A connection between chemical and electrical phenomena became apparent in the 19th century but a bright spark was required to work out exactly what that relationship was. Svante Arrhenius studied how electrical current is conducted in chemical solutions. In 1883 he proposed a theory that when rock salt (which consists of sodium and chlorine) is dissolved in water, it splits into sodium atoms with positive electrical charges and chlorine atoms with negative charges. These electrically charged atoms – ions - allow the solution to conduct electricity. In 1889 following this dissociation hypothesis, Arrhenius expressed the temperature dependence of the rate constants of chemical reactions through what is now known as the Arrhenius equation. Not content with making important contributions to physical chemistry, Arrhenius was the first person to investigate the effect that doubling atmospheric carbon dioxide would have on global climate. His work played an important role in the emergence of modern climate science. Learn more about his work: https://lnkd.in/eu3VbeXD

“I think it will have a huge influence. It will be comparable with the industrial revolution. But instead of exceeding people in physical strength, it’s going to exceed people in intellectual ability. We have no experience of what it’s like to have things smarter than us and it’s going to be wonderful in many respects. In areas like healthcare, it’s going to give us much better healthcare.” 2024 physics laureate Geoffrey Hinton is sometimes described as the "Godfather of AI" and he helped lay the foundation for the machine learning revolution that started around 2010. Hinton shared this year's physics prize with John Hopfield, for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks. Read more about the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics: https://lnkd.in/eh_eWRHC

What do chilli peppers have to do with the Nobel Prize? Chilli peppers contain capsaicin, a pungent compound that induces a burning sensation when it comes into contact with skin. 2021 medicine laureate David Julius put this to good use, using capsaicin to identify a sensor in the nerve endings of the skin that responds to heat - it becomes activated at temperatures perceived as painful. This breakthrough discovery launched intense research activities leading to a rapid increase in our understanding of how our nervous system senses heat and cold. Discover more about how our body responds to temperature and touch: https://bit.ly/3BpqVMp

Congratulations to the 2024 economic sciences laureates! Watch the very moment Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson received their prize diplomas and medals. #NobelPrize

How do you motivate a team? Chemistry laureate John Jumper's research group named themselves 'Origami' as they saw links between how protein molecules fold and the art of folding paper into figures. When one of their team created an origami crown to reward a team member's progress, it was a prize that stuck. The crown got passed from team member to team member, when someone achieved something worth rewarding. Jumper and his colleagues don't usually work with paper models but with computers and artificial intelligence. They developed AlphaFold2, an algorithm that can predict the three-dimensional structure of any imaginable protein. In December 2024, John Jumper donated the paper crown to the Nobel Prize Museum.

“Doing science is a natural human instinct.” According to medicine laureate Victor Ambros all kids are scientists as they all test limits. He shared his thoughts with students taking part in a 'Help a scientist' event at the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Doing science is a natural human instinct and is not something that we humans have invented, Ambros explained. Read more about Ambros and his Nobel Prize awarded research on microRNA: https://lnkd.in/ef3ifkie

“So I ask the nuclear powers to abandon the out-of-date thinking of the Cold War period and take a fresh look. Above all, I appeal to them to bear in mind the long-term threat that nuclear weapons pose to humankind and to begin action towards their elimination. Remember your duty to humanity.” Joseph Rotblat received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995, 50 years after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and 52 years after he had first taken a stance against the development of this new weapon of mass destruction. Rotblat dedicated his life to peace, co-founding the Pugwash Conferences to promote dialogue and disarmament. He warned about radiation dangers and signed the Russell-Einstein Manifesto against weapons of mass destruction. Even in his final days in 2005 Rotblat continued to advocate for nuclear disarmament. His timeless message: “Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.” Joseph Rotblat's path from being a nuclear scientist to a peace advocate shows us how one person's beliefs can help create a better world. Learn more about his work: https://bit.ly/40Zj73y Last year the Nobel Peace Prize was once again awarded for efforts to achieve a nuclear weapons-free world, when it was given to the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo.

"My mentoring has been one of my greatest joys. I am proud that I have mentored fifty something, fifty-two or fifty-four, I do not even know the number, of PhD students during my career and that they have gone in a huge number of different directions because I mentored them broadly so that they had the tools to be able to work in anything from an analyst at the CIA at one extreme, to very abstract theoretical physics, at the another extreme - in the computer industry, in management. I had two students who moved into the financial world very, very successfully. "They look back and they say far more useful to them than Harvard Business School, which was a key piece for what they wanted to do, was doing a theoretical physics PhD under me. Because in doing a theoretical physics PhD they learned how to take a complex problem, break it down into pieces that could be solved, how to transform a problem into a soluble form, and that general skill that is the essence of success in physics, is transferable into all these different areas of human enterprise. So yes, I am proud of my mentoring and I have taken great joy in it." - Physics laureate Kip Thorne on mentoring the next generation Kip Thorne made crucial contributions to the development of the LIGO detector. In this detector, laser technology is used to measure small changes in length caused by gravitational waves. In 2015, gravitational waves were detected for the first time and in 2017 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. #NobelPrize

“Machine learning is filled with failure, much like lab experimentation.” In his Nobel Prize lecture, chemistry laureate John Jumper told the story of how he and his team developed AlphaFold2 – an AI model that has predicted the structure of almost all proteins known to humankind. Watch the full lecture: https://bit.ly/3VFqwkP

About 1 out of 10,000 people have an anaphylactic reaction every year in response to contact with a foreign substance, or antigen to which an individual is sensitive. While a particularly severe form of anaphylaxis can be fatal, it can normally be controlled if treated immediately. This is in part thanks to the discovery of medicine laureate Charles Richet, whose work on anaphylaxis just over 100 years ago left a lasting impact on the understanding of allergies. Our immune system protects us from attacks by microorganisms and poisonous substances. After experiencing an attack, the immune system learns to defend itself against new attacks – we become immune. One of the ways this is used is with vaccinations, when a low dosage of an infectious substance provides immunity. Through studies involving dogs, Charles Richet demonstrated an opposite effect in 1902. After an initial low dose of a substance, a new dose some weeks later could produce a severe reaction. He called the phenomenon anaphylaxis.  Having made the breakthrough, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1913, he helped elucidate problems of hay fever, asthma, and other allergic reactions to foreign substances, preventing potentially millions of deaths from allergic reactions. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/es4GgT3H