Nobel Prize in Science for 2023

 In the cold autumn night of October 1833, a boy was born to Immanuel Nobel and Karolina Andriette in Stockholm, Sweden. He was one of the eight children to his parents among which he and only 3 other brothers survived till adulthood.

As the boy grew, he developed interest in chemistry and moved to Paris to study same. The boy, now grown as a man excelled in the field and soon filled his first patent for a gas meter.

Later this man joined his father’s factory and helped develop new forms of explosives such as dynamite, gelignite while experimenting with compounds such as nitroglycerine.

In 1888, the mans’ brother died in France where the press wrongly published obituary for this man, stating that “The merchant of death is dead”

This incident changed the man’s perspective for good and he decided to set up an institution out of his fortune that would annually reward people whose work benefit humanity in general.

The name of that trust is “The Nobel Foundation” and that man is known as “Alfred Bernhard Nobel” a chemist, engineer and an industrialist who is famous for inventing dynamite and Nobel prize.

Nobel Prize in Science for 2023, Mufawad.com

The Nobel Foundation

As said, Alfred Nobel envisaged the formation of Nobel Foundation. The final authority for carrying out his wishes under his will is that Nobel Foundation, a private organization founded in 1900 post Alfred Nobels death. The major goal of the Nobel Foundation is to manage Alfred Nobel's wealth in such a way that guarantees the Nobel Prize's long-term financial stability and the organizations that will award the prize and will have complete independence in their decision-making process.

The Prize

Nobel Prizes are awarded to outstanding scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who have made significant contributions to the fields of science, technology, and medicine. It consists of a gold medal, a diploma with a citation, and a sum of money, which depends on the income of the Nobel Foundation. This year (2023) the award money was raised to 11 million Kronor due to falling value of the swidish currency.

The Nobel Prize insignia (medal) is made of 24 karat gold plated with green gold. It is about 65 millimetres in diameter and weigh about 175 grams. The medals are awarded to the laureates at a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.

Nobel Insignia

The prize can be given to one person, divided equally between two persons, or shared by three persons. Sometimes, a prize is withheld until the following year, and if not awarded, it is paid back into the funds.

Prizes can be declined or not accepted before a set date, with reasons for nonacceptance often being external pressure. For example, in 1937, Adolf Hitler forbade Germans from accepting Nobel Prizes due to his infuriation over the 1935 Peace Prize award to anti-Nazi journalist Carl von Ossietzky. In some cases, the refuser later explained the reason behind the refusal and was granted the Nobel gold medal and diploma, but not the money, which reverts to the funds after a certain period of time.

The prizes are open to all, regardless of nationality, race, creed, or ideology. They can be awarded more than once to the same recipient. The ceremonial presentations of the awards for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and economics take place in Stockholm, while that for peace takes place in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.

The general principles governing awards were laid down by Alfred Nobel in his will, and supplementary rules of interpretation and administration were agreed upon in 1900. These statutory rules have remained unchanged but have been somewhat modified in application. The Nobel Prizes for physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine have generally been the least controversial, while those for literature and peace have been exposed to critical differences.

The Selection Process

The Nobel Prize selection process begins in early autumn of the preceding year. Over 6,000 individuals are invited to propose or nominate candidates for the prizes, with the number of nominees usually ranging from 100 to about 250. The jury that nominates people include Ex-Nobel laureates, members of the prize-awarding institutions, scholars in various fields, and officials from various universities and learned academies.

Nominations must be submitted to the Nobel Committees by January 31 of the award year. By February 1, the six Nobel Committees, one for each prize category which include Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Economics & Peace, begin working on the nominations received, often consulting outside experts to determine the originality and significance of each nominee's contribution.

The committees submit their recommendations to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and other prize-awarding institutions in September. Prizes are usually only be given to individuals, except the Peace Prize, which may also be conferred upon an institution.

Most importantly, an individual cannot be nominated posthumously, but a winner who dies before receiving the prize may be awarded it posthumously. The awards can also not be appealed, and official support for a candidate has no bearing on the award process, as the prize awarders are independent of the state.

Nobel Prize in Science 2023:

As wrote above, Nobel Prize is given three fields of science which include Physics, Chemistry, Medicine besides in literature and Peace. Many famous scientists about whom we read about in our NCERT text books have been awarded Nobel prize in above fields which include Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Linus Pauling, James Watson, Alexander Fleming  and the list goes on.

Besides that, there are total eight Indian or Indian origin scientists who also got Nobel prize and three of them got Nobel prize in the domain of science which include C.V Raman, Har Gobind Khurana, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.

Nobel Prize in Physics 2023

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2023 to:

Pierre Agostini. PhD 1968 from Aix-Marseille University, France. Professor at The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA.

Ferenc Krausz, born 1962 in Mór, Hungary. PhD 1991 from Vienna University of Technology, Austria. Director at Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Garching and Professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany.

Anne L’Huillier, born 1958 in Paris, France. PhD 1986 from University Pierre and Marie Curie, Paris, France. Professor at Lund University, Sweden.

Pierre Agostini (R), Ferenc Krausz (C), Anne L'Huillier (L)

For what the official website says, “Experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”

The three Nobel Laureates in Physics 2023 are being recognised for their experiments, which have given humanity new tools for exploring the world of electrons inside atoms and molecules. Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier have demonstrated a way to create extremely short pulses of light that can be used to measure the rapid processes in which electrons move or change energy.

Fast-moving events flow into each other when perceived by humans, just like a film that consists of still images is perceived as continual movement. If we want to investigate really brief events, we need special technology. In the world of electrons, changes occur in a few tenths of an attosecond – an attosecond is so short that there are as many in one second as there have been seconds since the birth of the universe.

The laureates’ experiments have produced pulses of light so short that they are measured in attoseconds, thus demonstrating that these pulses can be used to provide images of processes inside atoms and molecules.

In 1987, Anne L’Huillier discovered that many different overtones of light arose when she transmitted infrared laser light through a noble gas. Each overtone is a light wave with a given number of cycles for each cycle in the laser light. They are caused by the laser light interacting with atoms in the gas; it gives some electrons extra energy that is then emitted as light. Anne L’Huillier has continued to explore this phenomenon, laying the ground for subsequent breakthroughs.

In 2001, Pierre Agostini succeeded in producing and investigating a series of consecutive light pulses, in which each pulse lasted just 250 attoseconds. At the same time, Ferenc Krausz was working with another type of experiment, one that made it possible to isolate a single light pulse that lasted 650 attoseconds.

The laureates’ contributions have enabled the investigation of processes that are so rapid they were previously impossible to follow.

There are potential applications in many different areas. In electronics, for example, it is important to understand and control how electrons behave in a material. Attosecond pulses can also be used to identify different molecules, such as in medical diagnostics.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 to:

Moungi G. Bawendi, born 1961 in Paris, France. PhD 1988 from University of Chicago, IL, USA. Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA.

Louis E. Brus, born 1943 in Cleveland, OH, USA. PhD 1969 from Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. Professor at Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.

Alexei I. Ekimov, born 1945 in the former USSR. PhD 1974 from Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Formerly Chief Scientist at Nanocrystals Technology Inc., New York, NY, USA.

For What the official website says, “Planting an important seed for nanotechnology”

Moungi G. Bawendi (R), Louis Brus (C), Alexei I. Ekimov (L)

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 rewards the discovery and development of quantum dots, nanoparticles so tiny that their size determines their properties. These smallest components of nanotechnology now spread their light from televisions and LED lamps, and can also guide surgeons when they remove tumour tissue, among many other things.

Everyone who studies chemistry learns that an element’s properties are governed by how many electrons it has. However, when matter shrinks to nano-dimensions quantum phenomena arise; these are governed by the size of the matter. The Nobel Laureates in Chemistry 2023 have succeeded in producing particles so small that their properties are determined by quantum phenomena. The particles, which are called quantum dots, are now of great importance in nanotechnology.

Physicists had long known that in theory size-dependent quantum effects could arise in nanoparticles, but at that time it was almost impossible to sculpt in nanodimensions. Therefore, few people believed that this knowledge would be put to practical use.

However, in the early 1980s, Alexei Ekimov succeeded in creating size-dependent quantum effects in coloured glass. The colour came from nanoparticles of copper chloride and Ekimov demonstrated that the particle size affected the colour of the glass via quantum effects.

A few years later, Louis Brus was the first scientist in the world to prove size-dependent quantum effects in particles floating freely in a fluid.

In 1993, Moungi Bawendi revolutionised the chemical production of quantum dots, resulting in almost perfect particles. This high quality was necessary for them to be utilised in applications.

Quantum dots now illuminate computer monitors and television screens based on QLED technology. They also add nuance to the light of some LED lamps, and biochemists and doctors use them to map biological tissue.

Quantum dots are thus bringing the greatest benefit to humankind. Researchers believe that in the future they could contribute to flexible electronics, tiny sensors, thinner solar cells and encrypted quantum communication – so we have just started exploring the potential of these tiny particles.

Nobel Prize in Medicine 2023

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to:

Katalin Karikó was born in 1955 in Szolnok, Hungary. She received her PhD from Szeged’s University in 1982 and performed postdoctoral research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged until 1985. She then conducted postdoctoral research at Temple University, Philadelphia, and the University of Health Science, Bethesda. In 1989, she was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she remained until 2013. After that, she became vice president and later senior vice president at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals. Since 2021, she has been a Professor at Szeged University and an Adjunct Professor at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Drew Weissman was born in 1959 in Lexington, Massachusetts, USA. He received his MD, PhD degrees from Boston University in 1987. He did his clinical training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School and postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health. In 1997, Weissman established his research group at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research and Director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations.

For what the official website says, “For their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19”

Katalin Karikó (R), Drew Weissman (L)

The discoveries by the two Nobel Laureates were critical for developing effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 during the pandemic that began in early 2020. Through their groundbreaking findings, which have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system, the laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times. 

mRNA vaccines: A promising idea:

In our cells, genetic information encoded in DNA is transferred to messenger RNA (mRNA), which is used as a template for protein production. During the 1980s, efficient methods for producing mRNA without cell culture were introduced, called in vitro transcription. This decisive step accelerated the development of molecular biology applications in several fields. Ideas of using mRNA technologies for vaccine and therapeutic purposes also took off, but roadblocks lay ahead. In vitro transcribed mRNA was considered unstable and challenging to deliver, requiring the development of sophisticated carrier lipid systems to encapsulate the mRNA. Moreover, in vitro-produced mRNA gave rise to inflammatory reactions. Enthusiasm for developing the mRNA technology for clinical purposes was, therefore, initially limited.

These obstacles did not discourage the Hungarian biochemist Katalin Karikó, who was devoted to developing methods to use mRNA for therapy. During the early 1990s, when she was an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, she remained true to her vision of realizing mRNA as a therapeutic despite encountering difficulties in convincing research funders of the significance of her project. A new colleague of Karikó at her university was the immunologist, Drew Weissman. He was interested in dendritic cells, which have important functions in immune surveillance and the activation of vaccine-induced immune responses. Spurred by new ideas, a fruitful collaboration between the two soon began, focusing on how different RNA types interact with the immune system.

The breakthrough:

Karikó and Weissman noticed that dendritic cells recognize in vitro transcribed mRNA as a foreign substance, which leads to their activation and the release of inflammatory signalling molecules. They wondered why the in vitro transcribed mRNA was recognized as foreign while mRNA from mammalian cells did not give rise to the same reaction. Karikó and Weissman realized that some critical properties must distinguish the different types of mRNA.

RNA contains four bases, abbreviated A, U, G, and C, corresponding to A, T, G, and C in DNA, the letters of the genetic code.

Karikó and Weissman knew that bases in RNA from mammalian cells are frequently chemically modified, while in vitro transcribed mRNA is not. They wondered if the absence of altered bases in the in vitro transcribed RNA could explain the unwanted inflammatory reaction. To investigate this, they produced different variants of mRNA, each with unique chemical alterations in their bases, which they delivered to dendritic cells. The results were striking: The inflammatory response was almost abolished when base modifications were included in the mRNA.

This was a paradigm change in our understanding of how cells recognize and respond to different forms of mRNA. Karikó and Weissman immediately understood that their discovery had profound significance for using mRNA as therapy. These seminal results were published in 2005, fifteen years before the COVID-19 pandemic.

In further studies published in 2008 and 2010, Karikó and Weissman showed that the delivery of mRNA generated with base modifications markedly increased protein production compared to unmodified mRNA. The effect was due to the reduced activation of an enzyme that regulates protein production. Through their discoveries that base modifications both reduced inflammatory responses and increased protein production, Karikó and Weissman had eliminated critical obstacles on the way to clinical applications of mRNA.

mRNA vaccines realized their potential

Interest in mRNA technology began to pick up, and in 2010, several companies were working on developing the method. Vaccines against Zika virus and MERS-CoV were pursued; the latter is closely related to SARS-CoV-2. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, two base-modified mRNA vaccines encoding the SARS-CoV-2 surface protein were developed at record speed. Protective effects of around 95% were reported, and both vaccines were approved as early as December 2020.

The impressive flexibility and speed with which mRNA vaccines can be developed pave the way for using the new platform also for vaccines against other infectious diseases. In the future, the technology may also be used to deliver therapeutic proteins and treat some cancer types.

Several other vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, based on different methodologies, were also rapidly introduced, and together, more than 13 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been given globally. The vaccines have saved millions of lives and prevented severe disease in many more, allowing societies to open and return to normal conditions. Through their fundamental discoveries of the importance of base modifications in mRNA, this year’s Nobel laureates critically contributed to this transformative development during one of the biggest health crises of our time.