Nobel Prize 2004

David J. Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek won the Nobel Prize for physics for their work on understanding atoms.

Gross, Politzer and Wilczek ``have made an important theoretical discovery concerning the strong force, or the 'color force' as it is also called,'' which acts between quarks inside protons and neutrons, the constituents of the atom, the Stockholm- based Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement on the Nobel Web site. They will share the award of 10 million kronor ($1.36 million).

Annual awards for achievements in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, peace, and literature were established in the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite who died in 1896. The Nobel Foundation was founded in 1900 and the prizes were first handed out the following year.

The foundation, whose investments were valued at 2.87 billion kronor on Dec. 31, said yesterday that Columbia University professor Richard Axel and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center scientist Linda B. Buck jointly won the medicine prize for mapping the genes behind the sense of smell.

Last year, the physics prize was awarded jointly to Alexei Abrikosov, Vitaly Ginzburg, and Anthony Leggett for their work in quantum physics. Other previous laureates of the physics award include Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, who discovered x-rays, and Albert Einstein, for his discovery of the law of photoelectric effect.

Israelis Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko and American Irwin Rose won the 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for discovering a key way cells destroy unwanted proteins starting with a chemical "kiss of death."

When the process goes wrong, several hundred diseases can result, including cervical cancer and cystic fibrosis. So the work provides the basis for developing new therapies.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored Ciechanover, 57, Hershko, 67, and Rose, 78, for work they did in the 1980s.

Proteins are the busy bees of cells, carrying out many jobs, but few researchers had been interested in how cells destroy them when they're no longer needed, the academy said. The three scientists uncovered a process that starts when the doomed protein is grabbed by a particular molecule, marking it for destruction. The marked proteins are then chopped to pieces.

The process governs such key processes as cell division, DNA repair and quality control of newly produced proteins, as well as important parts of the body's immune defenses against disease, the academy said in its citation.

Ciechanover is director of the Rappaport Family Institute for Research in Medical Sciences at the Technion, in Haifa, Israel, while Hershko, originally from Hungary, is a professor there.

Rose is a specialist at the department of physiology and biophysics at the college of medicine at the University of California, Irvine.

Ciechanover told reporters, "I'm happy that I can speak on the phone at all and that I remember I my English. "I'm not myself, that's for sure, not for a while."

It's the first time an Israeli has won a Nobel science prize, although Israelis have won peace and literature Nobels. "I am as proud for myself as I am for my country," Ciechanover said.

This year's award announcements began Monday with the Nobel Prize in medicine going to Americans Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck.

Axel and Buck were selected by a committee at Stockholm's Karolinska Institutet for their work on the sense of smell. They clarified the intricate biological pathway from the nose to the brain that lets people sense smells.

On Tuesday, Americans David J. Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek won the physics prize for their explanation of the force that binds particles inside the atomic nucleus.

Their work has helped science get closer to "a theory for everything," the academy said in awarding the prize.

The winner of the literature prize will be announced Thursday. The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel will be announced Oct. 11.

The winner of the coveted peace prize the only one not awarded in Sweden will be announced Friday in Oslo, Norway.

The prizes, which include a $1.3 million check, a gold medal and a diploma, are presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

Austrian novelist, playwright and poet Elfriede Jelinek, 57, won the Nobel Prize in literature, the Swedish Academy said Thursday, citing her ability to reveal "the absurdity of society's cliches and their subjugating power."

The decision to award the prize to a woman -- and a poet -- was the first since 1996, when Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska won. Since the prize was first handed out in 1901, only nine women have won it.

Born in the Austrian town of Murzzuschlag in 1946, she made her literary debut with the collection Lisas Schatten in 1967. Her writing took a critical turn after her involvement with the student movements that were prevalent throughout Europe in the 1970s, coming out with her satirical novel, We Are Decoys, Baby!

That was followed by other works, including, Wonderful, Wonderful Times in 1990 and The Piano Teacher in 1988.

With special fervour, Jelinek has castigated Austria, depicting it as a realm of death in her phantasmagorical novel, Die Kinder der Toten, the academy noted, adding that she remains a controversial figure in her homeland.

"Her writing builds on a lengthy Austrian tradition of linguistically sophisticated social criticism, with precursors such as Johann Nepomuk Nestroy, Karl Kraus, Odon von HorvDath, Elias Canetti, Thomas Bernhard and the Wiener Group," the academy said in its citation.

"The nature of Jelinek's texts is often hard to define. They shift between prose and poetry, incantation and hymn, they contain theatrical scenes and filmic sequences."

Her recent works are variations on one of her basic themes: the seemingly inability of women to fully find themselves, and live out their lives in a world where they are glossed over by and as stereotypes.

The 18 lifetime members of the 218-year-old Swedish Academy, of whom only four are women, made the annual selection in deep secrecy last week.

For any writer, there could hardly be any greater honour than winning the Nobel Prize. But for an author whose work isn't widely translated, it opens doors to new markets, and sales.

The prize also brings a financial safety net, too: A check of $1.3 million US .

Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist, yesterday became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her work aiding democracy and seeking to save the continent's shrinking forests.

"It cannot get any better than this - maybe in heaven," Ms Maathai said after hearing she had won the award.

The award marks a new environmental theme in interpreting the 1895 will of the Swedish philanthropist, Alfred Nobel. Until now the prize has typically gone to people seeking to end armed conflicts.

"Peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our living environment," said Ole Danbolt Mjoes, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Ms Maathai's Green Belt Movement, composed mainly of women, says it has planted 30 million trees across Africa to combat creeping deforestation, which often deepens poverty.

Ms Maathai said her movement could be a pre-emptive strike to safeguard peace.

Norwegian and American are recognized for work on policy and business cycles

STOCKHOLM Finn Kydland and Edward Prescott received the 2004 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday for their work in determining the consistency of economic policy and the driving force behind business cycles worldwide.
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Kydland, a 60-year-old Norwegian, teaches at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. Prescott, 63, is at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, and part of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
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"It is fantastic, mainly because this is the greatest honor I can get as an economist," Kydland said.
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"The Nobel committee must have seen something worthwhile in my work. What is most important, is that other economists have built on my work."
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The pair received the award for work that showed that driving forces behind business cycle fluctuations and the design of economic policy are key areas in macroeconomic research.
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Their research revealed how "economies become trapped in high inflation even though price stability is the stated objective of monetary policy, " the Nobel jury said.
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When households expect higher taxation, they tend to save less, while companies tend to set higher prices and spend more on wages when facing higher inflation.
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"The laureates showed how such effects of expectations about future economic policy can give rise to a time consistency problem," the jury said.
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"If economic policy makers lack the ability to commit in advance to a specific decision rule, they will often not implement the most desirable policy later on."
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This year's prize is worth 10 million Swedish kronor, about $1.3 million.
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Prescott is the fifth American to receive the economics award since 2000. Even the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has said the United States is a driving force, in part because of the money spent for research.
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Last year's winners were Robert Engle, an American, and Clive Granger, a Briton, for developing statistical tools that improved the forecasting of rates of economic growth, interest rates and stock prices.
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Past awards have recognized research on topics ranging from poverty and famine to how multinational corporations reap profits, and theories on how people choose jobs and the welfare losses caused by environmental catastrophes.
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The economics prize is the only award not established in the will of the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. The medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace prizes were first awarded in 1901, while the economics prize was set up separately by the Swedish central bank in 1968.
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This year's Nobel Prize announcements began Oct. 4 with the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine going to Richard Axel and Linda Buck, both Americans, for their work on the sense of smell. Last Tuesday, the Americans David Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek received the physics prize for their explanation of the force that binds particles inside the atomic nucleus.
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The chemistry prize was awarded on Wednesday to Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko, both of Israel, and an American, Irwin Rose, for their work in discovering a process that lets cells destroy unwanted proteins. On Thursday, the Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
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Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental activist, received the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her work as leader of the Green Belt Movement, which has sought to empower women, better the environment and fight corruption in Africa for almost 30 years.
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This year's Nobel Prize announcements began on Oct. 4 with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine going to Americans Richard Axel and Linda Buck for their work on the sense of smell.
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Last Tuesday, Americans David Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek received the physics prize for their explanation of the force that binds particles inside the atomic nucleus.
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The chemistry prize was awarded Wednesday to the Israelis Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko and the American Irwin Rose for their work in discovering a process that lets cells destroy unwanted proteins. (AP, AFP)
Norwegian and American are recognized for work on policy and business cycles