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NOBEL PRIZE 2014
Alfred Bernhard Nobel)
(21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896)
Organized by
School of Chemistry
Vol. XIII
Edited by: Dr. Nabakrushna Behera
School of Chemistry, S.U.
(E-mail: nkbehera@suniv.ac.in)
Sambalpur University
Jyoti Vihar‒768 019, Odisha
Dr. S. C. Jamir
Governor, Odisha
Raj Bhawan
Bhubaneswar-751 008
January 15, 2015
MESSAGE
I am glad to know that the School of Chemistry, Sambalpur University is
organising the “Nobel Prize-2014” seminar on January 22, 2014.
The prestigious Nobel Prize symbolizes World-wide recognition to the pioneering
work done in different fields. 2014 is a year of pride for the country as an Indian Shri
Kailash Satyarthi shared the Nobel Peace Prize. Having a seminar on the prize winning
work of Nobel laureates is indeed a laudable endeavour. I am sure the talk by experts
will be enlightening and inspiring for both teachers and students to aspire big in mind
and action.
I wish the publication all success.
(S. C. Jamir)
Prof. (Dr.) C. R. Tripathy
Vice-Chancellor
Jyoti Vihar – 768 019
January 15, 2015
MESSAGE
I am glad to know that the School of Chemistry, Sambalpur University, like
previous years, is organizing this year a seminar on Nobel prize winning work on 22nd
January, 2015 to disseminate knowledge on the excellent contributions made by the
Nobel laureates in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, economics,
literature and peace. The idea of organizing such a distinctive seminar is exemplary. I
am sure this seminar will continue to generate a lot of keenness and awareness among
the academic fraternity in days ahead.
I congratulate the organizers for this impressive endeavour.
I wish the seminar all success.
(C. R. Tripathy)
From Visionary…
Prof. G. B. Behera
Retd. Professor of Chemistry
Hill Town, Bhawanipatna-766001, Odisha.
MESSAGE
I am happy to know that the School of Chemistry, Sambalpur University is
organizing the NOBEL PRIZE SEMINAR on the 22nd of January, 2015. In fact it is a
unique feature of Sambalpur University in the area of popularization of science. The
students and the faculty should know the shift in the frontier of knowledge. The
University should take credit for such innovative effort.
Creativity is an art which if properly tended takes shape and opens many
windows. All of us have a child in us, which needs to be pampered. The child in us
becomes inquisitive and makes all out effort to give a shape to this inquisitiveness. It
was a child who had the guts and innocence to verbally state the truth in The
Emperor’s New Clothes . The scientists on the one hand are trying to understand the
vastness of the universe and on the other hand are trying to look at a cell, which has
opened many possibilities in many fields of human welfare.
I congratulate the organizers for the consistence effort to organize the seminar
every year and publish a book out of the deliberations. This should continue with
greater zeal and with a greater vision in trying to invite some Nobel Laureates to this
seminar in future with the support of the University. This shall activate the dormant
dreams of the young generation and help them to create.
With a Happy New Year to all. May the Almighty shower blessings on all for a
better, prosperous, meaningful and purposeful life.
(G. B. Behera)
Dr. A. K. Behera
Head, School of Chemistry
Sambalpur University, 768 019
FOREWORD
Nobel Prize is an appreciation by the global elites for the highest contribution of a
person or institute to the society recognized in the year of award. Mostly it is an
accretion of excellence with time amplifying more and more to reach to the excellence
of global appreciation. The Nobel Prize Seminar (NPS), organized by the School of
Chemistry every year is an effort to disseminate the knowledge on the contribution to
the passionate academic community. The year 2014 means a lot as an Indian Shri
Kailash Satyarthi shared the Nobel Peace Prize owing to his dedication towards
betterment of the children.
We have been fascinated towards the organization of the conference and have
made an annual event of the School because of its unique kind at the National level and
the benefit that it extends to the students as well as the teachers of the University. The
School is publishing the proceedings of the seminar in the form of a booklet regularly. I
must appreciate the endeavour of the authors in contributing their articles in time
which helps us in publishing an edited volume on Nobel Prize every year by the School.
These would have not been possible without the support of my colleagues and
students who have generously extended all kind of helps in making this seminar and the
publication of the proceedings of the seminar a grand success. Such helps from all
spheres would certainly help us to perpetuate our venture in holding the seminar and
publishing the proceedings.
(A. K. Behera)
From the Organizing Secretary…
On behalf of the Organizing Committee of Nobel Prize Seminar 2014, I am
honored and delighted to present the proceedings of the seminar on Nobel Prize
winning work for the year 2014, organized by School of Chemistry, Sambalpur
University on 22nd January 2015.
The technical program of the seminar is structured with six different invited talks
on various subjects/fields (viz. Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicines, Economics,
Literature, & Peace), honored by the Nobel Committee. This seminar is aimed at
providing a platform that brings together students, teachers, intellectuals, innovators,
scientific and social thinkers who offer the best thoughts to the Society. Participants will
not only professionally gain practical and actionable insight with persuasive ideas but
also personally they will enrich themselves by creative deliberations/speeches in the
seminar.
It is firmly believed that inquisitiveness leads to creativity and creativity leads to
innovation, where innovation continues to be a guiding lamp for millions. In order to
move with time, we must not only be well versed with the expanding knowledge, but we
must use it, disseminate it and move ahead with positive frame of mind.
Needless to mention, it is a strong-willed journey since 1995 which the School of
Chemistry has been holding this inimitable seminar every year to propagate the best
idea recognized by Nobel Committee, among the students, teachers and other
intellectuals. The interest, keenness and moral support of the speakers (authors) are
gratefully acknowledged as it paved the way to publish the proceedings in time. The
proceedings contain a total of six articles based on the Nobel Prize winning work for the
year 2014. Besides, some focused information has been included at the end of these
articles.
In fact, the proceedings which contain a bunch of information, shared thoughts
and realizations of the Nobel Laureates will enthuse the readers and serve as a precious
orientation and informative source.
Hopefully, participants who are going to attend and involve themself in the
seminar deliberations will be tremendously benefited.
WISH YOU ALL A VERY LOVELY MOMENT…
(N. K. Behera)
Nobel Prize 2014
CONTENTS
1
2
3
Alfred Nobel’s Will
Subject
1
Author
2-50
(i)
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
S. C. Panda
2
(ii)
Nobel Prize in Physics
S. Agrawal
14
(iii)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
H. Chakraborty
21
(iv)
Nobel Prize in Literature
K. Misra
30
(v)
Nobel Prize in Peace
A. K. Padhi
37
(vi)
Nobel Prize in Economics
S. S. Rath
46
Fact file of Nobel Prize Awards : At a Glance
51-54
(i)
The Young Nobel Laureates
51
(ii)
The Old Nobel Laureates
52
(iii)
Nobel Laureate Families
53
(iv)
Powerful Equations at Nobel Corner
54
4
Together We Can
55
6
About Speakers
56
7
References and Supplementary Reading
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ALFRED NOBEL S WILL
On November 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist and the inventor of
Dynamite signed his third and last will at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris. When it
was opened and read after his death, the will caused a lot of controversy both in Sweden
and internationally, as Nobel had left much of his wealth for the establishment of a
prize. His family opposed the establishment of the Nobel Prize, and the prize awarders
he named refused to do what he had requested in his will. It was five years before the
first Nobel Prize could be awarded in 1901. Now this award has become highly
distinguished award. Will reads as follows…
I, the undersigned, Alfred Bernhard Nobel, do hereby, after mature deliberation,
declare the following to be my last Will and Testament with respect to such property as
may be left by me at the time of my death:
The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: “The capital shall be
invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually
distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on
mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the
person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the
person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall
have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall
have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency; and one part to the person
who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing
armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by
the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by the Caroline Institute in Stockholm; that
for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be
elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall
be given to the nationality of the candidates, so that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a
Scandinavian or not”.
November 27, 1895
Alfred Bernhard Nobel
That Mr. Alfred Bernhard Nobel, being of sound mind, has of his own free will declared the above to be
his last Will and Testament, and that he has signed the same, we have, in his presence and the presence of
each other, hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses:
Sigurd Ehrenborg
Former Lieutenant
Paris: 84 Boulevard Haussmann
R. W. Strehlenert
Civil Engineer
4, Passage Caroline
Thos Nordenfelt
Constructor
8, Rue Auber, Paris
Leonard Hwass
Civil Engineer
4, Passage Caroline
Note: The Prize in Economics is not one of the original Nobel Prizes created by the will of Alfred Nobel.
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NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE
WHERE YOU ARE AND HOW YOU MOVE AROUND: MYSTERY UNFOLDED
John O'Keefe
May-Britt Moser
Edvard I. Moser
In this write up, on which backdrop the Nobel laureates in Physiology or
Medicine for 2014 were engaged in finding the puzzle of the abilities of spatial function
and navigation by the brain, how they did their experiments were narrated in a lucid
manner. Brief outline of theories on space and behavior, rat maze, Tolman s experiment,
electrophysiology of rats, anatomy of Hippocampus are described so as to enable the
readers to have a clear understanding of the groundbreaking discovery of inner GPS of
the brain. Future implications in cognitive neuroscience as well as in Medicine are
highlighted in brief.
Introduction
The
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is shared by Dr. John O Keefe, Dr.
May-Britt Moser and her husband Dr. Edvard I. Moser for their discoveries of cells that
constitute a positioning system in the brain in field of physiology and spatial behavior.
O Keefe was awarded half of the m Swedish krona around £
,
prize while the
other two winners received a quarter each. The field of cognitive neuroscience means
the scientific study of the neural mechanisms underlying cognition and is a branch of
neuroscience. Cognitive neuroscience is related to cognitive psychology and focuses on
the neural substrates of mental processes and their behavioral manifestations. There is
a thin line of difference as far as psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience are
concerned. A remarkable grasp in subjects like experimental psychology, neurobiology,
neurology, physics, and mathematics is a must for Cognitive neuroscientists. The brain
is the most complex structure in the known universe, where every square millimeter of
space is packed full of networks that enable us to think, feel and move. It is the brain
that makes all of us including animals conscious about the surroundings. Perception,
cognition, emotion, spatial function and navigation are some of the functions of the
brain after which thinkers and scientists have been pondering for long. In terms of time
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we have past, present and future components everywhere. Present builds upon past
experience and endeavors to make the future bright. This groundbreaking discovery
was possible for contributions of research in cognitive neuroscience and ideas of great
thinkers of the past. Advancement in study techniques such as staining and recording of
electrical activities of brain also helped to conduct experiments on rats. To understand
this fundamentals research of inner GPS for which these three scientists were
recognized by the Nobel Committee this year we should have some knowledge about
the ideas of philosophers and scientists about space, behavior, mental map, anatomy of
hippocampus formation, EEG, rat maze besides the success stories of the Nobel
laureates.
Space and Behaviour
John O Keefe in his book The (ippocampus as a Cognitive Map raises certain
issues related to space. He says SPACE plays a role in all our behaviour. We live in it,
move through it, explore it, and defend it. Is space simply a container, or receptacle, for the
objects of the sensible world? Could these objects exist without space? Is space a feature of
the physical universe, or is it a convenient figment of our minds? If the latter, how did it get
there? Do we construct it from space less sensations or are we born with it? Of what use is
it? It has motivated him to make an in depth analysis of the perceptions of philosophers
like Leibnitz, Newton, Clarke, Berkeley, and Kant. O Keefe and Lynn Nadel identified two
spatial conceptions: relative space and absolute space. Relative space coincides with
personal space or egocentric space which centers on the self . Relative Space also
includes space as conceived by Einstein. Absolute space is Newtonian which is
singular and does not depend on the beholder. There is a single absolute space in the
universe. During the 18th century the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
argued that some mental abilities exist independent of experience. He considered
perception of place as one of these innate abilities through which the external world
had to be organized and perceived. In other words, humans have an inborn sense of
absolute Newtonian space. This Kantian theory actually provided 20 th century scientists
the framework for empirical investigation into how the space that we perceive is
constructed in the mind. Kant s theory about space influenced Keefe. 1 The work of the
American psychologist Edward Tolman in 1948 was a key step towards this final
understanding
Amazing Maze for Rats
Rats are excellent runners, climbers, crawlers, burrowers, and swimmers; they
are highly adaptive. Whether its remote wilderness or bustling cities matter little to the
rats to make their home with ease. This might explain why rats are the most commonly
used animal in psychology research; psychologists have been running rats in mazes for
over a hundred years. In his 1937 APA presidential address, Edward Chance Tolman
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made an interesting statement:"Everything important in psychology … can be
investigated in essence through the continued experimental and theoretical analysis of the
determinants of rat behavior at a choice-point in a maze." It still holds good.
The idea for the first maze study was dawned upon the mind of Sanford and
another Clark graduate student, Linus Kline. They had been studying rats and were
especially interested in what they called the rat's "home-finding" ability. Kline had
noticed runways made by large feral rats to their nests on their farm in Virginia." Once,
Sanford noticed maze like appearances of the runways which were exposed during an
excavation. This observation enabled Sanford using the Hampton Court Maze design to
study "home-finding." Mazes reached their experimental heyday in the 1930s and
1940s, when Tolman could claim that rat behavior at a choice point was the key to
psychological knowledge and not be laughed off the stage.2
The classical maze consists of a large platform with a series of vertical walls and a
transparent ceiling. The rat starts in one location, runs through the maze, and finishes at
a reward in another location.
Fig. 1: Other types of mazes used in experiments are T maze,
Multiple T maze, Y maze, Radial Arm maze and Morris water maze. 3
Anatomy of Hippocampus
The hippocampus formation is situated on the inner side of the brain. It includes
the parahippocampal gyrus, subiculum, hippocampus, dentate gyrus, and associated
white matter, notably the fimbria, whose fibres continue into the fornix. Hippocampus is
a C-shaped structure deep in the middle of the brain. The hippocampus proper and the
dentate gyrus form two interlocking Cs. The cortex adjacent to the hippocampus is
known as the entorhinal area; it is present along the whole length of the
parahippocampal gyrus. The subiculum is a transitional zone between the entorhinal
and hippocampal cortices. The hippocampus has direct connections to the entorhinal
cortex (via the subiculum) and the amygdala. The hippocampus coordinates
information from a variety of sources. A major flow of information through the
hippocampus is a one-way circuit. Some inputs to the hippocampus (perforant
pathway) from the entorhinal cortex pass through to the dentate gyrus. CA means
cornu ammonis- an area of hippocampus. From the dentate gyrus connections are made
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Nobel Prize 2014
to CA3 of the hippocampus proper via mossy fibers and to CA1 (dorsal partition of
hippocampus) via Schaffer collaterals. From these two CA fields information then
passes through the subiculum entering the alveus, fimbria, and fornix and then to other
areas of the brain.4
Fig. 2: Anatomy of Hippocampus formatiom.4
Cognitive Map
It has been told earlier how the idea of the cognitive maps introduced by Tolman
has motivated Keefe. A brief account of Tolman s findings is given here to correlate its
importance to the present path breaking discovery of mental mapping of the brain. A
cognitive map is a mental process to store and retrieve spatial information, such as the
relative locations of objects. In other words, the firing of these neurons can tell the
animal, You are here. They are thought to underlie spatial navigation, among other
behaviors. Tolman reported that as early as 1929 Lashley had observed something
quite interesting about rats. A rat that he had trained in a maze escaped near the
starting point and ran across the top of the maze directly to the goal-box where the food
was located. This behavior suggested that the rat had a map of the territory, not just a
trained path to the goal. He wanted to know whether rats came to understand the
spatial layout of the environment by behavioural mechanisms alone or whether there
was a cognitive process in the brain that governed this navigational ability. Tolman and
Honzik conducted experiments on rats to answer this question.
They took three groups of food-deprived rats in the start box of a 14-unit T maze
From the first day food was made available at the end of the maze for the first group. A
second group of rats never found food at the end of the maze for the entire study. In
case of third group of rats food was placed at the end of the maze from 11 th day till the
22nd day of the study. The third group wandered for 10 days and got no food and
during this process their speed increased and error became less as the days passed
since the 11th day. This suggested to Tolman that rats spontaneously formed a mental
map of the maze that allowed them to identify locations and navigate their way through
even without reinforcement. This problem space was termed as cognitive map by
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psychologist E. C. Tolman. The cognitive map is likely to show where they go and the
routes used. Clark Hull disagreed with Tolman, and argued that the behavioral data
could be explained by stimulus-response chains. This dispute continued for decades.
During the
s and s, (ull s behaviorist interpretation was dominant. The advent
of cognitive psychology in the late 1960s championed Tolman and his maps.5
With the advent of techniques to record from cells in the brain of animals that
were freely moving in the environment, using chronically implanted micro wires
hundreds of studies of animal navigation and its physiological basis have been
performed. One result of these studies has been the conclusion that the hippocampus is
a crucial part of the navigation systems of many animals. The hippocampus is equally
crucial for path-integration-based cognitive map learning in rats. Therefore the
hippocampus seems to mediate a transition from relatively simple spatial mechanisms
such as sun compass orientation and path integration to more complex map-based
navigational mechanisms. Earlier research had suggested that damage to a rat's
hippocampus causes it to become confused when attempting spatial tasks. O Keefe and
Nadel felt that humans and animals use absolute space and that it is generated in the
hippocampus. Now the task before O'Keefe was how different hippocampus regions
were related to rat s movement. Second task was to find out whether there was any
neural system which enables the animal to make a cognitive or spatial map.
Physiology: EEG of Rats
EEG means electro encephalogram. It is the recording of electrical activity of the
brain. EEG is relatively easy to record in rats. A large electrode is put into a brain region;
signal is amplified. Sum of electric currents produced by large numbers of neighboring
neurons is recorded. If the neurons are synchronized, slow, synchronous extra-cellular
currents should be observed. When EEG recordings are made on the rat hippocampus,
roughly half the time a steady 6-10 cycle-per-second wave is recorded and termed the
theta rhythm Fig. . Theta in the rat occurs whenever the rat moves and when the
animal appears to be paying attention to distant objects. By
, the time of book s
publication, rat theta had been carefully studied for over 20 years, both in terms of the
underlying physiology and its behavioral significance.
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Nobel Prize 2014
Fig. 3: Theta Rhythm6
Mapping the External World: The Place Cells
As we are aware now that Tolman s theory of formation of a cognitive map that
enabled animals to navigate and find the optimal path through the environment were
not dependent on chains of sensory-motor response relationships as proposed by the
behaviourists as a prerequisite for achieving complex behaviours. But his theory did not
address where in the brain these functions may be localized and how the brain
computes such complex behaviours.
John O Keefe, who is now , went ahead to answer this puzzle. (is background
in physiological psychology, a fruitful tenure with Ronald Melzack at McGill University
before he moved to the laboratory of the pain researcher Patrick Wall at University
College in London, where he started his work on behaving animals in the late 1960s
helped him to achieve this wonderful feat in the field of spatial behavior. Besides these,
three more eminent neuroscientists have a great role in motivating Keefe to unravel the
mystery of mind mapping by brain. They are E. C. Tolman, D. O. Hebb and A. Black.
That s the reason why he and Lynn dedicated their book titled The (ippocampus as a
cognitive map to these three.1 According to the authors, Tolman first dreamed of
cognitive maps in rats and men; Hebb taught them to look for those maps in the brain
and Black insisted that they pursue their route with rigour. This dedication can be
considered a manifesto of his inspiration and of his resilience.
Rats with hippocampus damage were found to be hyperactive and poor at spatial
tasks such as mazes. They were not able to alter response on successive trials which
might be due to the loss of neural system responsible for providing the animal with a
cognitive map of its environment. Prof. Keefe focused on the behavior of hippocampus
units of rat.
In University College of London, he discovered the place cells, when recording
from neurons in the dorsal partition of hippocampus, called CA1, together with
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Nobel Prize 2014
Dostrovsky, in rats moving freely in a bounded area (O'Keefe and Dostrovsky, 1971). He
recorded from pyramidal neurons, the principal neurons of the hippocampus, in rats as
they moved freely around a big circular arena. The electrodes are connected to the
amplifiers with a long, flexible tether. An individual neuron is silent almost all the time,
except when the rat walks into a particular region of space, when the neuron fires a big
burst of spikes. This region is called a place field, and the place fields of all the neurons
cover the entire environment. Crucially, the cells weren t just registering the location,
but also appeared to be making circuits constituting an inner map of the place. Certain
neurons fired when the rat was at a certain place and certain others fired when it was at
another place. This collection of neurons was in effect a two-dimensional representative
map of the room. If the rat was put in another part of the room, another set of nerve
cells got activated. When the animal was returned to the original location, the original
cells were reactivated. The upshot: The memory of a place was stored as a specific
combination of these nerve or place cells. By systematically changing the environment
and testing different theoretical possibilities, O Keefe showed that the firing not merely
registered the visual input in the neurons but was effectively generating the place
field , Fig. 4) a positional map, of the environment in the brain.
Fig. 4: Place cells in the hippocampus of Rat (Pink dot).7
To the right of the figure place cells are highlighted in the Hippocampus of the
schematic of the rat. The grey square depicts the open field the rat is moving over
(place field). Different place cells in the hippocampus fire at different places in the
arena. O Keefe concluded together with Nadel that place cells provide the brain with a
spatial reference map system, or a sense of place (O'Keefe and Nadel, 1978). Ultimately,
Through O Keefe s discoveries, the cognitive map theory had found its representation in
the brain.7
)n subsequent experiments, O Keefe showed that the place cells might have
memory functions O Keefe and Conway,
; O Keefe and Speakman,
. The
simultaneous rearrangement in many place cells in different environments was called
remapping and O Keefe showed that remapping is learned, and once it is established, it
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can be stable over time (Lever et al., 2002). The place cells may therefore provide a
cellular substrate for memory processes, where a memory of an environment can be
stored as specific combinations of place cells. At first, the proposition that the
hippocampus was involved in spatial navigation was met with some skepticism. 8
Through a set of carefully controlled experiments Dr. O Keefe provided evidence
that cells worked not by triggering the sense of smell or sound but by giving rise to a
map of the room and the proposal that hippocampus contains an inner map that can
store information about the environment, were seminal.
Journey into Entorhinal Cortex
A proverb comes to the mind when we think of this year s Nobel Prize awarded to
Moser couple. It says It takes a village to raise a child. NTNU s Kavli )nstitute for
Systems Neuroscience/Centre for Neural Computation (KI/CNC s nurture has helped
Edward and May to make about groundbreaking discoveries in neuroscience. During
her banquet speech in the Karolinska Institutet hall in Stockholm on the big screen,
Nobel Laureate May-Britt Moser showed how a mouse tries to hop up on its platform
and fails in its first attempt to grab the biscuit; seats for a while, makes a plan and
ultimately comes out with flying colors i.e., it manages to get the prize.
She showed the story of the struggle of the mouse and explained that in the
laboratory scientist like them too try time and again like the determined mouse and this
is how they could reach at a path breaking discovery at the end.
In 1983, both of them came to know each other, romance was translated into
marriage and both of them developed keen interest for studying neuroscience and
brain. They persuaded Per Andersen, the renowned electro physiologist to allow them
to conduct undergraduate project under his guidance. They were told to work on the
hippocampus of rat and its behavior. The two young scientists embraced the challenge,
and soon discovered something profound. It had been assumed that the hippocampus
was homogeneous. The couple on the contrary, showed that one side of it was much
more important for spatial memory than the other side. Through Per, they came in
touch with Richard Morris at the University of Edinburgh and John O'Keefe at University
College London. They guided Moser s into the mysteries at the intersection of behavior
and neuroscience. During Ph.D studies, they visited Richard several times to participate
in work on the functions of the hippocampus and the role of hippocampus long-term
potentiation (LTP) in memory formation. Undeterred by family burden, they worked
hard and along with their Ph.Ds, they accepted side-by-side post docs in O Keefe s lab
in London in 1996 and spent a few rewarding months wherein they learnt place cell
recording in the hippocampus. Moser couple was excited and wanted to go beyond
place cells. But in the same year i.e., 1996, just a few months into their post docs, they
received a surprise offer of two associate professorships at the Norwegian University of
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Nobel Prize 2014
Science and Technology in Trondheim. They flew back home along with their two young
children.
Earlier years in Trondheim were tough but enjoyable. There were no animal
housing facilities, no workshops and no technicians. Their research started in a small
basement with a small lab of their own and animal facility in Trondheim. They cleaned
rat cages, changed bedding, sliced brains and repaired cables. Earlier difficulties and
paucity of resources was a blessing in disguise because they could shape their lab
exactly as they wanted to. Experience gained from Keefe s Laboratory enabled May,
Edvard and their team to record the activity of individual cells in the hippocampus, with
electrodes implanted in the brains of rats as they roamed a square black box.
Determination, perseverance and patience always bear fruit. A few painstaking years
made them win big grants from the European Commission and the Research Council of
Norway to coordinate a consortium of seven groups that collectively aimed to perform
one of the first integrated neural network studies of hippocampus memory. 9
One of the aims was to determine how the position code of the hippocampus is
computed. It had been known since 1971 that the hippocampus has "place cells," cells
that fire if and only if an animal is in a certain place. But it was unclear whether those
place signals originated in the hippocampus itself or came from the outside. To address
this question, they adapted the standard experimental technique for studying place
cells. However, they made intrahippocampal lesions that disconnected the output stage
of the circuit – CA1 – from the earlier stages and then tested whether the place cells
continued to fire normally. Interestingly, this did not abolish place coding in CA1. They
were sure enough that spatial signal might originate from the surrounding cortex. Their
focus was now on the entorhinal cortex, a cortical region with major direct connections
to the CA1 area of the hippocampus.8-10
Puzzle of Hexagonal Pattern
At this juncture, the team of Moser couple and their devoted students was
complete after the arrival of a neuroanatomist named Menno Witter who worked out
much of the connectivity between the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus. The team
started the experiments, recording from single neurons in the entorhinal cortex. They
found something unexpected. The researchers saw entorhinal neurons fired at a
particular spot like Keefe s place cells. But they went on to fire several other spots too
and overlapping blobs appeared on the screen. They could see that the blobs were
creating some sort of pattern a regular pattern, say a kind of a hexagonal grid – much
like the arrangement of marbles in a Chinese checker board or that of a beehive. But
they couldn't work out what it was.
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Fig. 7: Grid cells. The grid cells are located in the entorhinal cortex depicted in blue (Right side).
These locations are arranged in a hexagonal pattern in the grey square on the left. 7
Moment of Ecstasy: Mystery of Navigation Unraveled
Edvard and May pondered a lot for few months and then realized that bigger box
has to be used in the experiment to comprehend the pattern. The shapes were
abstractly created in the rat's brain and imposed on its environment, such that a single
neuron fired whenever it crossed one of the points of the hexagon (Fig. 7). At the same
time, grid cells that represent different positions relative to the box's border are dotted
randomly through the structure. The cells were organized topographically in the sense
that the size of and distance between grid fields increased from dorsal to ventral.
Moreover, cells maintained firing relationships from one environment to the next. From
this finding Mosers were convinced that they were on track of a universal type of spatial
map – a map whose activity pattern in many ways disregarded the fine details of the
environment. With their strict regularity, the cells had the metrics of the spatial map
that had not been found in the hippocampus.
The discovery was exciting for more than its pleasing pattern. This
representation of space in brain-language was one of the long-sought codes by which
the brain represents the world around us. It was a long-drawn-out eureka moment,
recalls Edvard. The team published the discovery in Nature in 2005. Assuming a similar
arrangement exists in humans, the idea is that, together, these cells are unconsciously
keeping track of where we are as we wander between rooms or stroll down a street.
Exploring further, the Mosers showed that there was a reciprocal influence
between the grid cells and the place cells. Together with other cells of the cortex that
recognize the direction of the head (Head direction cells) and the edges of the place field
(border cells), the grid cells form circuits with the place cells in the hippocampus. That
is, these cells in the cortex may be even contributing to the firing pattern in the
hippocampus through a kind of feedback mechanism. This circuitry thus forms a
comprehensive GPS-like inner positioning system in the brain.9,10
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Nobel Prize 2014
Grid Cells and Beyond
There is no grid pattern in the outside world – this is made by the brain alone.
Because the pattern is so reliable and so regular, it may put us on the track of
understanding the fundamental computations of the cortex. There is still a lot to find
out. Grid cells have helped us better understanding the neural representation of space,
but they also provide a window into some of the innermost workings of the brain.
Solving one question in Science gives to ten more questions. Scientists now are
aware about place cells and grid cells and their role in spatial function and navigation.
They do not yet know how the grid is generated by the neural networks in the
entorhinal cortex, or how the overall map created by grid cells, place cells and other
navigation cells is integrated to help animals to get from one place to the next.
O Keefe and co-workers have demonstrated in a mouse model with Alzheimer s
disease that the degradation of place cells correlated with the deterioration of spatial
memory in the animal. The Mosers hypothesize that the cells in the entorhinal cortex
may have special properties that allow the disease to develop there early– a puzzle that
they hope scientists elsewhere can start solving. The amnesia of H.M. after surgery by
Dr. Scoville in 1953 and subsequent studies with H.M. has highlighted the importance of
Hippocampus as a seat of declarative memory. Recent investigations with brain imaging
techniques, as well as studies of patients undergoing neurosurgery, have provided
evidence that place and grid cells exist also in humans. In patients with Alzheimer's
disease, the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex are frequently affected at an early
stage, and these individuals often lose their way and cannot recognize the environment.
Hippocampal place cells have been used to study the neural basis of cognitive changes
in disease, including Alzheimer s, epilepsy, and schizophrenia. Knowledge about the
brain's positioning system may, therefore, help us understand the mechanism
underpinning the devastating spatial memory loss that affects people with this disease.
Conclusion
This Nobel Prize-winning work has unraveled the brain s positioning and
navigation system and marks a paradigm shift in the understanding of the neurological
basis for higher cognitive functions such as memory, thinking and planning. Though
present knowledge on role of hippocampus and entorhinal cortex in memory of brain is
yet to benefit clinical practice or therapy it will help in understanding the cellular basis
of these diseases and in near future this knowledge will enable the clinicians to treat the
ailing Mankind with memory disorders.7,11,12
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References
Keefe O. J.; Nadel. L. The (ippocampus as a cognitive map Clarendon Press, Oxford,
.
Goodwin, J. C. A-mazing research: A look at the origins and continued use of the maze in psychological
research Time Capsule, Monitor on Psychology, February 2012, Vol. 43, No. 2, Print version: page 20,
URL:http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/02/research.aspx, Date of access [ 29/12/2014].
3. Rat Maze: http://www.ratbehavior.org/RatsAndMazes.htm,Date of access [ 29/12/2014].
4. Neves, G.; Cooke, S. F.; Bliss, T. V. P.
Nature Rev. Neurosc. 9, 2008, 65-75. (URL: http://
www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v9/n1/full/nrn2303.html, Date of access [20/12/2014]).
5. Jensen, R. Behaviorism, Latent Learning, and Cognitive Maps: Needed Revisions in Introductory
Psychology Textbooks The Behavior Analyst 2006, 29, 187–209 No. 2 (Fall).
6. Marozzi, E; Jeffery, K. J. Curr. Biol., 22 (22), 2012, ppR939–R942, (URL:https://www.ucl.ac.uk/
jefferylab/publications/2012_Marozzi_and_Jeffery_Curr_Biol.pdf Date of access [03/01/2015]).
7. O'Keefe, J.; Dostrovsky, J. (1971). The hippocampus as a spatial map. Preliminary evidence from unit
activity in the freely-moving rat Brain Research, 34 (1), 171-175 DOI: 10.1016/0006-8993(71)90358-1.
8. Kiehn, O.; Forssberg, H. Scientific Background: The Brain s Navigational Place and Grid Cell System
URL:http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2014/advanced-medicineprize
2014.p , Date of access[15/10/2014].
9. Discovering grid cells, Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience for Neural Comutation, Site hosted by
NTTU, URL: http://www.ntnu.edu/kavli/discovering-grid-cells. Date of access [24/12/2014].
10. Bazilchuk N. Nobel lectures touch on central discoveries and tantalizing findings Gemini Science News
for NTNU and SINTEF, Published on 07/12/2014, URL: http://gemini.no/en/2014/12/nobel-lecturestouch-on-central-discoveries-and-tantalizing-findings/, Date of access [24/12/2014].
11. Ramachandran R. )nner GPS Science and Technology, Frontline, Print edition: November 14, 2014.
12. Poucet, B.; Sargolini, F. A Trace of Your Place Neuroscience, Science Vol
, April
, Published by
AAAS, URL: www.sciencemag.org, Date of access [13/12/2014].
1.
2.
S. C. Panda
Community Medicine
V.S.S. Medical College
Burla-768 017
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Nobel Prize 2014
NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS
THE BLUE LIGHT–EMITTING DIODE (LED)
Isamu Akasaki
Hiroshi Amano
Shuji Nakamura
Introduction
Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura have jointly been
awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014 for inventing a new energy efficient and
environment-friendly light source – the blue light-emitting diode (LED).
Red and Green LEDs have been invented for almost half a century, but Blue light
was needed to truly revolutionize lighting technology. As we know, only the triad of red,
green and blue light can produce the white light that light up the world for us. Blue light
remained a challenge for almost three decades, in spite of high stakes and immense
attempts undertaken in the research community as well as in industry. With the
invention of blue light, gates have opened for a fundamental transformation of
illumination technology. As someone rightly stated, Incandescent light bulbs had lit the
20th century; the 21st century will be lit by LED lamps.
A light-emitting diode consists of a number of layered semiconductor materials
that emit light when they're activated. In the LED, applied electricity is directly
converted into light resulting in efficiency gains as compared to other light sources. In
other sources, most of the electricity applied is converted to heat and only a small
amount into light. For example, in incandescent bulbs, and in halogen lamps, electric
current is used to heat a wire filament, making it glow. Similarly, in fluorescent lamps a
gas discharge is produced creating both heat and light. A chronological development of
use of lighting technology is displayed in Fig. 1.
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Nobel Prize 2014
Fig. 1. Chronological development of use of lighting technology.
Different chemicals used for fabrication give different LEDs and their colors. The
first LEDs came in the 1950s and 1960s. The early inventions included laser-emitting
devices that worked only when submersed in liquid nitrogen. But, then scientists
developed LEDs that emitted everything from infrared light to green light. However,
they couldn't quite get to blue because, that required chemicals including carefully
produced crystals, which they weren't yet able to make in the laboratory. The earlier
red and green LEDs used gallium phosphide, which was easier to produce. However,
Akasaki and Amano, worked together on fabricating high-quality gallium nitride, a
chemical that appears in many of the layers in a blue LED. They discovered how to add
chemicals to gallium nitride semiconductors in such a way that it would emit light
efficiently. The duo built structures with layers of gallium nitride alloys.
Technology
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a two-lead semiconductor device. It is a p-n
junction diode, which emits light when activated. It consists of a chip of semiconducting
material doped with impurities to create a p-n junction. As in other semiconductor
diodes, current flows easily from the p-side (anode) to the n-side (cathode), but not in
the reverse direction. Charge carriers, i.e. electrons and holes–flow into the junction
from electrodes with different voltages. When an electron meets a hole, recombination
occurs and it falls into a lower energy level and releases energy in the form of a photon.
This effect is called electroluminescence, and the color of the light (corresponding to the
energy of the photon) is determined by the band gap energy of the semiconductor.
The wavelength of the light emitted, and thus its color, depends on the band gap energy
of the materials forming the p-n junction. In silicon or germanium diodes, the electrons
and holes usually recombine by a non-radiative transition, which produces no optical
emission, because these are indirect band gap materials. The materials used for the LED
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Nobel Prize 2014
have a direct band gap with energies corresponding to near-infrared, visible, or nearultraviolet light.
The earlier LEDs emitted low-intensity infrared light. Infrared LEDs are still
frequently used as transmitting elements in remote-control circuits, such as those in
remote controls for a wide variety of consumer electronics. The first visible-light LEDs
were also of low intensity, and limited to red. However, modern LEDs are available
across the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths, with very high brightness.
Recent developments in LEDs permit them to be used in environmental and task
lighting. LEDs have many advantages over incandescent light sources, including lower
energy consumption, longer lifetime, improved physical robustness, smaller size, and
faster switching. Light-emitting diodes are now used in applications as diverse
as aviation lighting, automotive headlamps, advertising, general lighting, traffic signals,
and camera flashes. However, LEDs powerful enough for room lighting is still relatively
expensive, and require more precise current and heat management than
compact fluorescent lamp sources of comparable output.
The development of LEDs began with infrared and red devices made with gallium
arsenide. But, advancements in materials science have enabled making devices with
even shorter wavelengths, emitting light in a variety of colors.
Usually, LEDs are fabricated on an n-type substrate, with an electrode attached to
the p-type layer deposited on its surface. P-type substrates, while less common, occur as
well. Many commercial LEDs, especially GaN/InGaN, also use sapphire substrate.
Most materials used for LED production have very high refractive indices. This
means that much light will be reflected back into the material at the material/air
surface interface. Thus, light extraction in LEDs is an important aspect of LED
production, subject to much research and development. The working block diagram of a
LED and the associated band diagram are shown in Fig. 2 below. The variation of
current with voltage of a diode is shown in Fig. 3.
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Nobel Prize 2014
Fig. 2: Working of a LED and the band diagram.
Fig. 3: I-V diagram of a diode.
Commercial Development
The first commercial LEDs were normally used as replacements
for incandescent and neon indicator lamps, and in seven-segment displays. It was first
used in expensive equipments such as laboratory and electronics test equipment, then
afterwards in such appliances as TVs, radios, telephones, calculators, as well as watches.
Until 1968, visible and infrared LEDs were extremely costly, and so had little practical
use. The Monsanto Company was the first organization to mass-produce visible LEDs,
using gallium arsenide phosphide (GaAsP) in 1968 to produce red LEDs suitable for
indicators. Hewlett Packard (HP) introduced LEDs in 1968, initially using GaAsP
supplied by Monsanto. These red LEDs were bright enough only for use as indicators, as
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Nobel Prize 2014
the light output was not enough to illuminate an area. Readouts in calculators were so
small that plastic lenses were built over each digit to make them legible. Later, other
colors became available and appeared in appliances and equipments. In the 1970s
commercially successful LED devices at lesser price were produced by Fairchild
Optoelectronics. These devices employed compound semiconductor chips fabricated
with the planar process. The combination of planar processing for chip fabrication and
innovative packaging methods enabled to achieve the much needed cost
reductions. These methods continue to be used by LED producers. As LED materials
technology grew more advanced, light output rose, while maintaining efficiency and
reliability at acceptable levels. The invention and development of the high-power white
LED showed the way to use for illumination, and is slowly replacing incandescent and
fluorescent lighting.
The first high-brightness blue LED was demonstrated by Shuji Nakamura in 1994
and was based on InGaN. Its development built on critical developments
in GaN nucleation on sapphire substrates and the demonstration of p-type doping of
GaN, developed by Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano in Nagoya. In 1995, Alberto
Barbieri at the Cardiff University Laboratory (GB) investigated the efficiency and
reliability of high-brightness LEDs and demonstrated a "transparent contact" LED
using indium tin oxide (ITO) on (AlGaInP/GaAs). The existence of blue LEDs and highefficiency LEDs quickly led to the development of the first white LED, which employed
a Y3Al5O12:Ce, or "YAG", phosphor coating to mix down-converted yellow light with blue
to produce light that appears white. The development of LED technology has caused
their efficiency and light output to rise exponentially, with a doubling occurring
approximately every 36 months since the 1960s, in a way similar to Moore's law. This
trend is generally attributed to the parallel development of other semiconductor
technologies and advances in optics and material science, and has been called Haitz's
law after Dr. Roland Haitz. In 2001 and 2002, processes for growing gallium
nitride (GaN) LEDs on silicon were successfully demonstrated. It has been speculated
that the use of six-inch silicon wafers instead of two-inch sapphire wafers
and epitaxy manufacturing processes could reduce production costs by up to 90%.
Future Technology
A new style of wafers composed of gallium-nitride-on-silicon (GaN-on-Si) is being
used to produce white LEDs. This avoids the typical costly sapphire substrates and it is
predicted that by 2020, 40% of all GaN LEDs will be made with GaN-on-Si.
Manufacturing large sapphire material is difficult, while large silicon material is cheaper
and more abundant. LED companies shifting from using sapphire to silicon should be a
minimal investment. New technology and material is also being developed to further
build efficient lighting systems.
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Nobel Prize 2014
Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs)
In an organic light-emitting diode (OLED), the electroluminescent material
comprising the emissive layer of the diode is an organic compound. The potential
advantages of OLEDs include thin, low-cost displays with a low driving voltage, wide
viewing angle, and high contrast and color gamut. Polymer LEDs have the added benefit
of printable and flexible displays. OLEDs have been used to make visual displays for
portable electronic devices such as cell phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players while
possible future uses include lighting and televisions.
Quantum Dot LEDs
Quantum Dots (QD) are semiconductor nano-crystals that possess unique optical
properties. Their emission color can be tuned from the visible throughout the infrared
spectrum. This allows quantum dot LEDs to create almost any color on the CIE diagram.
This provides more color options and better color rendering than white LEDs since the
emission spectra is much narrower, a characteristic of quantum confined states.
Quantum dots are also being considered for use in white light-emitting diodes in liquid
crystal display (LCD) televisions. Such QDs can be used to emit visible or near infrared
light of any wavelength being excited by light with a shorter wavelength.
The structure of QD-LEDs used for the electrical-excitation scheme is similar to
basic design of OLED. A layer of quantum dots is sandwiched between layers of
electron-transporting and hole-transporting materials. An applied electric field causes
electrons and holes to move into the quantum dot layer and recombine forming
an exciton that excites a QD. This scheme is commonly studied for quantum dot display.
The tunability of emission wavelengths and narrow bandwidth is also beneficial as
excitation sources for fluorescence imaging. Fluorescence near-field scanning optical
microscopy (NSOM) utilizing an integrated QD-LED has been demonstrated for
potential use.
Conclusion
LEDs have shown the way for new generation text, video displays, and sensors to
be developed, while their high switching rates are also useful in advanced
communications technology. In the future, engineers and scientists may make white
LEDs by combining red, green, and blue ones, which would make a light with tunable
colors. LEDs last up to 100,000 hours, compared to 10,000 hours for fluorescent lights
and 1,000 hours for incandescent bulbs. Use of LEDs in more houses and buildings
across the world could significantly reduce the world's electricity and materials
consumption for lighting.
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Nobel Prize 2014
References
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
The life and times of the LED–a 100-year history , The Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of
Southampton. April 2007. Retrieved September 4, 2012.
Nakamura, S.; Mukai, T.; Senoh, M. Appl. Phys. Lett. 64 (13), 1994, 1687.
Mueller, G. (2000), Electroluminescence I, Academic Press, ISBN 0-12-752173-9, pp 67, "escape cone of
light" from semiconductor, illustrations of light cones on pp 69.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode.
A Roadmap to Efficient Green-Blue-Ultraviolet Light-Emitting Diodes, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, 19
February 2014, Donna McKinney.
Bardsley, J. N. IEEE J. Select. Top. Quant. Electron. 10, 2004, 3-4.
Kamtekar, K. T.; Monkman, A. P.; Bryce, M. R. Adv. Mater. 22 (5), 2010, 572.
Additional information on this year s Prizes, including a scientific background article in English, may be
found at the website of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, http://kva.se, and at
http://nobelprize.org.
S. Agrawal
Dept. of Electronics & Tele-Comm.
V.S.S.U.T., Burla-768 018
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Nobel Prize 2014
NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY
DEVELOPMENT OF SUPER-RESOLVED FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY
SEEING IS BELIEVING: RESOLUTION MATTERS
Eric Betzig
Stefan W. Hell
William E. Moerner
Discovery of microscope has revolutionized physical, chemical and biological
sciences. Microscope is an instrument that is used to see objects that are invisible to
naked eyes. Though it is difficult to identify the original inventor of microscope,
evidence suggests that the first compound microscope was discovered in the
Netherlands in the late 1500s. Giovanni Faber coined the name microscope for Galileo
Galilei's compound microscope in 16251 (Galileo had called it the "occhiolino" or "little
eye"). The journey that began in late sixteenth century still strives to achieve better
spatial and temporal resolution. Temporal resolution has ramped up significantly with
the development of sophisticated detector systems that allow studying biological
processes in real time. Now days, a microscope has the capability to capture 1200
frames per second using an electron multiplying charge coupled device (EMCCD)
camera. But challenge persists in achieving spatial resolution due to a basic tenet of
physics called diffraction limit .
Resolution of optical microscope has been increased manifold by the
development of fluorescence microscope. A fluorescence microscope is an optical
microscope that uses fluorescence (in addition to reflection) to generate an image. As
detector has the ability to choose only fluorescence, it automatically enhances the
resolution by not recording non fluorescent objects in the region of interest. Any
microscope that generates images by recording fluorescence (from a fluorophore
tagged to the object of interest), be it a simple epifluorescence microscope or a more
complicated confocal setup, could be referred to as a fluorescence microscope. Confocal
microscopy offers several advantages over conventional wide field optical microscopy,
including the ability to control depth of field, elimination or reduction of background
information from the focal plane, and the capability to collect serial optical
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Nobel Prize 2014
sections from thick specimens. The basic key to the confocal approach is the use of
spatial filtering techniques to eliminate out-of-focus light in specimens whose thickness
exceeds the immediate plane of focus. There has been a tremendous explosion in the
popularity of confocal microscopy in recent years, due in part to the relative ease with
which extremely high-quality images can be obtained from specimens prepared for
conventional fluorescence microscopy, and the growing number of applications in cell
biology that rely on imaging both fixed and living cells and tissues. In fact, confocal
technology is proving to be one of the most important advances ever achieved in optical
microscopy. In spite of its high handedness in resolution and ease to use, the images
captured using a confocal microscope still cannot breach the diffraction limit, so the
resolution is still not less than 200 nm.2
Diffraction Limit
The axial resolution of any optical imaging system (microscope, telescope or
camera) can be limited by factors such as flaws in the lenses or misalignment. However,
the fundamental maximum to the resolution of any optical system arises due to
diffraction. An optical instrument's ability to produce images with an axial resolution as
good as the instrument's theoretical limit is said to be diffraction limited.3 This limit is
called Abbe diffraction limit, named after Ernst Abbe who found in 1870 that light with
wavelength λ, travelling in a medium with refractive index n and converging to a spot
with angle, Ɵ, will make a spot with radius (d)4,
�
�ℎ
, =
2� ��
The denominator � �� is called the numerical aperture (NA) and can reach
about 1.4 - 1.6 in modern optics, hence the Abbe diffraction limit is d = λ/2.8. For a
green light (wavelength ~ 500 nm), the diffraction limited spot size will be at least 180
nm, leads to highest axial resolution of an optical instrument of 180 nm for green
exciting light. This resolution is good enough to see different organelles in cells but it
hardly provides any local information in those organelles.
Breaking the Diffraction Limit: Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014
Recently, microscopes have been reported that provide 3- to 7-fold improved
axial resolution in live cells. Moreover, a family of concepts has emerged that
overcomes the diffraction barrier altogether. To date, there are two far-field principles
that lead to fluorescence-based microscopy with a resolution far beyond Abbe s
diffraction limit. The first is here referred to as super-resolved ensemble fluorophore
microscopy and the second as super-resolved single fluorophore microscopy . The
first principle was originally conceived as and implemented by stimulated emission
depletion (STED) of fluorescence from all molecules in a sample except those in a small
region of the studied object and has so far displayed a resolution down to 28 nm. 5 The
discovery of the second variant may be described as three distinct steps. The first
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Nobel Prize 2014
relates to the discovery of single fluorophore spectroscopy in dense media, the second
to the theoretical description of the principle and the third to its experimental
implementation. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014 was awarded jointly to Eric Betzig
of Jenelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, VA, USA, Stefan W. Hell
of Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Gottingen, Germany and German
Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany and William E. Moerner of Stanford
University, CA, USA "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence
microscopy".
STED Microscopy: Super-Resolved Ensemble Fluorophore Microscopy
A STED microscope is built on the basis of a confocal laser scanning microscope
(CLSM).6 At any given time, the objective focuses the laser light into a small spot, and all
fluorophores inside this focal spot emit fluorescence, which is collected by the objective
and directed to the detector. The light intensity of the focal spot distributes according
to the point spread function (PSF). For a circular aperture in an ideal situation, the PSF
displays a pattern called "airy disk", with a size proportional to the numerical aperture.
The resolution of CLSM is determined by the size of the PSF and the size of PSF is
diffraction limited. The basic idea of STED microscopy is to utilize nonlinear optics to
engineer a smaller PSF below such limit.
The diagram below (Fig. 1), shows a simple model for spontaneous emission and
stimulated emission of a fluorophore. In the left panel, the fluorophore first absorbs a
photon and goes from the ground state S0 to the exited state S1. It may relax from higher
vibrational states to lower vibration states through non-radiative transition in several
picoseconds, and in several nanoseconds (the fluorescence lifetime), it may
spontaneously go back to the electronic ground state and release a fluorescence photon.
In the right panel, a depletion beam is added, which can cause stimulated emission.
Intuitively, the fluorophore at S1 can absorb a depletion photon, and then go back to S 0
by releasing two photons that have the same wavelength as the absorbed one. The key
advantage is that we can precisely control the wavelength of stimulated emission
output, which can be significantly different from the typical wavelength of fluorescence.
The wavelength of depletion is chosen to be at the tail of the emission spectrum to avoid
interferences with absorption and emission. Therefore, one can choose a barrier filter
before the detector that blocks the depletion wavelength while passing most of
fluorescence, so that fluorophores undergoing stimulated emission are effectively
"dark", because their output photons cannot pass the barrier filter and thus cannot be
detected.
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Nobel Prize 2014
Fig. 1. Spontaneous emission and stimulation emission depletion principles.
(This figure was adapted from http://www.anes.ucla.edu/sted/principle.html).
Though the way to inhibit fluorescence emission is known, but to achieve superresolution, it is required to inhibit fluorescence at a certain region. Inhibit fluorescence
at the periphery of the original PSF would allow to reduce the spot size. To do so, the
depletion laser beam should have an intensity profile with a doughnut (donut)-shape.
The PSF of the laser beams can be visualized by imaging gold nanoparticles with a size
of ~80 nm, shown in the Fig. 2. Fig. 2A shows the PSF of the excitation beam (in green),
which displays an airy disk pattern; Fig. 2B shows the PSF of the depletion beam
(in red) in a donut-shape; Fig. 2C is an overlay of A and B (since the depletion beam is in
fact much more powerful than the excitation beam, in Fig. 2C the red intensity is highly
enhanced to approximate the reality), one can see that the periphery
(in yellow = red + green) is covered by the depletion beam and fluorophores in this
region would be all inhibited. Only the centre is still in green where fluorophores would
still be able to emit fluorescence.
Fig. 2. PSF engineering with a donut-shaped depletion beam.
(This figure was adapted from http://www.anes.ucla.edu/sted/principle.html)
Fig. 3 shows the difference in resolution when a human neuron is imaged using
labelled calcium-activated big potassium (BKCa) channels using regular confocal
microscope (Fig. 3A) and STED microscope (Fig. 3B).
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Nobel Prize 2014
Fig. 3. STED imaging of a human neuron where calcium-activated big potassium (BKCa) channels were
labeled. (A) Regular confocal images of a human neuron. (B) STED image of the same neuron as in A.
(This figure was adapted from http://www.anes.ucla.edu/sted/principle.html)
Super-Resolved Single Fluorophore Microscopy
The first observation of a single fluorophore in a dense medium was made in W.
E. Moerner s laboratory.7 They measured absorption spectra of the statistical fine
structures of inhomogeneously broadened optical transitions of single pentacene
molecules in p-terphenyl crystals at liquid helium temperature
K . Moerner s result
was revolutionary, not the least because he managed to detect single fluorophore by
their photon absorption rather than emission. His results demonstrated that it was
indeed possible to measure single fluorophore and thereby greatly inspired the singlemolecule field. In short, these scientific results paved the way for both single-molecule
spectroscopy and single-molecule microscopy. A very early discovery of great
conceptual impact was the experimental demonstration of fluctuations in chemical
reactions, and the application of the fluctuation-dissipation connection to determine
reaction rate constants as carried out by Magde, Elson and Webb. 8,9 Later, Moerner was
studying the light emission properties of single molecules of mutants of the green
fluorescent protein GFP obtained from Roger Tsien s laboratory. The studies were
performed at ambient temperature with the protein embedded in an aerated aqueous
gel.10 Unexpectedly, when excited at 488 nm the protein was seen to undergo several
25
Nobel Prize 2014
cycles of intermittent fluorescence emission: the GFP molecules displayed blinking
behaviour. After several blinking cycles, the molecules went into a stable dark state.
Amazingly, from this dark state they could be re-activated by irradiation at 405 nm.
These results demonstrated for the first time that it was possible to optically guide
fluorescent proteins between active and inactive states by the sophisticated use of the
inherent photochemistry of the protein. Moerner s demonstration of blinking and
photo activation opened the road to exploring a vast space of GFP mutants for novel
optical properties. J. Lippincott-Swartz engineered a GFP variant with striking
properties.11 This mutant is initially optically inactive. It can, however, be activated by
irradiation at 413 nm and then displays fluorescence when excited at 488 nm.
Eventually, after intense irradiation at 488 nm the mutant is irreversibly inactivated by
photo bleaching.
Photoactivated Localization Microscopy (PALM)
Betzig realized that Lippincott-Swartz's GFP mutant could possibly solve the
problem of finding an optimal way to combine sparse sets of fluorophores with distinct
spectral properties to a dense total set of fluorophores. The simple solution would be to
activate a very small and thus sparse, random subset of GFP mutant molecules in a
biological structure by low level irradiation at 413 nm. Subsequent irradiation at 488
nm would then be used to determine the positions of the members of the sparse subset
at super-resolution. When the first subset had been irreversibly inactivated by
bleaching, a second small subset could be activated and the positions of its members
determined at high resolution, and so on until all subsets had been sampled and used to
determine the structure under authentic super resolution conditions. This fulfilled both
the condition of only a sparse subset being observed at a time, and the condition of
high-frequency (dense) spatial sampling. In collaboration with Lippincott-Schwarz and
H. F. Hess, Betzig12 expressed fusions of a photoactivatable GFP, similar to that
described above11 and a lysosomal transmembrane protein (CD63) to obtain the superresolved structure of a thin section of a fixed mammalian lysosome (Fig. 4). They
named this method as Photoactivated Localization Microscopy (PALM).
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Nobel Prize 2014
Fig. 4. Distribution of GFP-labeled lysosome protein (CD63) without (A) and with (B) PALM.
Large box in B at higher magnification (C). Small box in B at higher magnification (D).
Note that the scale bar in D is close to Abbe s limit. (This figure was adapted from Ref. 12)
The history of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy is short. The ensemblefluorophore STED-microscopy was implemented in the year 2000 and singlefluorophore based methods in the year 2006. In spite of this, the rapidly developing
techniques of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy are already applied on a large
scale in major fields of biological sciences, like cell biology, microbiology and
neurobiology. At this point there is all reason to forecast that this development, already
producing hosts of novel and previously unreachable results, will accelerate over the
next decades. This development is expected to revolutionize biology and medicine by
allowing for realistic, quantitative descriptions at nanoscale resolution of the dynamics
of the complex, multidimensional molecular biological processes that define the
phenotypes of all life forms.
The Prize Winners
Eric Betzig is an American Physicist based at the Janelia Farm Research Campus,
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, VA, USA was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1960.
Dr. Betzig did his undergraduate in Physics at the California Institute of Technology in
1983 and moved to Cornell University for further studies. He obtained his MS degree in
1985 and Ph.D. in Applied and Engineering Physics in 1988. After receiving his Ph.D.
degree, he joined Bell Laboratories in the Semiconductor Physics Research Department.
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Nobel Prize 2014
In 1996, Betzig left academia to become vice president of research and development at
Ann Arbor Machine Company. In 2006 he joined the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus as a group leader to work on
developing super high-resolution fluorescence microscopy techniques. He developed
photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM) with Herald Hess.
Stefan Walter Hell is a Romanian-born (1962) German physicist and one of the
directors of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany.
He received his Ph.D. from Heidelberg University in 1980 in Physics. He worked as a
group leader at the University of Turku, Finland from 1993 to 1996, where he
developed the principle for stimulated emission depletion STED microscopy. 6 Prof. Hell
became a director of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and he
established the department of Nanobiophotonics. Since 2003 Hell has also been the
leader of the department "Optical Nanoscopy division" at the German Cancer Research
Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg and Professor in the Heidelberg University Faculty of
Physics and Astronomy.
William Esco Moerner was born in 1953 and is an American physical chemist
and chemical physicist with current work in the biophysics and imaging of single
molecules. He is credited with achieving the first optical detection and spectroscopy of
a single molecule in condensed phases, along with his postdoc, Lothar Kador. 7 Optical
study of single molecules has subsequently become a widely used single-molecule
experiment in chemistry, physics and biology. He attended Washington University in St.
Louis for undergraduate studies as an Alexander S. Langsdorf Engineering Fellow, and
obtained three degrees: a B.S. in Physics with Final Honors, a B.S. in electrical
engineering with Final Honors, and an A.B. in mathematics summa cum laude in 1975.
This was followed by graduate study at Cornell University in the group of Albert J.
Sievers III. Here he received an M.S. and a Ph.D. degree in physics in 1978 and 1982,
respectively.
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Nobel Prize 2014
References
1.
Gould, S. J. (2000). The Lying Stones of Marrakech: Penultimate Reflections in Natural History. New York,
N.Y: Harmony.
2. http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/confocal/resonantscanning.html.
3.
Born, M.; Emil, W. (1997). Principles of Optics. Cambridge University Press.
4. Lipson, S. G.; Lipson, H; Tannhauser, D. S. Optical physics. Cambridge, New York,
Melbourne: Cambridge University Press 1995, pp. 48-98, 152-190.
5. Hell, S. W. Nature Biotech. 21, 2003, 1347-1355.
6. http://www3.mpibpc.mpg.de/groups/pr/PR/2006/06_20/
7. Moerner, W. E.; Kador, L. Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 1989, 2535.
8. Elson, E. L.; Magde, D. (1974) Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy I. Conceptual basis and theory.
Biopolymers, 13; 1.
9. Magde, D.; Elson, E. L.; Webb, W. W. Phys. Rev. Lett. 29, 1972, 705.
10. Dickson, R. M., Cubitt, A. B., Tsien, R. Y., Moerner, W. E. (1997) On/off blinking and switching behaviour
of single molecules of green fluorescent protein. Nature 388; 355.
11. Patterson, G. H., Lippincott-Schwartz, J. (2002) A photoactivatable GFP for selective photolabeling of
proteins and cells. Science 297; 1873.
12. Betzig, E., Patterson, G. H., Sougrat, R., Lindwasser, O. W., Olenych, S., Bonifacino, J. S., Davidson, M. W.,
Lippincott-Schwartz, J., Hess, H. F. (2006) Imaging intracellular fluorescent proteins at nanometer
resolution. Science 313; 1642.
H. Chakraborty
School of Chemistry
Jyoti Vihar-768 019
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Nobel Prize 2014
NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
PATRICK MODIANO AND THE GLOWS IN THE DARK
Patrick Modiano
The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2014 was awarded to Patrick Modiano "for the
art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and
uncovered the life-world of the occupation . Modiano is the 15th person from France to
win the literature prize – the last one being Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio in 2008. The
prize is named after Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, and has been awarded
since 1901 for achievements in science, literature and peace in accordance with his will.
While he is well known in France, Modiano is something of an unknown quantity for
even the most widely read literature fans in other countries, with only a smattering of
his works published in English. Probably his best known work, for which he won
France s prestigious Goncourt literary prize in 1978, is Missing Person, about a
detective who loses his memory and endeavours to find it.
The winner is chosen by an academy consisting of 18 prominent Swedish literary
figures. This year 210 nominations were received, 36 of which were first timers. That
then became a 20-name long list and then a five-name shortlist which involved
academicians reading the entire outputs of different writers. Modiano received his
prize on 10 December, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel s death in
.
Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, announced the name of
the French writer Patrick Modiano as the winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature
in Stockholm October 9, 2014. Modiano won the prize as "a Marcel Proust of our
time," the Swedish Academy said on Thursday.
Modiano was born in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt in July 1945,
several months after the official end of Nazi occupation in late 1944 in the final days of
World War II to an Italian Jewish father and Belgian mother. He came of age in Paris,
and there he was discovered by Raymond Queneau–who was also the youngster s
mathematics teacher at the Lycée Henri-)V. Modiano s life experienced from the start
discontinuity and turbulence, and it was all too fitting that his first novel was published
in May of 1968, at a moment when France was beset by civil unrest that seemed poised
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to boil over into open revolt. Even Modiano s marriage would be best remembered for a
fierce argument between two groomsmen, the literary titans Queneau and Malraux.
Tragedy haunted him from a young age, and the formative experiences of his early
years–the Nazi occupation, the death of his brother, the absence of his father–are
echoed in his fiction, where issues of the war, death and cultural identity loom large.
Modiano maintained a low public profile, but made a lasting mark with his fiction. He
was awarded the Goncourt Prize in 1978 for Missing Person.
The missing person in the title of Patrick Modiano's novel is the detective himself
named Guy Roland who suffered from amnesia and the period of his life before
launching his career as a private investigator became almost a complete blank. Even
his name and nationality are a mystery to him. Now after a career of solving other
people's problems, he turned to his own. The moment of crisis for Roland, when his
past fell away, was during the period of Nazi occupation of France. In an era when
many did things they would like to forget, Guy Roland somehow literally wiped his
memory clean, a gesture rich with symbolic resonance. Now, as he tried to pick up the
pieces, he followed an enticing series of clues, each one leading him to another
informant, another piece of the puzzle. Yet the pieces did not seem to fit together. At
one point, Roland was convinced that he was closely involved with Russian émigrés in
his now forgotten past life. Yet other clues indicated that he was in Hollywood, serving
as confidant to actor John Gilbert. Another source suggested that he was a part of the
diplomatic corps for a Latin American nation. Or that his last name was really McEvoy,
and he left France before the outbreak of the war. Or he was a Greek named Stern, a
broker who resided in Rome and Paris. Or may be some combination of these enigmatic
identities, these obscure destinies. Where other detectives gather clues, Roland collects
mementos. Almost everyone he interrogated had a story to share–but not necessarily
the one our investigator had come to hear. These various parties gave him relics from
their own personal tragedies: old photos, letters, a magazine, a book. Soon he was
overloaded with keepsakes, invariably stored in some second-hand container. "It
certainly seemed everything ended with old chocolate or biscuit or cigar boxes," he muses.
From these disparate sources Roland gradually pieced together bits and pieces of his
own narrative. These were supplemented by flashes of recovered memory, but the
reader is never quite sure whether the recollections are authentic or merely the result
of an overheated imagination. Roland is too ready to agree, to play the role others
assign him. He has lost more than his memory, it seems, and at times appears to have
lost his sense of self as well. Modiano doesn't hesitate in shaking up the conventions of
the mystery genre. And as our detective gets closer and closer to the story of his life, he
seems to find himself as the victim of a crime, the wounded survivor of a now forgotten
conspiracy, a character figured as victim, client, detective and key witness. In this quest
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for identity, the very notion of self begins to fade under close scrutiny. "Do not our lives
dissolve into the evening?" our narrator concludes, as he accepts the possibility that the
person he is seeking will never be found, his identity as ephemeral as "the sand holds
the traces of our footsteps but a few moments .
Patrick Modiano s Out of the Dark (1996) is a moody, expertly rendered tale of a
love affair between two drifters. The narrator, writing in 1995, looks back thirty years
to a time when, having abandoned his studies and selling off old art books to get by, he
comes to know Gérard Van Bever and Jacqueline, a young, enigmatic couple who seem
to live off roulette winnings. He falls in love with Jacqueline; they run off to England
together, where they share a few sad, aimless months, until one day she disappears.
Fifteen years later, in Paris, they meet again; a reunion that only recalls the haunting
accessibility of the past: they spend a few hours together, and the next day, Jacqueline,
now married, disappears once again. Almost fifteen years after that, he sees her yet
again, this time from a distance he chooses not to bridge. A profoundly affecting novel,
Out of the Dark is very much a poignant, strange, delicate, melancholy, and sadly
hilarious novel. Beginning with his first novel in 1968, Modiano has created a unique
cartography of Paris, delineated by memory and evoking a city forever changed by the
upheaval of World War II. Exquisitely exhibiting both his dominant themes and his
signature limpid prose style, the three tales in Suspended Sentences offer a superb
introduction to the Nobel laureate
Modiano wrote on topics such as memory, oblivion, identity and guilt, and the city
of Paris is often present in his texts as a creative participant. Often his tales are built on
an autobiographical foundation, on events that took place during the German
occupation. He sometimes draws material for his works from interviews, newspaper
articles or his own notes accumulated over the years. The author's hometown and its
history often serve to link the tales together. A work of documentary character, with
World War II as background, is Dora Bruder (1997) written on the true tale of a fifteenyear old girl in Paris who became one of the victims of the Holocaust. Some of Modiano's
works have been translated into English, among them Les boulevards de ceinture
(1972; Ring Roads: A Novel, 1974), Villa Triste (1975; Villa Triste, 1977), Quartier
perdu (1984; A Trace of Malice, 1988) and Voyage de noces (1990; Honeymoon, 1992).
Modiano has also written children's books and film scripts and together with the film
director Louis Malle he made the feature movie Lacombe Lucien (1974), set during the
German occupation of France.
Modiano in his fiction asks the essential question, what does it mean to be French
today at the dawn of the twenty-first century in a France that has in recent years
weathered riots, debates about the veil and the burqa, and there is the reemergence of
the extreme right as a political threat, and a purported decline in cultural identity.
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Underlying all of these issues is the tension between Frenchness and otherness
represented by continued immigration from France s former colonies, and the
aftermath of that immigration as ensuing generations reinterpret what it means to be
part of a country that has long promoted its own brand of universalism, integration, and
the erasure of public difference in favor of a harmonious and homogenous national
body. Ernest Renan described a French nation in which ties to the land trumped blood
ties, and common goals trumped common ancestry, despite his insistence on a shared
past. In other words, to be French was to grow up in France and share its values,
including a certain understanding of its history. Frenchness could be adopted,
acquired, assimilated. Frenchness was not necessarily a birthright, but rather a belief
system, a state of mind. The tenets of French universalism, including the notion that
France represents the ideals of liberty and human rights before an international
audience, continue to be transmitted by French politicians and received favorably by
many outside France even to this day, although the borders and international standing
of today s France are markedly different. After all, Renan s France still constituted an
intact empire, and swaths of Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Caribbean were still
governed with some form of French oversight. French was the language of diplomacy
and carried greater practical as well as cultural weight than it does today. While France
was not literally everywhere, its flag still flew from capitals all over the world, and the
official use of its language was widespread.
Modiano also said once in one of his interviews, "In the end, we are all
determined by the place and the time in which we were born . (e believed that a
writer is indelibly marked with the date of his birth and by his time, even if he was not
directly involved in political action, even if he gives the impression of being a recluse
shut away in what people call his 'ivory tower'. If he writes poems, they reflect the
time he is living in and could never have been written in a different era . (e gives the
examples of writers of the 20th century who, on occasion, feel imprisoned by their
times, and like the great 19th century novelists – Balzac, Dickens, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky
– bring on a certain nostalgia. In the nineteenth century time passed more slowly than
today, and this slowness suited the work and allowed the novelist to marshal his
energy and his attention. The quickening pace of time since then explains the
difference between the towering literary edifices of the past, with their cathedral-like
architectures, and the disjointed and fragmented works of today. Modiano, standing at
a transitional crucial juncture, is indeed curious to know how the coming generations,
born with the Internet, mobile phones, emails and tweets, will express through
literature this world in which everyone is permanently 'connected' and where 'social
networks' are eating into that part of intimacy and secrecy that was still our own
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domain until quite recently – the secrecy and mystery that gave depth to individuals
and could become a major theme in a novel.
And besides, a writer always manages to express something timeless in his work
even if he, like any other artist, is so tightly bound to his age that he cannot escape it and
the only air he breathes is the air of the zeitgeist. For him, in productions of Racine or
Shakespeare, it hardly matters whether the characters are dressed in period costume or
the director wants to put them in jeans and a leather jacket. These are insignificant
details. While reading Tolstoy, Anna Karenina feels so close to us after a century and a
half that we forget she is wearing dresses from 1870. And there are some writers, like
Edgar Allen Poe, Melville or Stendhal, who are better understood two centuries after
their death than they were by their own contemporaries. Ultimately, a novelist remains
at the margins of life in order to describe it, because if one is immersed in it – in the
action – the image one would have of it is mixed up. But this slight distance does not
limit the author's capacity to identify with his characters and the people who inspire
him in real life. Modiano mentions Flaubert who said 'Madame Bovary is me'. And
Tolstoy instantly identified with the woman he saw throwing herself under a train one
night in a station in Russia. This gift of identification went so far that Tolstoy blended
with the sky and the landscape that he was describing and that absorbed him entirely,
down to the slightest batting of Anna Karenina's eyelash. Certain solitude does allow
one to achieve a degree of attention and hyper-lucidity when observing the outside
world, which can then be transposed into a novel. Under their gaze, everyday life ends
up being enshrouded in mystery and taking on a kind of glow-in-the-dark quality which
it did not have at first sight but which was hidden deep down. It is the role of the poet
and the novelist, and also the painter, to reveal the mystery and the glow–in–the–dark
quality which exist in the depths of every individual. Perhaps the novelist, at his best, is
a kind of clairvoyant or even visionary , a seismograph, standing by to pick up barely
perceptible movements .
Modiano refers to a noteworthy childhood event which planted the seed of his
future body of work and about which he did not always have a clear conscience, and this
noteworthy event comes back in various guises to haunt his books. He brings in the
story of Alfred Hitchcock, not a writer but someone whose films nevertheless have the
strength and cohesion of a novel. When his son was five years old, Hitchcock's father
told him to take a letter to a police officer friend of his. The child delivered the letter and
the police officer locked him up in the screened-off section of the police station that is
used as a cell holding all sorts of offenders overnight. The terrified child was in there for
an hour before the police officer released him, explaining 'now you know what happens
if you behave badly in life.' He is also reminded of something that happened to the poet
Thomas De Quincey when he was young and that marked him for life. In London, in the
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crowd on Oxford Street, he made friends with a girl, one of those chance encounters that
happen in a city. He spent a few days in her company and then he had to leave London
for a few days. They agreed that after a week, she would wait at the same time every
evening on the corner of Great Titchfield Street. But they never saw each other again. 'If
she lived, doubtless we must have been some time in search of each other, at the very
same moment, through the mighty labyrinths of London; perhaps even within a few feet
of each other – a barrier no wider than a London street often amounting in the end to a
separation for eternity . For Modiano, with the passing of the years, each
neighbourhood, each street in a city evokes a memory, a meeting, a regret, a moment of
happiness for those who were born there and have lived there. Often the same street is
tied up with successive memories, to the extent that the topography of a city becomes
your whole life, called to mind in successive layers as if you could decipher the writings
superimposed on a palimpsest. And also the lives of the thousands upon thousands of
other, unknown, people passing by on the street or in the Métro passageways at rush
hour. In his youth, to help him write, he tried to find the old Parisian telephone
directories, especially the ones that listed names by street with building numbers, and
he got the feeling as he turned the pages that he was looking at an X ray of the city – a
submerged city like Atlantis – and breathing in the scent of time. Because of the years
that had passed, the only traces left by these thousands upon thousands of unknown
individuals were their names, addresses and telephone numbers. Sometimes a name
disappears from one year to the next. There was something dizzying about browsing
through these old phone books and thinking that from now on, calls to those numbers
would be unanswered. He would later be struck by the stanzas of a poem by Osip
Mandelstam:
I returned to my city familiar to tears,
To my vessels and tonsils of childhood years,
Petersburg, […]
While you're keeping my telephone numbers alive.
Petersburg, I still have the addresses at hand
That I’ll use to recover the voice of the dead.
So it seems to Modiano that the desire to write his first books came to him while I
was looking at those old Parisian phone books. All ) had to do was underline in pencil
the name, address and telephone number of some unknown person and imagine what
his or her life was like, among the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of names. One
can lose oneself or disappear in a big city. One can even change one s identity and live a
new life. One can indulge in a very long investigation to find a trace of malice, starting
only with one or two addresses in an isolated neighborhood. And he has always been
fascinated by the short note that sometimes appears on search records: Last known
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Nobel Prize 2014
address. Themes of disappearance, identity and the passing of time are closely bound up
with the topography of cities. That is why since the 19 th century, cities have been the
territory of novelists, and some of the greatest of them are linked to a single city: Balzac
and Paris, Dickens and London, Dostoyevsky and Saint Petersburg, Tokyo and Nagai
Kaf”, Stockholm and (jalmar Söderberg.
Modiano is of the generation which was influenced by these novelists, and which
wanted in turn to explore what Baudelaire called the 'sinuous folds of the old capital
cities'. Until the 20th century, novelists maintained a more or less 'romantic' vision of
the city, not so different from Dickens' or Baudelaire's. That is why he is curious to
know how the novelists of the future will evoke these gigantic urban concentrations in
works of fiction. Concerning his books, the Swedish Academy alluded to 'the art of
memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies'. It is about a
peculiar kind of memory, which attempts to collect bits and pieces from the past and the
few traces left on earth of the anonymous and the unknown. And this, too, is bound up
with his year of birth: 1945. Being born in 1945, after the cities had been destroyed and
entire populations had disappeared, must have made him, like others of his age, more
sensitive to the themes of memory and oblivion. This layer, this mass of oblivion that
obscures everything, means we can only pick up fragments of the past, disconnected
traces, fleeting and almost ungraspable human destinies. Yet it has to be the vocation of
the novelist, Modiano said in his Stockholm address, when faced with this large blank
page of oblivion, to make a few faded words visible again, like lost icebergs adrift on the
surface of the ocean .
K. Misra
P. G. Department of English
Jyoti Vihar-768 019
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Nobel Prize 2014
NOBEL PRIZE IN PEACE
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE – 2014: RELEVANT OR REDUNDANT
Malala Yousafzai
Kailash Satyarthi
It is my pleasure to be amidst the faculty, scholars, students, and distinguished
ladies and gentlemen again almost after a year to discuss on the Nobel Prizes for human
endeavour and excellence which in the long run is going to impact the whole of
mankind. I thank the School of Chemistry of Sambalpur University for organizing this
annual event. Extramural activities of this nature connect the local with the global
perception of human life, living and achievements and enhance the urge for the quest
for knowledge. I have only rudimentary information on the Nobel Peace Prize and that
too the prize that has been awarded this year. The statement that follows may not meet
the bench mark of scholarly analysis and erudition.
On 2nd of October last year I came across a news item informing of Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (1984, South Africa), castigating the
government of South Africa for denying visa to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, another
Nobel Peace Laureate to attend the Nobel Peace Prize winners' summit. The summit,
scheduled in mid-October, was meant to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the end of
apartheid and the legacy of Nelson Mandela, the late President of South Africa and
another Nobel Peace Prize winner. Was the denial of visa to the Dalai Lama for an
innocent event a mark of intolerance of the dissenting view or was it driven by politicoeconomic considerations of the extant South African Government? And a week after,
comes the news of an Indian and a Pakistani national jointly winning this covetous
prize, breaking the barriers of prolonged animosity and conflict between these two
neighbours.
A Recap on the Genesis of Nobel Prize
Alfred Nobel died on December 10, 1896. A year earlier to his death, he left a
will signed on November 27, 1895. This was the last of the three wills he made in his
lifetime. The will stated, the whole of his remaining realizable estate and the capital
derived thereof invested in safe securities by his executors, shall constitute a fund, the
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Nobel Prize 2014
interest on which shall be annually distributed as cash prizes to those who shall have
conferred the greatest benefit on mankind during the preceding year. The amount thus
derived shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned between
persons who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the
field of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine; and shall have produced in the field
of literature the most outstanding and ideal work. One part shall be bestowed on the
person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations,
for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of
peace congresses. The prizes for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the
Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiology or medicine works by the Karolinska
Institute, the medical university at Solna in Stockholm; that for literature by the
Academy in Stockholm, and that for peace by a committee of five persons to be elected
by Storting, the Norwegian Parliament. Nobel explicitly expressed his wish that the
most worthy shall receive the prize without any consideration of nationality of the
candidates making the prizes nonpartisan and truly global in nature. Later in 1969,
economics was brought within the ambit of Nobel Prize, taking the total number of
prizes to six as on date.
Nobel Prize for Peace – Genesis, Modalities and Deviation
The prize for peace was to be awarded, according to the will of Alfred Nobel, to
the person s or institution s who shall have done the most or the best work for
fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the
holding of peace congresses . There is an interesting deviation in awarding this prize.
The prize was to be awarded by a committee of five persons to be elected by the
Norwegian Storting . While all other prizes are awarded by the Swedish Academy, the
Peace Prize is the one awarded by the Norwegian Storting. Nobel gave no reason why
the prize for peace was to be awarded by a Norwegian committee while the other prizes
were to be handled by Swedish committees. This allows space for several conjectures.
The most likely ones could be: Alfred Nobel, who lived most of his life abroad and who
wrote his will at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, may have been influenced by
the fact that, until 1905, Norway was in union with Sweden. Since the scientific prizes
were to be awarded by the Swedish Committees, at least the remaining prize for peace
ought to be awarded by a Norwegian committee. Nobel may have been aware of the
strong interest of the Norwegian Storting in the peaceful solution of international
disputes in the 1890s. He might have in fact, considered Norway a more peace-oriented
and more democratic country than Sweden. This could have motivated him to assign
the responsibility to the Storting. Another conjecture could be, Nobel was an avid
reader of Norwegian fiction, particularly by Bjornson, a well-known peace activist
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Nobel Prize 2014
during the late nineteenth century and may have been influenced by Bjornson s ideas
of global peace. Or it could have been a combination of these factors.
The Peace Prize So Far
Nobel peace prize has been awarded to 103 individuals and 22 organizations
since 1901. For quite some time the award was given to only individuals for their
contribution for global peace and efforts in ameliorating human suffering caused by
strife and war. In later years various organizations working towards global peace were
also considered and honoured with this award. On 19 occasions it was not awarded due
to reasons like the two great wars during the first half of the twentieth century. In 1948
it was not awarded as a mark of respect to Mahatma Gandhi, who was being considered
for the award that year, but had died earlier. Nobel Prizes by tradition are not awarded
posthumously.
Of the 103 individuals awarded the Nobel Peace Prize so far, 16 are women.
Bertha von Suttner was the first woman to be awarded the peace prize in 1905. The
others to follow are Jane Addams (1931), Emily Greene Balch (1946), Betty
Williams(1976), Mairead Corrigan(1976), Mother Teresa (1979), Alva Myrdal (1982),
Aung San Suu Kyi (1991), Rigoberta Menchú Tum (1992), Jody Williams (1997), Shirin
Ebadi (2003), Wangari Maathai (2004), Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (2011), Leymah Gbowee
(2011) and Tawakkol Karman (2011). And finally in 2014, it is Malala Yousafzai, our
neighbourhood girl. She is the youngest to be honoured at the tender age of 17. Peace
prize laureate for 1995 Joseph Rotblat at 87 is the oldest awardee of the Prize. So far
fourteen Asians have been honoured with this coveted award.
Students of Chemistry may be interested to know that Linus Pauling was
awarded the Nobel Prize twice; once for Chemistry in 1954 and for Peace in 1962. This
is the only occasion when an individual has been awarded the prize for his contribution
in two different fields ( Peace is one of them). Another fascinating fact is, in 1973 this
prize was jointly awarded to Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State and Lec du Tho,
the Vietnamese revolutionary leader. Lec du Tho declined to accept the award where as
Kissinger received it. The reason for refusal by Lec du Tho was alleged breach of faith
by the US in maintaining armistice as agreed upon according to the Paris Peace Accord.
It is interesting to note that the Nobel Prize for Peace was instituted over a
decade before the First World War broke out. Hence, to say that only war disturbs
peace would be a misnomer. Without even a bullet having been fired peace may get
shattered due to oppression, exploitation, economic deprivation, superstition and
ignorance. There are glaring examples of persons and institutions having been
bestowed with the coveted Nobel peace prize for having served humanity during peace
time and at the time of calamity - manmade or natural – gnawing at the very heart, soul
and conscience of mankind.
39
Nobel Prize 2014
Modalities of Selection
Recipients of other prizes in the Nobel award series are largely from the
academic and scientific community. Their works are tangible and are available in the
form of theorizations, publications, inventions and applications. Nothing of that nature
could be ascribed to or expected of work done in the field of restoring, establishing or
perpetuating peace in a global scale. From this point of view, setting any yardstick,
norms or fixed matrix to adjudge nominees for the award is certainly a daunting task.
For each award the Nobel Committee sets up a search group, and for the Peace prize the
group consists of five eminent people. They solicit nominations from eligible
nominators who have to be (a) members of national assemblies and governments of
states; (b) members of international courts; (c) university rectors, professors of social
sciences, history, philosophy, law and theology, directors of peace research institutes
and foreign policy institutes; (d) persons who have been awarded the Nobel peace
prize; (e) Board members of organizations that have been awarded the Nobel peace
prize; (f) active and former members of the Norwegian Nobel committee and (g) former
advisers to the Norwegian Nobel committee.
The search group scans, vets, deliberates and shortlists the nominees according
to the set will of Alfred Nobel. The most eligible person s or organization(s) for the
coveted Peace prize are identified after due diligence and thoughtful deliberation. As
per the Nobel Prize statute, the names of the nominees are kept secret and cannot be
placed in public domain for at least 50 years from the year of nomination and award.
There is no bar for re-nomination of a person or an organization year after year for as
many times as is possible. This award cannot be given posthumously to any person.
However, this rule does not hold good if the awardee dies post declaration of the award.
The Year 2014 - Speculation and Choice
The Norwegian Nobel committee received 278 nominations for the Nobel peace
prize for 2014, the highest so far. Of these 47 are organizations and 231 are individuals.
In the year 2013 the number of nominees was 259. Following are the names suggested
by various fora and speculated by the media and the lobbyists. Denis Mukwege, a doctor
in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for treating thousands of women gang-raped and
tortured during the civil war; Malala Yousafzai, the teenager Pakistani girl who was shot
in the head by Taliban militants in 2012 as punishment for her high profile campaign to
encourage girls to go to school; Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Svetlana Gannushkina and Lilya
Shibanova, the Russian human rights trio for opposing oppressive laws of the Putin
regime; Claudia Paz y Paz, the first female Attorney General in Guatemala; Hu Jia of
China, the dissident and human rights activist; Mary Robinson, the former president of
Ireland - the first woman elected to the presidency; Helmut Kohl, the former Chancellor
of Germany, who presided over the reunification of East and West Germany and made
40
Nobel Prize 2014
the deals for the creation of the common European currency, the Euro; Juan Manuel
Santos, the President of Colombia who has embarked on a peace process to end a halfcentury of conflict and the guerrilla war in Latin America; Pope Francis, the first Latin
American pontiff for his public call to shift the Catholic faith s stress away from
opposition to reformative issues.
There have been some surprising and controversial nominations too. Among
them are Vladimir Putin, the Russian President sponsored by a Russian group according
to whom, he actively promotes settlement of all conflicts arising on the planet ; Edward
Snowden, the NSA whistle blower proposed by Stefan Svallfors, a sociology professor in
Sweden for exposing the United States and British governments mass surveillance
programmes had helped to make the world a little bit better and safe and Bradley
Manning, a US soldier for his incredible disclosure of secret documents to WikiLeaks
helped end the )raq War .
There were debates in the media as to who is best suited for this coveted honour
for 2014. Like last year TIME magazine carried a cover page news story on Malala
Yousafzai, the Pakistani brave girl, this year The Guardian lobbied vigorously for
Edward Snowden, the US surveillance whistle blower. Malala had lost last time, so is
Snowden this time despite frantic media lobbying.
The Awardees of 2014: Some Facts and Reasoning
The announcement of award for the year 2014 did not bring any kind of surprise,
at least in the case of Malala Yousafzai as she had been vociferously sponsored by the
media, more so, the influential TIME magazine and certain other lobbyist of the west
and the NATO block last year. Malala s courage, conviction and contribution espousing
the cause for education of the girl child and empowerment of women had attracted
global attention. Her case had been discussed on the floor of the United Nations
Organization. Her challenging and the atrocious conduct of the Islamic Fundamentalists
and the Pak Taliban when she was just fifteen shook the conscience of the entire
committee of nations.
Born on 12 July 1997, this teenager at 17 from the Swat Valley in the Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province is the youngest recipient of the Nobel peace prize. Shot in the
head while on her way to the school, Malala underwent critical medical procedures to
recover from both physical ailment and mental trauma. She is almost in exile now with
her parents in Birmingham. While she being awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace has
largely been hailed across the world, still there are critics who have assailed the move of
the Nobel committee. Most of the dissenting noise has emanated from the
fundamentalist groups in the Islamic bloc including Pakistan, her own country. In
Pakistan, critics of her have been most uncharitable. One even went on to say, She s a
fake, she never got shot in the head and there is no such thing as the Taliban. Another
41
Nobel Prize 2014
said, ) wish the world would stop talking about this girl. There are many Malala s in
Pakistan and all around the world – why don t the Americans and British talk about
those girls? When a Pakistani academic was asked by journalists if she felt proud of
Malala winning a Nobel, she responded cryptically, This is a tricky question that isn t
easy to answer. )t s complicated. For hardcore Pakistani extremists, Malala becoming a
Nobel laureate is no cause for jubilation or celebration. But the fact remains, this brave
heart has joined the league of celebrities like Mother Teresa and Aung San Suu Kyi, who
too belong to Asia and have assigned their lives for amelioration of human suffering.
The other recipient is our own Kailash Satyarthi. Born on 11 January 1954, into a
Brahmin family, Kailash Sharma dropped his caste name and took the suffix Satyarthi,
meaning seeker of truth . By education an engineer Satyarthi took up social issues and
the cause of the underprivileged and the exploited quite early in life. He took to
advocacy of children s rights and set up the Bachpan Bachao Aandolan Save
Childhood Movement). He was an active member of the Bandhua Mazdoor Mukti
Morcha (Bonded Labour Liberation Front). He acted with associates like Swami
Agnivesh for eradicating the bonded labour system in India which is a black feudal
legacy. At the instance and dogged efforts of Satyarthi that the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) adopted the Convention No. 182 against the worst form of child
labour which has found global recognition and acceptance. Will Satyarthi getting the
Nobel Prize impact in any way the school dropout rate in India, more so in Odisha
despite the Right to Education of the Children Act? Will it in any case dent the heinous
Dadan and child labour system in the country at large and Western Odisha in
particular? Or is the Prize a matter of personal achievement and in due course remain
as a footnote in the history of Nobel Prize for peace?
While many Indians felt elated at Kailash Satyarthi getting the Nobel peace prize
for 2014, there is no dearth of critics who think if at all an Indian this time there are
others more deserving than Kailash for this honour. The bitterest of critics is Mohan
Guruswamy, the Chairman of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, an independent
think-tank in New Delhi. In a signed article Guruswamy, in general criticises the Nobel
Prize in these words, and I quote, The award of the Nobel Peace Prize clearly has
political overtones. … )t is stipulated in Alfred Nobel s will, that the members of the
Norwegian Nobel Committee be five retired members of the Storting, the Norwegian
parliament, and be directly appointed by it. Then a country that is an active member of
NATO, the most militarily engaged alliance of the western world, awards them. The
award no longer has any criteria; save consideration that it serves a certain political
agenda. (e goes on to write, ..... Kailash Satyarthi, I know personally. I first met him in
the early
s when he was an aide to Swami Agnivesh who was leading a heroic
struggle to liberate bonded labour, then an endemic practice in India. It was during this
42
Nobel Prize 2014
campaign to liberate bonded labourers that Agnivesh noticed the number of children in
servitude, serving out time in often hard labour for the debts of their parents. But not all
these children were bonded. Agnivesh and Satyarthi had been toying with the idea of
having a system of certification to ensure that bonded or child labour was not used in
the manufacture of a product, at this stage only carpets and dhurries. Satyarthi on one
of his US visits mentioned this to US Senator Tom Harkin. The Iowa Democrat
responded enthusiastically to the idea that Indian goods for export should be required
to have such a certification and began to push this idea with the US Trade
Representative s office. At which stage the Indian government interceded with
Agnivesh and convinced him that this will have disastrous consequences for all Indian
exports for there is no way of knowing where in the supply chain child or bonded
labour was used. But Satyarthi was not convinced. He now decided to spread his wings.
The funders too were very supportive. Thus began the Bachpan Bachao
Andolan (literally Save Childhood Movement) to put an end to the employment of
children. This is always a problematic issue in a poverty ridden country and that too one
without a social security net in place to catch the falling. But Satyarthi pushed ahead.
Funds were not an issue. There were plenty of foreigners eager to help. Even today the
clutch of activities and foundations he controls are mostly foreign funded. Most of them
were in fact working for fairly decent wages to mitigate the economic circumstances of
the family. But as Agnivesh puts it: A child never works long hours every day
voluntarily. There is a compulsion to do so. Even if it is due to economic reasons it is
forced on the child . This too therefore was deemed by the Bandhua Mukti Morcha
(BMM) as bonded labour. Little did he realise then, that it would one day become a
major favourite with western funding agencies such as the Hague-based Novib, the
London-based Christian Aid and the Washington-based Bread for the World. The
narrow funding stream was soon a torrent. The essence of what Guruswamy says is,
Kailash has thrived on others ideas and on foreign funding and thus is a secondary
ideologue and west-sponsored activist. He winning the award according to Guruswamy
is neither fair nor reasonable.
Be that as it may, the Prize citation reasons for the prize in these words: the Nobel
Prize for Peace,
is awarded jointly to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai for
their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the
right of all children to education .
One aspect of this prize for 2014 cannot be ignored. India and Pakistan have
umbilical relationship. They share the same agony of partition and have been engaged
in sporadic conflicts since 1947, which on occasions have flared up into full scale wars.
Their governments share mutual suspicion for one another. At the same time two of
their citizens sharing the most coveted global award for peace is no less than a matter of
43
Nobel Prize 2014
satisfaction for the people of these socio–culturally contiguous countries. Will this event
signal for better relationship in the future? Will it augur bon homie? Only time will tell.
Questions and Controversies: Nobel Prize Missed the Mahatma
Like several national or international prizes, the Nobel Prize is not without
aberrations and its share of controversies. There is a perception that the prize is
Eurocentric. Besides, the Committee has deliberately ignored in the past many
deserving individuals for this honour. Mahatma Gandhi is a bright example of being
victim of this colonial and Eurocentric attitude and discrimination. He had been
nominated five times between 1937 and 1948 for the Nobel prize for Peace but every
time his nomination was negated. Decades later Nobel committee publicly declared its
regret for the omission. Geir Lundestad, Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee in
2006 said,
"The greatest omission in our 106 year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received
the Nobel Peace Prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace Prize, whether Nobel Committee can do
without Gandhi is the question".
Last Words
Eventually, I would like to relate India to this coveted global honour and recognition for
pioneering work in various fields for the betterment of mankind. Till date ten persons,
either Indian citizens (including British India) and of Indian origin with foreign
nationality have received this prize. This includes Ronald Ross, born in Almora
(Uttarakhanda) for physiology or medicine in 1902, Rudyard Kipling, an English man
born in Bombay for Literature in 1907 and Mother Teresa of Albanian origin for Peace
in 1979. Rabindra Nath Tagore (Literature-1913), Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman
(Physics-1930), Amartya Sen (Economics-1998) too have made India proud by
receiving the Nobel Prize. The other three: Hargobind Khorana (Medicine-1968),
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (Physics-1983), Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
(Chemistry-2009) are of Indian origin but took citizenship in countries of their choice.
Some even tend to put in this list Mohammad Abdus Salam (Physics-1979) and
Mohammad Yunus (Peace-2006). Both were born in British India, but Salam got the
prize as a citizen of Pakistan and Yunus as from Bangladesh. By that stretch of weird
imagination one may even put V. S. Naipaul (Literature-2001), a person of Indian
descent but born in Trinidad and His Holiness, the 14 th Dalai Lama (Peace-1989), a
Tibetan now in exile in India in the list of Indian awardees to elongate the list. But it is
stretching the imagination too far.
In fact our share of the Nobel honour is too little. It is almost negligible. Why? Is it
because Indian conditions are not conducive for scientific quest? Is it because study of
basic and pure science has taken a back seat in our academic priorities? This is not only
my view. Even former President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam thought so in anguish. He
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Nobel Prize 2014
desired our universities to seriously ponder over this deficiency. However, despite all
odds India has so far bagged the Nobel Prize in all the six categories. That is a solace. At
the same time India could not safe keep the Nobel Medal of Rabindra Nath Tagore
which was burgled from Viswa Bharati, Shantiniketan, and the institution of his vision.
Is it not a matter of concern and shame? Now, we are happy with the replica of the lost
medal which the Nobel Committee gave as a compensation for our negligence.
In conclusion, it would be apt to quote the Latin inscription on the medal for the
Nobel Peace Prize, Pro pace et fraternitate gentium . In English it means, "For the
peace and brotherhood of men". Despite this, why intolerance and conflict, why war
and genocide, why hunger and strife, why ignorance and insecurity?
(as Om Shanti.. Shanti.. Shanti... , the eternal Vedic chant lost its relevance in a
materialistic world of warmongers? Is power by the arms more valuable than peace by
conscience? These are questions to be addressed by the collective wisdom of mankind.
I again thank all my friends for having given me a patient hearing for so long.
A. K. Padhi
Noted Columnist
Former Deputy Director-General
All India Radio & Doordarshan, Sambalpur
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Nobel Prize 2014
NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS
MARKET POWER AND REGULATION
Jean Tirole
Jean Tirole is awarded Nobel Prize for Economics Sciences 2014, for his
important theoretical research contributions in a number of areas, but most of all his
clarification on how to understand and regulate industries with a few powerful firms.
The field of Industrial Organization studies how market functions. The main
emphasis is on how firm exercises their market power in imperfectly competitive
markets, how they interact with other firms, the welfare implications of such behavior,
and the justification for government intervention. In the case of natural monopolies, the
government may directly regulate the monopolist. Many governments have opened up
public monopolies to private stake-holders. This has applied not only to industries such
as railways, highways, water, post and telecommunications but also to the provision of
schooling and healthcare. The experiences resulting from these privatization have been
mixed and it has often been more difficult to get private firms to behave in the desired
way. Many markets allow more than one firm to operate, and it may be in the public
interest to promote competitive behavior in these industries. Oligopoly theory provides
a scientific foundation for such interventions. The difficulty is that the regulatory
authority lacks information about the firms; cost and the quality of the goods and
services delivered. This lack of knowledge often provides regulated firms with a natural
advantage.
Simple rules for regulatory policies, such as capping prices for monopolists and
prohibiting cooperation between competitors in the same market, while permitting
cooperation between firms at different positions in the value can exist. (owever Tirole s
research would come to show that such rules work in some conditions, but that it does
more harm than good in others. Price Cap can provide dominant firms with strong
motives to reduce costs- a good think for the society- but may also permit excessive
profiles- a bad thing for society. Cooperation on price setting within a market is usually
harmful, but cooperation regarding patent tools can benefit everyone involved. The
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Nobel Prize 2014
merger of firm and its supplier may lead to more rapid innovation, but it may also
distort competition.
A new theory was needed for Oligopoly markets, because not even extensive
privatization creates enough space for more than a small number of firms. There was
also a need for a new theory of regulation in situations of asymmetric information,
because regulators often have poor knowledge of firms conditions.
Tirole s research attempts to build new scientific methods, particularly in Game
Theory and Contract Theory.
In 1986, Tirole and his now deceased colleague Jean-Jacques Laffont made an
important contribution to the theory of regulation. They demonstrated how a clever set
of production contracts can circumvent the problem of asymmetric information in a
market where the regulatory authority lacks complete knowledge of a monopoly s costs
and choices of production techniques. Producers with high cost will choose a contract
with relatively high compensation for his costs- and thus have little motivation to
reduce them. Producer with greater opportunities to reduce his costs will choose a
contract with relatively low compensation for its costs, but with a higher price for the
services he delivers- and thus have a strong incentive to reduce costs. A single contract
that strikes a compromise between these aspects would result in unnecessarily large
profits if it is easy for the firm to cut its costs. During 1980s and 1990s, Laffont and
Tirole applied their theory to range of issues. They summarized the results in a book on
Public Procurement and Regulation, published in 1993, which has greatly influenced
regulation in practice. The theoretical results for how different types of regulation
might work have also received convincing support in empirical studies of individual
industries.
In many cases, question arises about the time frame for regulation: for what
period should the first set of regulations be designed, and how should it be reviewed
and renewed? Laffont and Tirole analyzed these questions in two significant articles
from 1988 and 1990, which were based on work carried out by Freixas, Laffont and
Tirole in 1985.
Suppose the regulator and producer cannot sign a long-term contract, but only a
series of short-term contracts. This means that the producer s current actions may
affect his future regulation. If a low cost producer works hard and thus achieve large
profits during the first contract period, the regulatory authority may tighten the
demands of the next contract in order to reduce the profit potential. The risk is that the
producer predicts this rate that effect and thus works less hard, disadvantaging the
business. If the authority cannot draw up long-term contract it is impossible to get the
producer to choose the appropriate effort at a reasonable cost, and thus indirectly
reveal its cost conditions. Instead, the authority should choose to use weaker incentive
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Nobel Prize 2014
and gradually learn these conditions- this will happen quickly if the business is complex
and unprofitable, and more slowly if it is simpler and more profitable.
In most countries, a framework for regulation is first decided at a higher level
(the government) and a public authority is then tasked with designing the precise terms
of the regulations. In 1986, Tirole had analyzed the optimal reward system in a similar
hierarchical relationship, studying a more general case with one principal (owner), one
supervisor (foreman) and one agent (worker). The primary problem is that the
authority and the firm have more information about the business than the government.
A poorly designed framework means that there is a risk of the two colluding to hide this
information from the government, to the benefit of the business; the authority becomes
the firm s advocate. )n
, Laffont and Tirole examined how regulation should be
designed to minimize this risk.
The main result of their analysis is that the government should establish a
framework that explicitly considers the risk of the regulator hiding information and
colluding with the regulated firm. Even with a well-designed framework, a regulator
will sometimes appear to be an advocate of the firm, but despite this he will
nevertheless not allow himself to be bribed or actively withhold information.
It is not only monopolies that require regulation, Oligopoly market do too. Along
with his co-authors, Tirole has provided a number of important contributions to
theories of competition law, such as analyses of the competitive effects of patents,
technical advances and strategic investments.
Patents can provide firms with strategic advantage. In 1983 Tirole, working with
Dew Fudenbery, Richard Gilbert and Joseph Stiglitz, analyzed the conditions for patent
races between firms. They predicted intense races in areas where several companies
are at roughly the same level, but lower levels of investment in research and
development when one of the companies is far ahead.
In an article from 1984, Fudenbery and Tirole used game theory to analyze how a
firm can influence its competitors strategically. A strategic investment has long-term
effects on the firm s profitability. One vital question is whether the investments make
the firm more (or less) aggressive in future competition. One example is an investment
that reduces the firm s marginal costs. The next question is the way in which competing
firm s best deal with such competition. )n some markets, aggressive investments will
bring rewards, as competitors will abstain from market shares. In other markets, such
investments are unprofitable, as they will in turn be met with aggressive behavior. Indepth understanding of the particular conditions of a specific industry is therefore
necessary to determine what type of strategy is most profitable for firms in that
industry. These are important insights for both practitioners and competition
authorities. Practitioners may make mistake if they uncritically try to transfer lessons
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Nobel Prize 2014
learned in one market to another one, and the authorities may make mistakes if they
regulate firms without taking specific market conditions into account.
There are no simple, standard solutions for regulation and competition policy, as
the most appropriate ones will vary from one market to another. Jean Tirole has
therefore also studied the conditions of specific markets, and contributed new
theoretical perspectives. Traditionally, undercutting prices has been disciplined under
competition law, because setting prices below production costs is one way of getting rid
of competitors. However this is not necessarily true of all markets. Consider the news
paper market for example, where giving away papers for free can be a way of attracting
readers and thus new advertisers to cover the losses due to production and distribution.
In this case it is doubtful whether undercutting should be banned. Along with JeanCharles Rochat, Tirole has increased understanding of these platform markets where
there is a strong link between players on different sides of technical platforms, such as
readers and advertisers in the case of news papers. Other examples of similar platforms
are credit/debit cards, and social media.
What happens when someone has a monopoly in an area that is an important link
in a production chain? This classic problem is illustrated by a modern phenomenon: a
particular firm s software or operating system becomes dominant in its area. Formerly,
the belief was that such companies may well make monopoly profits in their own area,
but that competition prevents them from benefitting from their position in the next link
in the production chain.
In two studies- one with Patrick Rey in 1986, one with Oliver Hart in 1990 –
Tirole has demonstrated that this belief is not justified; mastering one link of a chain
can allow a monopolist to make profits in the market of the next link. In reality, it is
often by distorting competition in a neighbouring market a monopolist is able to make a
profit. One example is the producer of a cost-reducing, patented innovation. If the firms
that are potential purchasers of this innovation operate in a market with stiff
competition, the producer will find it difficult to earn a lot of money if he sells to all the
firms at the same time; market competition produces low profits even after the
reduction in costs, so the producer must maintain a low price. However, if the
innovation is only sold to one firm, this firm makes a high profit because it becomes
more efficient than its competitors. The producer can then set his price considerably
higher.
However, it is far from clear that producer can commit to selling to only one firm.
Once the sale has taken place, it is worthwhile for the producer to sell to additional
firms, but if the first customer realizes this risk, his willingness to pay significantly
diminishes. The producer must therefore promise not to make any more sales. In order
for this promise to be credible, it is necessary to either sign some form of exclusive
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Nobel Prize 2014
contract or actually merge the two firms. Competition Law therefore has to weigh these
two considerations against each other: on the one hand, vertical contracts can limit
competition but, on the other hand, they encourage innovation. This type of reasoning
has provided a new and robust foundation for legislation and legal usage concerning
vertical contracts and merger. So, this is yet another example of the same general
result: desirable competition policies are different from market to market.
Jean Tirole research contributions are characterized by through studies, respect
for the peculiarities of different markets, and the skillful use of new analytical methods
in Economics. He has penetrated deep into the most central issues of Oligopolies and
asymmetric information, but he has also managed to bring together his own and other s
results into a coherent framework for teaching practical application, and continued
research. Tirole s emphasis on normative theories of regulation and competition policy
has given his contributions practical significance.
S. S. Rath
P. G. Department of Economics
Jyoti Vihar-768 019
50
Nobel Prize 2014
FACT FILE OF NOBEL PRIZE AWARDS: AT A GLANCE
THE YOUNG NOBEL LAUREATES (<36)
Entry
Name of the Laureates
Age
Category
Year
Date of Birth
1
Malala Yousafzai
17
Peace
2014
12 July 1997
2
Lawrence Bragg
25
Physics
1915
31 March 1890
3
Werner Heisenberg
31
Physics
1932
5 December 1901
4
Tsung-Dao Lee
31
Physics
1957
24 November 1926
5
Carl D. Anderson
31
Physics
1936
3 September 1905
6
Paul A. M. Dirac
31
Physics
1933
8 August 1902
7
Frederick G. Banting
32
Medicine
1923
14 November 1891
8
Tawakkol Karman
32
Peace
2011
7 February 1979
9
Rudolf Mössbauer
32
Physics
1961
31 January 1929
10
Mairead Corrigan
32
Peace
1976
27 January 1944
11
Brian D. Josephson
33
Physics
1973
4 January, 1940
12
Joshua Lederberg
33
Medicine
1958
23 May 1925
13
Betty Williams
33
Peace
1976
22 May 1943
14
Rigoberta Menchú Tum
33
Peace
1992
9 January 1959
15
Donald A. Glaser
34
Physics
1960
28 February, 2013
16
James Watson
34
Medicine
1962
6 April, 1928
17
Guglielmo Marconi
35
Physics
1909
25 April, 1874
18
Max von Laue
35
Physics
1914
9 October, 1879
19
Arthur H. Compton
35
Physics
1927
10 September, 1892
20
Frédéric Joliot
35
Chemistry
1935
19 March, 1900
21
Chen Ning Yang
35
Physics
1957
1 October, 1922
22
Martin Luther King Jr.
35
Peace
1964
15 January, 1929
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Nobel Prize 2014
THE OLD NOBEL LAUREATES (>80)
Entry
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
25
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
Name of the Laureates
John R. Mott
René Cassin
Barbara McClintock
Ronald H. Coase
François Englert
Georg Wittig
WIlliam Vickrey
Robert F. Furchgott
Oliver Smithies
Alice Munro
Jaroslav Seifert
Charles J. Pedersen
George H. Hitchings
Martin Karplus
Pyotr Kapitsa
William S. Knowles
Thomas C. Schelling
Peter Higgs
Theodor Mommsen
Willard S. Boyle
John B. Fenn
Robert G. Edwards
Isamu Akasaki
Ferdinand Buisson
Peyton Rous
Karl von Frisch
Joseph Rotblat
Vitaly L. Ginzburg
Yoichiro Nambu
Raymond Davis Jr.
Doris Lessing
Lloyd Shapley
Leonid Hurwicz
Age
Category
Year
Date of Birth
81
81
81
81
81
82
82
82
82
82
83
83
83
83
84
84
84
84
85
85
85
85
85
86
87
87
87
87
87
88
88
89
Peace
Peace
Medicine
Economics
Physics
Chemistry
Economics
Medicine
Medicine
Literature
Literature
Chemistry
Medicine
Chemistry
Physics
Chemistry
Economics
Physics
Literature
Physics
Chemistry
Medicine
Physics
Peace
Medicine
Medicine
Peace
Physics
Physics
Physics
Literature
Economics
25 May, 1865
5 October, 1887
16 June, 1902
29 December, 1910
6 November, 1932
16 June, 1897
21 June, 1914
4 June, 1916
23 June, 1925
10 July, 1931
23 September, 1901
3 October, 1904
18 April, 1905
15 March, 1930
8 July, 1894
1 June, 1917
14 April, 1921
29 May, 1929
14 October 1914
22 October 1919
2 June 1923
27 September, 1925
30 January, 1929
20 December, 1841
5 October 1879
20 November 1886
4 November 1908
4 October 1916
18 January 1921
20 December 1841
15 June 1917
30 November 1817
90
Economics
1946
1968
1983
1991
2013
1979
1996
1998
2007
2013
1984
1987
1988
2013
1978
2001
2005
2013
1902
2009
2002
2010
2014
1927
1966
1973
1995
2003
2008
2002
2007
2012
2007
19 August 1929
52
Nobel Prize 2014
NOBEL LAUREATE FAMILIES
Entry
Name of the Nobel Laureates
Relation
Category
Year(s)
1
Pierre Curie
Marie Curie
Husband-Wife
Physics
1903*
2
W. Henry Bragg
W. Lawrence Bragg
Father-Son
Physics
1915
3
F. Joliot-Curie
Irène Joliot-Curie
Husband-Wife
Chemistry
1935
4
G. Radnitz Cori
C. Ferdinand Cori
Husband-Wife
Medicine
1947
5
J. J. Thomson
G. Paget Thomson
Father-Son
Physics
1906/1937
6
Niels Bohr
Aage Bohr
Father-Son
Physics
1922/1975
7
Manne Siegbahn
Kai Siegbahn
Father-Son
Physics
1924/1981
8
H. von Euler- Chelpin
Ulf von Euler
Father-Son
Chemistry / Medicine
1929/1970
9
C.V. Raman
S. Chandrasekhar
Uncle-Nephew
Physics
1930/1983
10
Arthur Kornberg
Roger D. Kornberg
Father-son
Medicine / Chemistry
1959/2006
11
Jan Tinbergen
Nikolaas Tinbergen
Brothers
Economics / Medicine
1969/1973
12
Paul Samuelson
Kenneth Arrow
Brothers-in-Law
Economics
1970/1972
13
Gunnar Myrdal
Alva Myrdal
Husband-Wife
Economics / Peace
1974/1982
14
Edvard I. Moser
May-Britt Moser
Husband-Wife
Medicine
2014
* The Curie family is involved in receiving the most Nobel Prizes, with five. Marie Curie received the prizes in Physics (1903) and
Chemistry (1911). Her husband, Pierre Curie, shared the 1903 Physics prize with her. Their daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, received the
Chemistry Prize in 1935 together with her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie. In addition, the husband of Marie Curie's second
daughter, Henry Labouisse, was the director of UNICEF when it won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965.
53
Nobel Prize 2014
POWERFUL EQUATIONS AT NOBEL CORNER
No. of Times Awarded
to
One
Two
Three
Laureate
Laureates
Laureates
Nobel Prize
Category
No. of
Times
Awarded
1
Physiology
or Medicine
105
38
32
2
Physics
108
47
3
Chemistry
106
4
Literature
5
6
Sl. No.
No. of Laureates
No. of
Times Not
Awarded
Person(s)
Organization(s)
Total
35
09
208
00
207
31
30
06
199
00
199
63
23
20
08
169
00
169
107
103
04
00
07
111
00
111
Peace
95
64
29
02
19
103
25*
128
Economics
46
23
17
06
00
75
00
75
567
338
136
93
49
865
25
889
Total
* 22 individual organizations have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; UNHCR & ICRCs have been honoured twice and thrice, respectively.
54
Nobel Prize 2014
TOGETHER WE CAN
Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi hold up their Nobel medals during the Nobel Peace
Prize Awards (for their pioneering work on promoting child rights in the troubled sub-continent,
as they made an impassioned plea to globalize compassion) ceremony at the City Hall in Oslo, Norway.
What they said…
 Though I appear as one girl, one person, who is 5ft 2in tall, if you include my high heels. I am
not a lone voice, I am many.
 I am also glad that we (Satyarthi) can stand together and show the world that an Indian and a
Pakistani can be united in peace and together work for children s right.
 ) am Malala but ) am also those
million girls who are deprived of education, ) m not raising
my voice, it is the voice of those 66 million girls.
Malala Yousafzai
 There is no greater violence than to deny the dreams of our children.
 Let s democratize justice, let s universalize knowledge. Together, let us globalize compassion.
 …But many things happening today and the best thing that happened is that a young and
courageous Pakistani girl has met an Indian father and the Indian father met the Pakistani
daughter.
Kailash Satyarthi
It was important that a Muslim and a Hindu, a Pakistani and an Indian, had joined in what it
called a common struggle for education and extremism.
Nobel Committee
55
Nobel Prize 2014
ABOUT AUTHORS
Sadhu Charan Panda
He was born in Kalahandi (1959), did his Schooling and College education in Kalahandi
and Sambalpur. After graduation in M.B.B.S from Utkal University, he served periphery
in health services, Orissa; in Districts of Kalahandi, Bolangir and Sambalpur from 1986
to 1997. Since then he joined Orissa Medical Education Service cadre at V.S.S. Medical
College after becoming M.D. in S.P.M. Presently working as an Associate Professor,
Department of Community Medicine, V.S.S. Medical College, Burla. He has edited
Journal of Community Medicine from
to
. (e is a reviewer of Mensana
Monograph , Medical Education and Vaccine Safety . Besides teaching he is a
researcher, trainer, evaluator, public speaker and an expert in public health. He has
published research papers in National and International journals and participated in
National/International meets workshop and conferences. He is a member of Indian
Medical Association, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine, Indian Public
Health Association and World Association of Medical Editors. He is a Multiple Paul
Harris Fellow of Rotary International and a partner of Brighton Collaboration ,
Switzerland. He devotes his extra time with social works and in writing poems.
Sanjay Agrawal
He was born in 1972 at Durg, Chattisgarh and did his entire education from Sambalpur,
Odisha. Did his B.Tech and M.Tech from UCE Burla (now V.S.S.U.T.) in 1995 and 2003,
respectively. (e has deposited his Ph.D. thesis entitled Digital Image Processing in
Sambalpur University (still waiting for the call). He is involved in the teaching
profession since 1995. Now he is working as an Assistant Professor in the department
of Electronics and Tele-Communications, V.S.S.U.T., Burla. His philosophy says, he is a
learner and wants to be a learner throughout.
Hirak Chakraborty
He was born in 1977, did his M.Sc. in Chemistry in 2000 from Jadavpur University,
Kolkata. He has completed both his Post M.Sc. Associateship (Biophysical Sciences) in
2001 and Ph.D. in 2006 from Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata. One of his
research paper from Ph.D. work was highlighted in Nature India. He worked as
Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA from 2007 to 2012. He came back to
Centre of Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad as CSIR-Pool Scientist in
2012 and has been working there since he joined School of Chemistry, Sambalpur
University as UGC-Assistant Professor through UGC Faculty Recharge Programme in
November 2014. He has published 23 papers and 1 book chapter. He received CSIR
Travel Award in 2014 to participate in a conference in Germany.
56
Nobel Prize 2014
Kalidas Misra
He was born in 1955, did his M.A. (English) in 1976, and Ph.D. in 1987 from Utkal
University. He is at present Professor & Head, Department of English, Sambalpur
University. He was a Post-doctoral Fulbright Fellow at La Salle University, Philadelphia
and Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA in 1992. He was also a Shastri IndoCanadian Faculty Research Fellow in 1996 at the University of Manitoba, Canada. His
doctoral dissertation on The War Novel in America: A Study of Changing Response
done at Utkal University received the Best Dissertation Award given by the American
Studies Research Centre, Hyderabad in 1989. He was also associated with the Orissa
Research Project of the German Research Council, University of Heidelberg, Germany to
collaborate in the translations of the poems of Bhima Bhoi, the Nineteenth Century
Oriya Poet, later published as Bhima Bhoi:Verses from the Void:Bhima Bhoi, The Mystic
Poetry of an Oriya Saint. His poems and translations have appeared in journals like
Indian Literature, New Quest, Chandrabhaga, Skylark, Ojas, Banajyotsna and Four
Quarters (Philadelphia).
Abhaya Kumar Padhi
He was born in Rampela, Sambalpur (1949), did his Masters from the Post-Graguate
Department of English of Sambalpur University in 1972. After serving as a lecturer in
various colleges for a short spell, on being selected by the Union Public Service
Commission he joined Government of India, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
in 1975. He has held various staff postings while posted in the headquarters in New
Delhi, prominent among them as Director Personnel, Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, and
International Relations in different spells. As Deputy Director-General he handled AIR
Commercial Broadcasting Service, Marketing Division, Vividh Bharati, Games and Sports
Broadcasts, AIR Central Archive and Eastern Region of AIR comprising the states of
Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and union territory of the Andaman & Nicobar
Islands. He was Additional Director-General for the Eastern Region of Prasar Bharati
(both AIR and Doordarshan) handling the affairs in four states and a Union Territory till
retirement on 30th September, 2009. He has several publications to his credit that
include an anthology of poetry entitled Janmandhara )ndradhanu Barnana, several
short stories, poems and essays in established Oriya magazines, prominent among them
are Jhankar, Nabapatra, Nabalipi, Chitra, Sambad Puja Sankhya, Sachitra Vijaya,
Girijhara, Sagar, Istahar, Katha to name a few. He has visited many countries in
connection with training programmes and conferences like Trans-border Broadcasting,
Application of Meta-plan Technique in Broadcasting Management. Headed the Indian
Broadcasting contingent for coverage of various International sports events like
Commonwealth Games - 2006 in Melbourne (Australia) and Asian Games- 2006 in Doha
57
Nobel Prize 2014
(Qatar). Acted as Nodal Officer of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association during
its annual conference held in New Delhi in 2005. Headed the Indian delegation at the
SAARC Audio-Visual Exchange Programme Committee Meet in Bangladesh, Bhutan and
Maldives. He has been honoured with Annual Akashvani Awards for innovative
programme, received awards and honour for excellence in several productions at
various stations like Sambalpur and Cuttack including one from Shri Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, former Prime Minister. Presently he is appointed as a Guest Faculty of Indian
Institute of Mass Communication, Member of the Senate, Sambalpur University
Chancellor s nominee and Media Consultant, Odisha Electricity Regulatory
Commission, Bhubaneswar. He runs a regular column in the widely circulated Odia daily
Sambad and contributes articles on current affairs to various journals and
publications.
Sudhansu Sekhar Rath
He was born in 1960, presently he is Professor in P.G. Department of Economics,
Sambalpur University. His specialization is Mathematical Economics, Econometrics, and
Finance. He has completed his Ph.D. in Public Choice. At present he is pursuing his
research on Public Choice Theory, New Institutional Economics, Government Finance
and Financial Economics. He has published twenty six research papers in the Journals of
National and International repute. He has also published seventy popular articles out of
which forty articles in Encyclopedia of World Poverty, Organized Crime, Modern
Slavery, etc. He has authored reading materials for IGNOU, in Public Economics. Under
his supervision one D.Lit. and eight Ph.D.s have already been awarded from Sambalpur
University, two scholars have submitted their Ph.D. Dissertations and four are working.
He has completed many research projects (Minor and Major) sponsored by different
Organizations such as National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Indian Institute of
Public Administration, United Nations Development Programme, World Bank, Centre for
Youth and Social development etc. He has acted as consultant to Ministry of Finance,
Government of Odisha in the preparation of Draft Memorandum for presentation to the
12th and 13th Finance Commissions. He has also submitted report to the 13 th Finance
Commission on the Debt Sustainability of Special Category States in India. He is
continuing as a consultant to CYSD, on Public Finance Discourse and Budget Analysis.
Prof. S. S. Rath was a brilliant student in his career with higher first class throughout and
is the First Class First (Gold medalist) in M.A. (Economics) of his batch. He is sincere,
hardworking and committed for teaching and research. He is a brilliant teacher and a
very good researcher. In addition to his normal duties Prof. Rath was placed as the
Registrar of Sambalpur University from March, 2009 and he managed the
administration of the University also up to April 2013.
58
Nobel Prize 2014
REFERENCES AND SUPPLEMENTARY READING
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2013/opcw-facts.html
www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2013/press.html
Odia Daily The Samaja ; Sambalpur & Bhubaneswar Edition (October 2014)
The New Indian Express; Chennai & Sambalpur Edition (October 2014)
www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/economic-sciences/
www.nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/will/will-full.html.
www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/medicine/
www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/chemistry/
www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/literature/
The Hindu; Delhi & Chennai Edition (October 2014)
www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/physics/
www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize.
Editor gratefully acknowledges the generous assistance and valuable information
provided by the site of Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences and the print media to compile this brochure of Nobel Prize 2014.
…The difference between what we are doing and what we are capable of doing would
solve most of the world s problems.
Mahatma Gandhi
…Beauty is truth's smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.
Rabindranath Tagore
…The great secret of true success, true happiness, is this: the man or woman who asks
for no return, the perfectly unselfish person, is the most successful.
Swami Vivekananda
…Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.
Mother Teresa
…Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to
understand more, so that we may fear less.
Marie Curie
…When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a redhot cinder a second seems like an hour. That s relativity.
Albert Einstein
…While ) am interested both in economics and in philosophy, the union of my interests
in the two fields far exceeds their intersection.
Amartya Sen
59
*****

Untitled - Sambalpur University

Transcription

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