一年一度的諾貝爾獎盛會又到了。
頒發順序是醫學、物理、化學、文學、和平、經濟。得獎者如下:
Physiology or Medicine:
Robert G. Edwards
"for the development of in vitro fertilization"
The Father of the Test Tube Baby
Robert G. Edwards, the 2010 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, battled societal and establishment resistance to his development of the in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure, which has so far led to the birth of around 4 million people.
Physics:
Andre Geim Konstantin Novoselov
"for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene"
Graphene: Carbon's New Face
Imagine a sheet of material that's just one atom thick, yet super-strong, highly conductive, practically transparent and able to reveal new secrets of fundamental physics. That's graphene, isolated by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, 2010 Nobel Laureates in Physics.
Chemistry:
Richard F. Heck Ei-ichi Negishi Akira Suzuki
"for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis"
Molecule Makers
Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki share the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing new, more efficient ways of linking carbon atoms together to build the complex molecules that are improving our everyday lives.
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Literature:
Mario Vargas Llosa
"for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat"
Peruvian by birth and a truly international citizen, the 2010 Nobel Laureate in Literature embraces multiple genres (novels, plays, essays), and politics too, in his commitment to social change.
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Peace:
Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波)
"for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China"
Freedom of Speech in China
Among the many people campaigning for human rights in China, Liu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, has become the most visible symbol of the struggle. A long-term exponent of non-violent protest, he is currently serving an 11-year prison term.
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A Nobel Prize for a Chinese Dissident
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel:
Peter A. Diamond Dale T. Mortensen Christopher A. Pissarides
"for their analysis of markets with search frictions"
Finding the Right Match
As we all know, matching house buyers with those selling houses, or job seekers with the right vacancy, can be an inefficient process. This year's Laureates in Economic Sciences, Peter A. Diamond, Dale T. Mortensen and Christopher A. Pissarides, have created mathematical models which provide the framework for studying how such processes occur in the real world.