Nobel Prize Winners 2011

The Nobel Prizes were awarded not too long ago as I found out recently, and usually I don't pay very much attention. It is a great honor to be a recipient of a Nobel Prize however, and for whatever reason, this year I tried to follow the awards as they were given and understand why they were given. So, for that reason, this blog posting is just going to be a little recap for ya'll who are like me and generally are ignorant to these awards.

 First I'll start off with what a Nobel Prize is. For such a well-known award, a surprisingly few actually know what it entails. First off, there are five different types to try to get: chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine, literature, and physics. Once a year up to three Nobel Prizes are handed out in each category (the Nobel Prizes for each category relate though; for example, three scientists who made a discovery together). However, the prizes do not need to be handed out every year, if they cannot find someone 'worthy of the prize'. Picked by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, the prize includes a gold medal, a cash prize, and a diploma stating you got the award. The money comes from the account of Alfred Nobel, who stipulated in his will that he wished for the giving of the award to take place. In 1968, another award, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, which is associated with the Nobel Prizes and follows the same rules was created, however the decision comes from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden and the  funding comes from the Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden's main bank).

So *dumdumdum!* the winners of this year are as follows:

 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Bruce A. Beutler, Jules A. Hoffmann, and Ralph M. Steinman- The prize was split into two halves. One half was for Beutler and Hoffmann "for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity", and the other half was given to Steinman "for his discovery in the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity".

 Nobel Prize in Physics: Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, Adam G. Riess- The prize was split into two halves. One half was for Perlmutter, and the other half was given to Schmidt and Riess "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae".

 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Dan Schechtman- This man got the prize all to himself! He got it "for the discovery of quasicrystals".

 Nobel Prize in Literature: Tomas Tranströmer- Another one man award, Tranströmer got this award "because through his condensed, translucent images, he gives us fresh access to reality".

 Nobel Peace Prize: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkul Karman- This prize was the only one to be split equally into thirds this year, and was awarded "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".

For more information go to nobelprize.org
 Sincerely Sydney