Three biologists were announced today as winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology. Two of them won the Dan David Prize this year on behalf of Tel Aviv University, which is also equal in monetary value to the Nobel Prize
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Tamara Traubman
Three biologists were announced yesterday (Monday) as winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology.
The prize will be awarded to them "for discoveries in the field of genetic regulation of organ development and death."
A programmed cell," said the award committee. The value of the prize is about one million dollars.
The winners are Sidney Brenner, 75 years old, born in South Africa, who spent most of his research years
in the UK; John Selston, 60, who until recently was the director of the Sanger Center
In England, approximately one-third of the human genome was encoded; and the American Robert Horvitz, 55 years old
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The announcement of the Nobel Prize winners
Medicine opens the week when the names of the winners in the other fields will be announced.
The scientists devoted a significant part of their scientific careers to the study of a tiny worm called
"C-elegans". Brenner established the status of the worm as a "model organism", meaning an organism
Has a relatively small complexity, is easier to research, and the processes revealed in it are valid
Also for the biology of complex organisms, including humans. Sidney Brenner performed
Pioneering studies in the study of the development processes of the C. elegans, thereby making a contribution
Crucial to understanding how living things develop.
John Selston, who began his work on the worm as a student of Brenner's, discovered how cells fit
Some in the worm "suicide" during development. There is a kind of software in the cells
Suicide, which is activated, among other things, also during conception and participates in the shaping of the fetus.
Robert Horvitz discovered and characterized key genes in the worm, which control the activation of software
The suicide of the cells. Later, he discovered that parallel genes also exist
in humans.
Brenner is considered an exceptional scientist not only because of his scientific works, but also because
The criticism he often slams at the scientific establishment, and his sense of humor, which stands out in the background
The dry image that the average scientist has.
"Scientists are like politicians"
For example, the scientists who deciphered the human genome published it with great solemnity and promised
Because now the basis is found for finding new drugs that will cure the diseases. in an interview
To "Haaretz" in May of this year, Brenner said: "This genome is in a complete mess. people
They say we now have the foundation. Well we're not even close to the base.
I have worked a lot with the human genome, much of it is still not properly assembled.
The only chromosomes that we have actually finished deciphering are chromosomes 21 and 22 and they
The two smallest chromosomes. All the promises that the genes will solve all the problems
And the diseases - (but) it is still not clear that any of this will happen. But scientists are like
Politicians, they need to make promises."
Selston and Brenner won this year's Dan David Award, which Tel University began awarding this year
Spring. Selston chose to allocate part of his share of the prize to researchers from Bethlehem University.
He even asked to go to the city, but finally canceled it because of a defense hardware operation that was going on at the time.
Scientists from the USA and Japan won the Nobel Prize in Physics
by Tamara Traubman
The scientists: Raymond Davis, Masatoshi Koshiba and Riccardo Giacconi will receive the award at a ceremony to be held in December
Photo: IP
Masatoshi Koshiba. Build a detector
Neutrino
Three physicists, two from the United States and one
Mipan, were announced today (Tuesday) as winners of the prize
Nobel Prize in Physics. Their discoveries dealt with particles
Neutrinos, mysterious and elusive particles,
and the origin of X-rays (x-rays) in the universe.
Half of the prize went to Ray Davis, 87 years old
from the University of Pennsylvania in the USA,
and Masatoshi Koshiba, 76, from Univ
Tokyo in Japan. The two performed experiments
Pioneers, within the framework of which giant sub-vessels were built
ground in order to locate my particles
The neutrino.
The neutrino particles are created in places that have
High energy like the sun. They fly through
The matter in the universe without any disturbance, and very hard
to locate them since they rarely create
interactions with the material through which they pass.
Every second, thousands of billions of particles
Neutrinos pass through our bodies without us feeling it. Scientists sometimes simulate them
to the "ghosts" of the universe.
Davis designed an experiment, based on the theoretical calculations of his colleague John
Bacall from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, who first managed to locate it
Neutrino particles coming from the sun. The neutrinos offer an unprecedented look at
The internal processes that occur in the sun, because they are created by them
Processes that cause the sun to burn. "In fact," wrote the members of the award committee, "the experiment
Davis's was the first confirmation that the sun shines as a result of fusion
nuclear".
Koshiba won part of the prize for building another neutrino detector, the machine
"Kamiukand", in Japan. In the experiment, neutrino particles that came from a supernova were discovered
Far away (a supernova is a star that ends its life in a massive explosion). the experiments
That value "confirmed the results of Davis", wrote the members of the award committee.
When Davis designed his first experiment, many in the science community thought
that the experiment is too difficult to perform and that the field is "not very interesting". Today he explored
The neutrino is one of the most active fields in physics and astrophysics. "The knowledge
The new one has changed the way we look at the universe," it said in a statement it published
The award committee.
Riccardo Giacconi, 71 years old, born in Italy and a US citizen, won half of the prize
The Nobel "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which led to his age in their origins
In the universe of X-rays". Giacconi built the first telescope designed for detection
X-rays and provided "sharp and completely new images of the universe".
