Daniel Dolan aloha

2007 Nobel Prize Winners

It has been a long time since my last post...but I was wakened from my posting coma by the recent 2007 Nobel Prize announcements. Although many critics claim that these prizes are tainted by politics, I believe that it is important to understand at least the basic outlines of the work for which these prizes have been awarded.

The information below comes from the official Nobel Prize website:
http://nobelprize.org/

Here is the list, with descriptions taken from the site:

Peace: IPCC and Al Gore, "for informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change."

Medicine: Mario Capecchi, Martin Evans, and Oliver Smithies, "for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells."

Literature: Doris Lessing, "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny."

Economics: Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin, and Roger Myerson, "for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory."

Physics: Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg, "for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance."

Chemistry: Gerhard Ertl, "for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces."

The Nobel site also has links to Nobel trivia and other interesting information.

U.S. Youth Turning Left

A poll of American youth shows a drift to the left and optimism for the future.

The NY Times/CBS News/MTV poll of 659 young Americans ages 17-29 conducted in June 2007 revealed the following:

* Most important issue of this generation: Iraq war
* Disapprove of President Bush's job performance: 66%
* American going in the right direction?: 26% (U.S. adult population 24%)
* Most important problem facing the U.S: war
* Gay couples should be able to marry: 44% (U.S. adult population 28%)