All the awesome and the bizarre
It's Nobel season again and now that we know all the important ones (sorry, I don't feel the same excitement for Literature, Peace or Economy prizes). So here they are:
The Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine was awarded for the discovery cells that make up a positioning system in the brain. They are responsible for our ability to create a mental map of the surrounding space and our ability to navigate it. John O'Keefe, from University College London, work on mice allowed him to discovered the first part of the brain's internal positioning system - "place cells" located in the hippocampus that formed a map within the brain. May-Britt and Edvard Moser, from Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, discovered "grid cells" that help the brain to judge distance and navigate.
The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for invention of efficient blue LEDs which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources. Isamu Akasaki, of Meijo University in Nagoya and Nagoya University, Japan; Hiroshi Amano, of Nagoya University, Japan; and Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA were able to achieve something that others have been trying to do foe decades. They finally produced bright blue light beams from their semi-conductors in the early 1990s which combined with already existing red and green LEDs allowed for creating efficient white light sources.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for improving the resolution of optical microscopes. Eric Betzig of Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Stefan W. Hell of Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and the German Cancer Research Center; and William E. Moerner of Stanford University developed super-resolved fluorescence microscopy which allows to study tissues at the level of single molecules and allow for creating 3D pictures of those cells with nanometre accuracy.
This also made me realise that I've been slacking and haven't mentioned this year's Ig Nobels which were particurarly strong this year.
Physics Prize went to authors studying how slippery banana peals are.
Neuroscience Prize was awarded for researching why people see Jesus in toasts and the Psychology one went to scientist showing that the psychopaths stay up late.
In the cats and dogs research Public Health Prize was awarded for investigating if living with a cat is a danger to one's mental health and Biology Prize went to those who published that dogs prefer to align their body axis with Earth's north-south geomagnetic field lines when they defecate and urinate.
Art Prize for checking if people, shot in the hand by a powerful laser beam, feel more pain when looking on ugly painting or pretty one and Medicine Prize for treating nosebleeds with packing the nose with strips of cured pork.
Nutrition Prize for the study titled "Characterization of Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Infant Faeces as Potential Probiotic Starter Cultures for Fermented Sausages."
The one that really made me LOL was the Arctic Prize for testing how reindeer react to seeing humans who are disguised as polar bears.
But nothing beats Italian government's National Institute of Statistics that got the Economics Prize for taking the lead in fulfilling the European Union mandate for each country to increase the official size of its national economy by including revenues from prostitution, illegal drug sales, smuggling, and all other unlawful financial transactions between willing participants. Guess who didn't accept their award?
The Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine was awarded for the discovery cells that make up a positioning system in the brain. They are responsible for our ability to create a mental map of the surrounding space and our ability to navigate it. John O'Keefe, from University College London, work on mice allowed him to discovered the first part of the brain's internal positioning system - "place cells" located in the hippocampus that formed a map within the brain. May-Britt and Edvard Moser, from Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, discovered "grid cells" that help the brain to judge distance and navigate.
The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for invention of efficient blue LEDs which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources. Isamu Akasaki, of Meijo University in Nagoya and Nagoya University, Japan; Hiroshi Amano, of Nagoya University, Japan; and Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA were able to achieve something that others have been trying to do foe decades. They finally produced bright blue light beams from their semi-conductors in the early 1990s which combined with already existing red and green LEDs allowed for creating efficient white light sources.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for improving the resolution of optical microscopes. Eric Betzig of Janelia Farm Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Stefan W. Hell of Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and the German Cancer Research Center; and William E. Moerner of Stanford University developed super-resolved fluorescence microscopy which allows to study tissues at the level of single molecules and allow for creating 3D pictures of those cells with nanometre accuracy.
This also made me realise that I've been slacking and haven't mentioned this year's Ig Nobels which were particurarly strong this year.
Physics Prize went to authors studying how slippery banana peals are.
Neuroscience Prize was awarded for researching why people see Jesus in toasts and the Psychology one went to scientist showing that the psychopaths stay up late.
In the cats and dogs research Public Health Prize was awarded for investigating if living with a cat is a danger to one's mental health and Biology Prize went to those who published that dogs prefer to align their body axis with Earth's north-south geomagnetic field lines when they defecate and urinate.
Art Prize for checking if people, shot in the hand by a powerful laser beam, feel more pain when looking on ugly painting or pretty one and Medicine Prize for treating nosebleeds with packing the nose with strips of cured pork.
Nutrition Prize for the study titled "Characterization of Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Infant Faeces as Potential Probiotic Starter Cultures for Fermented Sausages."
The one that really made me LOL was the Arctic Prize for testing how reindeer react to seeing humans who are disguised as polar bears.
But nothing beats Italian government's National Institute of Statistics that got the Economics Prize for taking the lead in fulfilling the European Union mandate for each country to increase the official size of its national economy by including revenues from prostitution, illegal drug sales, smuggling, and all other unlawful financial transactions between willing participants. Guess who didn't accept their award?