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Nobel Prize 2008

"Prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind."

“Prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.”

The 2008 Nobel Prize awards for chemistry, physiology or medicine, and physics were recently announced as they are every year at around this time.

As I mentioned in last year’s post, the Nobel Prize awards were established in 1895 according to the will of Swedish chemist, engineer, and inventor Alfred Nobel and endowed by his estate. Other than the three natural science awards, Alfred also wanted awards for literature and peace. All five Nobel Prizes were first awarded in 1901. In 1968, Sweden’s central bank established and endowed the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their 300th anniversary. This prize for economics in honor of Alfred Nobel was first awarded the following year.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences grants the prizes for chemistry and physics (and economics), while the Karolinska Institute grants the prize for physiology or medicine.

The Nobel Prize awards are presented in Stockholm, Sweden (except for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is presented in Oslo, Norway) every year on December 10, which is the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.

The Nobel Prize science medals were designed by Swedish engraver Erik Lindberg in 1902. The Latin inscription on the medals is

Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes

and can be translated as And all who found new arts, to make man’s life more blest or fair. The inscription is from Book 6, line 663 of Vergil’s Aeneid:

And poets, of whom the true-inspired song deserved Apollo’s name;
and all who found new arts, to make man’s life more blest or fair;
(translation by Theodore C. Williams)

For the chemistry and physics medals, Erik Lindberg chose to show Nature being unveiled by the Genius of Science. For the medal for physiology or medicine, Erik chose to show the Genius of Medicine gathering water to quench the thirst of a sick child.

"And all who found new arts, to make man's life more blest or fair"

Chemistry: Genius of Science unveiling Nature

The 2008 Nobel Prize for Chemistry is awarded to Boston University Medical School scientist Osamu Shimomura, Columbia University scientist Martin Chalfie, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientist Roger Tsien for their discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP).

"And all who found new arts, to make man's life more blest or fair"

Physiology or Medicine: Genius of Medicine quenching the thirst of the Ill

The 2008 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine is awarded to German Cancer Research Center at Heidelberg scientist Harald zur Hausen for his discovery that human papilloma viruses cause cervical cancer.

"And all who found new arts, to make man's life more blest or fair"

Physics: Genius of Science unveiling Nature

The 2008 Nobel Prize for Physics is awarded for two discoveries: for Enrico Fermi Institute scientist Yoichiro Nambu and his discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics and for High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) scientist Makoto Kobayashi and Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (YITP) scientist Toshihide Maskawa and their discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature.

How Many Dino Fingers Do You See?

My son Alton is interested in dinosaurs, so he is starting to collect various dinosaur toys. Needless to say, as far as accurate representations go, most of them are far from being museum-quality models. But as a father I am fine with that; after all, they are toys.

However, there is one pet peeve that I just can’t leave alone and that is the gross misidentification of the large theropods. Never mind that there are several dozen kinds of them and that they lived in different times across a span of 150 million years, the most popular one has got to be Tyrannosaurus.

Now, out of my son’s dinosaur toy collection, he has five large theropods and they are all pretty much unidentified save one. That one is the one from Toy Story and his name is Rex. And, of course, he is supposed to be Tyrannosaurus rex. But is he really?

No, he is not. Rex is not a Tyrannosaurus rex because each of his hands has three fingersTyrannosaurus had only two fingers on each hand.

So I decided to play a game with Alton called Tyrannosaurus or Allosaurus? Now, I realize that Allosaurus lived in the Late Jurassic (about 150 million years ago) and that Tyrannosaurus lived in the Late Cretaceous (about 65 million years ago) and was heavier, but they are both roughly the same size and body type.

Tyrannosaurus or Allosaurus?
IMG_4136
Three fingers. Allosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus or Allosaurus?
IMG_4137
Three fingers. Allosaurus (even though his name is Rex).

Tyrannosaurus or Allosaurus?
IMG_4138
Two fingers. Tyrannosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus or Allosaurus?
IMG_4139
Two fingers, again. Tyrannosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus or Allosaurus?
IMG_4145
Three fingers. Another Allosaurus.

If you are interested in additional information about dinosaurs, the Natural History Museum in London has a wonderful dinosaur website.

Nobel Prize 2007

"Prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind."

“Prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.”

The 2007 Nobel Prize awards for chemistry, physiology or medicine, and physics were recently announced as they are every year at around this time.

As I mentioned in last year’s post, the Nobel Prize awards were established in 1895 according to the will of Swedish chemist, engineer, and inventor Alfred Nobel and endowed by his estate. Other than the three natural science awards, Alfred also wanted awards for literature and peace. All five Nobel Prizes were first awarded in 1901. In 1968, Sweden’s central bank established and endowed the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their 300th anniversary. This prize for economics in honor of Alfred Nobel was first awarded the following year.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences grants the prizes for chemistry and physics (and economics), while the Karolinska Institute grants the prize for physiology or medicine.

The Nobel Prize awards are presented in Stockholm, Sweden (except for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is presented in Oslo, Norway) every year on December 10, which is the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.

The Nobel Prize science medals were designed by Swedish engraver Erik Lindberg in 1902. The Latin inscription on the medals is

Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes

and can be translated as And all who found new arts, to make man’s life more blest or fair. The inscription is from Book 6, line 663 of Vergil’s Aeneid:

And poets, of whom the true-inspired song deserved Apollo’s name;
and all who found new arts, to make man’s life more blest or fair;
(translation by Theodore C. Williams)

For the chemistry and physics medals, Erik Lindberg chose to show Nature being unveiled by the Genius of Science. For the medal for physiology or medicine, Erik chose to show the Genius of Medicine gathering water to quench the thirst of a sick child.

"And all who found new arts, to make man's life more blest or fair"

Chemistry: Genius of Science unveiling Nature

The 2007 Nobel Prize for Chemistry is awarded to Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society scientist Gerhard Ertl for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces.

"And all who found new arts, to make man's life more blest or fair"

Physiology or Medicine: Genius of Medicine quenching the thirst of the Ill

The 2007 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientist Mario Capecchi, Cardiff University scientist Sir Martin Evans, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientist Oliver Smithies for their discoveries of the principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells.

"And all who found new arts, to make man's life more blest or fair"

Physics: Genius of Science unveiling Nature

The 2007 Nobel Prize for Physics is awarded to both Université Paris-Sud in Orsay professor Albert Fert and Jülich Research Center scientist Peter Grünberg for their discovery of giant magnetoresistance.

5E Learning Cycle

Less than a year after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, on October 4, 1957, the US Congress passed the National Defense Education Act, which allocated billions of dollars for the purpose of improving math and science education. One result was the establishment of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study by the American Institute of Biological Sciences. A geneticist, Hiram Bentley Glass, chaired the first Steering Committee. The BSCS, made up of mainly professional biologists, decided to focus on secondary school biology, mainly at the tenth-grade level, and collaborated with high school educators and administrators to develop and implement new curriculum materials.

The BSCS team, led by Principal Investigator Roger Bybee, developed a lesson model based on constructivism to advance the teaching of science. Constructivism proposes that learners need to build their own understanding of new ideas. The model describes a teaching sequence that can be scaled for entire programs, specific units, or individual lessons. They called it the BSCS 5E Instructional Model, with five different stages of a teaching sequence. These stages would be done across several school days and not necessarily in a single class period for each stage. The five stages of the BSCS 5E Instructional Model are designed to facilitate the process of constructivism in students by providing connections among student activities and bringing coherence to different teaching strategies. The five stages are: Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend (or Elaborate), and Evaluate.

engage

The purpose for the engagement stage is for teachers to capture student curiosity about the phenomena and to get them personally involved in the lesson, while assessing the prior knowledge of the students. Students are introduced to the lesson topic and start making connections between their previous and current learning experiences. This lays the organizational foundation for upcoming activities.

explore

The purpose for the exploration stage is to give students a chance to build their own understanding by participating directly in an activity involving the phenomena. As the students work together in teams, they build common experiences through communicating and sharing. The teacher is a facilitator, guiding the focus of the students through questioning and observation as they actively learn through inquiry and engineering challenges. Ideally, the students, through guided exploration, make hypotheses, design their own investigations, test their own predictions, and draw their own conclusions.

explain

The purpose for the explanation stage is to ask the students to communicate what they have discovered so far and to figure out its meaning as they build their understanding of the phenomena. Student discussions allow for the placing of events into a logical sequence and occur between peers. The teacher, as the facilitator, may refine the understanding of students by guiding the discussion topics to include vocabulary in context and to redirect any student misconceptions.

extend

The purpose for the extension (or elaboration) stage is for the teacher to ask students to use their new knowledge in unfamiliar but similar situations. At this stage, their understanding of the phenomena is challenged and deepened as the students expand on the learned concepts and make connections to related concepts. The students apply their understanding to the world around them in new ways as the teacher guides them toward the next lesson topic.

evaluate

The purpose for the evaluation stage is for both teachers and students to determine how much understanding of the phenomena has taken place. It is an ongoing process where the teacher observes each student’s knowledge and depth of understanding. Assessment should take place at points throughout the continuum of the teaching process and not within its own set stage. Evaluation may include teacher observations and rubrics as well as students demonstrating their understanding with projects, interviews, and portfolios.

Nobel Prize 2006

"Prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind."

“Prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.”

The 2006 Nobel Prize awards for chemistry, physiology or medicine, and physics were recently announced as they are every year at around this time.

The Nobel Prize awards were established in 1895 according to the will of Swedish chemist, engineer, and inventor Alfred Nobel and endowed by his estate. Other than the three natural science awards, Alfred also wanted awards for literature and peace. All five Nobel Prizes were first awarded in 1901. In 1968, Sweden’s central bank established and endowed the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for their 300th anniversary. This prize for economics in honor of Alfred Nobel was first awarded the following year.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences grants the prizes for chemistry and physics (and economics), while the Karolinska Institute grants the prize for physiology or medicine.

The Nobel Prize awards are presented in Stockholm, Sweden (except for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is presented in Oslo, Norway) every year on December 10, which is the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.

The Nobel Prize science medals were designed by Swedish engraver Erik Lindberg in 1902. The Latin inscription on the medals is

Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes

and can be translated as And all who found new arts, to make man’s life more blest or fair. The inscription is from Book 6, line 663 of Vergil’s Aeneid:

And poets, of whom the true-inspired song deserved Apollo’s name;
and all who found new arts, to make man’s life more blest or fair;
(translation by Theodore C. Williams)

For the chemistry and physics medals, Erik Lindberg chose to show Nature being unveiled by the Genius of Science. For the medal for physiology or medicine, Erik chose to show the Genius of Medicine gathering water to quench the thirst of a sick child.

"And all who found new arts, to make man's life more blest or fair"

Chemistry: Genius of Science unveiling Nature

The 2006 Nobel Prize for Chemistry is awarded to Stanford University scientist Roger Kornberg for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription.

"And all who found new arts, to make man's life more blest or fair"

Physiology or Medicine: Genius of Medicine quenching the thirst of the Ill

The 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine is awarded to both Stanford University School of Medicine scientist Andrew Fire and University of Massachusetts Medical School scientist Craig Mello for their discovery of RNA interference, gene silencing by double-stranded RNA.

"And all who found new arts, to make man's life more blest or fair"

Physics: Genius of Science unveiling Nature

The 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics is awarded to both NASA Goddard Space Flight Center scientist John Mather and University of California at Berkeley scientist George Smoot for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation.