Nobel Prizes in 2007

By Jan Gray
The only news i heard about Nobel prizes this year was that Al Gore won part of a prize. The Nobel prize is quite possibly the most prestigious prize on the planet. Each winner automatically receives a boost to millionaire status as they each receive that amount of money as part of their prize. On top of that they receive the greatest parking spots. At UC Berkeley, for example, the Nobel Laureates have a special section in the staff parking lot. The lines that paint the spots perimeter are painted in gold.

So this year six new prizes were handed out to the brightest minds in the world. Lets see what they did.

The physics prize when to two scientists, one from France the other from Germany. They both had made a significant contribution to the science of how data is read from hard disks. Their progress is directly related to why hard drives have been able to become so much smaller in recent years (think IPod). I won't get into exactly what they did but their prize was touted as "for the discovery of giant magnetoresistance" which are weak magnetic changes that majorly affect electrical resistance in a system.

The chemistry prize went to a German scientist for his studies in surface chemistry. His contribution will help man kind further develop fuel cells which is ultimately what will replace gasoline as the engine for personal transportation devices. His prize was announced as "for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces" which is basically an observation of how atoms and molecules behave on a pure surface.

American medicine is usually assumed to be the best in the world and the 2007 nobel prize is surely indicative of that. The prize was split between three people, two of them from the Unites States and the other from the UK. They all invented a new technology called gene targeting where essentially single genes are inactivated. This technology will help us create the treatments of the future.

The literature prize went to a woman from the UK. She is described by the Nobel foundation as "the epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny".

The peace prize of course when to Al Gore and an entire intergovernmental panel on climate change. I don't want to get into this one anymore.

The last prize, the economics prize, went to three economists all from the United States of America. They have all invented something called the mechanism design theory. The theory allows us to distinguish situations in which markets work well from those in which they do not. It has helped economists identify efficient trading mechanisms, regulation schemes and voting procedures.