Nobel Prizes 2024, Baker and Hassabis and Jumper awarded the one for Chemistry

All the prizes that are awarded this week, day by day, in the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics.

We have entered the week of Nobel Prizes 2024, the one in which the most prestigious awards in the world will be awarded as every year, one per day, to individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to humanity in various fields, from medicine to literature through peace, this, perhaps , probably the most coveted and well-known Nobel Prize.

• Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine – Monday 7 October, 11.30am
• Nobel Prize for Physics – Tuesday 8 October, 11.45am
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry – Wednesday 9 October, 11.45am
• Nobel Prize for Literature – Thursday 10 October, 1pm
• Nobel Peace Prize – Friday 11 October, 11:00
• Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences – Monday 14 October, 11.45 am

From 1901 to the 2024 Nobel Prizes

The prizes are a prestigious recognition established by the chemist Alfred Nobel, and bear the name of its creator and of foundation which in turn bears the name of the Swedish scientist.When he died, Nobel stipulated in his will that his fortune would be used to reward “those who, during the previous year, have brought the greatest benefit to humanity." The Nobel Prize would thus have rewarded exceptional efforts in the fields in which he had been most involved during his life:physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.After his death, a long process began to realize his vision and i first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901.In 1969, a new award was established:the Sveriges riksbank prize in economic sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Prize for Economics.Its addition was an exception, to celebrate the tricentenary of the Swedish central bank.

Each prize is assigned by an institute or academy to living personalities who have achieved important goals in the progress of knowledge in the scientific and humanistic fields.The prizes awarded by the Nobel Foundation concern scientific achievements in the field of physics, chemistry And medicine, works and theories regarding the literature and theeconomy, in addition to the efforts of those who have stood out to foster the peace between different peoples.

Here is the calendar of awards for the 2024 Nobel Prizes, which will then be awarded to the winners in a ceremony to be held in December:

Monday, October 7 – Physiology or Medicine:Ambros and Ruvkun

The Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology went to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun “for the discovery of microRNAs and their role in post-transcriptional gene regulation”.

The prize is for discovery of a fundamental principle that regulates the way in which the activity of genes is regulated.“Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun – we read in the foundation's note – were interested in how different types of cells develop.They discovered microRNAs, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation.Their groundbreaking discovery revealed an entirely new principle of gene regulation that has proven essential for multicellular organisms, including humans.It is now known that the human genome encodes over a thousand microRNAs.Their surprising discovery revealed a completely new dimension of gene regulation.MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important to how organisms develop and function.”

Victor Ambros, American works at University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester.Gary Ruvkun al Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and atHarvard Medical School of Boston.

Their research began with the study of the worm C.elegans, revealed that small RNAs, called microRNAs, regulate the activity of genes by blocking the production of proteins from specific mRNAs.This process is essential for the correct development and functioning of specialized cells in multicellular organisms.The discovery, initially underestimated, demonstrated that microRNAs are present in many species, including humans, and their dysfunction can cause serious diseases such as cancer.

The prize is awarded by Karolinska Institutet, and recognizes fundamental discoveries in biology and medicine that improve human health.

Tuesday, October 8 – Physics:Hopfield and Hinton

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to John J.Hopfield, of Princeton University, e Geoffrey E.Hinton, of the University of Toronto,  “for their fundamental discoveries and inventions enabling machine learning with artificial neural networks”: essentially for their contribution to the implementation of machine learning, fundamental for the development of artificial intelligence.

This year's two Nobel Prize winners in physics they used tools from physics to develop methods that are the foundation of today's powerful machine learning artificial intelligence.John Hopfield created associative memory that can store and reconstruct images and other types of patterns in data, the Hopfield network, which when a distorted or incomplete image is provided to the network, works to reduce the overall energy of the system and "adjust" the image, until obtaining the version most similar to the one stored.

Geoffrey Hinton invented a method that can autonomously find properties in data and then perform tasks such as identifying specific elements in images:is called Boltzmann machine, and is capable of learning to recognize specific features in the data and can be used to classify images or generate new patterns similar to those it has been trained on.Hinton's work contributed to the rapid development of machine learning.

Awarded by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, rewards exceptional discoveries in physics, which can range from quantum mechanics to astrophysics.

 

Wednesday, October 9 – Chemistry:Baker and Hassabis-Jumper

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the American Dave Baker of the University of Washington, Seattle”for computational protein design” and the British Demis Hassabis and John M.Jumper by Google DeepMind “for protein structure prediction”: in both cases, scholars “hhave cracked the code of the surprising structures of proteins."

Also awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, it rewards discoveries that have brought significant advances in the field of chemistry.

David Baker he succeeded in the almost impossible feat of building completely new types of proteins. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper developed an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem:predict the complex structures of proteins.These discoveries, explains the Royal Swedish Academy, have enormous potential.

Proteins are generally made up of 20 different amino acids, which can be described as the building blocks of life.In 2003, David Baker he managed to use these building blocks to design a new protein which was unlike any other protein.Since then, his research team has produced one imaginative protein creation after another, including proteins that can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors.

The second discovery concerns the prediction of protein structures.In proteins, amino acids are linked together in long strings that fold to form a three-dimensional structure, which is decisive for the function of the protein.Since the 1970s, researchers had tried to predict protein structures from amino acid sequences, but this was notoriously difficult.However, four years ago, there was a stunning turning point.In 2020, Demis Hassabis And John Jumper have presented an artificial intelligence model called AlphaFold2. With its help, they were able to predict the structure of virtually all of the 200 million proteins that the researchers identified.Since their discovery, AlphaFold2 has been used by over two million people from 190 countries.Among myriad scientific applications, researchers can now better understand antibiotic resistance and image enzymes capable of decomposing plastic.

 

Thursday, October 10 – Literature (1pm)

Awarded by the Swedish Academy, it recognizes authors who have produced literary works of great value and impact.In 2023 the award went to Jon Fosse for his innovative theater and prose works "which give voice to the inexpressible" as per the motivation.

Friday, October 11 – Peace (11:00)

Perhaps the most significant prize, and with the strongest political value, which rewards efforts and intentions rather than real works, is awarded by Norwegian Nobel Committee, and honors individuals or organizations who have worked to promote world peace.Obtaining it in 2023 was no coincidence Narges Mohammadi for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and for the promotion of human rights and freedom for all citizens.

Monday, October 14 – Economic Sciences (11.45)

Established as mentioned by the Bank of Sweden in 1968 for 1969, it is awarded by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for outstanding contributions in the field of economic sciences.The chosen one in 2023 was Claudia Goldin for advancing our understanding of women's labor market outcomes.