Two
cultural events converged this month. The 2019 Nobel
Prizes in science were awarded. And the identity of The Masked Singer was
revealed. Of the two, the show that hid celebrities under bulbous paper mache
heads, feathers and sequins perhaps attracted more attention; it was the
highest rated show of the week. The Nobels fared less
well in terms of media exposure. The winners made headlines in the national
dailies, but faded within days.
Something
clearly should be done to reverse this situation. Perhaps the Nobel recipients
could appear on the show. One can imagine a laureate disguised as a bedazzled
bumble bee. But that could prove problematic, since it’s doubtful anyone would
be able to guess their identity. Then there is the issue of singing. Not many
scientists are known for their vocal skills. Until then, the laureates will
have to settle with sharing a $900,000 check, a medal and respect from within
the scientific community.
Perhaps
the least difficult award to explain is the chemistry prize. The laureates
were credited with developing the lithium ion battery, which now powers
everything from cell phones to electric
cars. The winners are: M. Stanley
Whittingham, a professor at Binghamton University, State University of New York;
John B. Goodenough, a professor at the
University of Texas at Austin; and Akira Yoshino, an honorary fellow for the
Asahi Kasei Corporation in Tokyo and a professor at Meijo University in Nagoya,
Japan.
The award for physiology or medicine centered
on new insights into how cells react to different levels of oxygen. Those
winners are: William G. Kaelin Jr., professor of medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and
Brigham & Women’s Hospital Harvard Medical School; Gregg
L. Semenza, professor of genetic medicine at Johns Hopkins; and Peter
J. Ratcliffe, the director of clinical research at the Francis Crick
Institute in London and director of the Target Discovery Institute at Oxford.
And finally, physics. This year the award was
split between two findings, both of which introduce new ideas about the
universe. James
Peebles, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, developed theories of
how the universe has changed over almost 14 billion years, while Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist and professor
emeritus of astronomy at the University of Geneva. and Didier Queloz, University of Geneva , discovered a planet orbiting
a sun-like star.
The Royal Swedish Academy
of Science administers the physics and chemistry prizes, which are worth about
$900,000. The Nobel Prize
in Physiology or Medicine is awarded by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska
Institutet.
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