Special Report: Nobel Prizes head to America
18 Nov 2011 by Evoluted New Media
The immune system, quasicrystals and the ever-accelerating universe – this was the science that scooped the Nobel Prizes in medicine or physiology, chemistry and physics this year.
This year, the discovery of quasicrystal, dendritic cells in the immune system and probing the Universe have won five Americans, a European and a Middle Eastern scientist Nobel Prizes.
Medicine or physiology
Bruce Beutler, Jules Hoffman and Ralph Steinman were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for their work on the immune system.
Hoffmann, from Luxembourg, and Beutler – professor of genetics and immunology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, USA – were nominated for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity. They will receive half of the 10 million Swedish Crown prize for discovering receptor proteins that can recognise bacteria and other microorganisms as they enter the body and activate the immune system’s first line of defence.
Steinman was nominated for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity. The professor of immunology from Rockefeller University discovered dendritic cells help regulate the next stage of the immune system’s response, when invading microorganisms are purged from the body.
Steinman died of pancreatic cancer three days before the announcement was made, and although the Nobel prizes are not usually awarded posthumously the Nobel assembly decided to stand by their decision because it was made it good faith, before details of his death had been made public.
Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Saul Perlmutter, Brian P Schmidt and Adam G Reiss for their discovery about the final destiny of the Universe.
By studying type Ia supernova, two research teams – one headed by Perlmutter and the other by Schmidt, and including Reiss – discovered the Universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate. Over 50 distant supernovae had light weaker than was expected – a sure sign that expansion was accelerating.
This acceleration is thought to be driven by dark energy, but exactly what that is remains an enigma – all we know is it occupies about three quarters of the Universe.
Chemistry
Professor Daniel Shechtman from the Techion, Israel Institute of Technology was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering quasicrystals – regular, ordered structures that never repeat themselves.
In 1982 – the time of discovery – many chemists believed that atoms in solid matter were packaged inside crystals in repeating symmetrical patterns, and Shechtman’s article on the matter – submitted to Journal of Applied Physics – was refused immediately. However with the help of historical aperiodic mosaics, Shechtman helped scientists understand the regular but never repeating patterns of quasicrystals.
His discovery has led to the production of other kinds of quasicrystals – including many aluminium alloys – in the laboratory, as well as the discovery of many naturally occurring quasicrystals.
