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HS 023: Nobel Prize – The Most Productive Existential Crisis in History
Last week the 2017 Nobel Prizes were announced! This inspired High Science to not only discuss this year's winners but to also explore the fascinating history of the prize. A man reading his own obituary in the newspaper led directly to the establishment of the most prestigious scientific award. The stories of notable past winners are also told and their respective fields are explained. We finish off with an embarrassing story of John and James getting way too high on edibles.
Topics Discussed:
Mermaids: Top half or bottom half?
Shout out to the first person to email us!
History of Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prize
Nobel Prizes 2017
Physics: Awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish, and Kip S. Thorne "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".
Medicine / Physiology: Awarded to Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young "for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm".
Chemistry: Awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson "for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution".
Literature: Kazuo Ishiguro
Peace: ICAN - International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Nuclear accidents: all the times we almost nuked ourselves (THERE WERE 32 CLOSE CALLS!!!)
The time a scientist dissolved two Nobel Prizes to protect them from Nazis
Notable past winners of the prize
Big Al (Albert Einstein) won for his work on the photoelectric effect
Marie Curie was the first person to win TWICE in two DIFFERENT fields!
Physics: Discovering radioactivity
Chemistry: Discovering Radium and Polonium
Quick lesson on radioactivity
Watson, Crick, and Wilkins for determining the double helix shape of DNA
Watson and Crick may have taken some ideas from Rosalind Franklin
Sir Alexander Fleming for discovering Penicillin: the first antibiotic
Warner Heisenberg for his work on the quantum uncertainty principle
Malala Yousafzai: youngest winner of the peace prize
Quick story about David Hahn: The radioactive boy scout
The story of when James and John had edibles
View all episodes
Last week the 2017 Nobel Prizes were announced! This inspired High Science to not only discuss this year's winners but to also explore the fascinating history of the prize. A man reading his own obituary in the newspaper led directly to the establishment of the most prestigious scientific award. The stories of notable past winners are also told and their respective fields are explained. We finish off with an embarrassing story of John and James getting way too high on edibles.
Topics Discussed:
Mermaids: Top half or bottom half?
Shout out to the first person to email us!
History of Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prize
Nobel Prizes 2017
Physics: Awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry C. Barish, and Kip S. Thorne "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves".
Medicine / Physiology: Awarded to Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young "for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm".
Chemistry: Awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson "for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution".
Literature: Kazuo Ishiguro
Peace: ICAN - International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Nuclear accidents: all the times we almost nuked ourselves (THERE WERE 32 CLOSE CALLS!!!)
The time a scientist dissolved two Nobel Prizes to protect them from Nazis
Notable past winners of the prize
Big Al (Albert Einstein) won for his work on the photoelectric effect
Marie Curie was the first person to win TWICE in two DIFFERENT fields!
Physics: Discovering radioactivity
Chemistry: Discovering Radium and Polonium
Quick lesson on radioactivity
Watson, Crick, and Wilkins for determining the double helix shape of DNA
Watson and Crick may have taken some ideas from Rosalind Franklin
Sir Alexander Fleming for discovering Penicillin: the first antibiotic
Warner Heisenberg for his work on the quantum uncertainty principle
Malala Yousafzai: youngest winner of the peace prize
Quick story about David Hahn: The radioactive boy scout
The story of when James and John had edibles