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to the 2008 Nobel Laureates
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2008 nobel Laureates
W
elcome to this short Guide to the 2008 Nobel
Laureates from Nobelprize.org, the official web site
of the Nobel Foundation. The Guide aims to provide
a handy digest of the 2008 Nobel Prizes and to offer a little
insight into the work and people who have been the subject of
this year’s awards. For each Nobel Prize category, you will find
a ‘Speed read’ summary of the Prize-awarded work, together
with a timeline noting some of the important milestones that
led to each Prize. We also include a succinct profile of each
Laureate, entitled ‘In his/her own words’ and based on our
telephone interviews conducted immediately following the
announcements, which reveal some of the motivations and
remarkable stories behind their individual achievements.
The Nobel Prize, which was first awarded in 1901,
rewards achievements in the five fields of physics,
chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace,
as stipulated by Alfred Nobel in his will. In 1968,
Sveriges Riksbank established The Sveriges Riksbank
Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel,
and this is awarded on the same day as the Nobel Prizes.
This year’s announcements have seen another twelve
new Laureates added to the illustrious list, taking the
grand total to 809 since the Nobel Prize’s inception.
The addition of one new female Nobel Laureate in
Physiology or Medicine, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, now
elevates the total number of women awarded a Nobel
Prize to just 35.
Once again the scope of awarded discoveries takes
us on a journey of extremes, from international trade
and the source of global epidemics, to the miniature
world of glowing jellyfish proteins and particle physics.
Consistent with the global theme, a cross-cultural author
and an international peacemaker have been awarded
Nobel Prizes for their life-long achievements.
We hope that The Guide provides a taste of this year’s
Nobel Prizes. To explore these and other Nobel Prizes
and Laureates in greater detail, please visit Nobelprize.
org to access our full range of freely available
content, including audio and video interviews, official
documentation from the Prize-awarding committees,
articles, educational games and much, much more.
2008 nobel Laureates
Table of Contents
Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2008 1
Speed read: The importance of asymmetry 2
Timelines:
Yoichiro Nambu 2
Makoto Kobayashi & Toshihide Maskawa 3
In their own words: Yoichiro Nambu 4
Makoto Kobayashi 5
Toshihide Maskawa 6
Chemistry
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008 7
Speed read: Illuminating biology 8
Timeline: Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie
& Roger Y. Tsien 8
In their own words: Osamu Shimomura 10
Martin Chalfie 11
Roger Y. Tsien 12
Physiology The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008 or Medicine Speed read: Finding the culprit 13
Timelines: Harald zur Hausen 14
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi &
Luc Montagnier 14
15
In their own words: Harald zur Hausen 16
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi 17
Luc Montagnier 18
Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2008 19
Speed read: Language as belonging 20
Timeline: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
20
In his own words: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio 21
Peace
The Nobel Peace Prize 2008 22
Speed read: Crisis management
23
Timeline: Martti Ahtisaari
23
In his own words: Martti Ahtisaari 24
Economics
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in
Memory of Alfred Nobel 2008 25
Speed read: Modelling trade in a world of plenty 26
Timeline: Paul Krugman
26
In his own words: Paul Krugman 27
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MEHAU KULYK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
2008 nobel Laureates
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2008
Kyoto University
High energy accelerator research
organization (KEK)
“for the discovery of the origin
of the broken symmetry
which predicts the existence
of at least three families of
quarks in nature”
LLOYD DEGRANE/THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
“for the discovery
of the mechanism of
spontaneous
broken symmetry in
subatomic physics”
Yoichiro Nambu
Makoto Kobayashi
Toshihide Maskawa
1/2 of the prize
1/4 of the prize
1/4 of the prize
Born: 1921
Born: 1944
Born: 1940
Birthplace: Japan
Birthplace: Japan
Birthplace: Japan
Nationality: US citizen
Nationality:
Japanese citizen
Nationality:
Japanese citizen
Current position:
Professor Emeritus,
High Energy Accelerator
Research Organization
(KEK), Tsukuba, Japan
Current position:
Professor Emeritus,
Yukawa Institute for
Theoretical Physics (YITP),
Kyoto University, Japan
Current position:
Harry Pratt Judson
Distinguished Service
Professor Emeritus,
Enrico Fermi Institute,
University of Chicago,
Illinois, USA
physics 1
2008 nobel Laureates
Speed read:
The importance of asymmetry
L
uckily for us, the Universe is not symmetrical,
at least at the subatomic level. If it was, the
newly formed matter at the Universe’s birth
would have been annihilated by an equal and
opposite amount of antimatter, and nothingness
would have resulted. Instead, a small imbalance, or
asymmetry, in the amount of matter and antimatter
created led to a slight excess of matter, from which
we are all eventually formed. Such so-called ‘broken
symmetry’ is one key to our existence.
Understanding symmetry, or the lack of it, is an
ongoing task, and the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics
rewarded two discoveries concerning symmetry
violation in the field of particle physics. In the
1960s Yoichiro Nambu, who had been working
on asymmetries underlying superconductivity,
was the first to model how broken symmetry can
occur spontaneously at the subatomic level. The
mathematical descriptions he formulated helped
refine the standard model of particle physics, the
current working theory that best explains much, but
not all, of the way that fundamental particles and
the forces that govern their behaviour interact to
create the known Universe.
In the early 1970s, Kobayashi and Maskawa
formulated a model that explained certain symmetry
violations that had recently surprised observers in
particle physics experiments. Their model suggested
that the collection of subatomic particles known at
Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning
Yang propose that the laws
of mirror image symmetry
are broken in the world of
subatomic physics
1956
Sheldon Glashow proposes how two of
the four fundamental interactions in
nature, electromagnetism and the weak
interaction, are unified, on the basis of
spontaneous symmetry breaking
1960
Yoichiro Nambu
describes how broken
symmetry can occur
spontaneously at the
subatomic level
1961
Building on Glashow’s theories,
Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam
formulate the unification of the
electromagnetic and weak
interactions in the Standard Model
1964
1967–1968
Several physicists propose that
symmetry breaking gives rise to
a particle that provides mass to
all other particles — later
known as the Higgs boson
Timeline: Milestones for the 2008 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Yoichiro Nambu.
2 physics
1973
Studies at CERN,
Geneva provide the first
experimental evidence
to support the Standard
Model
2008 nobel Laureates
Mark GarlicK/Science Photo Library
the time was insufficient to explain the observed
behaviours, and predicted the existence of as yet
undiscovered elementary particles. It did not, how­
ever, specify precisely what form these particles
should take. Kobayashi and Maskawa hypothesized
the existence of a third family of quarks, which are
some of the building blocks from which all matter
and antimatter are formed. They then had to wait
almost three decades for the experimental results
that would fully verify their hypothesis. The existence
of all three families was finally confirmed when the
last member was observed in the mid 1990s.
Symmetry breaking in particle physics continues to
be the focus of intense speculation and investigation.
One of the most infamous examples of symmetry
breaking, the particle or set of particles known
as the Higgs boson, thought to be responsible for
breaking the symmetry between electromagnetism
and the so-called weak nuclear force, could help
solve one of the greatest outstanding questions in
physics – how particles acquire mass. Whether or
not this mysterious particle exists will be the main
subject of scrutiny at the Large Hadron Collider, the
giant particle accelerator soon to go into operation
outside Geneva, Switzerland.
James Cronin and Val Fitch
experimentally detect a new
violation in the symmetry
laws in a subatomic particle
known as a kaon
1964
Charm quark discovered at
Stanford Linear Accelerator
Center, USA, and CERN,
Geneva, Switzerland
1973
1974
Kobayashi and Maskawa publish their
model proposing why symmetry is broken
in subatomic particles, and predict the
existence of a third family of quarks
1975
First quark of the third
family, the bottom
quark, discovered at
Fermilab, USA
1977
Martin Perl discovers
the first new member
of the third family:
the tau lepton
1994
Top quark
discovered
at Fermilab
Timeline: Milestones for the 2008 Nobel Laureates in Physics, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa.
physics 3
2008 nobel Laureates
In his own words: Yoichiro Nambu
B
“I saw a roomful of people all looking towards me
and I thought that’s strange, why do they look only
in one direction?” But if one person in that crowd
turns their head and looks in the opposite direction
then of course people nearby will turn around to
see what that person is looking at. “So there is a
kind of wave propagating from that person. And
that is the wave associated with broken symmetry.”
Having begun his career as a theoretical physicist
in Japan during the Second World War, Nambu
is no stranger to looking for explanations in the
midst of turmoil. Nambu describes being “lucky
enough” to get a research position at the University
of Tokyo after the war, though he was working
under conditions that are a world away from the
conditions enjoyed by most physicists nowadays.
“I spent two, three years sleeping in my office,
shared with maybe eight or so people. Everyday I
had to go shopping, and sleep on my desk.” But the
bleak conditions did provide one huge advantage,
says Nambu: “I kept thinking about physics.”
By good fortune, a student of Sin-Itiro Tomonaga,
who would receive the Nobel Prize in Physics in
1965, happened to be working at the neighbouring
desk. By discovering what Tomonaga was doing
“If one person in that crowd
turns their head and looks in
the opposite direction then
of course people nearby will
turn around to see what that
person is looking at”
Lloyd DeGrane/The University of Chicago
y his own admission the concept that Yoichiro
Nambu devised in the early 1960s — that
of spontaneous broken symmetry in particle
physics — is “a bit difficult to explain” in simple
terms. But while lecturing the day before he had
been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, Nambu
chanced upon an elegant analogy to describe how
such broken symmetry can occur spontaneously.
Yoichiro Nambu at the University of Chicago.
Nambu eventually joined his group, and thanks
to Tomonaga’s recommendation Nambu was able
to get a job first in Japan and then at Robert
Oppenheimer’s Institute at Princeton University.
The few years he originally planned to spend in
America would become a lifetime. “I was not able to
do good research to my satisfaction while I was in
Princeton, so I wanted to stay for a few more years
in America before going back to Japan.” Fortunately
Nambu was able to get a postdoctoral position at
the world-renowned Physics Department at the
University of Chicago. “I jumped at the opportunity!
I came here and I have stayed here ever since.”
All of which illustrates the virtues of being in the
right place at the right time, and Nambu feels
grateful to have been a theoretical physicist at the
time he began his research. “I was very fortunate.
Particle physics was created in the early 1930s.
Ernest Lawrence invented the cyclotron on the
one hand, and [Hideki] Yukawa in Japan invented
particle physics, the theoretical side, and they went
along side by side.”
When asked whether young physicists should follow
his example and only eat and think about physics,
Nambu laughs. “Yes! That’s a very good thing!
My whole career was formed by the three years I
was in Tokyo.”
This article is based on a telephone interview with Yoichiro Nambu following the announcement of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics.
To listen to the interview in full, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2008/nambu-interview.html
4 physics
2008 nobel Laureates
In his own words: Makoto Kobayashi
W
hen recalling the groundbreaking theory
he developed with Toshihide Maskawa
that has been rewarded with the 2008
Nobel Prize in Physics, Makoto Kobayashi reveals
a refreshing degree of honesty. “We were confident
about the first part because it’s quite logical.
But the second point was quite uncertain at that
time.”
predicted that there had to be one more.
“At first we were not confident about this six quarks
scheme, but gradually we came to believe that this
actually is the case.”
“Gradually” might seem like an understatement.
After all, Kobayashi was 28 years old when he
devised his theory, and it
would take almost 30 years
to discover the new types of
quarks in particle accelerators.
Yet this illustrates that
sometimes theoretical physics
leads experiment, and at other
times experiments produce
results that theoretical physics
must explain. Kobayashi feels
very fortunate to have started out as a theoretical
physicist at the time he did, “particularly in the
1970s”, a time he describes as being a “liberation
in particle physics”, because “at that time we had
many chances to do many things.”
“At first we were not
confident about this
six quarks scheme, but
gradually we came to
believe that this actually
is the case”
Laguna Design/Science Photo Library
“Our work consisted of two
parts”, Kobayashi goes on to
explain. The first part of the
theory, that the number of
subatomic particles thought at
the time to make up all matter
were not enough to explain a
long-standing mystery in particle
physics called broken symmetry, “is a quite logical
consequence of the argument”, says Kobayashi.
However, the second, trickier part of the theory
involved forecasting what these extra, new particles
actually are. And as Kobayashi admits “there are
many possibilities logically”. Only two families of a
particular subatomic particle known as quarks were
known at the time, and Kobayashi and Maskawa
The six types of quark (clockwise from top left:
up, charm, top, bottom, strange and down)
from the three families predicted by
Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa.
Now the situation is different, says Kobayashi.
“This is actually quite a new phase … we are
waiting for some kind of new physics. Theoreticians
predict, propose many theories, and we just wait
for experimental proof of those models.” Kobayashi
particularly hopes that the new particle accelerator
called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN
in Geneva, Switzerland, will help fill in missing
information in the so-called Standard Model of
particle physics, the best theory that physicists
currently have to explain how fundamental
particles and forces interact to create the known
Universe. “We need to add something on top of
this Standard Model. That is what we expect at
the LHC experiment.”
“This is actually quite a new
phase… we are waiting for some
kind of new physics”
This article is based on a telephone interview with Makoto Kobayashi following the announcement of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics.
To listen to the interview in full, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2008/kobayashi-interview.html
physics 5
2008 nobel Laureates
In his own words: Toshihide Maskawa
For anyone trying to understand the concept of
broken symmetry Maskawa offers the following
analogy: “There is a saying that if you put the grass
that a cow likes in a circle around the cow, then
whatever grass the cow eats, as far as the cow is
concerned, will be the same. However if the cow
sooner or later chooses a
certain direction in which to
eat the grass, then we have
a state of broken symmetry.”
Maskawa provides more
food for thought when
discussing whether there
was anything particular
about the Japanese
educational system that
helped him and his fellow
Nobel Laureates develop
as theoretical physicists.
“The period in which I was
raised as a researcher was
Toshihide Maskawa was
encouraged and inspired
to collectively gather
and discuss research.
“For a theorist, the most exciting
period is waking early one
morning to discover a truth that
you could not have imagined”
at a time after a brutal and reckless war and before
the calmer period of the 1960s was first coming
into view,” he says. “What was often said was
that as there are no natural resources in Japan,
we must survive on the strength of science and
technology.” It was within this testing environment
that Maskawa says he gained his yearning and an
affinity for science.
All young and eager scientists require nurturing,
and Maskawa was no exception. He cites his
professor at university, Shoichi Sakada, as the
person who provided especially useful direction
on his path to becoming a physicist. He describes
Sakada as “a pioneer in Quark Theory”, and
Maskawa recalls how he and his colleagues were
encouraged to collectively
gather and discuss research.
“It was there that I studied
how to think and in what
form things should be
accomplished,” says Maskawa.
Kyoto Sangyo University
“For a theorist, the most exciting period is waking
early one morning to discover a truth that you
could not have imagined.” Toshihide Maskawa
describes the intellectual thrill of being a theoretical
physicist, perhaps matched only by witnessing one’s
theories eventually being proved true. In 1972 he
and Makoto Kobayashi formulated their model for
broken symmetry, which predicted the existence
of a third family of elementary particles called
quarks, but did Maskawa ever have any doubts that
experiments decades later would prove their bold
theory to be correct? “In any research thesis there
is always an element of supposition,” he candidly
states before revealing, “to be honest, I didn’t
imagine that the top quark would ever be as heavy
as it is.”
And now that the student is
himself a mentor, what advice
would he offer young people
thinking of entering theoretical
physics today? “My advice to
young people is to be ambitious
and to have sincerity toward
our natural world.”
“To be honest, I didn’t
imagine that the top
quark would ever be
as heavy as it is”
This article is based on an interview with Toshihide Maskawa following the announcement of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics.
To read the interview in full, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2008/maskawa-interview.html
6 physics
2008 nobel Laureates
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008
Osamu Shimomura
 University of california, san diego
J. Henriksson/SCANPIX
tom kleindinst/marine biological laboratory
“for the discovery and development
of the green fluorescent protein, GFP”
Martin Chalfie
Roger Y. Tsien
1/3 of the prize
1/3 of the prize
1/3 of the prize
Born: 1928
Born: 1947
Born: 1952
Birthplace: Japan
Birthplace: United States
Birthplace: United States
Nationality:
Japanese citizen
Nationality:
US citizen
Nationality:
US citizen
Current position:
Professor Emeritus, Marine
Biological Laboratory (MBL),
Woods Hole, Massachusetts,
USA, and Boston
University Medical School,
Massachusetts, USA
Current position:
William R. Kenan Jr
Professor of Biological
Sciences, Columbia
University, New York,
New York, USA
Current position: Professor, University of
California, San Diego,
La Jolla, California, USA
chemistry 7
2008 nobel Laureates
Phantatomix/Science Photo Library
Speed read: Illuminating biology
T
he discoveries awarded the one-hundredth
Nobel Prize in Chemistry are a shining example
of how fundamental research in one area of
science can sometimes lead to highly beneficial
applications in another. In this case, finding the key to
how a marine organism produces light unexpectedly
ended-up providing researchers with a powerful array
of tools with which to visualise cell biology in action.
Osamu Shimomura purifies a blue
luminescent protein from the jellyfish
Aequorea victoria that he names
aequorin; he also isolates a protein
displaying bright green fluorescence
that is later named green fluorescent
protein (GFP)
1962
The story begins with Osamu Shimomura’s research
into the phenomenon of bioluminescence, in which
chemical reactions within living organisms give off
light. While studying a glowing jellyfish in the early
1960s he isolated a bioluminescent protein that
gave off blue light. But the jellyfish glowed green.
Further studies revealed that the protein’s blue light
was absorbed by a second jellyfish protein, later
called green fluorescent protein (GFP), which in turn
re-emitted green light. The ability of GFP to process
blue light to green (its fluorescence) was found to be
integral to its structure, occurring without the need
for any accompanying factors.
In 1988, Martin Chalfie heard about GFP for the first
time, and realised that its ability for independent
fluorescence could perhaps make it an ideal cellular
beacon for the model organisms he studied. Using
molecular biological techniques, Chalfie succeeded
in introducing the gene for GFP into the DNA of the
small, almost transparent worm Caenorhabditis
elegans. GFP was produced by the cells, giving off
Martin Chalfie hears
about GFP for the first
time, and realises it could
be used to map proteins
in the transparent
nematode worm,
Caenorhabditis elegans
1979
Shimomura shows that
GFP contains a special
chromophore, a
chemical group that
absorbs and emits light
1988
1992
Chalfie obtains the GFP gene from
Douglas Prasher, and Chalfie’s PhD
student Ghia Euskirchen expresses
it in Escherichia coli – the bacteria
glow green in UV light without the
addition of any other factors
Timeline: Milestones for the 2008 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry, Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie &
Roger Y. Tsien.
8 chemistry
2008 nobel Laureates
Tsien lab, university of California, San Diego
its green glow without the need for the addition of
any extra components, and without any indication
of causing damage to the worms. Subsequent work
showed that it was possible to fuse the gene for GFP
to genes for other proteins, opening-up a world of
possibilities for tracking the localisation of specific
proteins in living organisms.
The opportunities offered by GFP were immediately
obvious to many, as was the desirability of extending
the range of available tags. Roger Tsien first studied
precisely how GFP’s structure produces the observed
green fluorescence, and then used this knowledge to
tweak the structure to produce molecules that emit
light at slightly different wavelengths, which gave
tags of different colours. In time, his group added
further fluorescent molecules from other natural
sources to the tag collection, which continues to
expand. Complex biological networks can now be
labelled in an array of different colours, allowing
visualisation of a multitude of processes previously
hidden from view.
Chalfie expresses GFP
in C. elegans and shows
it can be used to track
the location of specific
proteins
1994
Roger Tsien shows how the
GFP chromophore is formed
in a chemical reaction that
requires oxygen, without the
help of other proteins
Mikhail Matz and Sergei
Lukyanov discover six
GFP-like proteins in
fluorescent corals, including a
red protein called DsRED
1994–1998
Tsien and collaborators tweak
the structure of GFP to
produce new variants that
shine more strongly and
produce different colours,
such as cyan, blue and yellow
1999
2000–2002
Tsien produces stable variants
of DsRED that glow in shades
of red, orange and pink –
complex biological networks
can now be labelled using all
the colours of the rainbow
chemistry 9
2008 nobel Laureates
In his own words: Osamu Shimomura
Tom Kleindist/Marine
Biological Laboratory
“To get success, everybody has to overcome any
difficulty on the way.” Osamu Shimomura
can speak from experience. As a teenager living
12 kilometres away from Nagasaki, he felt the blast
of the atomic bomb explosion in August 1945.
“I was soaked by black rain. So, I was contaminated
by the radioactivity, a lot of strong radioactivity.
But fortunately still I’m alive.”
“I don’t do my research for
application or any benefit. I just
do my research to understand
why jellyfish luminesce”
Osamu Shimomura holding some of the
hundreds of thousands of jellyfish specimens
that he collected from Friday Harbor.
The thousands of scientists worldwide who have
benefited from the fruits of Shimomura’s labours
will no doubt share his sentiment. Thanks to his
discovery of green fluorescent protein (GFP) in
jellyfish they have one of the most important tools at
their disposal for visualizing life at the microscopic
level; although Shimomura is quick to point out that
there was only ever a single purpose behind his
studies. “I don’t do my research for application or
any benefit. I just do my research to understand why
jellyfish luminesce, and why that protein fluoresces.”
jellyfish did he need to collect? “Our schedule was
50,000 per summer, in one or two months.” These
remarkable expeditions took place every summer for
19 years, collecting a staggering 850,000 jellyfish in
total. “That’s classical biochemistry, not genetics or
something like that,” says Shimomura.
Osamu Shimomura
Discovering GFP in jellyfish took considerable effort.
“What we needed to do to study that protein is we
have to get large amounts of that protein. So, we
collected huge numbers of jellyfish by going to Friday
Harbor, Washington, every summer.” Just how many
When Osamu Shimomura started studying
glowing jellyfish, he had no idea that it would
lead to a scientific revolution.
Shimomura says that GFP is one of many, still
undiscovered, molecules in nature that emit light,
but he fears that the demands of carrying out such
labour intensive and uncertain research will deter
young scientists from looking for them. “They prefer
easier research. And they prefer research subjects
that you can see the results; that you are sure to
get the results.” So, what advice would Shimomura
give to young people who are interested in entering
science? “Study whatever they are interested in,
and don’t give up on the way until they finish the
subject. Good subjects have a lot of difficulty. If one
gives up, on the way; that’s it, that’s finished.”
By way of illustrating his philosophy on never
finishing until the job is done, Shimomura continues
to work in a laboratory set up in the basement of his
house, despite officially retiring in 2001. Recently
he has been working on writing papers, and also
helping other people, but he resigns himself to the
inevitable change that will result from being awarded
the Nobel Prize. “I think it’s hopeless to work out of
the laboratory for the next several months, I guess.”
This article is based on a telephone interview with Osamu Shimomura following the announcement of the 2008 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry. To listen to the interview in full, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2008/shimomura-interview.html
10 chemistry
2008 nobel Laureates
In his own words: Martin Chalfie
Looking back at the moment 20 years ago when he
first heard about green fluorescent protein (GFP)
in a seminar, Chalfie recalls his instant realisation
that GFP could be used as a cellular beacon in
his studies in the nematode worm, known as
Caenorhabditis elegans. “One of the great things
about working on C. elegans was the fact that it
was transparent, and so when I first heard that
seminar describing GFP, and realised, ‘I work on
this transparent animal, this is going to be terrific!
I’ll be able to see the cells within the living animal’.”
The story from initial
thought to seeing cells
glow in C. elegans involved
an extraordinary chain of
events over the following
two years. Chalfie contacted
a researcher called Douglas
Prasher who was studying
GFP, and they agreed that once Prasher had cloned
the gene that encodes GFP they would see if they
could make it glow in C. elegans. But while Prasher
finished cloning the GFP gene, Chalfie had taken a
sabbatical, moving from Columbia University to the
University of Utah to work with his then new wife.
“When he finished the cloning, he got in touch with
me, or he tried to,” recalls Chalfie. Prasher tried to
contact Chalfie at Columbia University, and then at
the University of Utah, “…but someone must have
The Caldwell Laboratory,
University of Alabama
F
or many scientists, the phone call from a Nobel
Prize Awarding Institution informing them that
they have been awarded the Nobel Prize must
rank as one of the most important moments of their
lives. Martin Chalfie will remember the moment
somewhat differently. A recent change of ring tone
on his home phone meant he slept through the call
from Stockholm, thinking it was for someone else.
Chalfie laughs when recalling how he received the
happy news. “I woke up, and I realised that they
must have given the Prize in Chemistry, so I simply
said, ‘Okay, who’s the schnook that got the Prize this
time?’ And so I opened up my laptop, and I got to the
Nobel Prize site and I found out I was the schnook!”
C. elegans glowing with green fluorescent protein.
answered the phone and said something to the
effect of ‘Marty Chalfie, never heard of him’,” recalls
Chalfie. “And so Douglas Prasher got the idea that
I had dropped out of science. He didn’t tell me
because he didn’t think I was interested anymore.”
Chalfie says fortune eventually shone on him after
an opportune search of a medical database revealed
that Prasher had cloned GFP, and the pair
re-established contact. By that time, several research
groups were investigating whether GFP could glow
in other organisms. However, through no fault of
their own, the manner in which they were excising
Prasher’s GFP gene to create more of the gene
themselves was creating a protein
that didn’t glow. “That fragment had
extra little bits of sequence on either
end,” says Chalfie. “Apparently, it’s
those sequences that were poison.
The extra DNA interfered with the
protein production.” Chalfie, on
the other hand, had done things
differently. “We simply amplified exactly the coding
sequence from the clone, and didn’t have any of the
extra DNA.” When Chalfie tested whether his GFP
was working, it glowed.
“I work on this
transparent animal, this
is going to be terrific! I’ll
be able to see the cells
within the living animal”
Given the unlikely chain of events, and the manner
in which he discovered the news about his Nobel
Prize, Chalfie can be forgiven for wondering if he is
still sleeping. “I’ll try to wake up tomorrow and say
that it wasn’t a dream!”
This article is based on a telephone interview with Martin Chalfie following the announcement of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
To listen to the interview in full, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2008/chalfie-interview.html
chemistry 11
2008 nobel Laureates
In his own words: Roger Tsien
L
A love of pretty colours can be said to have been
the driving force in Tsien’s research career.
“I have to say I myself do not find pipetting
colourless droplets of liquid from one plastic
tube to another awfully inspiring.” says Tsien.
“At least without having to worry about whether
the work would be successful in 5 or 10 or 20
years, I could get some direct aesthetic pleasure
out of the experiments as I went along.”
When asked to comment on the observation that
this Nobel Prize in Chemistry is being awarded
for work that is basically involved in cell
biology, Tsien notes that it’s an area that has
been categorised as being chemical biology,
biochemistry, or as Tsien sometimes calls it,
“We try to build molecules
to solve problems”
Roger Tsien’s range of fluorescent proteins have
brought some colour to laboratory work.
molecular engineering, “at least our approach
to it, because we try to build molecules to solve
problems.”
Does Tsien worry about these academic labels?
“I try not to,” he replies, but adds that it becomes
dangerous “when students let themselves get
pigeon-holed, or let their thought processes get
pigeon-holed, and they say ‘Oh, I could never do
that, that’s chemistry. I don’t know any chemistry’.”
It’s surprising how often biologists develop an
attitude about chemistry or chemists an attitude
about biology, says Tsien, which unfortunately
creates an “instinctual fear that, ‘Oh, that’s a subject
I can’t do, and nobody should expect me to know
how to do, and so I will just not pay any attention to
questions that lead me in that direction’.” If there is
one thing that Tsien has illustrated over the years, it’s
the importance of being illuminated by any direction
the subject that you are interested in takes you.
Tsien Lab, University of
California, San Diego
As an adult chemist, Tsien has been instrumental
in making the green fluorescent protein a more
effective beacon for visualising processes inside
cells. By understanding what made GFP glow and
by tweaking the structure he could create molecules
that emit light at slightly different wavelengths,
producing tags of different colours. From the tens of
thousands of papers that have been published using
the probes he has developed, Tsien finds it difficult
to single out any of the applications that he likes
the most. One of the “showiest applications”,
he says, is the trick of painting neurons in a whole
kaleidoscope of colours – known as the brainbow.
Tsien Lab, University of California,
San Diego
ike many Nobel Laureates, Roger Tsien says
his love of science began at an early age,
carrying out chemistry experiments at home,
accompanied with “a mixture of fear in my parents
and a little bit of encouragement”. By the relatively
early age of 9 or 10, he knew he wanted to be a
scientist. “I think I did go through the usual smallchild phase of imagining being a fireman and so on,
but yeah, I think being a scientist was more of a
possibility for me than probably for most kids.”
Scientists can now use a palette of different
coloured tags to visualise processes inside cells.
This article is based on a telephone interview with Roger Tsien following the announcement of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
To listen to the interview in full, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2008/tsien-interview.html
12 chemistry
2008 nobel Laureates
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008
Harald zur Hausen
1/2 of the prize
Born: 1936
Françoise
Barré-Sinoussi
Magunia/SCANPIX
Sakutin/SCANPIX
“for their discovery
of human
immunodeficiency
virus”
deutsches krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ)
“for his discovery of
human papilloma
viruses causing
cervical cancer”
Luc Montagnier
1/4 of the prize
1/4 of the prize
Born: 1932
Birthplace: Germany
Born: 1947
Birthplace: France
Nationality: German citizen
Birthplace: France
Nationality: French citizen
Current position: Professor Emeritus and
former Chairman and
Scientific Director, German
Cancer Research Centre,
Heidelberg, Germany
Nationality: French citizen
Current position: Professor Emeritus and
Director, World Foundation
for AIDS Research and
Prevention, Paris, France
Current position: Professor and Director,
Regulation of Retroviral
Infections Unit, Virology
Department, Institut
Pasteur, Paris, France
physiology or medicine 13
2008 nobel Laureates
Speed read: Finding the culprit
identification of the virus associated with AIDS,
occurred within just a few months amid a flurry of
global research activity directed towards finding the
cause of the then-new epidemic.
L
ooking back over the two discoveries rewarded
with the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine reveals two different timelines
for discovery research. One, Harald zur Hausen’s
realisation that subtypes of a virus that produces
harmless warts can also lead to cervical cancer,
took a decade of work to prove, initially against a
backdrop of considerable scepticism. The other,
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier’s
Harald zur Hausen’s suggestion that human papilloma
virus (HPV) infection might lie behind cervical cancer
flew in the face of general opinion in the early
1970s, which held that another commonly present
virus, herpes simplex virus, might be the cause.
Realising that there were a multitude of different
HPV subtypes, and hypothesising that unknown
subtypes might cause the cancer, zur Hausen’s
group began a painstaking search for such novel
viruses. By the early 1980s they found novel viruses
in genital warts. Their subsequent identification of
two novel HPV subtypes in cervical cancers formed
the essential piece of evidence linking HPV infection
to the onset of the disease.
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier’s
discovery of the virus that later came to be known
as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) occurred
Harald zur Hausen publishes
his first report attempting to
find human papilloma virus
(HPV) DNA in cervical cancer
and genital wart biopsies
zur Hausen identifies two new
tumorigenic types of HPV in
cervical cancer biopsies – HPV16
and HPV18 – and subsequently
shows that they are present in
the majority of cervical cancers
1974
1983–1984
1976
zur Hausen and his
team identify multiple,
previously undiscovered,
strains of HPV
1985
The first preventive HPV
vaccine is approved by the
US Food and Drug Administration; two HPV vaccines are
currently on the market
2006
zur Hausen demonstrates that parts of the
HPV DNA are integrated into the host genome
in cervical cancer cell lines, providing an
opening to study the role of the transferred
viral DNA genes in malignant transformation
Timeline: Milestones for the 2008 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, Harald zur Hausen.
14 physiology or medicine
2008 nobel Laureates
just two years after the first reports of cases of
what we now know as AIDS. An infective agent was
suspected by many to cause the disease, and BarréSinoussi and Montagnier decided to test whether
it might be a so-called retrovirus. Retroviruses are
relatively uncommon among the viruses that infect
humans and rely on the host’s cellular machinery
to replicate their RNA. The gamble proved correct;
their studies revealed retroviral activity in cells taken
from a patient’s lymph nodes, and demonstrated
that viral particles from these cells could infect
and kill white blood cells. Within the year, BarréSinoussi and Montagnier had isolated HIV from
several patient groups. Soon afterwards several
research groups provided convincing evidence that
showed HIV to be the cause of AIDS.
Identifying the viral culprits behind two human
diseases that impact greatly on global health
provided crucial insights into the workings of each
virus, which, in turn, led to the development of
much-needed treatments. zur Hausen’s discoveries
enabled the development of vaccines that provide
April: Barré-Sinoussi and Montagnier
isolate the virus and show it infects and
kills lymphocytes from both diseased
and healthy patients, and reacts with
antibodies from infected patients
A serious new medical
syndrome is described in
California and New York, defined
as Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (AIDS) by the US
Centers for Disease Control
1981–1982
protection from the two HPV subtypes found in the
majority of cervical cancer cases. Barré-Sinoussi
and Montagnier’s discoveries led to a greater
understanding of HIV and the way it interacts with
humans, allowing the development of diagnostic
tools and a range of antiviral drugs aimed at
controlling HIV, and with it providing hope that the
disease could eventually become treatable.
Jun–Oct: They obtain isolates of the virus
from several patient groups
1983
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc
Montagnier detect activity from a new
type of retrovirus in cells cultured
from the lymph nodes of patients
showing early symptoms of AIDS
1984
1984–1985
An international virus
taxonomy consortium
names the virus Human
Immunodeficiency Virus
type 1, or HIV-1
1985
Several research groups
publish reports that help to
definitively show that the
virus causes AIDS
Timeline: Milestones for the 2008 Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
and Luc Montagnier.
physiology or medicine 15
2008 nobel Laureates
In his own words: Harald zur Hausen
involved in this cancer, together with the fact that
so many questions remained unanswered about
papilloma viruses. “I was not from the beginning
mainly interested in papilloma virus, I was mainly
interested in infectious agents in human cancer.
Papilloma viruses came up as the most likely
candidate from my viewpoint.”
“I’m of course totally surprised. And it’s of course
a great pleasure for me.” Sitting in his office at the
German Cancer Research Center, the news that
Harald zur Hausen had received the 2008 Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine had yet to fully sink in.
Perhaps surprise is an apt response; for years, few
considered zur Hausen’s proposal, that cervical cancer
was caused by the same virus that caused skin warts,
worthy of serious discussion, let alone a Nobel Prize.
The key breakthrough in finding that two subtypes
of human papilloma virus, called HPV16 and 18,
are found in most cervical cancer cases wasn’t
automatically followed by the successful development
of vaccines, mainly because companies were
unconvinced that this was a worthwhile investment.
As zur Hausen recalls, one
German company showed some
interest, but it pulled the plug
on the project after carrying out
some damning market analysis.
“According to this market
analysis there would be no market for such a vaccine.
And then they stopped the funding.”
When zur Hausen first suggested publicly that human
papilloma virus, or HPV, caused cervical cancer at a
meeting in Key Biscayne, Florida, in 1974, it flew in
the face of the prevailing view that the culprit was
herpes simplex virus. “It was
not very welcome,” recalls zur
Hausen. “My statements were
not well received, and I felt as a
lonely voice in that meeting.”
“My statements were not
well received, and I felt as
a lonely voice”
Dr Linda Stannard, UCT/Science Photo Library
When asked what gave him the dedication to
persevere for years and eventually prove the link
between HPV and cervical cancer, zur Hausen
responds that it was the combination of a personal
conviction that there must be an infectious agent
Coloured transmission electron micrograph of
human papilloma viruses (HPV).
Now the opposite appears to be the case; results
from trials on cervical cancer vaccines within
the last decade have been enormously promising.
zur Hausen sees this as clear evidence that
vaccination programmes should be widened;
however, he cautions that “The major disadvantage
at this stage is that it is too expensive for those
parts of the world which most badly need the
vaccine; namely, the developing world.”
zur Hausen believes that scientists will discover
more links between viruses and cancer, and he
is keen to promote greater interest in this line of
research. “I hope, indeed, that this Nobel Prize
will of course create more awareness of the role
of infectious agents in human cancer”.
Having spent decades in pursuit of his goal, it is
perhaps appropriate that he hadn’t rushed into
making any plans for celebrating his Nobel Prize.
“It was so surprising I really have to sleep about it
for one night or so before I make any decisions.”
This article is based on a telephone interview with Harald zur Hausen following the announcement of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine. To listen to the interview in full, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2008/hausen-interview.html
16 physiology or medicine
2008 nobel Laureates
In her own words:
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
V
 UNESCO 2008/Michel Ravassard
isiting the Pasteur Institute in Cambodia,
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi says she was
unaware that she had been awarded the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine until a French
radio journalist called her for an interview. “I didn’t
know about the news. It was a big surprise.”
Barré-Sinoussi feels that Cambodia is an
appropriate place to receive the happy news.
“I’ve been working with developing countries since
the mid-1980s and it’s really working with those
countries that gives me another view, or another
way, of orienting my research after the discovery of
the HIV virus. It’s important to really know what’s
going on in those countries strongly affected by
these kinds of disease.”
“We said, okay, look, we have
all the reagents, we have the
technique, and so let’s try”
Recalling the discovery of the virus that later came
to be known as human immunodeficiency virus,
or HIV, Barré-Sinoussi remembers several waves of
excitement as evidence slowly accumulated that she
and her research colleagues had discovered a novel
virus. “First it was the isolation of the virus from a
patient that was with symptoms associated with
AIDS. The second excitement was when we realised
that it’s not a known virus. Then we had electron
microscopy pictures showing that the morphology
was different, and so on.” So, it was, as BarréSinoussi describes, a “progressive excitement”.
Looking for a retrovirus in the first place seems
an inspired choice with the benefit of hindsight,
though Barré-Sinoussi admits this was initially
“because most of the other types of virus families
were already being explored”. There were also
“several lines of arguments” telling Barré-Sinoussi
to look at retroviruses. “Since we were working on
mammalian retroviruses at Pasteur at that time,
we said, okay, look, we have all the reagents,
we have the technique, and so let’s try.”
Francoise Barré-Sinoussi says the discovery of
HIV involved several waves of exciting findings.
The educated guess paid off, and when asked
what message she hopes her Nobel Prize will
deliver, Barré-Sinoussi hopes that it highlights
the fact that the success in discovering HIV is
really the success of a global team of scientists,
each bringing their different expertise to the task.
“It’s also important, especially when working on
infectious disease, to have a world network of
clinicians, virologists and microbiologists, working
in the hospitals and basic sciences. This was really
essential for me in the discovery of the AIDS virus.
And I think it’s essential also for tomorrow for
discovering new, emerging, or re-emerging agents
responsible for infectious disease.”
“I’ve been working with
developing countries since the
mid-1980s. It’s important to
really know what’s going on in
those countries strongly affected
by these kinds of disease”
This article is based on a telephone interview with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi following the announcement of the 2008 Nobel Prize
in Physiology or Medicine. To listen to the interview in full, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2008/barresinoussi-interview.html
physiology or medicine 17
2008 nobel Laureates
Mehau Kulyk/Science Photo Library
In his own words: Luc Montagnier
Luc Montagnier and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
discovered HIV over 25 years ago.
O
n the day he heard that he had received
the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine, Luc Montagnier was attending
an AIDS conference chaired by the President of the
Republic of Ivory Coast, an indication that the battle
against the disease is far from resolved. “Even after
20 years we are still fighting this virus very strongly,
and the AIDS epidemic is still spreading in Africa,”
says Montagnier, “so the fight is not finished.”
Montagnier thinks that tackling HIV, the virus that
he and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi discovered in the
early 1980s, requires urgent research into novel
forms of treatment. “I know that in Africa it’s not
possible to give a treatment for life. So the idea
is to buy a treatment which, like for tuberculosis,
could be given for a short period of time – 6 to 9
months – and then stopped.”
Such drug regimens could be supplanted
with vaccines to eradicate the virus infection.
Montagnier is developing one such treatment,
not a preventive vaccine but a therapeutic vaccine,
aimed at complementing the antiretroviral therapy
given to many patients, so that their immune
systems can defend themselves. “Nature has shown
us a few percent of people which are in this stage.
They are infected, they are not sick. So the idea
“Even after 20 years we are
still fighting this virus very
strongly, and the AIDS epidemic
is still spreading in Africa”
is to make most of these people, infected people,
never sick, for life.”
Looking back on the moment that he and his
colleagues first saw evidence of active HIV in cells
taken from a patient’s lymph nodes, and that the
virus from these cells could infect and kill white
blood cells, Montagnier says he initially had little
idea of the scale of the epidemic that he would
be confronted with decades later. “But, when I
realised that the virus could be the cause of AIDS
and was present not only in gay men in France and
the United States, and haemophiliacs, but also in
African nations, I realised it could be big.”
In fact, Montagnier reveals that at the time of
his discovery of HIV he was actually working on
a possible viral cause of breast cancer, which he
says makes sharing the Nobel Prize with Harald zur
Hausen for his
discovery of
the viruses
that cause
cervical
cancer
a happy
coincidence.
“I’m still
interested
in cancer viruses so I
appreciate that the Nobel
Committee also has awarded
the Prize to Harald zur
Hausen who has worked for a
long time on this.”
Luc Montagnier says the
battle against AIDS in
Africa is far from resolved.
This article is based on a telephone interview with Luc Montagnier following the announcement of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine. To listen to the interview in full, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2008/montagnier-interview.html
18 physiology or medicine
J. Sassier
“author of new departures,
poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy,
explorer of a humanity beyond
and below the reigning civilization”
Jean-Marie
Gustave Le Clézio
Born: 1940
Birthplace: France
Nationality: French and
Mauritian citizen
literature 19
Wandering Star, Curbstone Press
Onitsha, University of Nebraska Press
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2008
The Prospector, David R. Goldstine, Publisher
2008 nobel Laureates
2008 nobel Laureates
Speed read: Language as belonging
Le Clézio, who shows us that we are all emigrants,
that we all face futures that are both liberating and
terrifying.
J
ean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio has said that the
French language is the only place where he
feels a sense of belonging. He is someone who
has always lived on the edge, and in-between, and
is hard to identify with a single locality. Itinerant
from childhood, he has continued to travel, and now
divides his time between New Mexico, on the frontier
between North and South America, Nice, on the very
edge of France, and Mauritius, a small island where
the confrontation of land and sea is inescapable.
Coming from a line of emigrants and immigrants, his
family is dispersed all over the world.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his background, he has
always been interested in thresholds. For instance, his
novels explore the transformation from childhood into
adulthood (Cœur brûlé et autres romances), voyages
that result in the confrontation of cultures (Désert),
and the points where past, present and future collide
(Ourania). “Writing for me is like travelling”, says
Jean-Marie
Gustave Le
Clézio is born
in Nice, France
Family
returns
to Nice
1940
1950
1948
Family moves to Nigeria;
Le Clézio writes Un long
voyage and Oradi noir on
the month-long voyage
Writes the meditative
essay collections
L’extase matérielle,
Mydriase and Haï
1963
Publishes his
first novel,
Le procès-verbal
1967–1971
Le Clézio’s talent was recognised from the beginning;
his first published novel (Le procès-verbal) written
when he was 23, received the Renaudot prize. The
early novels are highly experimental in style and
intellectually challenging. They present a bleak
picture of modern western urban existence, as one of
alienation, aggression and enslavement to materiality
(Les géants). Then, in the late 1970s, Le Clézio’s style
and thinking underwent a radical change, partly as
a result of his experience of living with the Emberas
Indians in the Panamanian forest between 1970 and
1974. Le Clézio is an expert on early Amerindian
mythology and culture and produced the first ever
translation of Indian mythology into a western
language in Les prophéties du Chilam Balam. His
experience in Panama developed his thinking about
the limits of western rationalism and its dangerous
devaluation of emotions and spirituality, and also of
the natural world. His novels became more focused
on story and character as the means to analyse the
limits of western culture. More recently, as part of his
exploration of the interaction between past, present
and future, he has turned to his own family history
and made it the subject of his novels.
Produces the first ever
translation of Indian mythology
into a western language in Les
prophéties du Chilam Balam
1970–1974
Spends time in Mexico
and Central America, a
period which greatly
influenced his later writing
1976
Writes
doctoral thesis
on Mexico’s
early history
1980
1983
Publishes his breakthrough
novel Désert, which
received the Grand Prix
Paul Morand
Publishes Ballaciner,
a personal essay about
the history of film and
its importance in his life
1991–2004
Publishes several novels exploring
childhood and his own family
history: Onitsha, La quarantaine,
Révolutions and L’Africain
Timeline: Milestones for the 2008 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio.
20 literature
2007
2008 nobel Laureates
In his own words:
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio
“Writing for me is like travelling. It’s getting out of
myself and living another life, maybe a better life.”
Travelling and writing are intertwined in the life of
Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, or J.M.G. Le Clézio
as he calls himself in his books. “I enjoy very much
being in a foreign country, in a new country,
new place. And I enjoy also beginning a new book.
It’s like being someone else.”
Having grown up in many countries, and with his
time now spent in New Mexico, Nice and Mauritius,
Le Clézio identifies with different cultures. Yet he
still maintains a special bond with his country of
birth, France; though he is bilingual, Le Clézio still
writes in his first language. “When I was a child
I grew up speaking French. My first contact with
literature was in French, and that’s the reason why
I write in French.”
“Writing for me is like travelling.
It’s getting out of myself
and living another life, maybe
a better life”
Le Clézio’s healthy appetite for writing stems from
the sheer enjoyment of putting pen to paper.
“One of my greatest pleasures in life is to sit at
a table, wherever it is. I don’t have any office,
I can write everywhere. So, I put a piece of paper
on the table and then I travel.”
His desire to travel and to write has allowed
Le Clézio to document many places, cultures and
possibilities. For example, he has spent time among
the Amerindians, whose culture he finds particularly
appealing and one that he believes Europeans can
learn a lot from. “It’s a culture so different from
the European culture, and on the other hand it
didn’t have the chance of expressing itself. It’s a
culture which has been in some ways broken by
the modern world, and especially by the conquests
from Europe. So, I feel there is a strong message
J.M.G. Le Clézio’s writings reflect his passion
for different countries and cultures.
here for the Europeans to encounter this culture
which is so different from the European culture.”
Le Clézio describes his role as writer as follows:
“A writer is not a prophet, not a philosopher;
he’s just someone who is witness to what is around
him. And so writing is the best way to testify, to be
a witness.”
For those unfamiliar with his works, Le Clézio has
no specific recommendations, suggesting instead
that interested readers should be guided by their
own feelings. “Reading is a free practice. I think the
readers are free to begin by the books where they
want to. They don’t have to be led in their reading.”
In other words, readers embarking on a journey
through the countries and cultures described in his
works are required to do some travelling of their own.
“A writer is not a prophet,
not a philosopher; he’s just
someone who is witness to
what is around him”
This article is based on a telephone interview with Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio following the announcement of the 2008 Nobel Prize
in Literature. To listen to the interview in full, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2008/clezio-interview.html
literature 21
2008 nobel Laureates
The Nobel Peace Prize 2008
B. Settnik, EPA/SCANPIX
“for his important efforts, on several
continents and over more than three
decades, to resolve international conflicts”
Martti Ahtisaari
Born: 1937
Birthplace: Finland
Nationality: Finnish citizen
Current position:
Chairman of the Board,
Crisis Management Initiative
22 peace
2008 nobel Laureates
Speed read: Crisis management
M
artti Ahtisaari, former diplomat and
politician, is an international troubleshooter. Over the past two decades he
has worked under a variety of mandates to attempt
to bring a peaceful end to conflicts in Africa, Asia,
Europe and the Middle East. Few people have
gained such a broad understanding of the intricacies
of managing conflict resolution.
Ahtisaari insists that all conflicts are essentially
solvable, and believes that it is the duty of the
international community to intervene to prevent
injustice. His approach is founded on the idea that
one should never avoid the hard questions for the
sake of reaching a swift but shallow agreement. His
experiences have led him to formulate a number of
principles underlying successful crisis resolution,
including the need for rapid reaction, the importance
of consistency of approach in different locations,
the value of reconciliation and the necessity of an
all-inclusive approach to negotiations that brings all
concerned parties into discussions from the outset.
Martti Ahtisaari
graduates from
the University of
Oulu, Finland
1959
Joins United Nations (UN) as
Commissioner for Namibia; appointed
Special Representative of the
Secretary General for Namibia in 1978
1965–1973
1977–1981
Joins the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of
Finland, where he holds various posts
including Deputy Director of the Department
for International Development Cooperation
Ahtisaari’s mediation has helped diffuse seemingly
intractable conflicts across the globe. He was
instrumental in helping to bring about Namibia’s
eventual independence from South Africa after long
years of war. His brokering of a peace agreement
between the Indonesian government and the
separatist Free Aceh Movement led to the 2005 Aceh
Peace Accord, after almost 30 years of conflict. In the
former Yugoslavia, Ahtisaari first helped to mediate
an end to the war in Kosovo in the late 1990s, and
more recently, as United Nations Special Envoy, he
sought to find a solution to the problem caused
by the majority Albanian population’s desire for
independence from Serbia. In this case, however, the
internationally monitored independence he proposed
for Kosovo was not adopted, and the prolonged
international deadlock led to Kosovo’s unilateral
declaration of independence in early 2008.
In 2000, upon retiring from the Finnish Presidency,
Ahtisaari founded the Crisis Management Initiative
(CMI), an independent, Helsinki-based, non-profit
organisation. CMI aims to work alongside the
international community to promote innovative
approaches to conflict resolution, through a
combination of “analysis, action and advocacy”. It
has already assisted in the Aceh negotiations, and is
involved in ongoing efforts to bring about sustainable
peace in Iraq.
Appointed Secretary
of State in the
Ministry for Foreign
Affairs of Finland
1989–1990
Leads the UN
operation in
Namibia
1991
Founds the Crisis
Management Initiative,
where he is Chairman
of the Board
1994–2000
Elected President
of the Republic of
Finland
2000
2005
Serves as Special Envoy of
the Secretary General of
the UN for the future
status process for Kosovo
2005–2008
Facilitates the peace process between
the Government of Indonesia and the
Free Aceh Movement
Timeline: Milestones for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Martti Ahtisaari.
peace 23
2008 nobel Laureates
In his own words: Martti Ahtisaari
His success over the past two decades stems
from his conviction that no situation is beyond
resolution. “Every conflict can be solved. I think
it’s a disgrace for the international community
that we have allowed so many conflicts to become
frozen, and we are not making a serious effort to
solve them.”
According to Ahtisaari the key to solving conflicts
lies in getting all parties around the table; not only
those directly involved but also all other countries
that can have an influence on a possible solution.
The Kosovo conflict perfectly illustrates this, says
Ahtisaari. “We had a contact group that included
Russian Federation, United States, United Kingdom
and Northern Ireland, France, Germany and Italy. It
was absolutely vital in keeping the process together.”
“It’s a disgrace for the
international community that
we have allowed so many
conflicts to become frozen”
adopt a more flexible approach than governments.
“And of course, the mere fact that I’m Former
Head of State and Former Under-Secretary in the
UN system, it means that I can get in touch with
anybody in the world, in theory.”
One thing Ahtisaari emphasises with respect to
CMI is rapid reaction, in other words the ability
to respond effectively and without delay to any
requests from parties at critical moments in
conflicts and crisis situations. Adopting the rapid
reaction approach, though, requires sizeable
finances. “You need to carry out very careful prefeasibility and feasibility studies before you enter
any crisis situation.” Ahtisaari hopes his Peace Prize
will help the CMI to secure funding more easily.
“Far too much of my time goes for knocking on the
doors of the donors. We can do much more than we
have done so far.”
UN Photo/Milton Grant
F
or Martti Ahtisaari, receiving the 2008 Nobel
Peace Prize provided an opportunity to hear
once again from familiar faces. “All my friends
have been calling me, which is of course extremely
nice.” says Ahtisaari, “My assistants do nothing
nowadays except to try to answer the phones.”
As a former diplomat, politician and President of the
Republic of Finland, who has helped bring a peaceful
end to conflicts in several continents, Ahtisaari must
have a long line of friendly well-wishers.
For a negotiator like Ahtisaari, one principle is
extremely important. “I insist that I will have a free
hand to pick my colleagues. Because, very often,
the organisations tend to send people that are
not perhaps the most suited in that.” In Kosovo,
Namibia, and Aceh, Ahtisaari chose his own people
for the task. “They have to be able to work together.
They have to be professionals. They have to master
their speciality area, so that you can trust them.”
Hence the need for organisations like the Crisis
Management Initiative (CMI), which Ahtisaari
founded after retiring from the Finnish Presidency.
CMI works alongside the international community
to promote innovative approaches to conflict
resolution. Because it is a non-profit organisation
Ahtisaari says it has the advantage of being able to
Martti Ahtisaari has helped bring a peaceful end
to conflicts affecting countries in several continents.
This article is based on a telephone interview with Martti Ahtisaari following the announcement of the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize.
To listen to the interview in full, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2008/ahtisaari-interview.html
24 peace
2008 nobel Laureates
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences
in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2008
Paul Krugman
office of communications, Princeton University
“for his analysis of trade patterns
and location of economic activity”
Born: 1953
Birthplace: United States
Nationality: US citizen
Current position: Professor of Economics
and International Affairs,
Princeton University,
New Jersey, USA
economics 25
2008 nobel Laureates
Speed read:
Modelling trade in a world of plenty
I
n a remarkably succinct, ten-page article
published in 1979, Paul Krugman proposed a new
trade model that changed the way economists
view the international exchange of goods. At the
heart of the model lay two concepts that reflected
the general twentieth century trend towards having
more: the increased production of goods, leading
to economies of scale, and increased diversity of
products, leading to greater choice for consumers.
Krugman’s model better reflected the new pattern
of international trade that had developed in a world
where less certainly wasn’t more.
His model sought to explain the situation in which
countries that are similar benefit by producing and
trading in similar goods. Thus, cars are manufactured
in France, Germany and Italy, with each country
benefiting from the economies of scale delivered by
mass production, and the citizens of each country
benefiting from the increased choice that arises from
having a global motor industry. Previous trade models
Paul Krugman
receives BA in
Economics from
Yale University
1974
Publishes a paper in the
Journal of International
Economics that proposes a
new model to explain patterns
of trade between countries
1977
Receives PhD from
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) and
becomes Assistant
Professor at Yale University
1979
had emphasised the importance of the differences
between countries, with international trade being
based on the production of different materials in each
country to fulfil unmet needs in others. Krugman’s
development of a rigorous framework for describing
the real world situation formed the basis for an
explosion of subsequent analysis.
The 1979 paper in the Journal of International
Economics also sowed the seeds of an analysis of
the forces driving increased urbanization. In his
core-periphery model, which he developed properly in
a 1991 publication, Krugman describes the opposing
pressures that act on populations: those that serve
to pull them into the core (urban) centres and those
that work to push them out into the peripheral
(agricultural) areas. For example, one such factor is
the cost of transport, and the generally decreasing
transport costs seen in the twentieth century have
served to pull production, and populations, into
urban centres. Once again, Krugman’s formulation
of a robust model provided the apparatus that
allowed a thorough exploration of the factors driving
the global distribution of production facilities, and
of the urbanisation that is such a prevalent feature of
the modern world.
Works as a staff member
of the Council of
Economic Advisers in
the Reagan White
House Administration
1980
Becomes Associate
Professor at MIT,
where he is later
promoted to Professor
1982–1983
Receives the John Bates Clark Medal from the
American Economic Association
Publishes his theory of economic geography in
the Journal of Political Economy, which describes
opposing pressures acting on populations
1990
Publishes The Age of Diminished
Expectations, the first of several
books, magazine articles and
columns aimed at communicating
with non-economists
Timeline: Milestones for the 2008 Economics Laureate, Paul Krugman.
26 economics
1991
2000
Starts a Professorship at
Princeton University and begins
writing a twice-weekly Op-Ed
column for The New York Times,
which he still writes today
2008 nobel Laureates
In his own words: Paul Krugman
P
aul Krugman had been anticipating an
interesting day on the morning that he
received the phone call from the Economics
Prize Committee. Krugman was in Washington
DC for a meeting associated with the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund; a meeting
occurring hours after emergency packages had
been announced in Europe aimed at preventing
banks from collapsing in the economic downturn.
“I thought that was going to be the exciting thing
today, but it didn’t quite turn out quite as planned.”
As a journalist, columnist and blogger for The New
York Times, Krugman has become one of the best
known popularisers of economic ideas, but the
2008 Prize in Economics acknowledges his models
on economic theory that, as he says, showed
“why countries might trade even if they have
the same climate, and the same resources, and the
same technology.”
Krugman developed his models to explain why
jobs and businesses are becoming increasingly
concentrated in certain places such as cities.
“The reason why 80 million people live in a fairly
narrow corridor along the East
Coast of the United States is
not that there’s something
especially favourable about
the geography, but it’s simply
the agglomeration force.
Essentially each of those 80
million people is there because
the other 80 million people are
also there.”
Paul Krugman’s models explain why jobs
and businesses are increasingly becoming
concentrated in urban areas.
When asked how easy he found the move into
journalism, Krugman says he believes the task
of boiling down an intellectual problem to its
essence through economic models and the task of
explaining a complex problem in
simple language are related.
“I always felt that what I do
when I try to explain, say, the
financial crisis in 800 words,
and what I do when I try to
model the financial crisis in a
half-dozen equations, are very
much the same kind of effort.”
“I’ve gone somewhat
beyond my role as an
economist in the column
but, hey, economists
are people too, and are
citizens too, and have
political opinions”
According to Krugman the
value of creating these mathematical models is
that “once you have the clear statement of how the
pieces fit together you can apply it to numbers,
you can use it to try to assess the welfare impact
of different trade policies.” In other words, people
could now think more clearly about international
trade, says Krugman. “It required the math to get
to the plain English.”
To some extent the consequence
of trying to explain things clearly
has led Krugman to recently adopt a more political
stance on issues in his newspaper columns. He was
an early critic of the Bush administration because his
economics background led him to conclude that they
were being dishonest about budget arithmetic. “I’ve
gone somewhat beyond my role as an economist in
the column but, hey, economists are people too, and
are citizens too, and have political opinions.”
This article is based on a telephone interview with Paul Krugman following the announcement of the 2008 Sveriges Riksbank Prize
in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. To listen to the interview in full, visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/
laureates/2008/krugman-interview.html
economics 27