The Nobel Foundation has let the cat out of the bag for this year’s prize in Medicine and Physics, with Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Economics prizes to be announced in coming days.
The Prize in Medicine was announced Monday, and went to Mario R. Capecchi, Sir Martin J. Evans, and Oliver Smithies “for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells.” In a telephone interview shortly after the award was announced, Capecchi told Nobelprize.org that he was thrilled his friends were able to share the award with him, and that he hopes to use their discovery to study other organisms and the development of evolutionary traits.
The Prize in Physics, announced today, was given to Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg “for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance.” Grunberg, who enjoys using computers to browse the internet, said in a Nobelprize.org interview that the discovery was not only important for computer storage capacity, but also for the magnetic separation of genetic material.