The Nobel Prize is considered the biggest and the highest honour known to man. The winners of this award are globally revered for their contributions to society and humanity at large.
These are people who have dedicated their lives in making the world a better place by putting years of hard work, dedication, and study into the kind of work they do.
We bring to you a list of 2017’s Nobel laureates.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to America’s Jeffrey C Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W Young for their research and discovery on the human body's daily rhythms.
They isolated a gene that controls the normal daily biological rhythm of human bodies and “were able to peek inside our biological clock and elucidate its inner workings.”
Their research answered consequential questions about sleep and the body’s need to perform certain biological activities. According to them, bodies of human beings, plants and animals are constantly trying to perceive and adapt to the changes in the environment around them.
Therefore, with every passing moment and every change that takes place, hormonal flow takes place in the body. This causes various biological processes like sleeping, resting, and waste secretion to takes place according to the clock of each body part.
This discovery will help us understand sleep patterns, food habits, hormonal flow, blood pressure, and body temperature, which will further help us combat illnesses caused by sudden changes in the biological system.
The awardees had been working on the same since 1984.
Nobel Prize in Physics
Scientists Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish, and Kip Thorne won the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics for decisive contribution in the observation of gravitational waves.
The three scientists have proven that there are gravitational waves in space. This discovery will help us understand the elusive black holes and may pave way for discovery of life beyond our planet.
This is something completely new and different, opening up unseen worldsthe Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Scientists Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson won the 2017 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing cryo-electron microscopy which simplifies and improves the imaging of biomolecules. They were declared winners on 4 October.
This method has moved biochemistry into a new era.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Nobel Prize in Literature
British author Kazuo Ishiguro won the Nobel Prize in Literature 2017 on 5 October.
Apart from authoring eight books, Ishiguro has also penned scripts for films and television. The themes that Ishiguro’s work is associated with have been those of time, memory, and self-disillusionment.
His latest novel, The Buried Giant (2015), explored how memory relates to oblivion, history to the present, and fantasy to reality.
The Nobel laureate was born on 8 November 1954 in Japan, and his family moved to the United Kingdom when he was five-years-old.
Nobel Peace Prize
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) on 6 October.
The organisation received the award for all that it has done to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of using nuclear weapons and for putting in ground-breaking effort to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.
ICAN is a coalition of non-governmental organisations from around 100 different countries.
At a point in time when different parts of the world are enduring nuclear threats, economic crisis and environmental issues, the ICAN brings tremendous hope.
Nobel Prize in Economics
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to American economist Richard H Thaler.
He was awarded the prize for his contribution to behavioural economics.
Thaler, in his research, tried to bridge the gap between economics and psychology. His research will help understand the psychology of people belonging to all economic classes better, and hence, will further facilitate economic planning bearing their psychology in mind.
Thaler has co authored the global bestseller ‘Nudge’ (2008). The concepts of behavioural economics have been used in the book to tackle many of society’s major problems.
(Breathe in, Breathe out: Are you finding it tough to breathe in polluted air? Join hands with FIT in partnership with #MyRightToBreathe to find a solution for pollution. Send in your suggestions to fit@thequint.com or WhatsApp @ +919999008335)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)