The 2021 Nobel Prizes were announced in early October, with the ceremony held as usual on the 10th of December – the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. It’s almost been another two months since then, but in case you missed it, here’s who won and why.
Physics – Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann & Giorgio Parisi
Simulations are widely-used in modern science, but it can be quite difficult to accurately replicate the behaviour of real-world interactions. These three scientists have been recognised for their work on simulating complex systems, particularly the Earth’s climate.
Giorgio is specifically winning for his work in simulating ‘spin glasses’ – atomic structures with a small number of magnetic atoms. There are many ways each magnet could be pointed, but Giorgio figured out a way to determine the most likely interactions. Since then, his technique has been adapted to simulate everything from climate change to sand to flocks of birds.
The other two winners both worked on early simulations of the Earth’s climate. Syukuro developed one of the first 3D models of our atmosphere, as well as the first to include the oceans. Soon after, Klaus created a system that calculated how rapidly-changing weather conditions can affect long-term climate. Without the work of these three men, none of our current climate models would exist.
Chemistry – Benjamin List & David W.C. MacMillan
Chemistry is like cooking with molecules. And while there are some recipes you can make by just adding the ingredients and waiting, creating anything particularly complex requires tools. This is where catalysts come in.
Catalysts are molecules that enable and guide a chemical reaction without getting used up in the process. Sometimes they simply speed up a reaction, but other times a catalyst can open up whole new pathways leading to new products. We used to think there were only two types of catalyst – metals and enzymes. That was until the year 2000, when these two scientists led the way into the new field of organocatalysis.
Benjamin and David never actually worked together, but in 2000 they each led teams of scientists in the creation of early carbon-based (organic) catalysts. They weren’t actually the first to do this, but their work marked the point that organocatalysts started to become widely studied and used, resulting in a whole range of new products to be created.
Physiology or Medicine – David Julius & Ardem Patapoutian
We rely on our sense of touch to tell us what we’re feeling, but until recently we didn’t know how this worked. The discovery of nerves that carry the information to our brains was the first step, but a question still remained. How do our nerves know when to send signals?
The first breakthrough in this area was made by David, who was experimenting with heat detection. His team used capsaicin, the chemical which makes chilis seem hot, to touch cells in a petri dish. Each cell had been modified with a different gene found in heat-detecting neurons. By seeing which cells reacted to the capsaicin, they were able to determine the exact gene, and the receptor it creates, that detects painful heat.
Ardem expanded on this work, first by finding a gene that detects cold. Then, using cells that created electricity when poked, Ardem and his team were able to determine the genes that detect pressure, telling us exactly when we’re touching something.
Literature – Abdulrazak Gurnah
You’ve probably never heard of Abdulrazak Gurnah before, and you wouldn’t be alone. While each of his ten novels has received positive reviews, none have been best-sellers. His most recent work, Afterlives, wasn’t even published in the United States when it came out last year. Now that he’s won the Nobel Prize in Literature, all that has changed.
Abdulrazak was born on the island of Zanzibar, but when he was eighteen he fled the country to escape a violent revolution. He arrived in England as a refugee, where he has lived ever since. This experience has been central to his work; most of his novels are about Zanzibari protagonists living underprivileged lives, either as refugees or in their home country. Through these stories, Abdulrazak shares the struggles of post-colonial Africa with his readers – an audience which just got a lot bigger.
Peace – Maria Ressa & Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov
Freedom of the press, the concept that media can operate without government interference, is widely considered a pillar of democracy. This year’s Peace Prize has been awarded to two journalists for resisting major pressure and keeping their work independent.
Maria is best known for co-founding Rappler, a Philippine news website. She is the first Filipino to win a Nobel Prize. Maria and her team have consistently criticised the current Philippine government and its policies, which led to her being arrested in 2019. She was released on bail to receive the prize in person.
Dmitry runs Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper that he helped create. This paper has conducted many investigations into corruption and human rights abuses, and is now known as Russia’s leading independent newspaper. Six Novaya Gazeta journalists have been killed for their work; Dmitry considers them the true winners of this prize, saying that he’s receiving it on their behalf.
Economics – David Card, Joshua D. Angrist & Guido W. Imbens
Experimentation is the key to research. If you want to learn how something works, you design a test and watch what happens. However, sometimes, such as in economics, it’s very difficult or even impossible to do this properly. That’s where David, Joshua and Guido’s work on ‘natural experiments’ comes in.
Imagine you wanted to learn whether school attendance affects students’ grades. You’d have to take a large number of people, randomly put them into two groups and force one group to skip school while the other attends every class. Not only would this be very difficult, but it probably wouldn’t even be allowed.
David Card realised you could simply study the grades of students who were already skipping class, and compare them to those who didn’t. This ‘natural experiment’ will give the same results, without having to control anyone’s attendance. Joshua and Guido then took this idea and developed better ways to include underlying factors, such as why people do things, in these tests.
Lachlan Writes Science 