Never has been a week so full of surprises, accomplishment and excitement !!!. The week started with a result, which our lab was waiting for already years.......Shortly later, came the news of Nobel prize for Physiology and medicine going to Elizabeth and Carol along with Jack. They got the award for discovery of telomeres, the caps of the chromosomes and the enzyme telomerase. I am quite new to molecular biology….. Even though earlier I was always eager to know who and why they received the Nobel award, I failed to really understand and appreciate the significance of their discovery. To be honest, I didn’t know much about Telomeres and Telomerase before. Reading about them, how their understanding is helping the modern day biologists and medics, it was breath taking for me. Carol Greider was a graduate student that time with Elizabeth Blackburn !!!. Me, still a graduate student got definitely inspired by her…..
One more day passed by with some interesting observations in the lab and the next day (7th October), I was just checking if already the Nobel Prize for chemistry is announced. I was dumbstruck when I saw some familiar Indian name……Venkataraman Ramakrishnan alias Venky Ramakrishnan. Wow wow, barely containing excitement I shouted to my boss, “one Indian scientist has been awarded with Nobel award”. Leaving him to check the details, I ran to the lab , jumping with joy to announce the news. Well, I know nothing about structural biology, but just appreciate the colorful structures which comes on screen in 3D J , but his and his co awardees work has helped the mankind to understand how antibiotics really function.
7th October, may be I should record this day in my diary…..My results were confirmed again and one after the other, I was getting some small, but interesting results in one single day. The whole day was soooooooooo memorable and exciting.
Then I was off to Luxembourg, a tiny and charming country, so full of greenery and spectacular views. After spending the day in Luxembourg city, went to Echternach village, to try out some biking and enjoy the fresh air, rocky structures along the Mullerthal walking trail. Almost the end of the day as well as, end of the week, took out the mobile to keep aside……There was the last surprise of the week !!!. SMS from a dear friend, stating Noble peace prize to Barack Obama !!!. Couldn’t really believe it. I am sure he was not the front-runner and I guess, he hadn’t even guessed about the award. Its not only an honour, but also a burden to Obama. I wouldn’t go deep into whether he deserved it or not….but really appreciate his initiative and attitude towards solving issues. In recent history, there is no one, who has inspired millions of people especially youngsters like him, across the religions, skin color and borders. Modern day problems need modern day solutions. A solution can be reached without going for war. Here is a leader who understands this. Like Farid Zakaria of GPS in CNN puts it, Noble prize has gone to a “Bold gambit” and all I can say is, with greater power and recognition, comes much greater responsibility and hope Obama’s vision for hope and change results in world peace.
- The Other thing I thoroughly enjoyed last week was reading Nobel laureates telephonic interviews. Some awardees give honest, some funny reasons behind venturing into that area of research. It is for sure also gives a lot of hope and inspiration for the young scientists. If anyone interested visit Nobel foundation's webpage, for wealth of information.
- It is also the year of celebration for women scientists and writers. Out of six Nobel prizes, four went to women. Nowhere in the history of Nobel awards that, so many women have received such distinguished honor in a single year !!! Kudos to all women scientists.
- Nobel awards are not without controversies. One of the biggest mistake being not giving the peace award to Mahatma Gandhi when he was alive, though nominated 5 times. May be that time, Nobel committee didn’t think that apart from Europeans and Americans, no one else deserves the prize (I am being ironic here). Nominations for 1948’s Nobel peace prize closed 2 days after Gandhi’s assassination. Nobel foundation regretting the mistake, didn’t award the peace prize that year, citing the reason of no suitable living candidate. However, this will always remain as a black mark on Noble peace prize due to human error, even though Nobel committee has officially regretted for it.
