By Mudassar Ali Iqbal
“After you died I couldn’t hold a funeral,
So these eyes that once beheld you became a shrine.
These ears that once heard your voice became a shrine.
These lungs that once inhaled your breath became a shrine.”
These are the words of Nobel laureate in literature 2024, Han Kong from South Korea.
LITERATURE
Kong, 53, is a well-known Korean poet famous for her ‘poetic prose’. She confronts the historical traumas of humanity.
Also Read: Han Kang of South Korea wins Nobel literature prize 2024
In her oeuvre she exposes the fragility of human life. And to acknowledge her work, she has been awarded Nobel Prize this year.
The announcement of Nobel Prize winners was made on Oct 7 this year to acknowledge the works of major contributors to cause of humanity.
WHY NOBEL?
Nobel Prize is awarded every year to the people who contribute to the greater benefit of humanity in any of the fields of Economic Science, Physics, Chemistry, Medicine (along with physiology), literature and peace. And the man who laid the foundation of Nobel Prize was ‘Alfred Nobel’.
Nobel was the inventor of dynamite, a chemist, an engineer, an entrepreneur and an author. His works in various fields showed his vast areas of interests.
History tells us Nobel was a man with great fortune. He left a fortune of 31 million Swedish Kronor (SEK) to award the people in coming years.
The bedridden millionaire signed his last will on Nov 27, 1895, in which he directed a committee to use his fortune as a prize for those who served the humanity. He asked the officials to divide his fortune in five parts for prizes in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.
“Those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind,” willed Nobel.
Since 1901 to this year, the Nobel Prize Committee has been awarding these prizes for the great services of people for humanity.
PHYSICS
Besides Kong’s Nobel Prize in literature, the honour in Physics has been bestowed on John Hopfield and Geffory Hinton.
They used Physics to construct the methods for machine learning. This helped in laying the foundation for today’s powerful machine learning in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
John Hopfield invented a method that can discover properties in data.
Geffory Hinton who is widely known as ‘Godfather of AI’ invented a method to discover properties in data which has become the cornerstone of complex artificial neural networks that are now in massive use of AI-driven technologies.
CHEMISTRY
After Physics, the Nobel Prize in chemistry has been given to David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper.
They have been given the Nobel Prize in chemistry because they cracked the codes of life’s ingenious chemical tools, the Proteins.
David Baker performed an almost impossible task of building an entirely new kind of proteins. While Demis Hassabis and John Jumper solved a 50-year-old problem of prediction of protein structure. They developed AI-models to predict complex protein structures.
We can say that AI has its Nobel moment in 2024 as in both Physics and Chemistry AI has been the focal point.
PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Another scientific field of Nobel Prize 2024 is the field of Physiology and Medicine. Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkum.
Ambros and Ruvkun discovered microRNA which are a new class of tiny RNA molecules. MicroRNAs play a crucial role in gene regulation. They are proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms (especially humans) function and develop.
PEACE PRIZE
Another important and most lauded category of Nobel Prize is the Nobel Peace Prize. In past this prize had been awarded to many history-making figures like Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr.
This year the award has been given to ‘Nihon Hindakiyo’ - a Japanese organisation of the survivors of the atomic bomb during World War II (WWII).
Read More: Japan's Nihon Hidankyo wins 2024 Nobel Peace Prize
The organisation has been demonstrating the testimonies of the WW-II A-bomb survivors to stigmatise the usage of nuclear weapon. The organisation has been given Nobel Peace Prize 2024 to acknowledge its global efforts for a nukes-free world.
ECONOMIC SCIENCES
The last category of Nobel Prize award is the award in Economic Sciences. The winner of this category will be announced on Oct 14 by the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
Indeed, Nobel Prize is a way to acknowledge and encourage the work of those who serve humanity in great capacity.