NOBEL PRIZE COMPARISON

Nobel Prize Comparison

Jeremy Rigali
Glenelg High School

Noble Prize Comparison

To have a Nobel Prize means different things for each category it was awarded in. In the
fields of science to have a Nobel Prize means that one or multiple people have done a significant
amount of research to prove something that is beneficial to the world overall. Each and every
year the Nobel Prize Organization comes together to look at who deserves this prize in the fields
of science. This year there have been incredible findings in the fields of physiology or medicine,
chemistry, and physics that have been awarded the noble prize. In the medicine or physiology
category William C. Campbell, Satoshi Omura, and Youyou Tu took the prize, in chemistry
Thomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz Sancar received the prize, and in physics Takaaki
Kajitawho and Arthur B McDonald were awarded the Nobel Prize. But which of these Nobel
Prize winners findings were the most beneficial to humanity.
In the field of physics Takaaki Kajitawho and Arthur B McDonald were awarded the
Nobel Prize for discovering that the neutrino, a neutral particle that moves incredibly fast and is
challenging to detect, can change forms or identities. They both worked in huge laboratories that
contained tanks of water. These tanks allowed the neutrinos space to collide with other particles
and release light, this light was then detected by sensors in the tanks. The number of light flashes
picked up were recorded at these labs. At Super-Kamiokande, the lab that Kajitawho worked,
they looked at muon-neutrinos coming directly downwards. They saw that these ones coming
straight down were more common to be detected then the ones traveling through the earth. This
lead them to conclude that these muon-neutrinos must change identity into another neutrino
called a tau-neutrino. Next at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, the lab that Arthur B McDonald
worked, they decided to look at electron-neutrinos traveling to the earth from the sun. They
detected fewer of these neutrinos then expected, this lead them to conclude that these neutrinos

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must also change identity when making their way to the earth. This information put together
meant that neutrinos must have mass which challenged the sound theory, a theory explaining
how the universe functions. The neutrinos secrets may lead us to discover how the universe
works when more is found out about them.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Thomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich and Aziz
Sancar for their findings regarding how the DNA repair system functions. It started with Thomas
Lindahl who saw that RNA can be degraded readily and wondered if DNA could be degraded
easily too. He then did several tests that showed that DNA can also be degraded but wondered if
that was the case then how could organisms be living? This question lead him to believe in a
DNA repair system. He then went on to look at bacteria which showed him that certain enzymes
can remove DNA defects before they replicate, and this prevented DNA from becoming skewed.
This is known as base excision repair. Next Sancar noticed that UV radiation is a constant
decayer of DNA, but he wondered why this did not appear to occur in living organisms because
of the fact that they were healthy and alive. He also looked at bacteria and found that they had a
certain enzyme called photolyase that was able to repair the damage. Then he looked at a dark
system the bacteria had and was able to identify the gene that coded this process. After all of
these findings he was able to put the data together and relate it to humans. He named this
nucleotide excision repair. Finally Modrich looked directly at certain enzymes specifically Dem
Methlyase. He observed this enzyme in action and saw that when DNA is unmethlyated it is
identified and then fixed. He even noticed that the DNA repair was a naturally occurring process
to stop bad DNA from being replicated. This is called mismatch repair. These findings helped
show insight on how to possibly prevent cancer. If scientists can slow down disrupted repair
systems then the cancer can not multiply as quickly and therefor can not spread as quickly.

Noble Prize Comparison

Hopefully with more research cancer may be cured and we will have more information on how
our bodies work for future reference.
The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to the scientists William C. Campbell, Satoshi
Omura, and Youyou Tu for their findings involving anti parasitic therapies. In third world
countries people were dying from parasites on a daily basis so Omura decided to look into how
to stop them. He looked directly at Streptomyces, then he cultured these bacteria from the soil
that they lived in. Campbell next took over by taking these bacteria cultures and analyzing them.
He saw that these bacteria had Avermectin in them and this was the agent that could fight
parasites. He was able to modify this agent into Ivermectin which was proven to be effective in
humans against the parasitic diseases river blindness and elephantiasis. These are diseases caused
by a parasite known as roundworm and they devastate many areas. On the other hand Tu looked
at another parasitic disease, malaria. She first tried home remedies to cure it but had little luck so
she went into ancient literature to find something called Artemisinin. She tested this agent and
found that it was able to stop the malaria in its early stages, unfortunately this meant that it may
not be effective against severe malaria. The findings by these scientists have helped develop
many cures to parasitic diseases that ravage the land. They have saved thousands of lives for
their findings and have lead the way against fighting other parasites that cause potentially fatal
disease.
These are all important findings in some regards, after all the scientists were awarded the
Nobel Prize for them, but the one that benefits humanity the most is the findings by Campbell,
Tu, and Omura. Parasitic diseases are a huge problem, they cause deaths at an uncountable rate
in countries that do not have the resources to stop them effectively. However, these scientists
were able to find effective and efficient ways in order to stop these parasites from transmitting

NOBEL PRIZE COMPARISON

diseases and prevent the diseases from getting to the point in which they can become fatal. Many
people may not see the benefits that these findings will reap but those in third world countries
who are struggling against these parasitic disease will see the immediate effects. Not only will
many families become more intact due to reduced loss of lives but these treatments will also
contribute many other beneficial factors. The treatments will help people who survive the disease
not become impaired for life from the effects that the parasitic disease brings along with it, this
will help people who obtain the disease live better lives after the disease has passed. The
individuals in the societies that prior were brutally effected by these disease can now take a step
back and not worry as much because even if they get the disease they can be cured. This will
help give people the confidence to go outside and do what they have to do, in turn it will help
unite societies together. Lastly one of the reasons that these third world countries are mostly
effected by these parasites is because they lack the money to stop them. The introduction of cures
to these parasitic diseases will help to bring about economic growth in the effected areas. This
not only promotes the well being of the society and citizens but also can help to stop similar
diseases from devastating them in the future.
The findings involving neutrinos are important to our understanding of of universe and
the world around us, but they do not reap any immediate benefits. There is still so much to learn
about the neutrino and once those unknown things are found out then we may see that they are
not as important to universal functions as we once thought. There is too much unknown about the
neutrino to say that the findings benefit humanity and their findings are not helping a current
problem that people are globally facing. The findings in DNA repair is a close contender to being
the most beneficial to humanity, but it does not make the mark because the findings do not fully
show how to treat cancer. The findings simply suggest a way that cancer can be treated and leave

Noble Prize Comparison

it at that. Until the treatment is actually developed and proves to be effective, the research done
in the field of chemistry is left showing no benefits to humanity except for giving them more
information. For these reasons the findings in chemistry and physics are not as beneficial to
humanity as the ones found in the medicine field.

Citations
Melvin, D. (2015, October 6). Scientists from Japan, Canada win Nobel Prize in Physics [Press

NOBEL PRIZE COMPARISON

release].

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2015 [Press release]. (2015, October 7).

Mirsky, S. (2015, October 5). 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine [Press release].

The Noble Prize in Physics 2015. (n.d.). Retrieved from Noble Prize website:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2015/popular-physicsprize2015.pdf

The Noble Prize in Chemistry 2015. (n.d.). Retrieved from Noble Prize website:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2015/popularchemistryprize2015.pdf

Press Release. (2015, October 5). Retrieved from Noble Prize website:
http://www.nobelprize.org/

nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2015/press.html