Illustration of an autophagosome (light blue double-membrane to the right) engulfing cellular material.
David S. Goodsell and Daniel Klionsky/RCSB PDB-101
Cells degrade and recycle damaged parts of themselves through a process called autophagy. When this “self-devouring” goes awry, it may promote cancer and neurodegenerative disease.
Dylan: not leaning on his guitar.
Xavier Badosa via Flickr
Yoshinori Ohsumi’s research on autophagy – a process that lets cells clear out harmful materials – brought biology and medicine closer to finding treatments for chronic and deadly diseases.
A week of extreme emotions in Colombia ends with a Nobel Peace Prize for its president. But will it help the country avoid descending back into civil war?
Things are kind of different on the quantum level.
Nandini Trivedi
Forget solid, liquid, gas. This research used advanced math to theorize about topological phases of matter. And over the years experiments with matter and cold atoms have been validating the ideas.
Juan Manuel Santos: changing how we think about peace.
Jose Gomez/Reuters
There’s no Nobel Prize in mathematics, but math undergirds much high-level science. The 2016 Nobel in Physics rewards work in topology, a branch of math with multiple real world applications.
Stoddart - one of three scientists to get THAT phone call.
EPA
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.
Yoshinori Ohsumi: a very happy man.
KIMIMASA MAYAMA/EPA