4 Era-defining Nobel Laureates
The Nobel Prize was first initiated by Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel, famous for inventing dynamite. The main goal of this prize was to recognize excellence in cultural and scientific fields. Even now, the Nobel Prize is considered to be the highest level of honour given to someone for their unforgettable contribution to the welfare of this world, to “those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.” The prize is awarded in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Economics, Literature, and Peace. The peace prize is given “to the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses” There are many Nobel Prize receivers in this world and they have been widely respected for their contributions but even among these gems there are a few stars who, by their inventions, changed the entire trajectory of this world. You, too, can publish your thesis and contribute to the benefit of humankind. Let us talk about these geniuses whose research stood the test of time.
- Marie Curie: Marie Curie was born in 1867 in Warsaw, which was part of the Russian Empire back then. She began her scientific training there and later married Pierre Curie, with whom she shared her first Nobel Prize in 1903 for their research on radiation-related phenomena. She dedicated her career to studying the principles of radioactivity. At that time, women were nowhere to be found in the field of science, which was considered to be the men’s domain. She was the first one to break the wheel of male dominance in science. She was awarded the Nobel Prize not once but twice; the second one, she did not have to share. In 1911 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering radium and polonium. She used her knowledge of radiation to invent X-Ray machines which were life-savers during World War I. Not just that, she taught women how to use the machines so that they could contribute to the war too. That is how Curie broke or crushed the entire stigma of women being the less-intelligent sex or the ‘other.’
- Ivan Pavlov: Pavlov, just like Marie Curie, came from a part of the Russian empire, Ryazan. Ivan Pavlov is one of the earliest psychologists who made a huge contribution to this field. Pavlov received the Nobel Prize in 1904 for his discovery of Classical Conditioning. Pavlov chose dogs for this experiment. Every time before feeding the dogs, he rang a bell. He kept doing it, and gradually the dogs started salivating whenever the bell rang. Later it turned out that the dogs were salivating just by hearing the bell; the anticipation of food made them salivate even when the food was not given. This discovery proved that humans are not much different; we, too, react to various stimuli in almost the same way.
- Albert Einstein: There is no one who does not know the name Albert Einstein and that is quite natural. His contribution to the world was so huge that even the Nobel Prize was not enough to thank him. He discovered the mass-energy equivalence and theory of relativity. He did not just discover; he paved the way for future discoveries, like, his discovery of the photoelectric effect that proved light to be made of particles, and began the development of photoelectric cells. The magnitude of this discovery is impossible to measure; it paved the way for innumerable inventions like television, motion pictures, and so on.
- Alexander Fleming: Alexander Fleming was a Scottish physician and microbiologist famous for inventing the world’s first effective antibiotic, which he called Penicillin. Would you believe the discovery of Penicillin was almost an accident? Well, it was. At that time, he was already famous for his discovery of Lysozyme. Fleming discovered the presence of a substance in the mucus that inhibited bacterial growth, which he called Lysozyme. Later, Flemming accidentally found out that a mold growing in a petri dish had killed adjacent Staphylococci bacteria. That is how he began his experiment on the mold called Penicillium notatum and invented penicillin-based antibiotics. It was a groundbreaking discovery at that time because it found the cure for diseases that could not have been controlled before. It could be used against ailments like Tuberculosis, syphilis, gangrene, and several other bacterial infections.
These Nobel Laureates are exceptional, but even they had a normal start. They are inspirations who show that science is nothing but discovering new things and finding out something that others did not notice before. They are not mere prize winners but thinkers who devoted themselves to the benefit of humankind.
