The Nobel Prize

Albert Lutuli was Africa's first Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Lutuli was a Zulu Chief, teacher and trade unionist. He was known by his Zulu name Mvumbi, which means continuous rain. In 1952, Lutuli became president of the African National Congress (ANC) liberation movement. He was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence and became the spokesman for a civil disobedience campaign against South Africa's apartheid and racial segregation policies. He spearheaded several demonstrations and strikes against the white minority government. Lutuli was arrested along with other opponents of South Africa's racial segregation. He and other activists were subjected to government surveillance, imprisonment and abuse. At the time he received the Nobel Peace Prize, the South African government had banned him from travelling outside a fifteen-mile radius of his home. The government lifted this restriction for ten days so Lutuli and his wife could attend the 1961 Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies in Oslo. Discover more Lutuli's incredible life: https://bit.ly/2BKS56m #FreedomDay

Literature laureate Nadine Gordimer was deeply involved in the South African anti-apartheid struggle. Gordimer started writing from an early age, and published her first story at 15. Her works comprise novels and short stories in which the consequences of apartheid form the central theme. Under apartheid, several of Gordimer's books were banned in South Africa. Her novels depict complicated personal and social relationships, set against the backdrop of the emerging resistance movement against apartheid and later, liberated South Africa. She was awarded the Nobel Prize as a prosaist "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity." #FreedomDay

Nelson Mandela casts his vote in the first South African elections held without racial discrimination against voters on this day in 1994. Everyone of a legal voting age was allowed to vote. It was the first time in his life Mandela had voted because, under apartheid, black South Africans were not allowed to vote. Nearly 20 million South Africans participated in the 1994 elections out of around 22.7 million eligible voters. Mandela was awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the dismantling of South Africa's apartheid regime. On 10 May 1994, he was sworn in as South Africa's first democratically elected president. #FreedomDay

When Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson attempted to listen to microwave signals transmitted from our solar system using a large radio antenna their efforts were hampered by the presence of an annoying background hiss. After a year spent persistently and painstakingly trying to identify and remove all possible causes for the unwanted noise – from radio signals from neighbouring cities to pigeons nesting in the horn-shaped antenna – they concluded that this interference was due to microwaves present throughout the universe and at a temperature of around three degrees above absolute zero. The source of the noise didn't come from Earth or even our own galaxy. The cosmic background radiation was left over from the Big Bang! The same afterglow from the early universe could also be seen as the snowy static on analogue televisions. The picture shows the full-sky image of the temperature fluctuations (shown as colour differences) in the cosmic microwave background, over nine years. In 1978, Wilson and Penzias received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation." Read more about 1978 physics prize: https://bit.ly/2VMa5Uc

“I'll never forget my first political lesson when I was 10 years old,” said John Hume, who shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with David Trimble for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland. “The Nationalist Party were holding an election meeting at the top of the street and waving their flags and my father - who was unemployed - saw that I was getting emotional too. Then he put his hand on my shoulder he says, "don't get involved in that stuff, son'. I says, 'why not, da?' He says, 'you can't eat a flag'. Think of the wisdom of that. That real politics shouldn't be about waving flags, it should be about developing the standard of living of all sections of your people.” Watch Hume’s speech from the Nobel Centennial Symposia in 2001, for more insights into his role in the Northern Ireland peace process: https://lnkd.in/e4isFvEm

"You couldn't see the radiation, or touch it, or smell it ... The world around was both familiar and unfamiliar. When I traveled to the zone, I was told right away: don't pick the flowers, don't sit on the grass, don't drink the water from a well ... Death hid everywhere." In 1997, investigative journalist and author Svetlana Alexievich published 'Voices from Chernobyl', a powerful and moving compilation of interviews with those affected by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015. Read an excerpt to mark International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day: https://bit.ly/2QyqXvK

“I woke up early in the morning and sat in the park. It was a beautiful day and the flowers were blooming." On this day in 1951 Charles Townes sat on a park bench and came up with the theory that would lead to the laser. Townes describes his moment of discovery in this interview: https://bit.ly/3PfDOl5

"Perhaps you know the phrase, a 'duh moment.'" - physics laureate Jim Peebles. Check out this video of 2019 physics laureates Jim Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz telling us why they chose to pursue science. Why did you decide to do science? #NobelPrize

Have you heard about the 'Pauli principle'? It was formulated by physics laureate Wolfgang Pauli who was born on this day in 1900. His principle proposed that no two electrons in an atom could have identical sets of quantum numbers. It was later discovered that protons and neutrons in nuclei could also be assigned quantum numbers and that Pauli's principle applied here too. Learn more: https://bit.ly/2J1kcyt

Malaria used to be treated effectively with chloroquine and quinolines, but the malaria parasite started developing resistance to these drugs and new treatments needed to be found. In 1964, China began confidential research into new antimalarials to tackle this challenge. A young scientist named Tu Youyou was asked to head up and build a research group searching for antimalarial drugs among traditional Chinese medicines. Her work led her to the plant Artemisia annua from which she extracted an active agent called artemisinin, or Qinghaosu (青蒿素) in Chinese. Today this antimalarial is used to treat millions across the globe. Read the full story in her biography: https://bit.ly/32NkA0W #WorldMalariaDay