People have always known science would advance faster with various incentives and rewards. As modern experimental science took off, these took the form of gifts and favors to and from wealthy elites.
This year, the Nobel Prizes are trying to reach a wider – and younger – audience. However, critics argue that the commercial partners needed to fund the awards’ many extraneous events are compromising their integrity.
The unavoidable regime of publication pervades contemporary academic life across the world. While presented as a virtuous thing, it can actually suffocate the academic profession.
The favourite in the betting won has almost every single US presidential election since 1868 and more recently the Academy Awards. But how well can the market predict the Nobel Prize winners?
Employing a unique literary method that blurred the genres of oral history and documentary prose, the Nobel Prize for Literature winner told the stories of a traumatized people.
Cells must repair the thousands of bits of DNA damage they incur every day. These cellular mechanisms fend off cancerous tumors, and cancer researchers are working to harness their power.
Kum Kum Khanna, Queensland Institute of Medical Research; Amanda L Bain, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, and Janelle L Harris, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
The recipients of this year’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry showed that DNA is far from static. Rather, it is bombarded by damaging forces, but our bodies know how to repair these precious strands.
The drug partly responsible for more than halving the rate of malaria over the last 30 years and which won this year’s Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has a long history of use.
Elizabeth Bass, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
Nobel Prize-winning science is almost by definition arcane and complex. While these esoteric fields have their moment in the spotlight, does it matter if the rest of us understand?
Plants mentioned in ancient Chinese books helped inspire the latest Nobel Prize for Medicine winner, but testing old remedies isn’t as simple as following the recipe.
The drug that led to two scientists wining the Nobel Prize for Physiology or medicine has made a significant difference for those suffering from elephantiasis and river blindness.