Notes on Nobelity by James M. Buchanan1986 laureate in economic sciences17 December 2001 October-December 1986 I am an early riser, and I had finished my breakfast, brushed my teeth, and was on the way out the door of my Fairfax townhouse, when the telephone call from Stockholm came at 6:32 a.m. on 16 October 1986.…

Emil von Behring: The founder of serum therapy Based on an exhibition at Marburg Castlearranged and documented by Kornelia Grundmann This article was published on 3 December 2001. Upbringing and education (1854-1917) was born on March 15, 1854 in Hansdorf, West Prussia, as the first child of the couple August and Auguste Behring. His father…

A case of identity: Ernest Hemingway by Anders Hallengren This article was published on 28 August 2001. The recognition of Hemingway as a major and representative writer of the United States of America, was a slow but explosive process. His emergence in the western canon was an even more adventurous voyage. His works were burnt…

Roger Wolcott Sperry by Norman H. Horowitz This article was published on 23 July 1997. Roger Wolcott Sperry (1913-1994) was born in Hartford, Connecticut and grew up on a farm outside Hartford. He attended Hartford public schools. At West Hartford High School he was a star athlete in several sports, but he also did well…

by Øyvind Tønnesson,Nobelprize.org Peace Editor, 1998-2000 Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) has become the strongest symbol of non-violence in the 20th century. It is widely held – in retrospect – that the Indian national leader should have been the very man to be selected for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was nominated several times, but was never…

Fridtjof Nansen: Scientist and humanitarian by Asle Sveen This article was published on 15 March 2001. In the summer of 1922, the last of the German and Austria-Hungarian soldiers who had been in Russian captivity after the First World War were shipped home across the Baltic. On the return voyage, the ships carried the last…

by John N. Bahcall The three years 2001 to 2003 were the golden years of solar neutrino research. In this period, scientists solved a mystery with which they had been struggling for four decades. The solution turned out to be important for both physics and for astronomy. In this article, I tell the story of…

English By The Pasteur Institute was a product of Louis Pasteur’s victory over rabies; for vaccination against rabies represented just that for the entire world. The great man of science is first and foremost one who is able to identify the right problems at the right time, when there is a possibility of finding a…

by Abraham Pais The year 1917 marked the turbulent birth of a new era. In March the Czar of all Russians abdicated, in October the communist revolution broke out. Germany and Russia signed an armistice at Brest-Litovsk. The first United States division arrived in France and the battle of Passchendaele raged. The Balfour declaration on…

French de L’Institut Pasteur est né, en 1888, de la victoire sur la maladie que représentait, pour le monde entier, la vaccination contre la rage par Pasteur. Le grand homme en science, c’est d’abord celui qui sait discerner les bons problèmes au bon moment, quand il y a une chance de leur apporter quelque solution.…