Elfriede Jelinek: Provocation as the Breath of Life by Sture Packalén This article was published on 16 June 2005. Elfriede Jelinek has, for more than twenty years, constantly challenged her contemporaries with texts which are feminist and deeply critical of society and, moreover, which are perceived to be obscene, irritating and full of biting derision.…

Ralph Bunche: UN Mediator in the Middle East, 1948-1949 by Asle Sveen This article was published on 9 December 2006. “I have a bias in favour of both Arabs and Jews in the sense that I believe that both are good, honourable and essentially peace-loving peoples, and are therefore as capable of making peace as…

The Green Revolution Revisited and the Road Ahead by Norman Borlaug 1970 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 26 September 2002 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug presented his anniversary lecture at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo. An agricultural scientist, Borlaug’s work in food production and hunger alleviation was recognized through the Nobel Peace Prize in…

Science and Humanity in the 21st Century by Sir Joseph Rotblat 1995 Nobel Laureate in Peace 6 September 1999 The twentieth century saw more momentous change than any previous century: change for better, change for worse; change that brought enormous benefits to human beings, change that threatens the very existence of the human species. Many…

Basic research, the lifeline of medicine by Arthur Kornberg1959 Nobel Prize laureate in physiology or medicine This article was published on 23 July 1997. The pursuit of curiosity about the basic facts of nature has proven, with few exceptions throughout the history of medical science, to be the route by which the successful drugs and…

Schack August Steenberg Krogh – A versatile genius by Jan Lindsten 2 April 2001 “The physiologist’s physiologist” In 1997, at the Sixteenth Nordic Congress of Medical History in Stockholm, Dr. Ole Munck – consultant at the Museum of Medical History in Copenhagen, concluded his presentation about with the following comment: “We are facing a versatile…

In Memoriam – Barbara McClintock by Howard Green This article was published on 12 June 1999. To paraphrase George Orwell, every person is unique, but some are more unique than others. There has never been anyone like Barbara McClintock in this world, nor ever will be. She was not simply a representative of a type.…

Hugo Theorell, My Father by Henning Theorell This article was published on 24 February 2011. Looking for source material 25 years after anybody’s death is never easy, but what follows reflects my best efforts to cast some light on the personal life of my father, Hugo Theorell (1903–1982). Hugo Theorell is perhaps best known for…

Emil Theodor Kocher by Bertil Hamberger This article was published on 23 July 1997. Theodor Kocher was born in Berne, Switzerland in 1841. He finished his medical studies in 1865 and went into surgery, where he had teachers like Demme, Lycke, Billroth and Langenbeck. In 1872, only 31 years old he was appointed professor of…

Life and discoveries of Santiago Ramón y Cajal by Marina Bentivoglio This article was published on 20 April 1998. Biographical sketch was born in May 1852 in the village of Petilla, in the region of Aragon in northeast Spain. His father was at that time the village surgeon (later on, in 1870, his father was…