The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded Wednesday to three scientists for their breakthrough work predicting and even designing the structure of proteins, the building blocks of life. The prize was awarded to David Baker, who works at the University of Washington in Seattle, and to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper, who both work at Google DeepMind, a British-American artificial intelligence research laboratory based in London. Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said the award honored research that made connections between amino acid sequence and protein structure. “That was actually called a grand challenge in chemistry, and in particular in biochemistry, for decades. So, it’s that breakthrough that gets awarded today,” he said. Baker designed a new protein in 2003 and his research group has since produced one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors, the Nobel committee said. “The number of designs that they have produced and published, and the variety, is absolutely mind blowing. It seems that you can almost construct any type of protein now with this technology,” said Professor Johan Åqvist of the Nobel committee. Hassabis and Jumper created an artificial intelligence model that has been able to predict the structure of virtually all the 200 million proteins that researchers have identified, the committee added. “Proteins are the molecules that enable life. Proteins are building blocks that form bones, skin, hair and tissue,” Linke said. “To understand how life works, we first need to understand the shape of proteins.” Linke said scientists had therefore long dreamt of predicting the three-dimensional structure of proteins. “Four years ago, in 2020, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper managed to crack the code. With skillful use of artificial intelligence, they made it possible to predict the complex structure of essentially any known protein in nature,” Linke said. Noble Peace Prize winner politician John Hume dies “Another dream of scientists has been to build new proteins, to learn how to use nature’s multi-tool for our own purposes. This is the problem that David Baker solved," he added. "He developed computational tools that now enable scientists to design spectacular new proteins with entirely novel shapes and functions, opening endless possibilities for the greatest benefit to humankind.” Baker said Hassabis and John Jumper's artificial intelligence work gave his team a huge boost. “The breakthroughs made by Demis and John on protein structure prediction really highlighted to us the power that AI could have. And that led us to apply these AI methods to protein design and that has greatly, increased the power and accuracy,” he said. Baker told the Associated Press that the win was exciting. He found out during the early hours of the morning alongside his wife, who immediately started screaming. “So it was a little deafening, too,” he said. In an open call with the Nobel officials and journalists who attended the announcement in Stockholm, Baker was asked if he had a favorite protein. He said he loves them all, adding: "So I don’t want to pick favorites, but I can tell you about one that we designed during the pandemic that protects against the coronavirus. And I’ve been very excited about the idea of a nasal spray, of little designed proteins, that would protect against all possible pandemic viruses.” Hassabis is one of Britain’s leading tech figures, and was awarded a knighthood earlier this year for his services to artificial intelligence. He co-founded AI research lab DeepMind in 2010, which was later acquired by Google. DeepMind’s breakthroughs include developing an AI system that mastered the Chinese game of Go and was able to defeat the game’s human world champion much faster than expected. Baker gets half of the prize money of 11 million Swedish Kronor ($1 million) while Hassabis and Jumper share the other half. Last year, the chemistry award went to three scientists for their work on quantum dots — tiny particles just a few nanometers in diameter that can release very bright colored light and whose applications in everyday life include electronics and medical imaging. Six days of Nobel announcements opened Monday with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the medicine prize. Two founding fathers of machine learning — John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton — won the physics prize. The awards continue with the literature prize on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics award on Oct. 14. The prize money comes from a bequest left by the award’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the prestigious 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics to two visionary researchers, Dr Geoffrey Hinton and Dr John Hopfield, whose pioneering work in artificial intelligence has redefined the boundaries of human knowledge and technological innovation. This remarkable honour is a testament to their trailblazing contributions that laid the groundwork for the development of machine learning, a field that is reshaping the future of humanity with unprecedented promise and peril. Dr Hinton, often heralded as the “Godfather of AI,” and Dr Hopfield, a towering figure in both physics and computational neuroscience, have been celebrated for their foundational contributions to artificial neural networks — intricate computational systems inspired by the human brain. This milestone accolade places AI’s influence on par with the monumental discoveries of classical physics, underscoring the transformative power of interdisciplinary research. Dr Geoffrey Hinton, a dual citizen of Canada and the United Kingdom, currently affiliated with the University of Toronto, is renowned for his innovative work in deep learning and backpropagation — a learning mechanism that enables computers to self-improve by repeatedly fine-tuning their processes until perfection is achieved. His groundbreaking research in the 1980s not only changed the trajectory of AI but also served as a beacon for countless researchers and innovators across the globe. The Nobel Committee recognised Dr John Hopfield’s equally pivotal role in the 1980s, particularly his development of associative memory models capable of storing and retrieving complex data patterns. The Nobel Prize in physics is being awarded, a day after 2 Americans won the medicine prize Dr Hopfield, now an emeritus professor at Princeton University, has long been celebrated for bridging the realms of physics, biology, and computer science to unravel some of the most intricate puzzles of the human mind. “The work of these two gentlemen has not only paved the way for the current explosion in artificial intelligence but has also challenged and expanded our understanding of what it means to learn, to know, and to reason,” said Nobel Committee member Mark Pearce. “They have built the very bedrock upon which the modern era of AI stands.” Shaping the Future While the announcement has brought jubilation to the global scientific community, it also arrives at a time of heightened introspection. The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence has sparked fervent debate about its implications for society, with even the laureates themselves voicing deep concern over the unintended consequences of these powerful systems. In his acceptance remarks, Dr Hinton, who recently stepped down from a high-profile position at Google to speak more openly about his concerns, warned that AI’s meteoric rise poses profound challenges for the future. “We have no experience of what it’s like to have something smarter than us. And it’s going to be wonderful in many respects,” Hinton observed with a mixture of awe and caution. “But we also have to worry about a number of possible bad consequences, particularly the threat of these things getting out of control.” Nobel Prize in medicine honors American duo for their discovery of microRNA Dr Hopfield echoed these sentiments, drawing parallels between AI’s disruptive potential and past revolutionary scientific breakthroughs such as nuclear energy and virology. “With great power comes great responsibility,” he said somberly, invoking imagery from George Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece 1984 and Kurt Vonnegut’s cautionary tale Cat’s Cradle. The laureates stressed the need for ethical guidelines and societal dialogue to harness AI’s vast benefits without compromising human values and autonomy. Dr Hinton, in particular, has long advocated for greater scrutiny and oversight, predicting that AI’s impact could be comparable to the Industrial Revolution in scale and scope. A Celebration and a Call to Action The Nobel Prize, which includes a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (£900,000), will be formally presented to Dr Hinton and Dr Hopfield at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. As the world applauds their monumental achievements, the laureates’ reflections serve as a powerful reminder that while technology can elevate society to new heights, it can also bring forth profound ethical dilemmas that demand our collective wisdom and vigilance. Dr Hinton’s words to the younger generation of researchers were tinged with both inspiration and caution: “Don’t be put off if everyone tells you what you are doing is silly. But remember, in the rush to build, we must also take the time to think.” With this year’s Nobel Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has not merely recognised two individuals but has also ushered in a new era where the blurred lines between science, technology, and philosophy are explored with the hope of shaping a brighter, safer, and more enlightened future for all. Source: With inputs from AP 

The Nobel Prize in physics is being awarded Tuesday, a day after two American scientists won the medicine prize for their discovery of microRNA. Three scientists won last year's physics Nobel for providing the first split-second glimpse into the superfast world of spinning electrons, a field that could one day lead to better electronics or disease diagnoses. The 2023 award went to French-Swedish physicist Anne L’Huillier, French scientist Pierre Agostini and Hungarian-born Ferenc Krausz for their work with the tiny part of each atom that races around the center and is fundamental to virtually everything: chemistry, physics, our bodies and our gadgets. Nobel Prize in medicine honors American duo for their discovery of microRNA Six days of Nobel announcements opened Monday with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the medicine prize for their discovery of tiny bits of genetic material that serve as on and off switches inside cells that help control what the cells do and when they do it. If scientists can better understand how they work and how to manipulate them, it could one day lead to powerful treatments for diseases like cancer. The physics prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from a bequest left by the award's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. It has been awarded 117 times. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death. Nobel announcements continue with the chemistry physics prize on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics award on Oct. 14.

The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA, a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated. The Nobel Assembly said that their discovery is “proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function.” Ambros performed the research that led to his prize at Harvard University. He is currently a professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Ruvkun's research was performed at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School, where he’s a professor of genetics, said Thomas Perlmann, Secretary-General of the Nobel Committee. Perlmann said he spoke to Ruvkun by phone shortly before the announcement. The Nobel Prize in medicine opens 6 days of award announcements “It took a long time before he came to the phone and sounded very tired, but he quite rapidly, was quite excited and happy, when he understood what, it was all about,” Perlmann said. Last year, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 that were critical in slowing the pandemic. The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The announcement launched this year’s Nobel prizes award season. Nobel announcements continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Oct. 14. The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.

This year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded in equal parts to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless for developing way of “snapping molecules together” that can be used to design medicines. Their work, known as click chemistry and bioorthogonal reactions, is used to make cancer drugs, map DNA and create materials that are tailored to a specific purpose. Hans Ellegren, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announced the winners Wednesday at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Bertozzi is based at Stanford University in California, Meldal is at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Sharpless is affiliated with Scripps Research, California. Sharpless previously won a Nobel Prize in 2001. He is the fifth person to receive the award twice. Last year the prize was awarded to scientists Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan for finding an ingenious and environmentally cleaner way to build molecules that the Nobel panel said is “already benefiting humankind greatly.” A week of Nobel Prize announcements kicked off Monday with Swedish scientist Svante Paabo receiving the award in medicine for unlocking secrets of Neanderthal DNA that provided key insights into our immune system. Three scientists jointly won the prize in physics Tuesday. Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John F. Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger had shown that tiny particles can retain a connection with each other even when separated, a phenomenon known as quantum entanglement, that can be used for specialized computing and to encrypt information. The awards continue with literature on Thursday. The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics award on Monday. The prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out on Dec. 10. The money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, in 1895.

2022 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Swedish scientist Svante Pääbo for his discoveries on human evolution. Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the Nobel Committee, announced the winner Monday at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. The medicine prize kicked off a week of Nobel Prize announcements. It continues Tuesday with the physics prize, with chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics award on Oct. 10. Read Russian journalist sells Nobel Prize for Ukrainian children The winner, or winners, of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine will be announced Monday at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Among the researchers who may be honored this year are those who were instrumental in the development of the mRNA technology that went into COVID-19 vaccines, which saved millions of lives across the world. Last year's recipients were David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch. Read 5 things to know about the Nobel prizes The medicine prize kicks off a week of Nobel Prize announcements. It continues Tuesday with the physics prize, with chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics award on Oct. 10. The 2022 Nobel prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out on Dec. 10. The money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.

What’s the price of peace? That question could be partially answered Monday night when Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctions off his Nobel Peace Prize medal. The proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine. Muratov, awarded the gold medal in October 2021, helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was the publication’s editor-in-chief when it shut down in March amid the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was Muratov’s idea to auction off his prize, having already announced he was donating the accompanying $500,000 cash award to charity. The idea of the donation, he said, “is to give the children refugees a chance for a future.” In an interview with The Associated Press, Muratov said he was particularly concerned about children who have been orphaned because of the conflict in Ukraine. “We want to return their future,” he said. He added that it’s important international sanctions levied against Russia do not prevent humanitarian aid, such as medicine for rare diseases and bone marrow transplants, from reaching those in need. Read: Zelenskyy Father's Day post spotlights family ties amid war “It has to become a beginning of a flash mob as an example to follow so people auction their valuable possessions to help Ukrainians,” Muratov said in a video released by Heritage Auctions, which is handling the sale but not taking any share of the proceeds. Muratov shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year with journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines. The two journalists, who each received their own medals, were honored for their battles to preserve free speech in their respective countries, despite coming under attack by harassment, their governments and even death threats. Muratov has been highly critical of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and the war launched in February that has caused nearly 5 million Ukrainians to flee to other countries for safety, creating the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II. Independent journalists in Russia have come under scrutiny by the Kremlin, if not outright targets of the government. Since Putin came into power more than two decades ago, nearly two dozen journalists have been killed, including at least four who had worked for Muratov’s newspaper. In April, Muratov said he was attacked with red paint while aboard a Russian train. Muratov left Russia for Western Europe on Thursday to begin his trip to New York City, where live bidding will begin Monday afternoon. Read: Morale is concern as NATO chief warns war could last ‘years’ Online bids began June 1 to coincide with the International Children’s Day observance. Monday’s live bidding falls on World Refugee Day. As of early Monday morning, the high bid was $550,000. The purchase price is expected to spiral upward, possibly into the millions. “It’s a very bespoke deal,” said Joshua Benesh, the chief strategy officer for Heritage Auctions. “Not everyone in the world has a Nobel Prize to auction and not every day of the week that there’s a Nobel Prize crossing the auction block.” Since its inception in 1901, there have been nearly 1,000 recipients of the Nobel Prizes honoring achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and the advancement of peace. The most ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal was in 2014, when James Watson, whose co-discovery of the structure of DNA earned him a Nobel Prize in 1962, sold his medal for $4.76 million. Three years later, the family of his co-recipient, Francis Crick, received $2.27 million in bidding run by Heritage Auctions, the same company that is auctioning off Muratov’s medal. Melted down, the 175 grams of 23-karat gold contained in Muratov’s medal would be worth about $10,000. The ongoing war and international humanitarian efforts to alleviate the suffering of those affected in Ukraine are bound to stoke interest, Benesh said, adding it’s hard to predict how much someone would be willing to pay for the medal. “I think there’s certainly going to be some excitement Monday,” Benesh said. “It’s it’s such a unique item being sold under unique circumstances ... a significant act of generosity, and such a significant humanitarian crisis.” Muratov and Heritage officials said even those out of the bidding can still help by donating directly to UNICEF.

A U.S.-based economist won the Nobel prize in economics Monday for pioneering research that transformed widely held ideas about the labor force, showing how an increase in the minimum wage doesn’t hinder hiring and immigrants don't lower pay for native-born workers. Two others shared the award for developing ways to study these types of societal issues. Canadian-born David Card of the University of California, Berkeley, was awarded half of the prize for his research on how the minimum wage, immigration and education affect the labor market. The other half was shared by Joshua Angrist of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dutch-born Guido Imbens of Stanford University for their framework for studying issues that can't rely on traditional scientific methods. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the three “completely reshaped empirical work in the economic sciences.” Together, they helped rapidly expand the use of “natural experiments,” or studies based on observing real-world data. Such research made economics more applicable to everyday life, provided policymakers with actual evidence on the outcomes of policies, and in time spawned a more popular approach to economics epitomized by the blockbuster bestseller “Freakonomics,” by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt. Read: Russian Nobel winner: Peace Prize is for my paper, not me In a study published in 1993, Card looked at what happened to jobs at Burger King, KFC, Wendy's and Roy Rogers when New Jersey raised its minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.05, using restaurants in bordering eastern Pennsylvania as the control — or comparison — group. Contrary to previous studies, he and his late research partner Alan Krueger found that an increase in the minimum wage had no effect on the number of employees. Card and Krueger's research fundamentally altered economists’ views of such policies. As noted by the Economist magazine, in 1992 a survey of the American Economic Association’s members found that 79% agreed that a minimum wage law increased unemployment among younger and lower-skilled workers. Those views were largely based on traditional economic notions of supply and demand: If you raise the price of something, you get less of it. By 2000, however, just 46% of the AEA’s members said minimum wage laws increase unemployment, largely because of Card and Krueger. Their findings sparked interest in further research into why a higher minimum wouldn’t reduce employment. One conclusion was that companies are able to pass on the cost of higher wages to customers by raising prices. In other cases, if a company is a major employer in a particular area, it may be able to keep wages particularly low, so that it could afford to pay a higher minimum, when required to do so, without cutting jobs. The higher pay would also attract more applicants, boosting labor supply. Their paper "has shaken up the field at a very fundamental level,” said Arindrajit Dube, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “And so for that reason, and all the following research that their work ignited, this is a richly deserved award.” Krueger would almost certainly have shared in the award, Dube said, but the economics Nobel isn't given posthumously. Krueger, Imbens said, co-authored papers with all three winners. Krueger, who died in 2019 at age 58, taught at Princeton for three decades and was chief Labor Department economist under President Bill Clinton. He also was Obama’s chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Card and Krueger's paper made a huge impact on other economists. Lisa Cook, an economics professor at Michigan State University, said their paper was “a revelation” that helped crystallize her thinking for her research on racial violence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and how it inhibited patent filings by Black Americans. Card's research also found that an influx of immigrants into a city doesn't cost native workers jobs or lower their earnings, though earlier immigrants can be negatively affected. Read: Tanzanian Abdulrazak Gurnah awarded Nobel literature prize Card studied the labor market in Miami in the wake of Cuba’s sudden decision to let people emigrate in 1980, leading 125,000 people to leave in what became known as the Mariel Boatlift. It resulted in a 7% increase in the city’s workforce. By comparing the evolution of wages and employment in four other cities, Card discovered no negative effects for Miami residents with low levels of education. Follow-up work showed that increased immigration can have a positive impact on income for people born in the country. Angrist and Imbens won their half of the award for working out the methodological issues that allow economists to draw solid conclusions about cause and effect even where they cannot carry out studies according to strict scientific methods. Card's work on the minimum wage is one of the best-known natural experiments in economics. The problem with such experiments is that it can be difficult to isolate cause and effect. For example, if you want to figure out whether an extra year of education will increase a person’s income, you cannot simply compare the incomes of adults with one more year of schooling to those without. That's because there are many other factors that might determine whether those who got an extra year of schooling are able to make more money. Perhaps they are harder workers or more diligent and would have done better than those without the extra year even if they did not stay in school. These kinds of issues cause economists and other social science researchers to say “correlation doesn’t prove causation.” Imbens and Angrist, however, figured out how to isolate the effects of things like an extra year of school. Their methods enabled researchers to draw clearer conclusions about cause and effect, even if they are unable to control who gets things like extra education, the way scientists in a lab can control their experiments. Imbens, in one paper, used a survey of lottery winners to evaluate the impact of a government-provided basic income, which has been proposed by left-leaning politicians in the U.S. and Europe. He found that a prize of $15,000 a year did not have much effect on a person's likelihood to work. Card said he thought the voice message that came in at 2 a.m. from someone from Sweden was a prank until he saw the number on his phone really was from Sweden. He said he and his co-author Kreuger faced disbelief from other economists about their findings. “At the time, the conclusions were somewhat controversial. Quite a few economists were skeptical of our results,” he said. Imbens' wife, Susan Athey, is also an economist and president-elect of the AEA, and Imbens said they sometimes argue about economics in front of their three children. “This means, I hope, they'll learn that they need to listen to me a little bit more,” he said. ”I'm afraid it probably won't work out that way." At home in Brookline, Massachusetts, Angrist said: “I can hardly believe it. It's only been a few hours and I am still trying to absorb it." Read:Physics Nobel rewards work on climate change, other forces He also missed the call from Nobel officials and awoke to a torrent of texts from friends. Fortunately, he said, he knew enough other Nobel Laureates that he got a callback number from them. As a youth, Angrist dropped out of a master's program in economics at Hebrew University in Israel, although he did meet his future wife, Mira, there. He has dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship. “I did have sort of a winding road,” he said. “I wasn't a precocious high school student.” The award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million). Unlike the other Nobel prizes, the economics award wasn’t established in the will of Alfred Nobel but by the Swedish central bank in his memory in 1968, with the first winner selected a year later. It is the last prize announced each year.

Three U.S-based economists won the 2021 Nobel prize for economics on Monday for work on drawing conclusions from unintended experiments, or so-called “natural experiments.” David Card of the University of California at Berkeley was awarded one half of the prize, while the other half was shared by Joshua Angrist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Guido Imbens from Stanford University. Read: Journalists from Philippines, Russia get Nobel Peace Prize The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the three have “completely reshaped empirical work in the economic sciences.” “Card’s studies of core questions for society and Angrist and Imbens’ methodological contributions have shown that natural experiments are a rich source of knowlege,” said Peter Fredriksson, chair of the Economic Sciences Committee. “Their research has substantially improved our ability to answer key causal questions, which has been of great benefit for society.” Unlike the other Nobel prizes, the economics award wasn’t established in the will of Alfred Nobel but by the Swedish central bank in his memory in 1968, with the first winner selected a year later. It is the last prize announced each year. Read:Tanzanian Abdulrazak Gurnah awarded Nobel literature prize Last week, the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia for their fight for freedom of expression in countries where reporters have faced persistent attacks, harassment and even murder. Ressa was the only woman honored this year in any category. The Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to U.K.-based Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, who was recognized for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee.” The prize for physiology or medicine went to Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries into how the human body perceives temperature and touch. Read: Nobel in chemistry honors 'greener' way to build molecules Three scientists won the physics prize for work that found order in seeming disorder, helping to explain and predict complex forces of nature, including expanding our understanding of climate change. Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan won the chemistry prize for finding an easier and environmentally cleaner way to build molecules that can be used to make compounds, including medicines and pesticides.

Journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their fight for freedom of expression in countries where media outlets have faced persistent attacks. The Norwegian Nobel Committee stressed that an independent press is vital in promoting peace. “Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the committee, explaining why the prize was awarded to two journalists. Read:Tanzanian Abdulrazak Gurnah awarded Nobel literature prize “Without freedom of expression and freedom of the press, it will be difficult to successfully promote fraternity between nations, disarmament and a better world order to succeed in our time," she said. Ressa in 2012 co-founded Rappler, a news website that has focused “critical attention on the (President Rodrigo) Duterte regime’s controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign,” the Nobel committee said. She and Rappler “have also documented how social media is being used to spread fake news, harass opponents and manipulate public discourse.” Reacting to the news, Ressa told Norway’s TV2 channel that “the government (of the Philippines) will obviously not be happy,” “I’m a little shocked. It’s really emotional," she added. “But I am happy on behalf of my team and would like to thank the Nobel Committee for recognizing what we are going through.” The award-winning journalist was last year convicted of libel and sentenced to jail in a decision seen as a major blow to press global freedom. She was the first woman to win a Nobel this year. Muratov was one of the founders of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta in 1993. “Novaya Gazeta is the most independent newspaper in Russia today, with a fundamentally critical attitude towards power,” the Nobel committee said. “The newspaper’s fact-based journalism and professional integrity have made it an important source of information on censurable aspects of Russian society rarely mentioned by other media,” it added. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 17 media workers were killed in the Philippines in the last decade and 23 in Russia. The Nobel committee noted that since the launch of Novaya Gazeta, six of its journalists have been killed, among them Anna Politkovskaya who covered Russia’s bloody conflict in Chechnya. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised Muratov as a “talented and brave” person. “We can congratulate Dmitry Muratov — he has consistently worked in accordance with his ideals,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. Reiss-Andersen noted that the peace prize has gone to journalists in the past, including Ernesto Teodoro Moneta of Italy who was cited in 1907 “for his work in the press and in peace meetings.” In 1935, German journalist Carl von Ossietzky was awarded the prize “for his burning love for freedom of thought and expression” after revealing that the Nazi regime was secretly re-arming in breach of the World War I peace accord. Read:Nobel in chemistry honors 'greener' way to build molecules Ressa has been particularly critical also of the role of tech companies such as Facebook in manipulating public debate, and their failure to curb hate speech. Speaking on Rappler's site after the award was announced, Ressa said that the “virus of lies that has been introduced through the algorithms of the social media platforms, it infects real people and changes.”