The Oscars of science – the Nobel Prizes 2020 – have come to an end and have brought eleven excellences in their field to the global spotlight. What incredible discoveries has the committee awarded this year and how did they change not only to their field but society as a whole? And have you wondered: what outside circumstances could have swayed the committee’s choices, in awards that have been politicized for the past 100 years?
In my last article on the Nobel Prizes, I focused on their past, with Alfred Nobel’s legacy and principles for global progress, and their future, specifically their need for diversification and restructuring (see ‘Count-down to the Nobel Prizes’). What remains is the present and to reflect on this year’s winners category-by-category, their contribution to our society and what kind of a future for the Prizes their selection points towards.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus.”
Hepatitis C is an inflammatory liver disease, capable of leading to chronic liver damage and cancer if untreated.[i] With nearly 400.000 deaths annually and approximately 70 million patients around the world the dangerous virus HCV spreads especially easily through blood exchange (e.g. surgery, blood transfusion) and was initially very hard to differentiate from Hepatitis A and B.[ii] Alter’s work at the NIH Blood Bank in the USA allowed for the identification of the non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH) and its main symptoms, both acute and long term[iii], but his team was not able to isolate the viral DNA. This was achieved 10 years later by Houghton and his colleges, revealing the circa 10.000 nucleotide long DNA after copious screening of a one million sample long cDNA library[iv] and identifying it as the antigen in patients around the world.[v] All that remained to connect the disease (NANBH) to the newly discovered virus was to establish that the new virus alone, when infected in healthy individuals, would cause NANBH and the production of specific antibodies. Rice and groups in Tokyo and Copenhagen found a conserved non-coding, meaning not corresponding to a produced protein, sequence in the HCV DNA that is part of the decisive mechanism of viral reproduction in the patients.[vi] The work of the trio and their collaborators paved the way for effective blood testing for HCV, halting its transmission, and for the development of antiviral medication, such as molecular inhibitors, capable of treating up to 95% of the cases.
Nobel Prize in Physics: One half awarded to Roger Penrose "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity", the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy."
Black holes are, to the common public, scary interstellar objects, formed when massive stars collapse under their own weight and gravity. Due to the collapse a singularity forms at the centre of the black hole, which is so dense from the weight of the dead star that nothing can escape its gravitational sphere (defined by its ‘event horizon’, the point of no return, see illustration here). All this dates back to someone inevitably unavoidable in physics, Albert Einstein, whose theory of relativity sparked a series of debates regarding the mathematics and even the existence of black holes. Decades of complex calculations allowed scientists to gain further insight, with Penrose playing a vital role: he invented the concept and mathematics behind a ‘trapped surface’, meaning the area enclosed by the event horizon, and proved the shift between time and space upon entering this surface.[vii] This had two key consequences, as explained best by the Nobel Prize committee: “Time and space switch roles and the direction inwards, towards the origin of spherical coordinates, becomes time. Hence, it is as difficult to get back out of the black hole as it is to go backwards in time. … the flow of time inevitably will bring any observer towards the origin of the radial coordinate, where time ends. All the matter that formed the black hole resides at this single moment in time, the singularity.”(Kungl. Vetenskamps Akademien, 2020).[viii][ix]
This introduced a new era in the study of space, time and gravity and provided the mathematical background necessary to study such objects in real life. This is the life work of Genzel and Ghez, who have dedicated their career since the 1990s to track the orbits of the stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. Studying the velocity of stars[x] as close to the centre as possible, they observed that they all orbit around an area at the centre of the galaxy with the size of our solar system but a mass of four million suns, which could only be interpreted as a supermassive black hole.[xi] This comes just one year after the first pictures of a black hole were ever captured with the Event Horizons Telescope and published back in April 2019.[xii]
Nobel Prize in Chemistry: Awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing.”
Anyone involved in life sciences was anticipating the day that CRISPR/Cas9, perhaps the most used technique for genome editing since its invention in 2012, would win the Nobel Prize. The technique allows scientists to change the DNA of living organisms, mostly adding or removing large insertions such as entire genes, to see how cellular function or behaviour is affected. This ultimately gives information about the role of the specific gene or the mutation in living organisms and has simplified and sped up nearly all types of biomedical and molecular research, giving the science a powerful push forward.
CRISPR-Cas systems originate in prokaryotes, such as bacteria, where they function as an adaptable defence system against viruses. The genetic scissors system cleaves (“cuts”) part of the incoming viral genome and inserts it in numerous repeats (“pastes” many times) in its own genome, deeming the bacterium resistant to the aggressor.[xiii] Charpentier discovered a vital cleaving protein in this mechanism, Cas9, in 2011 and worked with Doudna to elucidate the characteristics of the cleaved genetic material and how Cas9 recognizes it. They did not miss the importance of their discovery: if they wrote DNA sequences with the characteristics they found, then the Cas9 system could be used for wide-range genome editing.[xiv] Since then CRISPR/Cas9 has been applied nearly everywhere, from stem cell therapy to genetically modified foods, and the perks of the ability to edit the Book of Life withing all organisms can only be matched by the weight of the ethical question: Should we?
Nobel Prize in Literature: Awarded to the American poet Louise Glück “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”
Born in New York in 1943 and currently a professor at Yale, New Haven, Louise Glück is a poet well‑established in the American contemporary literature scene. With two successful poetic collections since the start of her career in 1968, she has received numerous literary distinctions, including the Pulitzer Prize for her work ‘The Wild Iris’ in 1993 and the National Book Award for ‘Faithful and Virtuous Night’ in 2014. Glück’s tone is natural and straightforward and, combined with her personal writing motives such as family, love, dreams and disappointment, establishes a personal and honest connection with the reader from the first line. She often employs characters and patterns from Ancient Greek mythology, borrowing their voices to share her own messages and to show the universality in them. For more on Glück’s style, prose and motives, this short insight by Anders Olsson is certainly a worth-while read. As a sneak-peak, here is an excerpt of The Triumph of Achilles:
In his tent, Achilles grieved with his whole being and the gods saw he was a man already dead, a victim of the part that loved, the part that was mortal.
Nobel Peace Prize: Awarded to the World Food Programme (WFP) “for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.”
The Nobel Peace Prize, as perhaps the most politicized Nobel Prize, has often been used to draw attention to current global challenges and fights. This year the Norwegian Nobel Committee shone the spotlight on a matter often forgotten about in more economically developed countries: hunger. Though it may be seen as a thing of the past century or a falsified worldview, the past years have seen a dramatic decline in nutritional living standards, with over 135 million people in acute hunger.[xv] The effects are far worse when one considers the power associated with this: the weaponization of hunger and its use in conflict have been recognized by Resolution 2417 of the UN Security Council and the UN Sustainable Goals and show that the fight for the eradication of world hunger is indeed a fight for a more peaceful and fairer world for all.[xvi] The WFP is a key player in this fight, supporting over 100 million individuals in nearly 90 countries and constantly striving for the resolution of conflict through food security. As the number of people in dire need of food skyrockets due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the WFP has doubled its efforts and outreach programmes, insisting that “Until the day we have a medical vaccine, food is the best vaccine against chaos.”[xvii]
Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences: Awarded to Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats.”
Hearing the word auction might remind you of high-end art auctions of millions of pounds or peculiar shows like Pawn Stars on pawn shops in Las Vegas, but a large part of financial interactions are affiliated to auctions, from how high your electricity bill is to how much you will pay for a house you bought. It is therefore profitable to economists to best understand auctions, how people act in them and what factors often lead buyers to make maximal profit, especially on matters of public goods such as telecommunication coverage (yes, that is auctioned too!). Until the 1960s auction economics were largely based on three factors: the auction’s format or rules (usually an English or a Dutch auction), the auctioned object and whether its value is common among all winners or varies between private individuals (for example electricity prices versus a beautiful painting) and, lastly, uncertainty, which translates to the bidders’ information on the auctioned object and its value (or lack thereof).[xviii]
The main simplification taking place in auction theory was assuming that there was only private interest. However, Wilson studied auctions and bidders’ behaviour in common value rather than private value auctions, determining that bids dependent directly on how much information the bidder has on the true value of the asset and that they usually bid a price lower than what they think is the real price, in order to avoid the winner’s curse. Milgrom, who was Wilson’s PhD student, expanded on the theory, taking into consideration private and common interests simultaneously. He concluded that bids tend to be higher the more dependent they are on the bidder’s personal interests, meaning that the more information is made available from the seller before the auction, the higher the selling price will be. Wilson and Milgrom did not keep things theoretical though, they improved upon auction theory by inventing new practical auction formats. The Simultaneous Multiple Round Auction, among others, was designed by the duo for the Federal Communications Commission of the USA to allow for better network coverage frequencies bidding for mobile operators and created more than 200 billion dollars in revenue worldwide in telecommunications. It is no wonder to say that the world of auction bidding would not be the same without this pair of scientists.
Overview
These Nobel Prizes presented decisive development against past criticism of the committee: with near equality in the numbers of female and male laureates and with many new and innovative technologies being given the spotlight, there can be very few complaints of archaism or sexism this year. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is unmistakably present to those with a keen eye for politics in science: from research on a virus (HCV) receiving the Prize in Medicine to the WFP winning the Peace Prize throughout its outstanding efforts to provide for the world’s hungry during the pandemic, it is easy to believe that the committee may have been slightly swayed for some candidates over others. But, after all, they are all people too, affected by this crisis as much as the rest of us. Hopefully next year their decision making will be much less affected by pandemics and we will see our new laureates being awarded in person in Scandinavia. But until December 2021, science (except for COVID-19) will step back from the spotlight for a bit yet again.
Author: Evangelia Nathanial, MRes Biochemistry, Elliott Lab
References
[i] The discovery of Hepatitis C virus, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2020/advanced-information/ [ii] Hepatitis C, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hepatitis-c [iii] Alter HJ, Holland PV, Purcell RH, Lander JJ, Feinstone SM, Morrow AG, Schmidt PJ: Posttransfusion hepatitis after exclusion of commercial and hepatitis-B antigen-positive donors. Ann Intern Med 1972, 77(5):691-699. [iv] Choo QL, Kuo G, Weiner AJ, Overby LR, Bradley DW, Houghton M: Isolation of a cDNA clone derived from a blood-borne non-A, non-B viral hepatitis genome. Science 1989, 244(4902):359-362. [v] Kuo G, Choo QL, Alter HJ, Gitnick GL, Redeker AG, Purcell RH, Miyamura T, Dienstag JL, Alter MJ, Stevens CE et al: An assay for circulating antibodies to a major etiologic virus of human non-A, non-B hepatitis. Science 1989, 244(4902):362-364. [vi] Kolykhalov AA, Agapov EV, Blight KJ, Mihalik K, Feinstone SM, Rice CM: Transmission of hepatitis C by intrahepatic inoculation with transcribed RNA. Science 1997, 277(5325):570-574. [vii] Penrose, R., 1965, “Gravitational collapse and space-time singularities”, Physical Review Letters, vol. 14, no. 3. pp. 57–59, 1965. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.14.57. [viii] Penrose, R., 1969, “Gravitational collapse: the role of general relativity”, Nuovo Cimento Rivista Serie, vol. 1. p. 252. [ix] https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2020/10/advanced-physicsprize2020.pdf [x] Ghez, A. M., Klein, B. L., Morris, M., and Becklin, E. E., 1998, “High proper-motion stars in the vicinity of Sagittarius A*: Evidence for a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy”, The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 509, no. 2. pp. 678–686. doi: 10.1086/306528. [xi] Genzel, R., Schödel, R., Ott, T., Eckart, A., Alexander, T., Lacombe, F., Rouan, D., et al., 2003, “Near-infrared flares from accreting gas around the supermassive black hole at the Galactic centre”, Nature, vol. 425, no. 6961. pp. 934–937. doi: 10.1038/nature02065. Ghez, A. M., Duchene G., Matthews K., Hornstein S.D., Tanner A., Larkin J., Morris M., et al., 2003, “The First Measurement of Spectral Lines in a Short-Period Star Bound to the Galaxy's Central Black Hole: A Paradox of Youth”, The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 586, no. 2. pp. L127– L131. doi: 10.1086/374804. [xii] Monitoring the Morphology of M87* in 2009–2017 with the Event Horizon Telescope, The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 901, Number 1 (2020) Black hole pictured for first time — in spectacular detail, Nature 568, 284-285 (2019) [xiii] Barrangou, R., et al., CRISPR provides acquired resistance against viruses in prokaryotes. Science, 2007. 315(5819): p. 1709-12. [xiv] Jinek, M., et al., A programmable dual-RNA-guided DNA endonuclease in adaptive bacterial immunity. Science, 2012. 337(6096): p. 816-21 [xv] Global Report on Food Crises: 135 million in 55 countries faced acute hunger in 2019, https://www.ifpri.org/blog/global-report-food-crises-135-million-55-countries-faced-acute-hunger-2019 [xvi] UN SECURITY COUNCIL, 8267TH MEETING (AM), RESOLUTION 2417, https://www.un.org/press/en/2018/sc13354.doc.htm [xvii] https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/06/1067352 [xviii] Popular information. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2020. Mon. 12 Oct 2020. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2020/popular-information/>
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