A lavish banquet has been held in Stockholm for the winners of this year’s Nobel prizes. The awards – in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and
ADVERTISEMENTA lavish banquet has been held in Stockholm for the winners of this year’s Nobel prizes.
The awards – in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics – were presented by Sweden’s King, Carl XVI Gustaf.
The physics award, for contributions to experiments showing that neutrinos change identities, was given to Takaaki Kajita of Japan and Arthur McDonald of Canada.
The chemistry prize winners, Sweden’s Tomas Lindahl, American Paul Modrich and US-Turkish scientist Aziz Sancar, were cited for their research into the way cells repair damaged DNA.
The medicine prize, for helping discover drugs against malaria and other tropical diseases, was shared by Tu Youyou, the first-ever Chinese medicine laureate, with the other half going to Japanese microbiologist Satoshi Omura and William Campbell, an Irish-born US scientist.
Svetlana Alexievich, from Belarus, received this year’s literature prize – for her work on the Soviet Union and its successor states.
Meanwhile in Oslo, Tunisia’s National Dialogue Quartet has taken this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
It was awarded to the group for helping to build democracy in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the hotel of Quartet members in Oslo to congratulate them.
The Quartet of the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, the Tunisian Human Rights League and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers was formed in the summer of 2013.
With a new constitution, free elections and a compromise arrangement between Islamist and secular leaders, Tunisia has been held up as a model of how to make the transition to a democracy from dictatorship.