1 / 3Photo: Henrik Holmberg/TT
The secret behind the switch between sleep and wakefulness. The possibility of creating completely new living organisms. The complicated life of the microbes in our intestines.
They are some of the discoveries that could win this year’s natural science Nobel Prizes.
The Nobel laureates will be announced in the coming week, starting on Monday when the Karolinska Institute announces who will receive the prize in medicine/physiology. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Swedish Academy of Sciences then reveals who will be awarded the prize in physics and chemistry.
Last year we had a Swedish prize winner for the first time in a long time when the geneticist and evolutionary biologist Svante Pääbo was awarded the medicine prize for his mapping of the genetic mass of extinct human species.
This year, there is no Swede among the candidates, at least not according to the analysis company Clarivate, which every year lists the most likely prize winners, based on the number of citations in scientific journals.
But you never know. Tips rarely go home. Usually there are more surprises than expected prize winners.
Long queue
The problem is that the list of candidates is incredibly long and tends to get longer with each passing year – reflecting that science has grown enormously in recent decades. There are simply too many to choose from, and the backlog is palpable.
The greatest interest is directed, as always, to the price of medicine, a natural consequence of our great interest in ourselves.
One of the top candidates is Rob Knight, a microbiologist at the University of California in the United States. His research has revealed many details about the strange and complex ecosystems formed by bacteria and other microbes inside our bodies. He has developed various techniques, among other things, to map the microbial fauna in our intestines.
Hot candidates are also Emmanuel Mignot at Stanford University in the USA and Masashi Yanagisawa at the University of Tsukuba outside Tokyo in Japan. Both have long studied what controls the transition between sleep and the waking state. For example, Mignot is known for being the first to discover the genetic factors behind narcolepsy, where the brain cannot control sleep and wakefulness.
Perhaps one should also mention the researchers behind the mRNA technology that gave us some of the vaccines against covid-19. They were already talking last year, but then most people assumed it was too early, and of course it may be this year as well – although it is quite obvious that the technology works well.
New organisms
As can be seen, the medicine award usually has clear connections to biological phenomena, and the chemistry award is also strikingly often about biology. So also this year when many believe that the Americans James Collins, Michael Elowitz and Stanislas Leibler can be rewarded. They are among the founders of a new branch of research – synthetic biology.
Synthetic biology involves chemically building biological systems with functions that do not exist in nature. For example, there are opportunities to construct completely new living organisms and change existing organisms, in other words a field that can bring great benefits but also tangible risks.
Other possible chemistry winners are the Britons Shankar Balasubramanian and David Klenerman, who have revolutionized the methods of DNA sequencing, that is, of mapping genetic masses. The technology has enabled extremely fast and reliable readings of DNA.
The chemistry prize could also go to Karen Wooley, at Texas A&M University in the US, who developed nanotechnology for the treatment of diseases. She is also one of the few women mentioned among this year’s favorites.
Another is Sharon Glotzer at the University of Michigan, USA, who is singled out as a possible winner of the physics prize. She has studied how matter can become self-organizing, with implications for the production of new materials.
Another one who is in the speculation for the physics prize is Federico Capasso, Harvard University in the USA, for pioneering research on so-called quantum cascade lasers with the help of which, among other things, you can detect very small amounts of exhaust gases in the air. Another is Stuart Parkin at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, who has developed a special form of domain wall memory to be able to increase the amount of stored data information.
FACTSNobel laureate
Since the beginning in 1901, when the first Nobel Prizes were awarded, a few countries have dominated among the laureates in the natural sciences:
USA: 273 laureates (medicine 103, physics 96, chemistry 74)
Great Britain: 90 laureates (medicine 31, physics 25, chemistry, 34)
Germany: 79 laureates (medicine 17, physics 28, chemistry 34)
France: 35 laureates (medicine 11, physics 14, chemistry 10)
Source: Statista
Read moreFACTThe year’s Nobel laureates are announced
Physiology/medicine: Monday 2 October, at 11.30 at the earliest.
Physics: Tuesday 3 October, at 11.45 at the earliest.
Chemistry: Wednesday 4 October, at 11.45 at the earliest.
Literature: Thursday 5 October, no earlier than 1 p.m.
The Peace Prize: Friday 6 October, at 11.00 am.
The prize in economic science in memory of Alfred Nobel: Monday 9 October, at the earliest at 11.45
Source: nobelprize.org
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