Today in Writing History May 7, 1867: Polish author Wladyslaw Reymont was born. His best-known work is the award-winning four-volume novel Chłopi (The Peasants), which won him the 1924 Nobel Prize in Literature. Also in 1924, he published his novel “Revolt,” about a rebellion of farm animals fighting for equality. However, the revolt quickly degenerates into bloody terror. It was a metaphor for the Bolshevik Revolution. Consequently, the Polish authorities banned it from 1945 to 1989. Reymont’s farm animal rebellion predated Orwell’s by 21 years.
Today in Writing History May 7, 1861: Indian poet and playwright Rabindranath Tagore was born. Also known as the Bard of Bengal, Tagore was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was also an anti-imperialist and supported Indian nationalism. In 1916, Indian expatriates tried to assassinate him in San Francisco.
Today in Labor History April 17, 2014: Journalist and author Gabriel Garcia Marquez died on this day. Affectionately known as Gabo, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. Two of his most famous books were, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). Garcia Marquez was a socialist and an anti-imperialist, and critical of U.S. policy in Latin America.
Today in Labor History April 16, 1884: Anatole France was born. He was a poet and novelist and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1921. Many of his works satirized religious and political ideas. The son of a bookseller, France spent much of his childhood in his family’s bookstore, reading voraciously, and meeting many of the writers who frequented the store. He was active in the movement to free Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer falsely accused of espionage. And he signed Emile Zola’s letter in support of Dreyfus, “J’accuse.” France wrote about wrote about the affair in his 1901 novel “Monsieur Bergeret.” France's novel, “Penguin Island depicts penguins transformed into humans after the birds have been mistakenly baptized by the almost-blind Abbot Mael. “The Gods Are Athirst” (1912), about a true-believing follower of Maximilien Robespierre and the Reign of Terror of 1793–94, is a wake-up call against political and ideological fanaticism. “The Revolt of the Angels” (1914) it tells the story of Arcade, a bored guardian angel who starts reading his mentee’s books on theology and becomes an atheist, moves to Paris, falls in love, and loses his virginity causing his wings to fall off. He then joins the revolutionary movement of fallen angels.
Today in Labor History February 27, 1902: John Steinbeck was born on this date in Salinas, California. He wrote numerous novels from the perspective of farmers and working-class people, including “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Tortilla Flats” “Of Mice and Men,” “Cannery Row,” and “East of Eden.” In 1935, he joined the communist League of American Writers. He faced contempt charges for refusing to cooperate with HUAC. The FBI and the IRS harassed him throughout his career. Yet he wrote glowingly about U.S. troops during the Vietnam War. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962 and the Pulitzer in 1939.
Very interesting paper by @govertschilling for Sky and Telescope, on the discovery of the Big Ring by @morninglopez et al., with quotes from Jim Peebles (“I am hoping for anomalies that could prove to be empirical hints to a better theory”), Carlos Frenk, and Rien van de Weijgaert.
A powerful memoir from Katalin Karikó, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, whose decades-long research led to the COVID-19 vaccines.
"By combining innovative methods in economic history with an economic approach, Goldin has demonstrated that several different factors have historically influenced – and still influence – the supply of and demand for female labour. ... To achieve these insights, Goldin looked back over two hundred years."
Big congrats to Ohio State University emeritus physics professor Pierre Agostini for winning 1/3rd of the prize this year for is work in attosecond physics. I guess you could say we're excited for him! @edutooters#iteachphysics#NobelPrize
Superconductivity may sound like science fiction, but the first experiments to achieve it were conducted over a century ago. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, credited with the discovery, won a #NobelPrize in 1913.
Scientists are still figuring out how to make it work at room temperature in addition to super-cold temperatures.
Norwegian writer and playwright Jon Fosse has won the Nobel Prize in literature, "for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable." Fosse is the first writer who writes in Nynorsk to win the prize. AP has more on his life and work.
Articulate, informative article about the academic #research process. Katalin Karikó, crucial contributor to the creation of #mRNA#vaccines, went though the same ordeal as Barbara McClintock & Rosalind Franklin. At least Karikó & McClintock got Nobels, if begrudgingly & late. Franklin only had her reputation besmirched until very recently.
Quantum dots, the discovery which won this year's #NobelPrize in chemistry, are part of a a technology transition that’s revolutionizing how people work with atoms and molecules.
"It can be hard to remember just how much of a quantum leap the technology is that’s being used to promote the latest generation of flashy TVs, for instance."
Three scientists who developed quantum dots have won the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Quantum dots glow blue, red or green when exposed to light and are used in QLED TV sets and medical imaging equipment. BBC Science has more: https://flip.it/XLVf6p #Science#NobelPrize#NobelPrizeChemistry#QuantumDots
The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier for their work using attosecond (one billionth of a billionth of a second) pulses to study electrons inside atoms. @JenLucPiquant reports for @arstechnica on how the work developed and the winners' responses to the news. L'Huillier, only the fifth woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics, was lecturing when she heard, and kept on teaching.
Biochemist Katalin Karikó and immunologist Drew Weissman won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on mRNA. Here, Karikó explains to Adam Smith from the Nobel Prize organization how she feels about the prize, what it means to her, a decade after she was forced to retire from UPenn, and the importance of perseverance.