Nobel prizes are the most prestigious international awards for
intellectual performance. The awards are administered by the Nobel
Foundation in Sweden. They have been awarded for great achievements in
physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace since
1901. Later in 1968, achievements for economics were added in memory of
Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Prize.Nobel Prize in PhysicsThe
Nobel Prize in physics is 2010 was awarded jointly to Andre Gelm and
Konstantin Novoselov. The prize money was distributed between them
equally. They were awarded for work on groundbreaking experiments
regarding the two-dimensional material 'Graphene'.Graphene is a form of
carbon which is just one atom thick. It is an excellent conductor of heat
and electricity. Andre Gelm and Konstantin Novoselov extracted thin
layers of particles from graphite of a pencil making a new material
called Graphene. They found the unique properties of Graphene. It can now
be used for practical applications in the development of electronic
devices.Nobel Prize in ChemistryRichard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and
Akira Suzuki were awarded jointly the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2010.
The work for which they were awarded was 'palladium-catalyzed cross
couplings in organic synthesis'. Every organic synthesis laboratory and
industrial processes across the world uses the Heck, Negishi and Suzuki
reactions.During the initial years, it was a challenge to combine carbon
atoms together because carbon does not react with other similar atoms due
to its structural configuration. Certain reactions were discovered by the
scientists using Palladium as a catalyst so that carbon reacts more
easily.In 1968, a series of papers were published by Heck reporting the
addition of methyl and phenylpalladium halides to olefins at room
temperature. A further step allowed the unprecedented alkylation of an
olefin. Later, in 1976 the palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of
organometallic species with organohalides was investigated by Negishi.
This demonstrates the permission of highly selective reactions by
organozinc compounds under mild conditions in the presence of a range of
functional groups. In 1979, Suzuki demonstrated that organoboron
compounds in the presence of a base could be cross coupled with vinyl and
aryl halides using palladium as a catalyst.Further modification and
improvement was made in these reactions in subsequent years for use in
synthesis of a wide range of complex natural products.Nobel Prize in
MedicineThe Nobel Prize in 2010 in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to
Robert G. Edwards for the development of in vitro fertilization. He was
called the father of test tube baby. Since 1955, he had been working on
the process of in vitro fertilization along with his colleague, Patrick
Steptoe, and achieved it by 1968.A human culture media was developed by
Edwards to allow the fertilization and early embryo culture. His
colleague worked on laprosopy for recovering oocytes from patients with
tubal infertility. About four million babies were born by in vitro
fertilization technique because of their huge efforts. Edwards was
awarded the Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award by the Lasker
Foundation in 2001 for the development of in vitro fertilization.Nobel
Prize in LiteratureIn 2010, Mario Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel
Prize in literature. He was awarded for his cartography of structures of
power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt,
and defeat. Through his work The Time of the Hero, he became popular in
the world.Some of his well-known works are Conversation in the Cathedral,
The War of the End of the World, and The Feast of the Goat. He is the
first South American winner of the prestigious 10 million kronor, or $1.5
million, Nobel Prize in literature since Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia
Marquez won in 1982.Nobel Peace PrizeLiu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize 2010 for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental
human rights in China. Announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize for Liu
created a huge angry response from China.He was a literary critic in
1980s. He took part in the Tiananmen protests in 1989 for advocating the
fundamental rights in China. He had been arrested several times since
spending 20 months in detention after the 1989 protests. He was sentenced
in 2009 in prison for 11 years for subversion of state power. There were
people who received Nobel Prize who were under house arrest and prison
before receiving it. However, Liu was the first one who was honored with
Nobel Peace Prize while being in prison.Nobel Prize in EconomicsThe Nobel
Prize in economics in 2010 was awarded jointly to Peter A. Diamond, Dale
T. Mortensen and Christopher A. Pissarides. They were awarded for their
work on analysis of markets with search frictions.Demand and supply are
the two factors on which a market is based. There are situations in
market where a lot of people are there who are looking for employment and
companies having vacancies, but still the vacancies are not being filled.
Also, we find many people who want to buy and sell a house at the same
time, but still do not find a solution.The work of the Nobel Prize
Winners helped in providing better solutions in these areas. A
theoretical framework was formulated by them for search markets. Peter
Diamond focused on the analysis of foundations of search markets. The
theory was expanded and applied to labor market by Dale Mortensen and
Christopher Pissarides. This theory however can also be applicable to
house, monitory theory and various areas of economics.
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