NOBEL PRIZE – 2015----IBPS CLERKS MAIN/PO MAIN

NOBEL PRIZE – 2015

     Nobel Prizes one of the most prestigious honours of the world were announced for the year 2015 in six traditional categories – Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace and Economics in October 2015. The list of the Nobel prize winners this year is as follows-

     Physiology or Medicine – Irish-born William Campbell, Satoshi Omura of Japan and Tu Youyou of China were declared the joint winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for discovering drugs against malaria and other parasitic diseases. The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden announced the Nobel winners in medicine on October 5, 2015. Tu Youyou, the first Chinese woman to win a Nobel and also the first Chinese to win it in the field of Medicine was honoured with the award for discovering ‘Artemisinin’, a drug that has effectively reduced the mortality rates from Malaria. Born in 1930, Tu was associated with China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine as the Chief Professor of the Pharmacy department.

     William C. Campbell, currently a Research fellow Emeritus at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey and Satoshi Omura, currently Professor Emeritus at Kitasato University won the coveted honour for discovering a new drug ‘Avermectin’. A derivative of that drug ‘Ivermectin’ has nearly eradicated river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, two diseases caused by parasitic worms.

     Physics – Takaaki Kajita of Japan and Arthur McDonald of Canada were declared the joint winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm on October 6 for discovering that elusive subatomic particles called neutrinos have mass, opening a new window onto the fundamental nature of the universe. Neutrinos, the second most bountiful particles after photons are capable of carrying light with trillions of them streaming through our bodies every second. Kajita and Arthur’s work was the discovery of a phenomenon called neutrino oscillation which forced scientists of the world to think in a new direction about the nature of universe.

     Kajita, Director of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research and Professor at University of Tokyo, successfully showed that neutrinos captured at the detector underwent a Metamorphosis in the atmosphere. McDonald, the Professor Emeritus at Queen’s University in Canada later proved that neutrinos coming from the Sun to the Earth did not disappear, but changed their identities. Their discovery has helped cosmologists understand how the universe has evolved.

     Chemistry – Swedish Scientist Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich of USA and US-Turkish national Aziz Sancar shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on October 7 for their pioneering “mechanistic studies of DNA repair”, a work which may be very useful to develop new cancer treatments.

     Tomas Lindahl is a Professor of Medical and Physiological Chemistry at University of Gothenburg and Emeritus Group Leader at Francis Crick Institute, U. K. Paul Modrich is associated with Duke University School of Medicine, U. K. Aziz Sancar, the second Turk to win a Nobel after novelist Orhan Pamuk in 2006, is a Professor of Bio-chemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina, USA. The three scientists got the honour for successfully mapping how cells safeguard genetic information after repairing damaged DNA-a constant phenomenon inside the human body.

     Literature-Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarussian journalist and novelist was declared the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature for documenting and mapping over three decades of the world post the collapse of the Soviet Union. She is the 14^th woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Alexievch’s work is a unique blend of literature and journalism in which she gae a nice portrayal of the lives of men and women after the World War II, the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. War’s Unwomanly Face (1985) her first book, Zinky Boys : Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War (1989), Enchanted with Death (1993) and Voices from Chernobyl are her notable literary works.

     Peace-The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet a coalition of labour unions, businesses, lawyers and human rights activists won the Nobel Peace Prize, this year announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Oslo on October 9 “for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy I Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011”. The Tunisian Dialogue Quartet consists of four organizations-the Tunisia General Labour Union, The Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, the Tunisian Human Rights League; and he Tunisian Orders of Lawyers. It was the effort of the Quartet that Peace and order came back in Tunisian Human Rights League; and the Tunisian Orders of Lawyers. It was the effort of the Quartet that Peace and order came back in Tunisia with a new Constitution, free elections and a coalition of secular and Islamist Parties after the tumultuous days of January, 2011.

     Economics-British economist Angus Deaton was declared the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Science “for his analysis, of Consumption, Poverty and Welfare.” Deaton holds both US and British Citizenships. Professor Deaton is associated with the Princeton University, USA. He is best known for his insight that economic averages such as national income may be incorrect in some way because they don’t point out important variations among individuals.

     The Nobel Prizes will be conferred on December 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896 at the traditional award ceremonies in Stockholm (Sweden) and Oslo (Norway). Each category of the Award will carry 8 million Swedish Kronor (about $ 975,000) as prize money.