Top 11 Nobel Prizes that had a significant impact on the world

The 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Alexander Fleming, Ernst Chain, and Howard Florey for their discovery of penicillin, a mold and its use as an antibiotic. Fleming made the accidental discovery when he ate some moldy bread and cured himself of an infectious disease. The truth is that the discovery was purely by chance. Fleming took a holiday in August 1928 and returned to his laboratory in early September to find a mold growing in a Petri dish containing bacteria. The bacteria had died immediately around the mold, while bacteria farther away were unaffected. Fleming spent the next several decades studying the antibiotic effects of what he initially called "mold juice" and later named "penicillin" after the genus of the mold (Penicillium). Chain and Florey contributed by conducting rigorous clinical trials that demonstrated the remarkable usefulness of penicillin and finding ways to refine and mass-produce it. Penicillin is used to treat infections caused by staphylococcus, erysipelas, gonorrhea, pneumonia, meningitis, diphtheria, syphilis, and other severe infectious diseases.

Every technological breakthrough comes with trade-offs and potential risks. Thanks to Hermann Muller, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1946, we learned the critical importance of ensuring safety in scientific advancements. Muller received the award for proving that X-rays induce mutations (known as X-ray mutations) in the human body. In the mid-1920s, he gathered significant evidence showing that Drosophila flies exposed to X-rays developed genetic mutations, which shortened their lifespans. He was confident that similar damage could also occur in humans.

Although Hermann Muller attempted to publicize his findings for nearly 20 years, it was the atomic bombings in Japan during World War II that highlighted the dangers of radiation, X-rays, and nuclear fallout. The Nobel committee later acknowledged his research. Muller’s discoveries, alongside his political stance against nuclear weapons, made him a crucial counterpoint to the technological progress shaping the Atomic Age.

In 2014, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for groundbreaking work in the field of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy. Stefan Hell was honored for his success in completely overcoming the resolution limits of traditional optical microscopes, a breakthrough that led to major new discoveries in biological and medical research.

By inventing STED microscopy (Stimulated Emission Depletion), which Stefan Hell first demonstrated in 1999, he revolutionized optical microscopy. Ordinary optical microscopes hit a resolution limit when two objects are spaced less than 200 nanometers apart (a millionth of a millimeter) because the diffraction of light blurs them into a single image feature.

This limit was discovered about 130 years ago by Ernst Abbe and engraved on a monument in Jena (Germany), once considered an insurmountable barrier. The same diffraction limit applied to fluorescence microscopes commonly used in biology and medicine. For biologists and doctors, this was a major limitation because it restricted their ability to observe much smaller structures inside living cells. The 51-year-old physicist Stefan Hell was the first to completely overcome this resolution barrier in optical microscopy.

Serge Haroche independently invented and developed methods to measure and manipulate individual particles while preserving their quantum mechanical properties, in ways that were previously thought to be impossible. The 2012 Nobel laureate in Physics ushered in a new era of quantum physics experiments by demonstrating the ability to observe individual quantum particles directly without destroying them.

For single particles of light or matter, classical physics laws no longer apply, and quantum physics takes over. However, isolating individual particles from their environment is no easy feat, and they lose their mysterious quantum properties the moment they interact with the outside world. This made many seemingly strange phenomena predicted by quantum physics impossible to observe directly, and researchers could only carry out thought experiments that, in principle, could represent these strange effects.

Through their ingenious laboratory techniques, Haroche and his research teams succeeded in measuring and controlling fragile quantum states that were once considered impossible to observe directly. Their new methods allowed them to test, control, and count quantum particles.

Saul Perlmutter was raised just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were both professors—one in chemical engineering and molecular biology, the other in social work. After attending Harvard University, Perlmutter earned his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1986. He conducted the groundbreaking research that led to his Nobel Prize at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Perlmutter is a co-founder of the Supernova Cosmology Project and a professor of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley.

The stars and galaxies in our universe are receding from one another, signifying an expanding universe. For a long time, most astrophysicists believed that this expansion would eventually slow down due to the counteracting force of gravity. However, in 1998, Saul Perlmutter, along with Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess, studied exploding stars known as supernovae. As the light from these stars fades and reddens as they move farther from Earth, they were able to determine the speed at which these stars were moving. To their surprise, they found that the expansion of the universe was accelerating.

Elizabeth Blackburn was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Both of her parents were doctors. Blackburn developed an early interest in animals and nature, which led her to study biochemistry at the University of Melbourne. She later earned her PhD at the University of Cambridge in the UK, where she met her future husband. The couple eventually moved to Yale University in New Haven, USA, and later to the University of California in San Francisco.

Blackburn became deeply interested in the ethical implications of scientific research and played a key role in shaping the guidelines for this field. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009. A living organism stores its genes in DNA molecules, which are found in chromosomes inside the cell nucleus. When a cell divides, it is crucial that its chromosomes are properly copied and protected from damage.

Each end of a chromosome has a protective cap known as a telomere. In 1980, Elizabeth Blackburn discovered that telomeres contained special DNA. In 1982, together with Jack Szostak, she further demonstrated that this DNA prevents chromosomes from breaking apart. Blackburn and Carol Greider discovered the enzyme telomerase, which generates the DNA for telomeres, in 1984.

Robert Woodrow Wilson (born January 10, 1936, in Houston, Texas, USA) is an American radio astronomer who, alongside Arno Penzias, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978 for their discovery that provided evidence supporting the Big Bang theory. In 1976, Wilson became the head of the Radio Physics Research Department at Bell Labs. He later joined the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in 1994. Wilson has contributed to numerous scientific publications on topics such as background radiation measurement and millimeter-wave studies of interstellar molecules.

The radiation from space appears to weaken as its wavelength shortens. However, in 1964, Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias found that microwaves with a wavelength of about 7 cm were unexpectedly stronger than anticipated. Initially, they thought the result was due to measurement errors, but the result was later confirmed as accurate. This cosmic microwave background radiation is believed to be a remnant of the Big Bang, the event that created the universe.

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, and Bernard L. Feringa for their groundbreaking work in designing and creating molecular machines. These scientists developed molecules capable of controlled movement, allowing them to perform tasks when energy was applied. This innovation in molecular machinery reflects the miniature scale of technology, suggesting that we may be on the brink of a revolution, similar to the way the development of computers revolutionized the world. The winners of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry took molecular systems out of equilibrium, transforming them into high-energy states where their movements could be precisely controlled. The development of molecular motors is comparable to the early stages of electric motors in the 1830s, when scientists showcased rotating shafts and wheels, unaware that such innovations would lead to household appliances like washing machines, fans, and food processors. In the future, molecular machines are likely to play a crucial role in the creation of new materials, sensors, and energy storage systems.

Marie Curie, a Polish-born French scientist, was born in 1867 and devoted much of her career to studying the principles of radioactivity. She was a reserved, selfless woman, and a brilliant scientist. Her work not only revolutionized the way scientists understood our world, but she also became a cultural icon of her time. In 1903, she and her husband Pierre, along with Henri Becquerel, received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on radiation phenomena.

As if one Nobel Prize wasn't enough, in 1911, Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discoveries of radium and polonium. This time, she received the honor alone, making her one of the few people to win Nobel Prizes in two different fields. When World War I broke out, she used her expertise in radiation to develop mobile X-ray machines for the battlefield. She personally operated many of these machines and trained other women to assist in X-ray imaging, helping doctors locate bullets and shrapnel in wounded soldiers.

In an era when women were often considered inferior to men in many aspects, Marie Curie proved her worth and left behind a scientific legacy that continues to influence medicine and technology in numerous ways. Her genius was also passed on to her daughter, Irene Joliot-Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. Curie remains a symbol of the Nobel Prize's ability to highlight the greatest human achievements.

Albert Einstein revolutionized our understanding of not only the world but the entire universe. His ideas were so profound that they fundamentally changed our perception of reality. Initially, Einstein studied chemistry and mathematics. When he struggled to find employment, he took a job at the Swiss patent office. It was there, in his free time, that his mind wandered to deep questions in theoretical physics.

Einstein introduced the famous mass-energy equivalence and developed the theory of relativity. In 1921, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect, which describes the emission of electrons from a material when it is exposed to light.

His findings demonstrated that light is made up of particles, leading to the creation of the photovoltaic cell. This discovery spurred countless inventions, including television and moving pictures. More importantly, his work deepened our understanding of physics, particularly quantum theory. His forward-thinking approach not only advanced science and technology but pushed these fields into entirely new realms.

Francis Crick and James Watson were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for their discovery that DNA has the structure of a double helix. Maurice Wilkins shared the prize with them for his early work using X-ray crystallography to provide crucial evidence supporting their claims. However, the awarding of the prize has remained controversial, as many argue that others who contributed significantly were overlooked.

Watson and Crick proposed their model of the DNA helix in 1953, after analyzing an X-ray diffraction image of DNA taken by biophysicist Rosalind Franklin a year earlier. (Watson and Crick were shown the image without Franklin's knowledge.) Franklin had already drafted her paper on the helical structure of DNA before Watson and Crick published their findings, but her contributions were largely ignored for many years. Franklin never had the chance to present her case to the Nobel Committee. Watson, Crick, and Wilkins received the honor four years after her death.