NOBEL PRIZE 2013: AT A GLANCE

INTRODUCTION-
TheNobel Prize is a set of annual international awards bestowed in a number of categories by Swedish and Norwegian committees in recognition of cultural and/or scientific advances. The will of theSwedishinventorAlfred Nobelestablished the prizes in 1895.
The Peace Prize is awarded inOslo, Norway, while the other prizes are awarded inStockholm, Sweden. The Nobel Prize is widely regarded as the most prestigious award available in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace, and economics.
The various prizes are awarded yearly. Each recipient, or laureate, receives a gold medal, adiplomaand a sum of money, which is decided by theNobel Foundation.
Below is the list of nobel prize winners of 2013 and brief about their workings.
LITERATURE-
Alice Munro,82, the renowned Canadian short-story writer whose work explores the tangled relationships between men and women and small-town existence , won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Ms. Munro, widely beloved for her spare and psychologically fiction that is deeply revealing of human nature. She revolutionized the architecture of short stories, often beginning a story in an unexpected place then moving backward or forward in time, and brought a modesty and subtle wit to her work that admirers often traced to her background growing up in rural Canada.
Few of her famous works are- dear life: stories, dance of happy shades etc.

PHYSICS-

Franois Englert and Peter W. Higgs are jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 for the theory of how particles acquire mass. In 1964, they proposed the theory independently of each other . In 2012, their ideas were confirmed by the discovery of a so called Higgs particle at the CERN laboratory outside Geneva in Switzerland..
The awarded theory is a central part of the Standard Model of particle physics that describes how the world is constructed. According to the Standard Model, everything, from flowers and people to stars and planets, consists of just a few building blocks: matter particles. These particles are governed by forces mediated by force particles that make sure everything works as it should.
The entire Standard Model also rests on the existence of a special kind of particle: the Higgs particle. This particle originates from an invisible field that fills up all space. Even when the universe seems empty this field is there. Without it, we would not exist, because it is from contact with the field that particles acquire mass. The theory proposed by Englert and Higgs describes this process.
Even though it is a great achievement to have found the Higgs particle the missing piece in the Standard Model puzzle the Standard Model is not the final piece in the cosmic puzzle. One of the reasons for this is that the Standard Model treats certain particles, neutrinos, as being virtually massless, whereas recent studies show that they actually do have mass. Another reason is that the model only describes visible matter, which only accounts for one fifth of all matter in the cosmos. To find the mysterious dark matter is one of the objectives as scientists continue the chase of unknown particles at CERN.

MEDICINE-
The 2013 Nobel Prize honours Randy Schekman, James Rothman, Thomas Sdhof who have solved the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system. Each cell is a factory that produces and exports molecules. For instance, insulin is manufactured and released into the blood and signaling molecules called neurotransmitters are sent from one nerve cell to another. These molecules are transported around the cell in small packages called vesicles. The three Nobel Laureates have discovered the molecular principles that govern how this cargo is delivered to the right place at the right time in the cell.
Randy Schekman discovered a set of genes that were required for vesicle traffic. James Rothman unravelled protein machinery that allows vesicles to fuse with their targets to permit transfer of cargo. Thomas Sdhof revealed how signals instruct vesicles to release their cargo with precision.
Through their discoveries, Rothman, Schekman and Sdhof have revealed the exquisitely precise control system for the transport and delivery of cellular cargo. Disturbances in this system have deleterious effects and contribute to conditions such as neurological diseases, diabetes, and immunological disorders.
These discoveries have had a major impact on our understanding of how cargo is delivered with timing and precision within and outside the cell. The system is critical for a variety of physiological processes in which vesicle fusion must be controlled, ranging from signalling in the brain to release of hormones and immune cytokines. Defective vesicle transport occurs in a variety of diseases including a number of neurological and immunological disorders, as well as in diabetes. Without this wonderfully precise organization, the cell would lapse into chaos.
CHEMISTRY-
Chemists used to create models of molecules using plastic balls and sticks. Today, the modelling is carried out in computers. In the 1970s,Martin Karplus,Michael LevittandArieh Warshellaid the foundation for the powerful programs that are used to understand and predict chemical processes. Computer models mirroring real life have become crucial for most advances made in chemistry today.
This years Nobel Laureates in chemistry took the best from both worlds and devised methods that use both classical and quantum physics which can be understood in following way-
1)- in the classical model, calculations were simpler and large molecules could be studied. But impossible to simulate chemical reactions.
2)- A quantum model had to be used to study chemical reactions. But enormous computing power is required for calculations. Hence only small molecules could be modelled.
3)-the laureates married two ways of modelling by taking best of both worlds- quantum for atoms involved in reaction and classical of rest of the molecules.
Today the computer is just as important a tool for chemists as the test tube. Simulations are so realistic that they predict the outcome of traditional experiments.
Their program is revolutionary because it can be used for any kind of molecules. The size is no longer an issue.
PEACE-
The nobel prize for peace of this year is been awarded to OPCW (Organization for prohibition of chemical weapons).
During World War One, chemical weapons were used to a considerable degree. The Geneva Convention of 1925 prohibited the use, but not the production or storage, of chemical weapons. During World War Two, chemical means were employed in Hitlers mass exterminations. Chemical weapons have subsequently been put to use on numerous occasions by both states and terrorists. In 1992-93 a convention was drawn up prohibiting also the production and storage of such weapons. OPCW came into force in 1997. Since then the OPCW has, through inspections, destruction and by other means, sought the implementation of the convention. 189 states have acceded to the convention to date.
The conventions and the work of the OPCW have defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law. Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons. Some states are still not members of the OPCW. Certain states have not observed the deadline, which was April 2012, for destroying their chemical weapons. This applies especially to the USA and Russia.

ECONOMICS-
The economics nobel prize has been shared by Eugene Fama, Robert Shiller, Lars peter hansen. Their work ranges from the foundations of modern finance (fama) to defects in the mainstream models (fama and shiller) and improvements in statistical methodology (fama and hansen).
There is no way to predict the price of stocks and bonds over the next few days or weeks. But it is quite possible to foresee the broad course of these prices over longer periods, such as the next three to five years. These findings, which might seem both surprising and contradictory, were made and analyzed by these laureates.
Shiller warned about the 1990s-era "stock bubble" and about high home prices before the decline in housing values that greatly contributed to the recession from which the U.S. economy continues to recover,
Hansen developed a statistical method that was well suited to testing theories of asset pricing.
Fama, starting in the 1960s, helped to demonstrate that new information is quickly incorporated into stock prices, a fact that makes short-term price predictions difficult.
The Nobel committee said Fama's finding helped lead to the emergence of index stock funds, which are now a staple of so many investors' portfolios today.

The Laureates have laid the foundation for the current understanding of asset prices. It relies in part on fluctuations in risk and risk attitudes, and in part on behavioral biases and market frictions.






AGAM JAIN
MATERIALS USED-
The hindu newspaper of oct 10, oct 13.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2013/press.html
http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/14/news/economy/shiller-nobel-economics/index.html?iid=HP_LN
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/books/alice-munro-wins-nobel-prize-in-literature.html?_r=0
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2013/press.html
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2013/press.html
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2013/press.html
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2013/press.html