Check your comprehension. Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine

The Nobel Prizes

Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize. Each prize consists of a medal, personal diploma, and a cash award.

The Nobel Prize is the brainchild of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist who was best known in his lifetime for his invention of dynamite. Upon his death in 1896, a reading of his will revealed stipulations that over 90% of his estate should be used to establish prizes in five categories: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace.

Alfred Nobel died in 1896. The first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901. Nobel stipulated exactly how the prizes should be determined, and what bodies should be responsible for selecting and awarding prizes.

According to Nobel’s will, the Swedish Academy of Science was to award a yearly Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry. The Caroline Institute at Stockholm would award the Nobel Prize for medicine. The Academy of Stockholm would determine the Nobel Prize for literature. Five members selected by the Norwegian government select the recipient of the annual Peace Prize. The Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway, while the other Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden. Each award was to be given without regard to nationality, and was meant to represent the best and brightest contributors to each field.

~ In which categories is the Nobel Prize awarded?

~ Which organizations are responsible for selecting and awarding prizes?

Why Graphene Won Scientists the Nobel Prize

By Tim Carmody, October 5, 2010. Source:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/graphene/

Two University of Manchester scientists were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics for their pioneering research on ractice, a one-atom-thick film of carbon whose strength, flexibility and electrical conductivity have opened up new horizons for pure physics research as well as high-tech applications.

It’s a worthy Nobel, for the simple reason that ractice may be one of the most promising and versatile materials ever discovered. It could hold the key to everything from super-small computers to high-capacity batteries.

Graphene’s properties are attractive to materials scientists and electrical engineers for a whole host of reasons, not least of which is the fact that it might be possible to build circuits that are smaller and faster than what you can build in silicon.

But first: What is it, exactly?

Imagine “crystals one atom or molecule thick, essentially two-dimensional planes of atoms shaved from conventional crystals,” said Nobel winner Andre Geim in New Scientist. “Graphene is stronger and stiffer than diamond, yet can be stretched by a quarter of its length, like rubber. Its surface area is the largest known for its weight.” Geim and his colleague (and former postdoctoral assistant) Konstantin Novoselov first produced ractice in 2004 by repeatedly peeling away graphite strips with adhesive tape to isolate a single atomic plane. They analyzed its strength, transparency, and conductive properties in a paper for Science the same year.

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