Tomorrow: the Nobel Peace Prize

Already awarded this year:
Physiology or Medicine:
K. Deisseroth, P. Hegemann, and G. Nagel — for optogenetics: a way to switch individual nerve cells in a living brain on and off with light.

Physics:
F. Halzen — for the IceCube observatory in Antarctica and the discovery of ultra-high-energy neutrinos from space (nearly invisible particles from distant processes).

Chemistry:
H. Kagan and K. Soai — for how reactions spontaneously produce “one-handed” molecules (mirror-image forms). This matters for drugs: living things use only one of the two mirror forms.

Literature:
A. Carson (Canada) — for bold, inventive work that plays with the classical tradition and creates new forms of contemporary literature.
Main book:
Autobiography of Red (1998) — a novel in verse. The ancient myth of Heracles and the winged red monster Geryon is rewritten as the story of a modern teenager with wings and unrequited love.

Economics — Oct. 12