Abstract
Alfred Nobel was one of the most successful chemists, inventors, entrepreneurs, and businessmen of the late nineteenth century. In a decision later in life, he rewrote his will to leave virtually all his fortune to establish prizes for persons of any nationality who made the most compelling achievement for the benefit of mankind in the fields of chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace among nations. The prizes were first awarded in 1901, five years after his death. In considering his choice of prizes, it may be pertinent that he used the principles of chemistry and physics in his inventions and he had a lifelong devotion to science, he suffered and died from severe coronary and cerebral atherosclerosis, and he was a bibliophile, an author, and mingled with the literati of Paris. His interest in harmony among nations may have derived from the effects of the applications of his inventions in warfare (“merchant of death”) and his friendship with a leader in the movement to bring peace to nations of Europe. After some controversy, including Nobel’s citizenship, the mechanisms to choose the laureates and make four of the awards were developed by a foundation established in Stockholm; the choice of the laureate for promoting harmony among nations was assigned to the Norwegian Storting, another controversy. The Nobel Prizes after 115 years remain the most prestigious of awards. This review describes the man, his foundation, and the prizes with a special commentary on the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Highlights
Since the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, world’s scientific, literary, and political communithe recipients have captured the interest of the ties
Alfred Nobel and His Prizes gories of chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, and literature are honored at a ceremony in Stockholm where they receive their diploma and medal, and a document indicating the value of their share of that year’s monetary award and deliver a lecture describing the significance of the work leading to the prize
Neither the ideas nor the work that led to the prize were even conceivable at that time, given the limited state of knowledge of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA), and nucleotide biosynthesis
Summary
Since the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, world’s scientific, literary, and political communithe recipients have captured the interest of the ties. The University of Rochester named a large, newly built medical research building for Arthur Kornberg in 1999, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Severo Ochoa in 1959 for their description of the biological synthesis of ribonucleic and deoxyribonucleic acid. Henrik Carl Peter Dam, was at the time of the receipt of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine a senior associate in biochemistry at the University of Rochester.[4] He shared the prize in 1943 with the American biochemist Edward Adelbert Doisy for the discovery of vitamin K This vitamin is required for the complete formation of several proteins that participate in normal blood coagulation. With King Gustav V sending his congratulations; the wartime conditions prevented travel to Stockholm
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