Nobel Prize in Literature

Belarusian writer and journalist Svetlana Alexievich wins the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature for her extensive writings on narrations and recollections of Soviet victims of wars and nuclear radiations.

Many of us might’ve read Voices from Chernobyl with utmost horror and despair back in 2005 when the English version of the book initially hit bookstores around the world. It was one of the most truthful and horrifying accounts of the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1986 that, unlike other disasters, left more survivors than dead. But the irony was that the survivors were the real victims. Death, in fact, was a blessing in disguise for the tens of thousands of people in Ukraine and millions of people across Europe exposed to catastrophic radiations over many years to come.

“I'm not afraid of God. I'm afraid of man.

At first we asked people: "Where is the radiation?"

"See where you're standing? That's where it is."

So it's everywhere? [Cries] There are many empty houses. People left. They were scared.”

Many of us had that moment of revelation of the impact of man’s actions gone wrong as we flipped through the pages of this firsthand narrative about fear, misery and agony of more than five hundred people from Chernobyl. The author painted a vivid picture of how man was insane soon after the disaster, not knowing how to contain the catastrophe, destroyed buildings and dug deep pits to bury debris and land which were exposed to radiation, shot all animals of the region dead fearing their fur to emit radiation. With nothing to be perceived by any of the sense organs, radiation changed the lives of these people forever. Skin peeling off in layers, hair falling off in bulk, blisters developing all over the body, fetuses dying in utero, hundreds succumbing to multi-organ failure, the nightmarish days were only beginning for them. With congenital malformations, developmental delays and malignancies, they are still paying a huge penalty.

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster is only one of the narratives of disaster victims of former Soviet Union by Svetlana Alexievich. She has written extremely disturbing and chilling accounts from victims and witnesses of Soviet-Afghan war and World War II in Zinky Boys: Soviet voices from a forgotten war and The Unwomanly Face of War.  As the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy Sara Danius stated in the Press Conference yesterday, “It’s not really about a history of events. It’s a history of emotions.”

Born in Ukraine and brought up in Belarus, Svetlana is an investigative journalist by profession. She writes in Russian, but many of her works of excellence have been translated to English, which made her popular worldwide. As her accounts were eye-openers to the injustice to mankind, she has been at the receiving end of wrath of many governments from time to time, which made her a political refugee in 2000s. She currently resides at Minsk, Belarus.

It was quite interesting to note that journalists from around the world, who usually sit in silence with sober faces during the announcement of Nobel Prizes in Press centers, welcomed yesterday’s announcement with a loud round of applause. Thanks to Svetlana’s stellar literary career, a journalist is being honored by the Prize for the first time in history. Also, the Swedish Academy chose a writer of non-fiction, breaking a tradition of half a century.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Paul L Modrich, Tomas Lindahl and Aziz Sancar share the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their contributions towards the mechanistic studies of DNA repair.

Nobody needs an introduction to DNA. Nor to its structure or function. These aspects of life have become the quintessential part of our knowledge that even high school science textbooks dedicate chapters for that. So much for what's known but so much more for what's still mysterious to mankind. Being the backbone of life is a great responsibility for a chemically labile molecule like DNA. Constantly exposed to biological, chemical and physical agents which can potentially alter the structure and hence the function, these molecules have to be extremely on guard to keep its integrity intact. Well, if these molecules could determine how the entire living race should be on earth, we should've guessed that they have their own extremely efficient system to repair their defects. 

The works of Paul L Modrich, Tomas Lindahl and Aziz Sancar were more than just this guess. They probed and deciphered three of the most intricate and systematic mechanisms by which DNA repairs its single-strand defects during replication. 

Base Excision Repair

Swedish cancer researcher Tomas Robert Lindahl described and isolated DNA ligase and DNA glycosylases. He demonstrated how DNA glycosylases remove inappropriate nucleotides to form apuric or apyramidnic (AP) sites in DNA single strands that are then nicked by AP endonucleases. A short or long patch repair will then seal the resulting break with the correct sequence of nucleotides.

An MD, PhD by training from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Lindahl is still an active researcher in cancer biology. He holds the positions of emeritus group leader at Francis Crick Institute and emeritus Director of Cancer Research UK at Clare Hall Laboratory in the United Kingdom.

Nucleotide Excision Repair

When base excision repair corrects small defects, American chemist Paul Modrich described another mechanism by which bulky defects are repaired in DNA. DNA addicts formed mostly due to ultraviolet radiations are removed in bulk and the resulting breaks in single strands are sealed by DNA ligase using the other strand as template.

Paul Modrich holds a graduate degree from Stanford University. He is still an active investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is academically active and is a Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University School of Medicine, USA

Mismatch Repair

Turkish chemist Aziz Sancar demonstrated the evolutionarily conserved process of mismatch repair by which incorrect base pairing that escapes proofreading during semi conservative replication of DNA is corrected. Efficiently mediated by a set of proteins, this is one of the most important reasons for DNA fidelity over millions of years of evolution.

Aziz Sancar was born in Turkey and earned his doctorate from University of Texas. He is currently a tenured Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at University of North Carolina School of Medicine, USA.

Though these are the basic facts we learn even in our initial years of scientific journey, tremendous efforts and precise experimentations were involved in deciphering these complex mechanisms. These efforts were honored by the coveted Nobel Prize in Chemistry yesterday by the Swedish Academy of Sciences. Thanks to the teams of these eminent scientists, we are one step ahead in comprehending the intricacies of life and go forward in our endeavor towards conquering the challenges of life, disease and death.

Nobel Prize in Physics

Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B McDonald share the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of neutrino oscillations.

It is postulated that the Bing Bang produced equal amount of matter and antimatter. If matter collides with antimatter, both will disappear in a flash of energy. So if there's equal amount of matter and antimatter in universe, these collisions should be very frequent and inevitable. So why isn't everything just light and sound and heat? Why is there so much particulate matter? Or simply the question is why do we exist the way we are and not just turn into energy and disappear into space? This puzzled Particle Physicists for over half a century before a consortium of scientists around the world answered it with the simplest explanation a decade ago. Thus changing the very fundamentals  of Standard Model Physics once and forever. 

Neutrinos are the second most abundant particles in the universe after photons. Very elusive in nature, they hardly interact with anything. These subatomic particles were considered massless ever since they were discovered by Clyde Cowan and Frederick Reines in 1956. It was thought that their existence didn't change anything in universe and hence the name Neutrino (little neutral one in Italian). Neutrinos are produced during nuclear reactions, hence abundantly produced in the core of stars including the Sun and atmospheres as well as cores of planets. Though abundant, we do not feel its presence, thanks to its neutral nature. A billion neutrinos pass through our bodies every second. But being ubiquitous, they do not change anything they pass through. It is said that a neutrino can pass through a light-year (six trillion miles) of lead without colliding with a single atom. But occasionally, they do collide with atoms and release charged particles like electrons, muons or taus (heavier electrons) depending on which they are classified into three flavors. Earth receives neutrinos mainly in two ways. Solar neutrinos from the solar core reactions and atmospheric neutrinos from particle shower. Based on cosmic reactions, the amount of each neutrino flavor reaching earth had been theoretically calculated by quantum physicists decades before. 

A consortium of scientists in Canada, USA, UK, Portugal and Japan started studying neutrinos in 1990s. The team set up two large observatories deep inside earth to avoid surface disturbances. The Super Kamiokande Observatory was placed 1000 meters deep inside a zinc mine under Mount Kamioka 250kms north of Tokyo, Japan. It is a stainless steel tank containing 50000 tons of ultra pure heavy water to receive atmospheric neutrinos, viewed by 11000 photomultiplier tubes (PMT). The PMTs pick up electrons ejected from heavy water molecules on collision with electron neutrino and give light signals. Japanese Physicist Takaaki Kajita headed the team. The Subdury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) was placed 2100 meters deep inside a nickel mine in Ontario, Canada. With an acrylic vessel containing 1000 tons of ultra pure heavy water and 9600 PMTs, the team headed by Canadian Physicist Arthur McDonald studied solar neutrinos. After decade-long meticulous experimentations and observations, the teams reported that though the total number of neutrinos calculated theoretically was proved to be accurate practically, the number of each flavor was wrong. More precisely, they reported how neutrinos flipped from one flavor to another as they travelled through space. Termed Neutrino Flavor Oscillations, this redefined time and space in a whole different dimension unknown till then. By the basic theories of Quantum Physics, neutrinos should have mass to oscillate.

Breaking the initial cracks in the foundation of Standard Model Physics with non-zero mass neutrinos, oscillating from one flavor to another paved way to a new branch of Particle Physics with infinite possibilities. Though tremendous efforts of a large global team were involved in this, the two pioneers of the field were honored with 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics yesterday. Both of them expressed their inadequacy as individuals in the field and dedicated the honor to the whole team. 

The simplest explanation for why we do not disappear as energy is that the so-called neutral, ubiquitous, elusive neutrinos choose their flavors from time to time and escape from their corresponding antineutrinos. Hence matter is constantly chosen over energy. And we exist today. A good start, right?

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Satoshi Ōmura, William C Campbell and Youyou Tu share the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2015 for their work against parasitic infestations

Approximately 2.4 billion people and more than a hundred countries around the world are affected by parasites. Parasitic infestation had become a huge social and economic burden in affected populations than a mere health problem in the latter half of last century. As affected children failed to attend schools and adults failed to go to work, these diseases had been contributing to the vicious cycle of poverty and illness in less developed countries for past many decades. Thanks to the commitment and foresight of a group of scientists utilizing available resources in the best possible way, we have two compounds that made it to the essential drug category at affordable prices all over the world.

Nematodes and Ivermectin

Soil bacteria and their secondary metabolites had been the focus of therapeutic research from time immemorial. Japanese researcher Satoshi Ōmura isolated around fifty species of bacteria from a local golf course in Shizuoka Perfecture, Japan. A golfer himself, Ōmura attributes his instincts to collect soil from the golf course to his love for the sport. Out of these, one species which proved to be unknown till then was Streptomyces avermitilis. After meticulous cultures and experimentations, he deduced that secondary metabolites from these cultures completely cleared nematodes in experimental mice. Collaborating with William Cecil Campbell of Merck Institute of Therapeutic Research, New Jersey, he isolated the active secondary metabolite Avermectin. On further studies by Campbell, the compound was purified. Its structure was deciphered and pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties were elucidated. A hydrogenated derivative of Avermectin, called Ivermectin was found to have greater potency, bioavailability and less adverse effects. In 1981, after successful clinical trials, Merck marketed this drug against nematode infestations. For the past three decades and a half, this drug had been effectively used for treating some of the most insidious and intractable tropical parasitic infestations like Onchocerciasis, Strongyloidosis, Ascariasis and Filariasis to name a few.

Satoshi Ōmura who was overjoyed to know his achievement yesterday emphasized the need for us to go back to nature for productive research. He is still a very active researcher with more than five hundred publications to his credit. Currently, he serves as Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Chemistry at Kitasato University, Tokyo.

William C Campbell, a biochemist and parasitologist by training and profession has retired from his productive career at Merck Institute of Therapeutic Research and is currently a Research Fellow Emeritus at Drew University, New Jersey, USA. He expressed his utter disbelief when a representative of Nobel Assembly called him to inform his achievement. “You must be kidding”, was his reaction. He emphasized the tremendous team work behind materialization of the drug and dedicated the Prize to the whole Merck research team.

Malaria and Artemisnin

Malaria is a fatal parasitic infestation if not treated effectively. With malarial parasite Plasmodium getting more and more resistant to quinine and chloroquine, the standard choices of treatment, the dire need for newer modes of treatment was increasing. Youyou Tu, formally trained in Chinese traditional medicine and a product of Chinese Cultural Revolution, got involved in antimalarial research in 1969. Her team studied more than 2000 herbs for potential antimicrobial properties. The most efficacious among them was the extract from the herb Artemisia annua. But unfortunately, the adverse effects of this extract were huge in in vivo experiments. Referring an ancient text of Chinese traditional medicine A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies A Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies dated 350AD by Alchemist Ge Hong which recommended “a handful of ginghao immersed in two litres of water, wring out the juice and drink it all”, she isolated and purified the active principle Artemisnin. This proved to be a very effective antimalarial agent with least side effects and good bioavailability. The results were published in Chinese Medical Journal in 1979. Novartis collaborated with her team to market the drug globally and since 1990 Artemisnin and its derivatives save the lives of millions affected by malaria around the world. It is manufactured semisyntetically, still relying on mass cultures of the herb and modified for better pharmacogenic properties.

Youyou Tu has worked as a researcher in many institutions including Peking University and Academy of Chinese Medicine. But she was not known to many in China or abroad until yesterday when she was awarded the Prize. She is known as the Professor of three Nos- she has no postgraduate degree, no research experience in world class institutions and no membership in any Academy of Sciences in China or abroad. She now leads a retired life with her family in Beijing, China.

Interesting facts

It is very interesting to know that none of the scientists involved in the research of these two antiparasitic drugs holds the patent for these compounds. As these compounds were discovered and found to be potentially marketable, the research teams gave the rights to Merck and Novartis to manufacture the drug in large scale and meet the global demand. This was the prime reason why these drugs became globally available at affordable prices thus making them to the list of essential drugs worldwide. It is also commendable that since 1987 Merck has been supplying Ivermectin free of cost to more than 100 nations badly affected by river blindness (Onchocerciasis) which is the second most common cause of blindness due to infection. 

The Prize was awarded to two works. One half of the Prize goes to Ōmura and Campbell for their contributions in Ivermectin discovery and the other half goes to Youyou Tu for her efforts in the discovery of Artemisnin and its derivatives. Both works involved utilizing natural secondary metabolites. This may be a call for scientists worldwide to go back to nature for answering the unsolved puzzles hovering above us.

All the publications of Youyou Tu except a few recent ones in Nature, were published in Chinese. The Nobel Assembly had to translate and transcribe her works to assess their depth and significance. 

During the press conference declaring the Prizes, a curious Indian journalist asked the Assembly representatives if this meant acceptance of eastern traditional medicine by the west. The Assembly emphasized that modern research can be inspired by traditional medicine as that system has stood the tests of time over centuries. But it was the efforts of researchers to extract the active principles from these medicines, elucidate their properties and bring these compounds to the market accessible and affordable to the global community that needs acceptance and acknowledgement. Well, that gives Indian scientists working on Ayurveda inspired research, room to think wider and bigger.

The story and glory of Nobel Prize

October is that time of the year when the scientific, literary and peace enthusiasts from across the globe zoom in their attention to the various press centers in Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Karolinska Institutet and Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden and the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Oslo, Norway. Here’s a brief account of some of the well-known facts about the coveted Prize and the man behind it.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel

Alfred Bernhard Nobel had a humble childhood with his seven siblings in Stockholm with his parents Immanuel and Caroline Nobel. Poverty stricken, four of Immanuel’s children succumbed to death. An engineer by training, Immanuel moved to Russia and started his own business of machine tools and explosives for mines. The business prospered bestowing young Alfred with opportunities to get good formal education in world-class training centers. Unfortunately, the family had to return to Sweden due to unforeseen bankruptcy. Back in Stockholm, Alfred experimented with explosives in his father’s backyard. The black gunpowder which was popularly used those days had relatively unknown contents and unpredictable results. Though in 1847 Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero invented a more powerful liquid nitroglycerin, it wasn’t used as an explosive as the reaction couldn’t be controlled or contained. Alfred experimented extensively, risking many lives of his factory workers, finally designed the very first detonator and blasting cap to contain nitroglycerin explosion, which were later patented. Later, he found out that mixing porous siliceous earth kieslguhr with nitroglycerin makes the explosion containable thus leading to the discovery of the blockbuster explosive dynamite. This was put to use in numerous ways, for cutting canals, blasting tunnels, mining, quarrying, building roads and railroads. His business empire widened in no time and he amassed immeasurable assets. An ever enthusiastic researcher and consistent explorer, Alfred held 355 patents in explosives and the related tools in later years which include the infamous ballistite (predecessor of cordite) and gelignite.

Alfred Nobel’s lab in Krummel, Germany where his extensive experiments on explosives had taken place once.

Though extremely successful in his business, he was known to be an utterly depressed man in close circles. With no close family of his own, his contemporaries remembered him to be dejected in personal life. It is assumed that, on 12^th April 1888, when his brother Ludvig Nobel died in France, French newspaper Ideotie Quotidienne mistook it as Alfred Nobel and published an obituary titled “Le marchand de la mort est mort” meaning “The Merchant of death is dead”. Alfred, who was then 55 years old, is believed to have had a serious reflection on his life reading his own obituary in which he was portrayed as a ruthless facilitator of mass murders. He earnestly wanted to change the way world would remember him posthumously. Eight years after this life-changing incident he succumbed to a fatal cerebrovascular accident on 10^th December 1896 in Italy. At the time of his death, he held an expansive business empire of more than ninety factories around the world and had assets worth nearly $250m. It came as a total surprise to his extended family, friends and colleagues that contrary to his previous will, he had allocated 94% of his assets to a Trust to be formed by young engineers Rudolf Lilljequist and Ragnar Sohlman. It was stated in his last will that the Trust is to recognize outstanding efforts for the betterment of mankind through breakthrough findings in Physics, Chemistry and Medicine. An ardent art-lover and poet himself, he wanted to acknowledge great literary contributions “in the right direction” for which a prize was allocated. His close association with pacific Bertha Von Suttner is believed to be his drive for devoting a prize “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." (Bertha Von Suttner won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 for her works against international armament.) After many legal battles between relatives and business associates of Alfred, the Nobel Foundation was formed by the Trust on 29th June 1900 and the Prizes were awarded from 1901. The Nobel Foundation is now worth no less than three quarter of a billion US dollars. 

Excerpt from the will of Alfred Nobel 

“The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical work by the Caroline Institute in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm, and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not.

As Executors of my testamentary dispositions, I hereby appoint Mr Ragnar Sohlman, resident at Bofors, Värmland, and Mr Rudolf Lilljequist, 31 Malmskillnadsgatan, Stockholm, and at Bengtsfors near Uddevalla…..”

Paris, 27 November, 1895

Alfred Bernhard Nobel

The Prize

All the Prizes except that for peace are awarded by Sweden. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden awards the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. The Swedish Academy awards the Nobel Prize for Literature. Whereas, the Prize for peace is awarded by a five-member committee nominated by Norwegian Parliament. The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was established by Sweden’s Central Bank in 1969 when the Nobel Foundation gave a generous donation to the bank on its 300^th anniversary.

Even though, the last will of Alfred Nobel states to recognize the works of the previous year, the Prizes are given many years later only after the achievements are proven to have stood the tests of time. The respective bodies send out 3000 applications to members of academies, university professors, scientists, previous Nobel Laureates, members of parliamentary assemblies and selected others for their nominations for these Prizes for the coming year. The applications are received by January and shortlisted to 300. The nominators are chosen in such a way that as many countries and universities as possible are represented over time. The scrutiny and selection processes are strictly confidential and the list of nominees is kept in secrecy for a period of fifty years. Every year, the names of winners of the Prizes are announced in the first week of October and the annual Prize Award Ceremony is conducted on 10^th December (the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel) in Stockholm, Sweden. The Peace Prize Award Ceremony is held in Oslo, Norway on the same day. The Prize includes eight million Swedish Kronor ($960,000), a diploma customized for the recipient with their picture and citation and a gold medal. A total of 889 eminent persons and organizations from around the world have been honored since 1901.

The Medal

As the pioneers in their respective fields are being honored this week, RGCB Blog will do an exclusive segment on this year’s Nobel Laureates in the coming days. Stay tuned. 

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