Nobel’s Noble Gifts : On October Alfred Bemhard Nobel, 1833 Medicine 8, the Nobel Prize was -.1896, a Swedish chemist awarded to three who invented dynamite in scientists -Mario R. 1866 and developed other Capecchi, Martin J. explosives, suddenly realised Evans and Oliver philanthropy could obliterate Smithies for Physiology/ his disastrous designs when Medicine for their path- he happened to read his own breaking findings in obituary in a paper which biomedical research. termed him "a merchant of Their discoveries death". The paper, however, concerning embryonic carried the obituary of his stem cells and DNA brother, Ludwig by mistake. Alfred Nobel recombination in Nobel who tried to atone for mammals have led to a his sins, turned a do-gooder and bequeathed 94 per cent of Oliver Smithies powerful technology his wealth for awarding prizes to persons or institutions referred to as gene targeting in mice and this is now being for outstanding contributions in their fields of work. The applied to almost all areas of biomedicine, from basic Nobel Foundation announces its awards annually for research to developing new therapies. While Martin J.I persons who had performed outstanding work in the fields Evans is the Director of the School of Biosciences and of Peace, Literature, Physics, Physiology, Medicine and, Professor of Mammalian Genetics of the Cardiff Chemistry from the year 1901. The prize for Economics University in Britain, Mario Capacchi is the Howard was added more than sixty years later. The selection Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Distinguished process of Nobel Prize awardees is said to be stringent Professor of Human Genetics and Biology of the despite criticisms against such selections for sins of University of Utah and Oliver Smithies is the Excellence omission and commission Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the besides discrimination on the University of North Carolina in the U.S. Capecchi's basis of race, ideology, etc. research on the role of genes in mammalian organ Importantly, denial of the development has enlightened the causes of human inborn Nobel Prize to Mahatma misformations. Evans and Smithies used gene targeting to Gandhi for Peace despite develop mouse models for diseases. strong and consistent nominations from 1937 to Physics: The French, Albert 1948 had besmirched its Fert, Scientific Director of the image considerably, although Mixed Unit for Physics at CNRS, well-meaning circles look at Thales, and the German, Peter the prize as too insignificant Gruenberg, Professor at the for a transcendent personality Institute of Solid State Research, of all times like the Mahatma Gandhi Germany, discovered ' Giant Mahatma. Magnetoresistance' (GMR) and The Nobel Prizes for 2007 this technology is understood to be regarded as one of the major The Nobel Prizes applications of nano-technology. for 2007 were The GMR technology, it is said, Albert Fert announced in had other spin offs like the October. The five spintronics, which uses electronic spin as well as electrical member Nobel charge. GMR effect's discovery followed by spintronics Committee indicated the intertwining of fundamental science and new received 181 technology. nominations for Chemistry: Germany's Gerhard Ertl bagged the Nobel peace prizes this Prize for Chemistry on October 10, his 71st birthday, and year. Mario Capacchi the Nobel Committee headed by Pachauri applauded him as "a collected and forerunner" in surface collated scientific chemistry, a branch information on which was evolved in climate change the the 1960's. His work is world over aided by reported to be invaluable 3000 scientists, to chemical industry in Gore's Oscar- its fight to fix the Ozone winning hole. Ertl, born on Albert Gore documentary, "An October 10, 1936, in Inconvenient Truth" Bad Cannstadt, is a brought out the main issues of such a change. Gore and Professor Emeritus at Pachauri would get the Nobel Prize of $ 1.5 million on Berlin's Fritz Haber December 10 at Oslo. Pachauri was elected Chairman of Institute, which is a part the IPCC in 2002 and was also the recipient of Padma Peter Gruenberg of Max Planck Society. Bhushan in January 2001 and the "Officier de la Ligion de The Nobel Committee Jury Honneur" from France in 2006. has reportedly said in its Literature: Persia-born British writer, Doris Lessing, citation, that this science 88, who was raised in the erstwhile Rhodesia and now which was important to living in London, bagged the Nobel Prize for Literature. chemical industry, "can help The oldest Nobel Literature laureate in the 106-year- us to understand such varied history of Nobel Prizes, Lessing known for her depiction processes as why iron rusts, of feminine mind, is the 11th woman to get the literature how fuel cells function, and award and the 34th woman winner of the Nobel Prize. The how catalysts in our cars book, 'The Golden Notebook', failed thrice to get the work". It added that it could lesser Booker Prize. also explain why earth's protective Ozone layer was Economics: damaged through chemical Moscow-born Leonid reactions on the surfaces of Gerhard Ertl Hurwicz, Regents minute ice crystals in the Professor of Economics stratosphere. Emeritus, at the University of Minnesota, The Nobel Prize for Peace: US, Eric Maskin, Peace was awarded to the Professor of Social Chairman of the UN's Inter- Science at Princeton governmental Panel for University, and Rager Climate Change and eminent Meyerson, Professor of environmentalist, India's Economics at the Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, 67, Leonid Hurwicz Chicago University who also heads 'The Energy bagged the 2007 Nobel Research Institute (TERI, Economics Prize. The American trio were chosen for the Delhi), and former US Vice- Prize for "their pioneering work" on mechanism design President and Environmental theory which aimed at ensuring the efficient use of Campaigner, Albert Arnold Rajendra Kumar resources which were in search of desired ends. The Jury Gore (Jr.). "The efforts IPCC Pachauri said that the theory could help I identify efficient trading and Gore", the Nobel mechanisms, regulation schemes and voting procedures. Committee's citation stated, "to build up and disseminate Hurwicz was also the winner of the US National Medal of greater knowledge about man-made climate change and Science in Behavioural and Social Sciences in 1990 for lay the foundations for the measures" were needed "to his pioneering work in mechanism design. counteract such a change". Gore phoned Pachauri from Geneva and reiterated that they should work together to combat the climate change and Gore and the bearded Pachauri congratulated "each other". While the IPCC Some Noble and ignoble facts: India - born Westerners who bagged the prestigious The Swedist Chemist Alfred Bernhard award and they were:Dr. Nobel's metamorphosis of his past Ronald Ross, Rudyard disastrous designs into a noble gesture Kipling, Dr. Har Gobind for all the times to come by rewarding Khorana, Mother Teresa, personalities for their excellence in Dr. S. Chandrasekhar, their chosen disciplines despite Tenzin Gyatso (Dalai Lama) skeptics debunking of the award and V. S. Naipaul. selections as biased, it goes a long way in grabbing the headlines as an The first Indian to get the annual ritual besides spurring Nobel Prize, was excitement the world over. The Nobel Rabindranath Tagore for Rudyard Kipling Literature in 1901. Tagore Foundations Award selectors had to Rabindranath Tagore face brickbats when they founded Shantiniketan and consciously or otherwise ignored wrote the "National the 20th century's tallest Anthem", Jana Gana Mana. C. V. Raman was the first personality, Mahatma Gandhi, in Indian to get a Nobel Prize for Science-Physics, in 1930. choosing him for the Nobel Prize Raman (1888 - 1970) got the award for study of scattering Award despite nominations for 11 of light, popularly known as 'Raman Effect' which years till 1948 when he was described change in frequency of light processing through deprived of his mortal remains by transparent medium. He an assassin's gun. It is another was also the recipient of matter that there was a Bharat Ratna in 1954. conspicuous opinion that the Prize Marie Sklodowska Among the others who got was too small an appreciation for the Nobel Prizes included: a gigantic personality like Gandhiji Sir Ronald Ross won the who was acclaimed internationally and for all the times to Prize for Physiology/ come. The Nobel Prize, however, is not awarded Medicine in 1902 for his posthumously. On the flip side, the selectors had to face work on malaria. Dr. Ross strictures for selecting some undeserving persons and was born in Almora in ignoring deserving intellectuals owing to racial, India though of Scottish ideological and other reasons. origin, on May 13, 1857 to General Campell Clay Tolstoy and Hardy: The Russian who penned the Mother Teresa Grant Ross of Indian great novels, Anna Kareena, and Army. Dr. Ross served the War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy Indian Medical Service in Madras, Calcutta, Burma, etc., (1828-1910) who was nominated after taking MRCS in England. Rudyard Kipling (1865- 16 times for the Nobel Prize for 1936) who was born in Bombay bagged Nobel Prize for Literature and so too the British Literature in 1907. The British writer portrayed novelist and poet Thomas Hardy contemporary rule of the British (1840-1928) did not get them. in India and his books included, The Curie family, on the other "The Light That Failed", "Kim", hand, got the awards five times. "Barrak Room Ballads", etc. Dr. Marie Sklodowska -Curie bagged Har Gobind Khorana, born in the award twice; her husband, 1922 at Raipur in Punjab Leo Tolstoy Pierre got it for Physics; their (presently in Pakistan), and a US son-in-law Prederic – Curie for Chemistry; and Curie's citizen now, got the Nobel Prize second daughter Eve's husband, Henry Labonisse who was for Medicine in 1968 for UNICEF Director won the Nobel Prize for Peace in interpretation of genetic code and 1965.Similarly, though 11 Indians got the Nobel Prizes, its function in protein synthesis.