NOBEL PRIZES 2024: Economics, Medicine, and the Peace Prize
Photo by Alexander Mahmoud, 2018. Art design: Olena Burdeina (FA_Photo) via Photoshop
Perhaps there hasn’t been a single year when the awarding of the Nobel Prizes passed without at least some intrigue. How did it happen that the Nobel Prize was awarded to people whose discovery had been ignored by the scientific community for nearly 30 years?! Why did Volodymyr Zelensky lose the top spot to the Japanese hibakusha? Why are some countries rich while others are poor, and why do technologies not constantly improve the quality of life? The stories of the 2024 Nobel laureates are not only fascinating and paradoxical but also highly instructive.
NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE
T
his year, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to American scientists Victor Ambrose, 70, and Gary Ruvkun, 72. They were honored for their discovery of microRNA, which regulates gene activity. However, their path to global recognition was not an easy one.
Victor Ambrose’s father was a prisoner in Nazi camps, and after World War II, he moved to the United States. The future Nobel laureate grew up on a remote dairy farm in a poor, large family, where, nonetheless, a love for books prevailed. From a young age, Victor dreamed of becoming a baseball player, but his passion for scientific literature turned out to be stronger.
After high school, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Later, he engaged in biological research in the institute’s lab and taught at Harvard and Dartmouth College. He met and befriended Gary Ruvkun at MIT.
Gary’s parents, much like Victor’s, encouraged their child’s interest in science from a young age. However, after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied electrical engineering and physics, Gary didn’t rush into the scientific field. For two years, he traveled the world in an old van, earning a living by planting trees in Oregon and journeying through South America.
One day, in a Bolivian club, he came across a stack of scientific journals. Reading the scientific literature captivated Gary’s imagination and spirit so much that he decided to return to the pursuit of science immediately.
IT ALL STARTED WITH A WORM…
As you might have guessed, it was MIT, the meeting with Ambrose, and their joint work on what would become their Nobel discovery. However, despite his accomplishments and advanced age, Gary remains an enthusiastic personality. He believes that life may exist on Mars and is developing robotic systems that could help find it there.
But don’t be quick to dismiss this idea as mere fantasy. The scientific community has already made a mistake regarding Ambrose and Ruvkun in the past. Today, the analysis of microRNA has grown into a vast field of research, where discoveries are made almost daily.
The thing is, there are so many human genes that encode short RNAs that it’s impossible to determine the exact number. But scientists persevere, continually discovering new microRNAs. Unfortunately, this wasn’t always the case. When Ambrose and Ruvkun sequenced the genome of the worm C. Elegans in 1993, the scientific community completely ignored it.
So what if it was just some insignificant worm? Nevertheless, C. Elegans was the first living organism on planet Earth whose genome was fully sequenced. Perhaps, if humanity remains grateful and doesn’t forget where it all started one day, a monument will be erected to this worm.
A «SWITCH» AGAINST DISEASES
Every cell in the human body contains the same genetic information encoded in DNA. But why do they differ so much in shape and function? The fact is that microRNA acts as a kind of regulator, a «switch» that controls the functions of various proteins in cells.
As a result, when a cell divides, the same material can produce an eye, skin, brain, heart, and so on. By trimming away the «excess» at various stages of an organism’s development, microRNA creates all living creatures on our planet: worms, humans, elephants, dragonflies, and so on.
However, a disruption of this regulatory mechanism in humans can lead to severe problems, such as cancer, diabetes, or autoimmune diseases. Scientists hope they will be able to develop drugs to treat these diseases using the «switch» principle discovered by Ambrose and Ruvkun.
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
THE WORLD ON THE BRINK OF NUCLEAR WAR
Next year, humanity will mark a tragic anniversary—the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with «Little Boy» and «Fat Man». However, the decision of the Nobel Committee to award the 2024 Peace Prize to the Japanese non-governmental organization Nihon Hidankyo, which unites survivors of the American atomic bombings, is likely driven by more than just this historical event.
Amid the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war and the conflict in the Middle East, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the world once again faces the real threat of nuclear weapon use. Awarding Nihon Hidankyo the Peace Prize will undoubtedly remind humanity of the catastrophe of 1945 and its horrific consequences. How can we avoid atomic conflict?
This is perhaps the most pressing question of our time. Hence, the Nobel Committee rejected all other candidates and chose Nihon Hidankyo.
HIBAKUSHA: LUCKY TO SURVIVE
We don’t know the list of competitors for this Japanese organization, as it is only published 50 years after the award to avoid offending anyone. However, it is known that this year, 286 candidates competed for the Peace Prize. Among them were Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the International Court of Justice, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. Yet, the Japanese laureates surpassed them all.
Announcing the winners, Committee Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes noted that Nihon Hidankyo «inspires and informs people around the world. And lays the groundwork for humanity’s future existence in conditions of security».
The full name of the organization is the Japanese Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations. It was founded back in 1956, and in addition to Japanese members, it also includes victims of nuclear tests in the Pacific. In Japan, these people are called hibakusha—those who miraculously survived the blast. They consider themselves lucky because, in Hiroshima, the total number of deaths reached about 160,000, and in Nagasaki, about 80,000.
IMAGINING THE UNIMAGINABLE
Nihon Hidankyo has done a great deal to draw the Japanese government’s attention to the problems of hibakusha, resulting in several laws guaranteeing them medical and social support. But this doesn’t solve all the hibakusha’s issues. In Japanese society, they remain outcasts. Radiation has left many severely disabled. People avoid them, they are not hired for jobs, and marriages with them are avoided due to the risk of genetic defects in offspring.
«Hibakusha helps us describe the indescribable, imagine the unimaginable, and somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons», the committee’s statement said. The Peace Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo for their care of tens of thousands of victims of the atomic bombings and for the informational campaigns they conducted worldwide, warning nations and governments about the consequences of nuclear escalation.
NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICS
NOT EXACTLY «NOBEL»
As is well known, Alfred Nobel did not establish any prize in economics. However, in our «economy-centric» world, it would be unfair and illogical to overlook those who make significant contributions to economic science. To address this, the Swedish central bank established the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1968.
But since, technically, this prize is not an actual Nobel Prize, it is awarded last, after all the «classical» categories.
As a result, the gold medal for contributions to economics also has a different, non-Nobel design. However, the economics prize shares one key feature with the others: it is awarded by the Nobel Committee, with the same ceremony and prize money.
INSTITUTIONAL DECAY — A GLOBAL THREAT
This year, the rationale for selecting the Nobel laureates in economics was somewhat similar to that for the Peace Prize. The Swedish Academy of Sciences considers the crisis of public institutions no less of a global problem than the threat of nuclear weapons. Today, even in the West, where the democratic tradition has historically been solid and public institutions are increasingly under pressure from politicians.
Donald Trump refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of the last U.S. presidential election. The E.U. has numerous concerns regarding Poland and Hungary’s press freedom and judicial independence. Even in the U.K., considered the birthplace of modern parliamentarians, the government is attempting to disregard the Supreme Court and Parliament.
By awarding the Nobel Prize in Economics to Daron Acemoglu, James Robinson, and Simon Johnson, the academicians explained their decision as follows: «They have demonstrated how important public institutions are for a country’s prosperity. Societies where the rule of law is underdeveloped, and authorities exploit the population do not progress or improve. The laureates’ research helps us understand why».
PROGRESS WITHOUT PROSPERITY
MIT professor Daron Acemoglu is among the top ten most cited economists in the world. He co-authored the book Why Nations Fail with James Robinson, which became a global bestseller.
The book answers the question posed in its title: everything depends on the nature and quality of public institutions. Acemoglu’s other significant work, co-authored with Simon Johnson, is Power and Progress, in which they argue that technological progress does not necessarily lead to freedom, prosperity, and democracy.
For example, one should not place too much hope in artificial intelligence to improve the quality of life. Technology always has a «dark» side.
The rise of social media can be considered a progressive development, but alongside its benefits, there are also drawbacks: modern information technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for manipulating public consciousness. And now you can’t say that the Nobel laureates didn’t warn you!
- NOBEL PRIZES 2023: Economics, Medicine, and the Peace Prize
- Famous Nobel laureates — about religion and God (Part I)
- Famous Nobel laureates — about religion and God (Part II)
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