japanese researchers Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa for work on “spontaneous broken symmetry” in subatomic physics.

2007- France’s Albert Fert and Germany’s Peter Gruenberg for work on the discovery of giant magneto resistance.

2006 - Americans John C. Mather and George F. Smoot for work examining the infancy of the universe, aiding the understanding of galaxies and stars and increasing support for the Big Bang theory of the beginning of the universe.

2005 - Americans John L. Hall and Roy J. Glauber and German Theodor W. Haensch, for research explaining the behaviour of light particles and determining the frequency of light with great precision.

2004 - Americans David J. Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczeck, for their work in the discovery and exploration of strong force and quarks.

2003 - Alexei A. Abrikosov, United States and Russia, Anthony J. Leggett, United States and Britain, and Vitaly L. Ginzburg, Russia, for their work concerning superconductivity and superfluidity in the field of quantum physics.

2002 - Raymond Davis, Jr. United States, and Masatoshi Koshiba, Japan, for their research into cosmic neutrinos; and Riccardo Giacconi, United States, for pioneering contributions to astrophysics that led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources.

2001 - Eric A. Cornell and Carl E. Wieman, United States, and U.S.—based researcher Wolfgang Ketterle of Germany for creating a new state of matter, an ultra-cold gas known as Bose-Einstein condensate.

2000 - Zhores I. Alferov, Russia, Researcher Herbert Kroemer of Germany, and Jack Kilby, United States, for work that helped create modern information technology.

1999 - Gerardus ‘t Hooft and Martinus J.G. Veltman, Netherlands, for their theoretical work on the structure and motion of subatomic particles.

1998 - Robert B. Laughlin, United States, Horst L. Stoermer, Germany, and Daniel C. Tsui, United States, for discovering a new form of quantum fluid that gives more profound insights into the general inner structure and dynamics of matter.

1997- Steven Chu and William D. Phillips, United States, and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, France, for their work in cooling and trapping atoms with laser light.

British, Japanese scientists win Nobel Prize for stem cell research

Two scientists from different generations won the Nobel Prize in medicine on October 8 for the groundbreaking discovery that cells in the body can be reprogrammed to become completely different kinds, potentially opening the door to growing customized tissues for treatments. 

The work of British researcher John Gurdon and Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka who was born the year Mr. Gurdon made his discovery has raised hopes of developing transplant tissue to treat diseases like Parkinson’s and diabetes. And it has spurred a new generation of laboratory studies into other diseases, including schizophrenia, that may lead to new treatments. The prize committee at Stockholm's Karonlinska institute said the discovery has “ revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop”

Sir John Bertrand Gurdon (JBG), Fellow of Royal Society (born 2 October 1933) is a British developmental biologist. He is best known for his pioneering research in nuclear transplantation and cloning.

Prof Gurdon used a gut sample to clone frogs and Prof Yamanaka altered genes to reprogramme cells. The Nobel committee said they had "revolutionised" science. When a sperm fertilises an egg there is just one type of cell. It multiplies and some of the resulting cells become specialised to create all the tissues of the body including nerve and bone and skin. It had been though to be a one-way process - once a cell had become specialised it could not change its fate. In 1962, John Gurdon showed that the genetic information inside a cell taken from the intestines of a frog contained all the information need to create a whole new frog. He took the genetic information and placed it inside a frog egg. The resulting clone developed into a normal tadpole. The technique would eventually give rise to Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal.

Shinya Yamanaka, born September 4, 1962 in Higashiosaka) is a Japanese physician and adult stem cell researcher. He serves as the director of Center for iPS Cell Research and Application and a professor at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyoto University, as a senior investigator at the UCSF-affiliated J. David Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, California, and as a professor of anatomy at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Yamanaka is also the current President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR).

Shinya Yamanaka used a different approach on stem cell research. Rather than transferring the genetic information into an egg, he reset it. He added four genes to skin cells which transformed them into stem cells, which in turn could become specialised cells. The Nobel committee said the discovery had "revolutionized our understanding of how cells and organisms develop. "The discoveries of Gurdon and Yamanaka have shown that specialized cells can turn back the developmental clock under certain circumstances.

Stem cells

Most adult cells in the body have a particular purpose which cannot be changed. For instance, a liver cell is developed to perform specific functions, and cannot be transformed to suddenly take on the role of a heart cell. Stem cells are different. They are still at an early stage of development, and retain the potential to turn into many different types of cell.

When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialised function. Scientists believe it should be possible to harness this ability to turn stem cells into a super "repair kit" for the body. Theoretically, it should be possible to use stem cells to generate healthy tissue to replace that either damaged by trauma, or compromised by disease.
Among the conditions which scientists believe may eventually be treated by stem cell therapy are Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, diabetes, burns and spinal cord damage. Stem cells may also provide a useful way to test the effects of experimental drugs. It is also hoped that studying stem cells will provide vital clues about how the tissues of the body develop, and how disease takes hold.
Scientists believe the most useful stem cells come from the tissue of embyros. This is because they are pluripotent - they have the ability to become virtually any type of cell within the body. Stem cells are also found within adult organs. They have not taken on a final role, and have the potential to become any of the major specialised cell types within that organ. Their role is to maintain the organ in a healthy state by repairing any damage it suffers. It is thought their potential to become other types of cell is more limited than that of embryonic stem cells. But there is evidence that they are still relatively "plastic".
Controversy
Campaigners are vehemently opposed to the use of embryonic stem cells. These cells are typically taken from lab-created embryos that are just four or five days old, and are little more than a microscopic ball of cells. However, opponents argue that all embryos, whether created in the lab or not, have the potential to go on to become a fully fledged human, and as such it is morally wrong to experiment on them. They strongly advocate the use of stem cells from adult tissue.
Some researchers fear that it is possible that stem cell therapy could unwittingly pass viruses and other disease causing agents to people who receive cell transplants. Some research has also raised the possibility that stem cells may turn cancerous. Work also still needs to be done to refine the new technique.

Recent winners of Nobel Prize in Medicine

2012- Briton’s John Gurdon and Japan’s Shinya Yamanaka for their discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed into immature cells that can be turned into all tissues of the body, a finding that revolutionised understanding of how cells and organisms develop.

2011- American Bruce Beutler and French researcher Jules Hoffmann for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity, sharing it with Canadian-born Ralph Steinman for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity.

2010 - British researcher Robert Edwards for the development of in vitro fertilization.

2009 - Americans Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for their discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase, research that has implications for cancer and aging research.

2008 - Harald zur Hausen and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier for discoveries of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer and the discovery of human immunodeficiency virus.

2007- Mario R. Capecchi and Oliver Smithies of the United States and Martin J. Evans of the United Kingdom, for their discoveries leading to a powerful technique for manipulating mouse genes.

2006 - Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello of the United States for their work in controlling the flow of genetic information.

2005 - Barry J. Marshall and Robin Warren of Australia for their work in how the bacterium Helicobacter pylori plays a role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease.

2004 - Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck, both of the United States, for their work in studying odorant receptors and the organisation of the olfactory system in human beings.

2003 - Paul C. Lauterbur, United States, and Sir Peter Mansfield, Britain, for discoveries in magnetic resonance imaging, a technique that reveals the brain and inner organs in breathtaking detail.

2002- Sydney Brenner and John E. Sulston, Britain, and H. Robert Horvitz, United States, for discoveries concerning how genes regulate organ development and a process of programmed cell death.

2001- Leland H. Hartwell, United States, R. Timothy Hunt and Sir Paul M. Nurse, Britain, for the discovery of key regulators of the process that lets cells divide, which is expected to lead to new cancer treatments.

2000 - Arvid Carlsson, Sweden, Paul Greengard and Eric R. Kandel, United States, for research on how brain cells transmit signals to each other, thus increasing understanding on how the brain functions and how neurological and psychiatric disorders may be treated better.

1999 - Guenter Blobel, United States, for protein research that shed new light on diseases, including cystic fibrosis and early development of kidney stones.

1998 - Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro and Ferid Murad, United States, for the discovery of properties of nitric oxide, a common air pollutant but also a lifesaver because of its capacity to dilate blood vessels.