Explore Business Standard
Swedish scientist Svante Paabo won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for discoveries on human evolution that unlocked secrets of Neanderthal DNA that helped us understand what makes humans unique and provided key insights into our immune system, including our vulnerability to severe COVID-19. Techniques that Paabo spearheaded allowed researchers to compare the genome of modern humans and that of other hominins the Denisovans as well as Neanderthals. Just as you do an archeological excavation to find out about the past, we sort of make excavations in the human genome, he said at a news conference held by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. While Neanderthal bones were first discovered in the mid-19th century, only by understanding their DNA often referred to as the code of life have scientists been able to fully understand the links between species. This included the time when modern humans and Neanderthals diverged as a species, around 800,000 years a
The beginning of October means Nobel Prize season. Six days, six prizes, new faces from around the globe added to the world's most elite roster of scientists, writers, economists and human rights leaders. This year's Nobel season kicks off Monday with the medicine award, followed by daily announcements: physics on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics award on Oct 10. Here are five other things to know about the coveted prizes: WHO CREATED THE NOBEL PRIZES? The prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were established by the will of Alfred Nobel, a wealthy Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite. The first awards were handed out in 1901, five years after Nobel's death. Each prize is worth 10 million kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out with a diploma and gold medal on Dec. 10 -- the date of Nobel's death in 1896. The economics award - officially