1 . A project called “I Am A Scientist” is giving middle and high school students the opportunity to interact with modern-day researchers. Below are stories from some of the scientists who are involved in the program.

“I have a black belt in Taekwondo (跆拳道). I am driven by a deep desire to help others. I believe that all people have a fundamental right to health care.”

Her work: During the Zika epidemic, Al-Alusi met with the communities that had been hardest hit by the virus, using data and mathematical models to keep them safe and healthy.

Background: Al-Alusi was born in California but her parents emigrated from Iraq. This experience provided her with an understanding of the health needs of the immigrant community.

“I’m a huge sports fan. I’ve traveled to more than 40 countries. I’m a licensed scuba diver but a terrible swimmer. I hated science in high school.”

His work: Amamoto studies the tiny but amazing brains of animals that have a superpower — the ability to regenerate. He learns what factors help these special brains regrow, so that we can try to treat diseases like Parkinson’s.

Background: Amamoto lived in Japan until the age of eight, when his family moved to Chicago. He had to overcome major language barriers which saw him shift between speaking English at school and Japanese at home.

“I once competed in a robot competition. I love Beyonce. I love cooking. I’m a doctor who studies ways to improve women’s health.”

Her work: Connor is a doctor at a hospital in Boston where she studies cancer cells in a lab using microscopes and computers, but she also works directly with patients who are undergoing tests for new cancer treatments.

Background: Growing up in Florida, Connor was a serious kid who stressed about the little things. She was into her schoolwork and loved to put on plays with her friends in which she would organize the whole thing and assign everyone a role.

2 . Between 1901 and 2023, the Nobel Prizes and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 621 times to 1,000 people and organizations. With some receiving the Nobel Prize more than once, this makes a total of 965 individuals and 27 organizations. Below, you can view the full list of 2023 Nobel Prizes and Nobel Prize winners.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2023

Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses (脉冲) of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023

Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman “for their discoveries concerning DNA that enabled the development of effective vaccines (疫苗) against COVID-19”

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023

Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov “for the discovery and combination of quantum dots (量子点)”

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2023

Jon Fosse “for his innovative works which give voice to the unsayable”

The Nobel Peace Prize 2023

Narges Mohammadi “for her fight against the unfair and cruel treatment of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”

The Noble Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences 2023

Claudia Goldin “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes”

For further information, you can click here.

3 . It is that time of the year, when a handful of world’s leading scholars, social activists and researchers are rewarded with what is often cited as the most prestigious acknowledgement of human effort-the Nobel Prize. Here’s a look at who has won the prize and for what.

Physiology or Medicine

Swedish geneticist Svante Peabo won the first Nobel of the year, for starting the field of ancient DNA studies. He is well-known for extracting, sequencing, and analyzing ancient DNA from Neanderthal bones.

Physics

Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger’s work in quantum (量子) technology landed them the second Nobel Prize announced in 2022. Although Aspect is from France, Clauser from the U.S, and Zeilinger from Austria, the three separately performed “groundbreaking experiments” as one team. “Their results have cleared the way for new technology,” the committee stated.

Chemistry

The Nobel Prize for chemistry went to another trio, Carolyn R. Bertozzi from the U.S., Morten Meldal from Denmark and K. Barry Sharpless from the U.S. “for the development of click chemistry and biorthogonal chemistry,” the committee stated. Dr. Bertozzi is the eighth woman chemist to be awarded the prize, while Dr. Sharpless is the fifth scientist to be awarded two Nobel Prizes.

Economics

The Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to three American economists, Ben S. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig “for research on banks and financial crises,” the Nobel Prize committee announced on Monday. By studying the history of American economics, particularly the Great Depression of the 1930s,they improved how we understand the role of banks during times of hardship and the bank’s impact on societal functions.

6 . Women Who Changed Science Forever

Ellen Ochoa (May 10, 1958–)

Ellen Ochoa is an American engineer and retired astronaut. Born in Los Angeles, California, Ochoa was the first Latina woman to fly in space as part of the crew of the shuttle Discovery in 1993. In 1990, Ochoa was selected to astronaut candidacy as part of Group 13, a group of twenty-three NASA astronauts, and became an astronaut a year later. Her first spaceflight was aboard Discovery as a mission specialist and lasted nine days, in which the five-person crew conducted scientific experiments and deployed a research satellite to study the solar corona.

Mamie Phipps Clark (April 18, 1917–August 11, 1983)

Mamie Phipps Clark was an American social psychologist, who specialized in child development in Black children. Born in Arkansas, Clark drew on her early experiences as a black child in the segregated (种族隔离) American South to help children growing up with the same inequalities. She initiated the famous Doll Test, which showed that Black children in segregated schools were more likely to prefer dolls with white complexions and yellow hair while discarding the brown dolls with black hair and assigning negative traits to them. Her husband, Kenneth, used their research to argue for school integration in the 1954 Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of Education. This was the first time that social science was used in a Supreme Court case.

Katsuko Saruhashi (March 22, 1920–September 29, 2007)

Geochemist Katsuko Saruhashi was born in Tokyo on 22 March,1920. She developed Saruhashi’s Table, a method for measuring CO₂ using pH, temperature, and chlorinity, which has become a global standard. Saruhashi broke new ground in her study of ocean-borne nuclear contamination following the nuclear weapons test the United States undertook on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Saruhashi’s research played an important role in limiting nuclear proliferation (扩散) around the world, thanks to the signing of the 1963 treaty.