The Nobel Prize! part 1

It’s international nerd week. You’ve probably heard of it, but might not of known it was happening right now. Each year, Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, and medicine are awarded to up to 3 people who made massive discoveries in science.

In celebration of Nobel week, I’m going to tell you a little about the prizes and some famous past recipients. Next week, after the winners are all announced, I’ll go through the awards and break down the science behind them.

In Alfred Nobels words, the awards are for:

Nobel Prizes have been given out since 1901 and were started by Alfred Nobel to celebrate inventions and people who make the world a better place.

Nobel Laureate’s are science celebrities. Everyone knows who they are, everyone loves them (at least from a distance), and everyone loves their work. It’s every kid’s (or PhD student’s) dream and is the pinnacle of science fame. The winners often literally go on tour and give lectures across the world on their work.

They don’t quite draw in Taylor Swift crowds but there’s always a line of people waiting to take selfies at the end of the talk.

Past winners include famous scientists like Albert Einstein (for discovering why light can generate electricity), Marie Curie (twice! for discovering radioactivity), and Alexander Fleming (for penicillin).

They’re given to the scientists responsible for some of the biggest discoveries in human history. Things like microscope lenses, LEDs, cameras, gene editing, how photosynthesis works, cancer immune therapies, etc.

Obviously, the awards are exceedingly rare and almost no one gets one. For reference, about 50,000 PhDs are awarded each year in the US alone. Assuming that’s been roughly constant, there’s probably about 2,500,000 people in the US with a PhD alive right now. And that’s ignoring the medical doctors.

Only 640 people have ever received a Nobel Prize in chemistry, physics, or medicine. Since 1901. You’ve got to be brilliant, persistent, and lucky. Many discoveries are worthy of the prize each year, but only 1 is chosen.

Anyway, that’s all for today. I wanted to intro the prizes and make sure yall knew they were being awarded right now. We’ll dive into the science of this years winners next week!

See you next week for more science,

Neil

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