No. 1 Lise Meitner; Nuclear fission:
Before we start the misfortune happened with Lise Meitner we must first get a brief introduction about the nuclear fission, Nuclear fission reaction works like a chain reaction. Once the raction gets started it goes on increasing in size in multiple of three. So how this things works, when a slow moving neutron is bombarded with Uranium 235 it is converted into lighter products and three neutrons are emitted. These three neutrons react with other atoms of uranium to create further reaction and the reaction goes on and on. Every fission reaction is accompanied by the release of enormous amount of energy. This splitting of atoms by bombardment with neutrons was discovered in 1938 when Otto Hahn discovered that the product of fission of uranium was barium. This theory led to the realization that the products of nuclear fission are lighter than original atom.
It was Lise Meitner who was by then living in Sweden as an outcome of the anti-Jewish laws in Germany, and her nephew Otto Frisch who deciphered that some of the missing mass in nuclear fission was converted to energy according to Einstein’s mass energy equation that dictates that if you convert a small amount of mass you get an enormous amount of energy. For these contributions of her, she deserved her share of the Nobel Prize awarded to Hahn in 1944.
No. 2 Douglas Prasher; Green Fluorescent Protein:
The Green Flourescent Proteins are stable, works within living cells, and can be used as a simple test of whether your genetic manipulation has worked. That is, does your trial shine when it is exposed to an explicit wavelength of light? Many organisms bioluminescent but the glowing jellyfish Aequorea victoria that has most benefited biology for their experiments. The GFP which is separated from the said jelly fish helps researchers to image cells and with very simple techniques to see where specific proteins are.
The cloning of GFP and its DNA sequences was done by the Douglas Prasher in 1992. In the year 2008 the Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to three other researchers who had enhanced GFP as a biochemical tool. However at that time Parsher had left the academia and was working as a bus driver. The then Nobel Laureates appreciated the Parsher’s work greatly and paid and convinced him to attend the ceremony.
No. 3 Oswald Avery, Heritability through DNA:
Let’s now discuss the Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment. The experiment showed that a molecule in heat killed bacteria could be transferred to living bacteria and transforms them. This work gave the chance to separate the molecule of heritability from the heat killed bacteria. The molecule they identified as able to transform the bacteria proved to be DNA. This was the first time that a molecule had been shown to definitely have a role in heritability.
DNA was not decisively proved to be the universal molecule of inheritance in all living things. The paper definitely did not cause a huge academic stir but it was well received and appears to have influenced other researchers. Even if the work were restricted to its strict findings on the transmission of lethality between bacteria it surely merited consideration for a Nobel Prize in Medicine. It is on the basis that his work stands alone that I include Avery and not because he was overlooked for the later DNA based Nobel Prizes.
No. 4 Chien-Shiung Wu; Parity violation:
In the year 1957 two young scholars named Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang were awarded the Nobel Prize for disproving that law of parity in quantum physics is not valid for weak nuclear forces. So let me first give you guys a brief introduction about what basically law of parity is. The law of parity, very simply states that physical systems which are the mirror image of each other should behave identically.
The law of parity holds true for three fundamental forces: electromagnetism, gravity and the strong nuclear force. The experimental evidence of their theory was produced by Chien-Shiung Wu. Wu intended and approved the measurements of beta decay which proved that parity is not conserved in the weak nuclear force. She was undoubtedly deserved a share of the Nobel prize for her vital work of intelligence but due to unknown reasons she was remain deprived of her share.
No.5 Albert Schatz; Streptomycin:
The discovery of penicillin in 1940s seemed to be the solution for all sorts of bacterial diseases but it was not true in some cases as well, for example the deadly infectious of that era Tuberculosis. Unfortunately, penicillin is ineffective against the bacterium which causes Tuberculosis. There are two main types of bacterias based on their cell wall structure Gram-positive (those with thick walls) and Gram-negative (those with thin walls).
Penicillin was effective against Gram-positive, but not Gram-negative bacteria, like Tuberculosis. Schatz a young researcher worked greatly to find the cure of this disease he grew a large number of strains of Streptomyces bacteria, and experienced them for antibiotic properties against Gram-negative bacteria. After the hard work of couple of months Schatz discovered the antibiotic which he named streptomycin. It would prove to be effective against TB and a range of other penicillin-resistant bacteria. In 1952, Schatz’ supervisor, Selman Waksman, was awarded the Nobel Prize “for his discovery of Streptomycin” and Schatz was deprived of from his share of the Nobel Prize.
No.6 Nikola Tesla, Radio communication:
The Guglielmo Marconi was awarded Nobel Prize in the yar 1909 for his remarkable contribution and devotion in the field of radio communication. He was honored as the father of the long distance radio communication. However, there is good reason to suggest that the prize should have been shared with Nikola Tesla.
Tesla began lecturing about using radio communication in 1891, and began demonstrating devices using wireless telegraphy soon after. Between 1898 and 1903, Tesla was granted several patents to protect his inventions relating to radio. Patent law is composite, and it was not until the decade of 1940 that US courts recognized that Tesla’s work pre-dated that of Marconi. So Tesla has a very good case for being included in the 1909 Nobel Prize which went to Marconi.
No.7 Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Pulsars:
The discovery of Pulsars was a mere an accident. Pulsars are the radio-emissions from stars were being considered to look for scintillation caused by solar wind. For the cause of this stellar study, a large radio telescope was necessary. Jocelyn Bell, as a PhD student, helped in constructing this telescope over four acres of field using a thousand posts and over 120 miles of wire. The project of Bell was to monitor reams of paper for scintillating radio sources. While examining this data Bell noticed an anomaly which she decided that it require further study.
The following anomaly was observed for a very brief period of time i.e. 1.3 seconds and her mentor advised to dismiss the appeared anomaly since the time period was very short and they concluded that it was some kind of man made interference. But when other regular pulses were discovered in different parts of the sky, it became clear that the radio pulses were natural. These sources were termed pulsars, short for pulsating stars. For his work in radio astronomy and, specially, “his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars” Hewish was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, in 1974. Hewish shared the prize with another radio astronomer, but Bell was not given a share.
No.8 Fred Hoyle, Stellar nucleosynthesis:
Fred Hoyle is possibly finest known for his coining of the term ‘Big Bang’ to explain the commencement of the universe. How it is that hydrogen and helium are rehabilitated into the heavier elements which live? Hoyle first proposed that the alteration takes place inside stars, where the energy required for this nuclear fusion is probable. The hypothesis of stellar nucleosynthesis was laid out in a revolutionary paper called “Synthesis of the Elements in Stars.” Hoyle was a co-author of that paper, with Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, and William Fowler.
In 1983, Fowler shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar for the theory of element formation by fusion in stars. A number of people have proposed theories on why Hoyle was not included in the Nobel Prize. He was an early supporter of the theory, and he did a great covenant of the work in the theoretical physics, so it is strange Hoyle was abandoned.
No. 9 Dmitri Mendeleev, Periodic table of the elements:
Mendeleev gave the idea of arranging element according to their atomic masses and produced a periodic table of elements according to the above given principle. He was not the only one to give the idea of periodicity in the elements nor did he was the first one to produce a periodic table. Many different scientists of that era gave different suggestions and provided many different periodic tables. But their periodic tables contained many discrepancies and errors due to which they cannot be accepted widely, another reason was the open spaces which were not provided by them for the undiscovered elements in their periodic table.
Mendeleev lived until 1907, and so there was plenty time for him to be awarded a Nobel Prize for his work. In fact, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1906, and it was thought he would win. However Arrhenius, who some argued that he bore a grudge against Mendeleev, pushed for the award to go to Henri Moissan for his work with fluorine. Whether or not there was a grudge between the two men; Mendeleev died in 1907, and so became ineligible for the Prize
No. 10 Andrew Benson, Carbon fixation in plants:
The discovery of the Calvin cycle from the well known scientist named Calvin was a great effort. The Calvin cycle was elucidated by the use of radioactive molecules to allow the steps in the cycle to be understood. Using carbon-14 carbon dioxide, the route of carbon transfer could be followed from the atmosphere to the final carbohydrate products.
The discovery was not as simple as we see it nowadays, the working hands behind this discovery were of Melvin Calvin, Andrew Benson and James Bassham. When the Nobel Prize was to be awarded for this astral work it was awarded to Calvin only because of some misunderstandings between Calvin and Benson and for the only reason his name was not mentioned in the journal when the it was published.
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