Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize in physics goes to three men who upended our view of the heavens by discovering that the universe, rather than continuing to slow down after the Big Bang, is now speeding up as it expands - due to a still-mysterious force that has been dubbed dark energy. One of the three is astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter, 52, a graduate of Germantown Friends School who grew up in West Mt. Airy and now works at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

NEW YORK - A Frenchman and an American shared the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for inventing methods to peer into the bizarre quantum world of ultratiny particles, work that could help in creating a new generation of superfast computers. Serge Haroche of France and American David Wineland opened the door to new experiments in quantum physics in the 1990s by showing how to observe individual atoms and particles of light called photons while preserving their quantum properties. Quantum physics, a field about a century old, explains a lot about nature but includes some weird-sounding behavior by individual, isolated particles.

The Nobel Prize in physics goes to three men who upended our view of the heavens by discovering that the universe, rather than continuing to slow down after the Big Bang, is now speeding up as it expands - due to a still-mysterious force that has been dubbed dark energy. One of the three is astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter, 52, a graduate of Germantown Friends School, who grew up in West Mount Airy and now works at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

A Belgian university says biochemist Christian de Duve, 95, who won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1974, died in an act of euthanasia May 4. His university, UCL in Louvain-la-Neuve, confirmed it was a case of euthanasia but did not disclose the method. Mr. de Duve shared the Nobel Prize with two other scientists for their work and discoveries on the structural and functional organization of the cell. One month before his death, he made the decision to end his life and granted an interview to the daily Le Soir to be published after his death.

LOS ANGELES - F. Sherwood Rowland, the Nobel prize-winning chemist who sounded the alarm on the depletion of the Earth's ozone layer, has died. Rowland died Saturday at his home of Parkinson's disease. He was 84. Rowland was among three scientists awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize for chemistry for discovering that a byproduct of aerosol sprays could destroy the earth's atmospheric blanket. - Associated Press

A story Wednesday on new recipients of the Medal of Freedom misidentified author Toni Morrison's 1993 honor. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Inquirer wants its news report to be fair and correct in every respect, and regrets when it is not. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, contact assistant managing editor David Sullivan (215-854-2357) at The Inquirer, Box 8263, Philadelphia 19101, or e-mail dsullivan@phillynews.com .

Herbert Hauptman, 94, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1985 for his work uncovering the structure of molecules, has died. He had worked into his 90s at the research institute in Buffalo that now bears his name. He recently had a stroke, a colleague said Monday. Mr. Hauptman received the Nobel Prize nearly 40 years after setting out to solve a problem other scientists had given up on: how to determine molecular structures using X-ray crystallography. He used mathematical equations to interpret the patterns formed by X-rays scattered from crystals.

STOCKHOLM - A pioneering researcher was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine yesterday, three days after dying of pancreatic cancer without ever knowing he was about to be honored for his immune-system work that he had used to prolong his own life. The Nobel committee said it was unaware that Canadian-born cell biologist Ralph Steinman had died when it awarded the prize to him, American Bruce Beutler and French scientist Jules Hoffmann. Since the committee is supposed to consider only living scientists, the Nobel Foundation held an emergency meeting yesterday and said the decision on the 10 million kronor ($1.5 million)

Dr. Rosalyn S. Yalow, 89, a medical physicist who persisted in entering a field largely reserved for men to become only the second woman to earn a Nobel Prize in medicine, died Monday in New York City, where she had lived most of her life. Dr. Yalow, a product of New York City schools and the daughter of parents who never finished high school, graduated magna cum laude from Hunter College at age 19 and was its first physics major. Yet she struggled to be accepted for graduate studies.

Norman Ramsey, 96, who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in physics for his research into atomic energy levels that led to the creation of the atomic clock and MRI machines, died Friday at a nursing home in Wayland, Mass., his wife, Ellie, said Monday. Mr. Ramsey was an emeritus professor of physics at Harvard University. In his autobiography for the Nobel Prize - which he shared with Hans Dehmelt and Wolfgang Paul - he wrote that he was inspired by failure in molecular beam magnetic resonance experiments in the late 1940s to invent a new technique of measuring the frequency of radiation from atoms using two electromagnetic fields.

A Belgian university says biochemist Christian de Duve, 95, who won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1974, died in an act of euthanasia May 4. His university, UCL in Louvain-la-Neuve, confirmed it was a case of euthanasia but did not disclose the method. Mr. de Duve shared the Nobel Prize with two other scientists for their work and discoveries on the structural and functional organization of the cell. One month before his death, he made the decision to end his life and granted an interview to the daily Le Soir to be published after his death.

James M. Buchanan, 93, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for applying the principles of economic self-interest to understand why politicians do what they do, died Wednesday in Blacksburg, Va. No cause of death was given. Mr. Buchanan, a professor emeritus at George Mason University, was a pioneer in the field known as public-choice theory, which views government decisions through the personal interests of the bureaucrats and elected leaders who want to advance in their careers and win campaigns.

ROME - Rita Levi-Montalcini, a biologist who conducted underground research in defiance of Fascist persecution and went on to win a Nobel Prize for helping unlock the mysteries of the cell, died at her home in Rome on Sunday. She was 103 and had worked well into her final years. Italy's so-called "Lady of the Cells," a Jew who lived through anti-Semitic discrimination and the Nazi invasion, became one of her country's leading scientists and shared the Nobel medicine prize in 1986 with American biochemist Stanley Cohen for their groundbreaking research carried out in the United States.

Clinton begins tour of Europe WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is heading to Europe to discuss Turkey's defense and U.S. relations with Pakistan. Her first stop will be the Czech Republic for talks on energy policy in a country heavily dependent on Russian fuel. She is to join NATO foreign ministers in Brussels to discuss Turkey's request for Patriot missile assistance. Violence in neighboring Syria, which is believed to have several hundred ballistic surface-to-surface missiles capable of carrying chemical warheads, is a particular concern for Turkey, a NATO member.

Last year's awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize was a rarity, as it was divided among three women: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, and Tawakkol Karman of Yemen. Match up previous female winners of the award, which was first presented in 1901, with the year they were honored. 1. Jane Addams. 2. Emily Greene Balch. 3. Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams. 4. Shirin Ebadi. 5. Wangari Maathai. 6. Rigoberta Menchu. 7. Alva Myrdal.

LONDON - While some Europeans swelled with pride when the European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize, howls of derision erupted from the continent's large band of skeptics. To many in the 27-nation bloc, the EU is an unwieldy and unloved agglomeration overseen by a top-heavy bureaucracy devoted to creating arcane regulations about everything from cheese to fishing quotas. Set up with noble goals after the devastation of World War II, the EU now appears to critics to be impotent amid a debt crisis that has widened north-south divisions, threatened the euro currency and plunged several members, from Greece to Ireland to Spain, into economic turmoil.

Rapper Nelly had some 'splainin' to do Friday. First of all, realize! You do not drive anywhere near the Sierra Blanca border patrol down in Texas. Police there will jack you up if their superschnozz dogs detect a whiff of contraband. Fiona Apple got done there last month, and Willie Nelson , Armie Hammer , and Snoop Dogg all have experienced this fine service. When the zealous fuzz inspected Nelly's tour bus, they found - whoa! - 36 small bags of heroin, 10 pounds of pot, and a .45 pistol.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Chinese writer Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday, a cause of pride for a government that had disowned the only previous Chinese winner of the award, an exiled critic. National television broke into its newscast to announce the prize - exceptional for the tightly scripted broadcast that usually focuses on the doings of Chinese leaders. The Swedish Academy, which selects the winners, praised Mo's "hallucinatory realism" saying it "merges folk tales, history and the contemporary.

NEW YORK - A Frenchman and an American shared the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for inventing methods to peer into the bizarre quantum world of ultratiny particles, work that could help in creating a new generation of superfast computers. Serge Haroche of France and American David Wineland opened the door to new experiments in quantum physics in the 1990s by showing how to observe individual atoms and particles of light called photons while preserving their quantum properties. Quantum physics, a field about a century old, explains a lot about nature but includes some weird-sounding behavior by individual, isolated particles.