Monday, October 10, 2022
NOBEL PRIZES 2022
[10/10] ECONOMICS
"The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2022 to
Ben S. Bernanke - The Brookings Institution, Washington DC, USA
Douglas W. Diamond - University of Chicago, IL, USA
Philip H. Dybvig - Washington University in St. Louis, MO, USA
Labels: chemistry, Economics, Literature, Medicine, Nobel Prize, Peace, physics
Monday, October 12, 2020
- World hunger
- Poetry
- Auctions
- Gene editing with CRISPR
- Discovering Hepatitis C
- Black holes.
2020-10-12 (MON OCT 12, 2020)
THE 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS
- The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2020 was awarded jointly to
- Paul R. Milgrom and
- Robert B. Wilson
- "for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats."
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2020/summary/
2020-10-09 (FRI OCT 9, 2020)
THE 2020 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
- The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 was awarded to
- the World Food Programme (WFP)
- "for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict."
- https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/10644350/7277031683435010266
2020-10-08 (THU OCT 8, 2020)
THE 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
- The Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 was awarded to
- Louise Glück
- "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal."
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2020/summary/
2020-10-07 (WED OCT 7, 2020)
THE 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY
- The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 was awarded jointly to
- Emmanuelle Charpentier and
- Jennifer A. Doudna
- "for the development of a method for genome editing (CRISPR)."
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/summary/
- https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2020/10/press-chemistryprize2020.pdf
2020-10-06 (TUE OCT 6, 2020)
THE 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS
- The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 was divided,
- one half awarded to
- Roger Penrose
- "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity",
- the other half jointly to
- Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez
- "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy."
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2020/summary/
- https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2020/10/press-physicsprize2020.pdf
THE 2020 NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE
- The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020 was awarded jointly to
- Harvey J. Alter,
- Michael Houghton and
- Charles M. Rice
- "for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus."
- https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2020/summary/
- https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2020/10/press-medicine2020.pdf
Labels: Auctions, Black holes, chemistry, Discovering Hepatitis C, Economics, Gene editing with CRISPR, Literature, Medicine, Nobel Prize, Peace, physics, Poetry, World hunger
Monday, October 14, 2019
NOBEL PRIZES 2019
Abiy Ahmed Ali
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali was awarded the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for his important work to promote reconciliation, solidarity and social justice. The prize is also meant to recognize all the stakeholders working for peace and reconciliation in Ethiopia and in the East and Northeast African regions.
PHYSICS
James Peebles
Michel Mayor & Didier Queloz
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos, with one half to James Peebles for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology and the other half jointly to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.
PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE
William G. Kaelin Jr & Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe & Gregg L. Semenza
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2019 was awarded jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr, Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.
CHEMISTRY
John B. Goodenough & M. Stanley Whittingham & Akira Yoshino
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019 was awarded to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, and Akira Yoshino for the development of the lithium-ion battery. This lightweight, rechargeable and powerful battery is now used in everything from mobile phones to laptops and electric vehicles. It can also store significant amounts of energy from solar and wind power, making possible a fossil fuel-free society.
ECONOMICS
Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo & Michael Kremer
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019 was awarded jointly to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.
LITERATURE
Peter Handke (2019)
The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2019 was awarded to the Austrian author Peter Handke for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience.
Olga Tokarczuk (2018 - This award was delayed from last year)
The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018 was awarded to the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.
Nobel Prize® is the registered trademark of the Nobel Foundation
Labels: chemistry, Economics, Literature, Nobel Prize, Peace, physics, Physiology or Medicine
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
THE RADIANT
Marie Salomea Skłodowska Curie, together with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel received the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery and analysis of radioactivity, and she alone the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for isolating Radium and Polonium. It was work of brilliance and extreme perseverance.

See below for videos with Marie Curie
Nevertheless she faced severe career obstacles, mostly because she was a woman, partly because she was Polish.
Marie Salomea Skłodowska became a student of Pierre Curie and he was her first champion. They fell in love and were married. They had two children, (one of whom, Irene, later also won a Nobel Prize). Then, while crossing the street, Pierre was killed by a passing horse and carriage.
THE RADIANT begins as Mme Curie tries to deal with the aftermath of his death. She is assisted and encouraged by a former student, a brilliant Paul Langevin, who is Catholic, and married. They have a passionate affair.
THE RADIANT is a serious, distinguished play that credibly portrays the energy, persistence, commitment to surviving and becoming a success, brilliance, dedication to science, personality and passion of Mme Curie.
The play is very nicely cast, the simple set is well dressed, the hair and makeup and costuming well done, to bring to vivid life a re-creation of this great woman and her work and her affair with Paul, and the milieu of their lives in the years after 1906.

THE RADIANT
Photo by Michael J. Palma
THE RADIANT
Photo by Eric Roffman
In part because of its integrity; in part because of the interest and importance of its story and the brilliance of its characters, this is a play to be seen. It's interesting and entertaining.
Some relatively minor issues: The first act has a lot of information to convey about who Marie Curie is and why we should care about her -- it's very interesting, but still quite a lot of exposition mixed into the drama. The whole play could use a bit more humor. And the final scene very satisfyingly ties up a lot of loose ends, but it is something of an anti-climax, and a bit of a downer (but not enough to make this a tear-jerker).
A play like this would do well to find a long life visiting college theaters, community productions, and perhaps a residency at some big-city playhouses, where it could entertain and inform -- and provide a valuable and enjoyable service to many people.
The Radiant performs Thursday through Saturday evenings at 8:00pm, Sundays at 3:00pm.
There is one additional performance Monday March 4, at 7:00pm.
Tickets are $25 and may be purchased at
1859, May 15 -- Birth of Pierre Curie
1867, Nov 7 -- Birth of Marie Curie
1891 -- Marie's Parisian studies begin
1895, Mar -- Pierre receives his doctorate
1895, Jul 26 -- Marriage
1897 -- Birth of daughter Irene
1903 -- Nobel Prize in Physics
1906, Apr 19 -- Death of Pierre Curie (at 46, in his prime intellectually)
1906, Nov 5 -- Marie's inaugural lecture at the Sorbonne (first by any woman)
1907 - 1911 -- Roughly the dates of the affair between Marie Curie and Paul Langevin
1910 -- Publication of Marie's textbook "Treatise on Radioactivity"
1911 -- Nobel Prize in Chemistry
1934, Jul 4 -- Death of Marie Curie (at 66)
Note: Marie & Pierre Curie's granddaughter, Hélène Joliot (see video below), married Langevin's grandson, Michel Langevin.
VIDEO
(Note... I could not (yet?) find any video with Marie Curie actually speaking.)
THE SOLVAY CONFERENCE 1927 (VOICE-OVER)
Brief glimpses of
Mme Curie -- @ 2:00 and 2:21
Paul Langevin -- @ 2:25
Einstein -- @ 2:29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GZdZUouzBY&feature=share&list=PL53873D66821A9191
MARIE CURIE (SILENT)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HiMWnCSexM&feature=share&list=PL53873D66821A9191
MARIE CURIE -- BACKGROUND MUSIC BUT NO VOICES
http://youtu.be/LY1KhdzoN4s
A BIOGRAPHY OF MARIE CURIE WITH MANY VIDEOS (IN GERMAN)
http://youtu.be/--gEH5NQsvI
MME CURIE -- THE CHEMISTRY (IN FRENCH)
(The modern labs at Saclay are very attractive. Marie et Pierre had to scrounge for every bit of equipment, all their supplies, and even a place to use as their laboratory.)
http://youtu.be/o3BoFSncRHM
EVE CURIE TALKS ABOUT HER MOTHER'S POLAND
http://youtu.be/vVKtUw8vuU8
MARIE SKLODOWSKA CURIE'S GRANDDAUGHTER - HELENE JOLIOT-LANGEVIN (IN FRENCH)
http://youtu.be/wT2bVywuNOw
AND...
http://youtu.be/IpuLsfnUgv4
SCHOLARLY LECTURES ABOUT MME CURIE
http://youtu.be/fVgfymHVhNM
Labels: chemistry, Henri Becquerel, Marie Curie, Marie Salomea Skłodowska Curie, Mme Curie, Nobel Prize, Paul Langevin, physics, Pierre Curie, Polonium, Radium
