Nobel Prize Lecture Research Articles

Recognizing, treating and understanding pernicious anaemia.

Recognizing, treating and understanding pernicious anaemia.

In the beginning there was RNA, then came transcription regulation: the Nobel Prize Lectures 2006

In the beginning there was RNA, then came transcription regulation: the Nobel Prize Lectures 2006

Editorial comment

It is fitting that this commentary begins by citing the work of Emil Theodor Kocher. Fitting, not because Kocher was a surgeon and this is a surgical journal, but because he is known as much, if not more, for his contributions to pathophysiology than to surgery. Not that Kocher’s surgical achievements were trivial. He did receive the 1909 Noble Prize in Medicine and Physiology “for his work on the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid gland” [ [1] Noble Prize Citation. The Noble Foundation. Available from: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1909/. Accessed October 11, 2007. Google Scholar ]. As noted by Kazi and Rhys-Evans [ [2] Kazi R. Rhys-Evans P. Theodor E. Kocher (1841–1917): Nobel surgeon of the last century. J Otorhinolaryngol. 2004; 3 (Available from: http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijorl/vol3n1/kocher.xml. Accessed October 11, 2007.) Google Scholar ], Kocher, along with Lister and Hallsted, “did more to improve operative mortality than any other surgeons of their time.” Nonetheless Kocher’s legacy is to be the first to definitively associate the removal of the thyroid gland with a syndrome identical to acquired myxedema. Kocher’s 1909 Nobel Prize lecture [ [3] Kocher TE. Noble prize lecture. The Noble Foundation. Available from: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1909/kocher-lecture.pdf. Accessed October 11, 2007. Google Scholar ] is a classic description of severe hypothyroidism. He called the disorder that occurred after complete thyroidectomy “cachexia strumipriva.” The name is paradoxical, because Kocher used “fat” or “fatty” ≥20 times when describing patients with cachexia strumipriva. Influence of obesity and surgical weight loss on thyroid hormone levelsSurgery for Obesity and Related DiseasesVol. 3Issue 6PreviewThe pathophysiologic relationship between morbid obesity and thyroid hormones is not well understood. The goal of this study was to evaluate the influence of obesity and weight reduction after bariatric surgery on thyroid hormone levels. Full-Text PDF

Imagination and society. The affective side of institutions

Since the contributions by D. North [(1990). Institutions, institutional change, and economic performance. New York: CUP] and his Nobel Prize lecture [(1994). Economic performance through time, Nobel Prize Lecture. The American Economic Review, 84(3), 359–368], the relationship between mind and institutions has been increasingly investigated by economists. Mantzavinos, North, and Shariq [(2004). Learning, institutions, and economic performance. Perspectives on Politics, 2(1), 75–84] introduced the expression cognitive institutionalism in order to define this stream of research. In the first part of the paper we discuss some recent findings of the cognitive approach to institutions and its roots in the history of economic ideas. We also claim that in such an approach, no place has yet been found for a crucial faculty of the human mind, imagination. We then explore the concept of radical imaginary developed by Cornelius Castoriadis in his book The Imaginary Institution of Society (1975; 1987). From the perspective of cognitive economics, and on the grounds of Castoriadis’ legacy, we aim at highlighting some basic mechanisms of interaction between imagination, affectivity and institutions.

Conflict monitoring in dual process theories of thinking

Popular dual process theories have characterized human thinking as an interplay between an intuitive-heuristic and demanding-analytic reasoning process. Although monitoring the output of the two systems for conflict is crucial to avoid decision making errors there are some widely different views on the efficiency of the process. Kahneman [Kahneman, D. (2002). Maps of bounded rationality: A perspective on intuitive judgement and choice. Nobel Prize Lecture. Retrieved January 11, 2006, from: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2002/kahnemann-lecture.pdf] and Evans [Evans, J. St. B. T. (1984). Heuristic and analytic processing in reasoning. British Journal of Psychology, 75, 451–468], for example, claim that the monitoring of the heuristic system is typically quite lax whereas others such as Sloman [Sloman, S. A. (1996). The empirical case for two systems of reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 3–22] and Epstein [Epstein, S. (1994). Integration of the cognitive and psychodynamic unconscious. American Psychologists, 49, 709–724] claim it is flawless and people typically experience a struggle between what they “know” and “feel” in case of a conflict. The present study contrasted these views. Participants solved classic base rate neglect problems while thinking aloud. In these problems a stereotypical description cues a response that conflicts with the response based on the analytic base rate information. Verbal protocols showed no direct evidence for an explicitly experienced conflict. As Kahneman and Evans predicted, participants hardly ever mentioned the base rates and seemed to base their judgment exclusively on heuristic reasoning. However, more implicit measures of conflict detection such as participants’ retrieval of the base rate information in an unannounced recall test, decision making latencies, and the tendency to review the base rates indicated that the base rates had been thoroughly processed. On control problems where base rates and description did not conflict this was not the case. Results suggest that whereas the popular characterization of conflict detection as an actively experienced struggle can be questioned there is nevertheless evidence for Sloman’s and Epstein’s basic claim about the flawless operation of the monitoring. Whenever the base rates and description disagree people will detect this conflict and consequently redirect attention towards a deeper processing of the base rates. Implications for the dual process framework and the rationality debate are discussed.

Virtual Memory in Günter Grass's Im Krebsgang

AbstractThis essay is concerned with the significance of the references to the internet in Grass's recent novella Im Krebsgang. It examines recent public statements by Grass, including his Nobel Prize lecture of 1999, in order to expound the issues raised in Im Krebsgang. It distinguishes between the different types of commemoration exemplified by the main characters in the work (the narrator who was born on the night of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic in 1945, his mother Tulla Pokriefke who is a familiar figure from earlier narratives by Grass, and his son Konny who sets up a website commemorating the historical figure of Gustloff in a neo‐Nazi spirit). It explains the disjointed (crab‐like) character of the narrative as a means of maintaining openness in relation to both past and future, and it brings out the sense in which this mode of narration subverts the blurring of the real and the imaginary which Grass shows to be an inherent danger of cyberspace culture. The essay thus concludes that Grass is enacting a difference between the ethically neutral spatial freedom of the internet and the ethically coherent space of literary narrative.

Maps of Bounded Rationality: Psychology for Behavioral Economics

Daniel Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in economics sciences in 2002, December 8, Stockholm, Sweden. This article is the edited version of his Nobel Prize lecture. The author comes back to the problems he has studied with the late Amos Tversky and to debates conducting for several decades already. The statement is based on worked out together with Shane Federik the quirkiness of human judgment. Language: ru

Ribonucleases: From Prototypes to Therapeutic Targets? (General Articles)

Ribonucleases (RNases) have proven to be excellent model systems for the study of protein structure, folding and stability, and enzyme catalysis, resulting in four Nobel Prize lectures in chemistry. Beside this 'academic' success, RNases are also relevant from a medical point of view. The RNA population in cells is controlled post-transcriptionally by ribonucleases (RNases) of varying specificity. Other therapeutic proteins like angiogenin, neurotoxins, and plant allergens have RNase activity or significant structural homology to known RNases. Also, RNase activity in serum and cell extracts is elevated in a variety of cancers and infectious diseases. To date, no clinical drugs are available that target this important class of enzymes. Small-molecule RNase inhibitors derived from mono- or dinucleotides, as well as pentavalent oxyvanadate transition state analogs are found to be rather marginal inhibitors. These compounds bind their target RNase with dissociation constants in the micromolar range, whereas transition state theory predicts picomolar values for genuine transition states. The rational design for new transition state analog inhibitors requires knowledge of the precise nature of the transition state and of the occurring intermolecular enzyme-substrate interactions. This review focuses on these chemical and structural features of RNase A and RNase T(1), the best characterized members of two separate classes of ribonucleases.

Karl landsteiner and his major contributions to haematology

Karl landsteiner and his major contributions to haematology

Red cell agglutination: the first description by Creite (1869) and further observations made by Landois (1875) and Landsteiner (1901).

Red cell agglutination: the first description by Creite (1869) and further observations made by Landois (1875) and Landsteiner (1901).

Growth theory: an exposition

In the preface to the first edition of Theory (copyright 1970), the author writes: I have tried to give some feeling for the scope of aggregate theory of growth, notion of technical details, and some idea of the directions in which future research is likely to go. About four years ago, the OUP NY economics editor suggested to Professor Solow that he bring this book up to date, because of the large amount of recent literature, often referred to as the growth or more technically as growth This edition of Theory, which grew out of that conversation, begins with the author's Nobel Prize Lecture Growth Theory and After (1987) followed by the original six chapters of the first edition. The first edition appeared in 1970; the author maintains that basic growth theory is still best summarized in these chapters, using what is often classified as growth In the 70s, which happened to coincide witha worldwide productivity slowdown, very little work occurred in growth theory. It wasn't until the 1980s that surge of writing appeared, with the work of Roemer, Lucas, and others, what the author refers to as astonishing burst of theoretical and empirical research that still continues. The author developed a of the book for this edition, six entirely chpaters in which he discusses growth theory (endogenous growth theory) and its relationship to exogenous theory. As bridge between the two sets of chapters, he has written an essay entitled Intermezzo in which he discusses the relatively inactive period for growth theory in the 70s, before introducing the new endogenous theory of growth and contrasting it with earlier work. Solow is quick to agree that older growth theory can aptly be described as exogenous, because the growth rate itself was left unexplained, or rather was considered given (basically result of the actual rate of labor-augmenting technology). But treating the growth rate as exogenous does not make it permanent constant or inexplicable. Certainly things can be said about variety of (exogenous) factors affecting the growth rate; nevertheless the old theory did not provide, or try to give, systematic theory of the growth rate. To sum up, according to the author, the way to understand exogenous growth theory is to show how aggregate output adjusts to the rate of population growth and the rate of technological process, whatever they happen to be and for however long the persist (treated in Chapters 1-6 and the Intermezzo). By contrast, the main contribution of the (new) endogenous grotwh theory is to propose systematic theory of technological progress, model that actually explains the rate of growth. It is the contention of the author that no theory of innovation or growth can come up with formulaic way to arrive at growth rate. For that reason he believes there is something arbitrary introduced into all endogenous theories of the rate of growth. They claim to explain more than they can be expected to do. Rather than trying to pin down determinants of any steady-state growth rate, exogenous growth theory describes trends and policies that increase growth, including the growth rate. For reasons made explicit in the the author deals with AKtheory, convergence, and international cross-section studies, with only the passing attention he believes they deserve. In the second half of the book, starting in Chapter 7, the author recasts the older (exogenous) model (Chapters 1-6) so that it can be more easily compared with models. Chapters 8-11 takes close analytical look at hte key models: Lucas (8); Roemer (9); Grossman/Helpman (10); Aghion and Howitt (11). In each chapter he shows how an unwarranted assumption creeps into these models that try to determin growth rate endogenously. The final chapter looks at lessons from the growth theory and suggests where gaps may usefully be filled in future research. Despite his criticisms of the growth theory, the author is quik to acknowledge outstanding contributions made by the generation of theorists. This is an important book that will be required reading in graduate programs in macroeconomics as well as specific courses on growth theory, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. No other book provides such broad overviwe of the whole field and its evolution to the present.

Non-maximum Disequilibrium Macrodynamics

In his stimulating Nobel Prize Lecture, Paul Samuelson made the important point that there were interesting macrodynamic systems which could, in no sensible sense, be associated with maximization problems. The paradigmatic example he chose was the multiplier-accelerator system. In this paper I make an attempt to explore the connection between macrodynamics, rationality and computability against the backdrop provided by Samuelson's observation and Richard Goodwin's nonlinear methodological credo. It is shown that non-maximum, disequilibrium macrodynamics is perfectly consistent with standard rationality postulates.

It All Adds up: From the Dim Past to the Uncertain Future

Saul Bellow's fiction, honored by a Nobel Prize and a Pulitzer, among other awards, has made him a literary giant. Now, in his first nonfiction collection, Bellow's learned and original mind shines through over four decades of reflections on literature, on state of artist in violent uproar of contemporary life, and on life itself, the mysteries of our common human nature. Beginning with Mozart: An Overture, a personal bicentennial tribute to composer who means so much to Bellow, these carefully selected pieces, illuminated by Bellow's absolute clarity of language, range from his Nobel Prize lecture of 1976 to ruminations about his beloved city of Chicago, a city, Bellow writes, that builds itself up, knocks itself down again, scrapes away rubble, and starts over; to remembrances of passing friends - John Cheever, Allan Bloom, Isaac Rosenfeld, John Berryman; to state of novel in our time. Along way, he invokes Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Proust, Conrad, and other masters of novel to bear testament of his own life, his conviction of what novel as a work of art can do for a society benumbed by technology. Also included in this rich collection are pastoral, provocative travel pieces on Spain, Israel, Paris, Tuscany, and other special haunts. And finally, as chef d'oeuvre, revealing question-and-answer piece comprising A Half Life, and A Second Half Life, which is as close as we will come to an autobiography from this contemporary master of American fiction.

Staatsverschuldung und Demokratie

Policy options must remain within the realm of the feasible, and the interests of political agents must be recognized as constraints on the possible. James M. Buchanan (Nobel Prize Lecture, AER 1987, p. 248)

Targeting Nominal Income: An Appraisal

The practice of setting target growth rates for a year or more ahead for some measure of the mofiey supply is now followed by many industrialised countries. However it has been suggested by a number of authors (e.g. Meade (I978) in his Nobel prize lecture, Tobin (I980) in his retrospective on stabilisation policy, Brittan (I98I)) that it would be more sensible to pursue targets for nominal income rather than the money supply. Meade, for instance, argues that controlling nominal income is in any case the ultimate goal of those who favour fixed monetary targets, and that an excessive concentration on the means rather than the end is confusing to private agents and can lead to undesirable fluctuations in the demand for output when velocity shifts. He goes on to advocate that nominal income targets should be linked to the development of wage-fixing institutions designed to mimic competitive behaviour. In this paper we examine the implications of such a proposal for the performance of the economy in the context of a simple stochastic macroeconomic model under rational expectations. A contracting framework is adopted in which the wage is fixed in a state of uncertainty about future levels of demand and productivity. The objective of the authorities is to minimise the divergence of output from its full information equilibrium level. If labour supply is inelastic then it turns out that maintaining the level of nominal income is actually the optimal policy. If labour supply is elastic nominal income targetry provides an optimal response to demand (IS/LM) shocks but a suboptimal response to productivity shocks. However, a sufficient condition for a nominal income target to be preferable to a fixed money supply target is that the price elasticity of aggregate demand be less than unity. The paper concludes by examining the implications of pursuing target growth rates rather than levels. It should be conceded at the outset that there are several pertinent issues not addressed such as the greater comprehensibility of nominal income targets to private agents, or the possibility that nominal income targets may leave the authorities with too much discretion, e.g. Poole (I980). The issue of labour market reform is also ignored. This is an enormous subject which it would be impossible to do justice to here - see for instance Meade's own analysis of the problem in Meade (I982). Such reforms might be expected to affect the parameters of the model. Nevertheless since changes in labour market practices are neither a precondition for, nor a logical consequence of, nominal income targets, an independent analysis of the macrceconomic implications of the latter is still highly relevant.

The discovery of charge-conjugation parity asymmetry

The Nobel Prize lecture of Val Fitch is reprinted. The properties of neutral kaons that led to the discovery of the breaking of cp invariance are reviewed.

The origin of the elements

The 1978 Nobel Prize lecture is presented. A survey is given of during the last forty years.(AIP)

Wages and unemployment—a non-monetarist rejoinder

that the 'expectations-augmented' Phillips curve provides a model of the determination of money wages. He says that in its monetarist version the Phillips curve determines unemployment, not money wages: monetarist theory asserts only that movements of wages are in general determined by some combination of expectations and excess supply or demand. He argues that the evidence I quoted against fully competitive determination of wages in the short run is not inconsistent with this broader view of wage determination and concludes, somewhat ingenuously, that the failure of my evidence to refute the broad view is a positive reason for supposing the monetarist theory to be correct. Friedman certainly stated that the causation runs from wages to unemployment, and not the other way round, both in the lecture I quoted and subsequently in his Nobel Prize lecture (Friedman, 1975, 1977). Thus, on the test of consistency with those texts, Horsman is correct and my interpretation was indeed wrong. But the matter is not quite so easily disposed of. A little further consideration will show that Friedman's version of the Phillips curve necessarily carries with it the very process of wage deter mination discussed and refuted in my paper. The confusing verbal formulation used by Friedman reflects the failure of neoclassical theory to give a coherent explanation of how the invisible hand sets and maintains equilibrium prices. The possibility of equilibrium prices and wage rates under general neoclassical assumptions is demonstrated by numerous 'existence' theorems, but the necessity for their occurrence has not been demonstrated in any such general way. Thus Friedman follows the mainstream of modern theory in couching his exposition in terms

Radioimmunoassay: a probe for the fine structure of biologic systems

The development and techiques of radioimmunoassay are reviewed in the Nobel Prize lecture.(AIP)

Radioimmunoassay: A Probe for the Fine Structure of Biologic Systems

The development and techiques of radioimmunoassay are reviewed in the Nobel Prize lecture.(AIP)