Nobel Week 2023

[Arneb]

Monday - Physiology and Medicin: To Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, for their ground breaking work regarding the medical application of mRNA and its interaction with the immune system; their work enabled the rapid development of mRNA vaccines in the Corona pandemic.

To be honest, I would have bet the 2022 prize would be awarded for Corona-related work, and my favourite to win was the couple that founded Biontech. Now, the prize has been given to the people who made their fast development of an RNA vaccine possible, which seems like a very smart move. Karikó worked at Biontech for eight years and continues as a top conultant there. Great choice!

[Richard A]

I am not a medic, but I think the developers of the two malaria vaccines, which I see came out only a few months apart, should be contenders for the 2023 prize. They will not save as many lives as the covid vaccines have (and continue to do) - for the simple reason that malaria is no longer a global disease while covid is - but the numbers will still be substantial.

[Arneb]

Make that 2024

To put it into perspective, there were 7 Million confirmed Covid deaths from the pandemic, and WHO made an estimate of a total of 20 million, off 775 million confirmed cases worldwide (undoubtedly there were many, many more).
there are 300 - 500 million cases of Malaria per year , and about half a million a year die. Before the advent of Covid, Malaria was the fourth most fatal single infectious disease after AIDS, TB and infectious diarrhea, each claiming a million or more lives a year (Fifth place if you lump all "respiratory infections" into one group, at 3 million). So Malaria, being endemic, needs only about 15 to 40 years to do what covid did, off a vastly higher numbers of infections.

[Arneb]

Tuesday - Physics:

To Pierre Agostini (Ohio State), Ferenc Krauss (Max Planck Institute for Quantom Optics) and Anne L'Huillier (Lund University, Sweden), for their development of attosecond laser flashes and their application to the microscopy of subatomic processes.

Not the highly public laureates of some previous years (when work on, say, ´Dark Energy, Black Holes and quantum teleportation were honoured), but I am sure these are highly useful technologies, scientifically and commercially.

[Arneb]

Wednesday - Chemistry: To Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov, for the characterization and development of nm-scale crystals ('quantum points'), which nowadays are everywhere in modern tv sets, QLEDs and specialized pigments.

Honestly, I don't have a clue how that stuff works, although I have a vague inkling of the 'the smaller the bluer cuz wavelength' stuff that the newspaper article described.

[Arneb]

Thursday - Literature: To Norwegian Jon Fosse , "for his innovative plays and prose, which lend a voice to the unsayable".

Never read a line from him, so can't really comment. Apparently, he is quite a recluse, with a history of psychological trouble, alcohol abuse, and a generally pitch-black outlook on life. If you are into theatre his plays are among the most-played pieces in European theatres. He also translated into Norwegian: Kafka, Beckett, Joyce, which already tells you something about the stuff he is interested in.

Quite surprisingly, Fosse was touted as one of this year's favourites, which is usually a sure sign someone won't get it.

[Arneb]

Friday - Peace: To Narges Mohammadi, Iran, "for her fight against discrimination of women in Iran and her dedication to human rights and freedom for all".

Mohammadi is the vice chairwoman of the Iranian Human Rights Cenre. She will be unable to receive her medal, as she has been sentenced to a long time in prison because of her work. She stands for all the women oppressed, beaten, threatened, prosecuted and killed in Iran during last year's (and all the years before) protests against the discrimination against women in her country. I bow to them all.

[Arneb]

Second Monday - Economics: To Claudia Goldin, of Harvard University, for her "discovery of important causes of gender inequlaity in the labour market".

Of note, Goldin is only the third woman to receive this particular prize, and the first single female laureate. I know nothing about her work, so maybe Mactep can comment.

Again, an interesting Nobel week. Speeches, good food and drinks all round on December 10.

[Мастер]

Second Monday - Economics: To Claudia Goldin, of Harvard University, for her "discovery of important causes of gender inequlaity in the labour market".

So now I am thinking about Dilbert explaining to Dogbert that his boss makes him identify as a woman, so that he can claim to pay men and women the same.