Roger Penrose helped resurrect Einstein’s general theory of relativity, and Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez showed there was a black hole in the middle of our galaxy.
Many prizes that aim to spur innovation are winner-take-all.
VCG for 2019 RoboMaster Robotics Competition Final Tournament via Getty Images
Luciano Kay, University of California, Santa Barbara
Society has never faced more pressing challenges. Researchers are investigating how monetary prizes can help focus innovators’ attention, creativity and investment on finding solutions.
With 3% of science Nobels going to women and zero going to Black people, these awards are an extreme example of how certain demographics are underrepresented in STEM fields.
The polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, is used to copy strands of DNA.
(Pixabay/PixxlTeufel)
COVID-19 tests rely on a process developed at a biotech company co-founded by a Canadian. Canada’s current testing expertise needs to be channelled to prepare for the next wave, and the next pandemic.
Franklin was born a century ago, and her X-ray crystallography work crucially contributed to determining the structure of DNA.
Lithium ion batteries revolutionised the way we use, manufacture and charge our devices. They’re used to power mobile phones, laptops and even electric cars.
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M. Stanley Whittingham was one of three scientists who won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work developing lithium-ion batteries – used to power mobile phones, laptops and electric cars.
Announcement of the Nobel Prize in Economics to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer (from left to right on the screen) during a press conference held at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm on 14 October 2019.
Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP
Isabelle Guérin, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) and François Roubaud, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics pays tribute to randomized control trials, but can they really help us fight poverty?
MIT professors Esther Duflo and her husband Abhijit Banerjee who along with Michael Kremer are the winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
CJ GUNTHER/EPA
Abiy Ahmed was awarded the prize for efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.
Artist impression of the exoplanet 51 Pegasi b.
ESO/M. Kornmesser/Nick Risinger
Progress has been made toward gender parity in science fields. But explicit and implicit barriers still hold women back from advancing in the same numbers as men to the upper reaches of STEM academia.
At 97, John Goodenough is the oldest ever Nobel prizewinner - and still goes to the lab every day.
University of Texas/EPA/AAP Image
Stanley Whittingham, John Goodenough and Akira Yoshino created a safe, light, rechargeable battery that has revolutionised society and is probably powering the device you’re reading this on right now.
M. Stanley Whittingham, John Goodenough and Akira Yoshino.
Binghampton University/University of Texas/Kimimasa Mayama/EPA
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics went to a cosmologist who helped unlock the secrets of the Big Bang’s aftermath, and two astronomers who found a “hot Jupiter” orbiting a nearby star.
Artist’s rendering of a Jupiter-sized exoplanet and its host, a star slightly more massive than our sun. Image credit:
ESO/NASA
Oxygen is vital for life, so much so that cells can sense when there isn’t enough and adapt almost instantly. So how do they do it? The winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physiology figured it out.
Alvin Roth exposes his work on “disgusting markets” at the European Meeting of the ESA (Economic Science Association) on 7 September in Dijon, France.
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Stanford professor’s research has led to an increase in the number of kidney transplants in the United States.
Toni Morrison photographed in 2010: in both her fiction and non-fiction, she sought to expose the ‘national amnesia’ underlying often unconscious forms of racism.
Ian Langsdon/EPA
In her creative and critical work, Toni Morrison sought to remap the contours of American literature and culture.
Canadian Ralph Steinman’s investigations of dendritic cells led to a Noble Prize in physiology or medicine, but not for a Canadian institution.
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Only one Canadian discovery has brought home a Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. But, like winning another Stanley Cup, Canadians should not give up hope.