Nobel Prize season returns on Monday with medical pioneers the first to be honoured, setting off an annual guessing game that ends with a once-in-a-lifetime phone call from Stockholm for a scientist who changed the world.
Vaccine scientists are among those tipped for the medicine prize after the global immunisation race against Covid-19 helped much of the world put the dark days of lockdown behind it this year.
Not even they know whether they are in contention ― such is the secrecy that surrounds the prize ― and the shortlist considered by Nobel judges is not made public for another 50 years.
But certain clues, such as prizes from other institutes sometimes regarded as precursors to a Nobel, can help put some flesh on the guesswork.
Jason Seltzer, a Yale University biologist who has published research on the Nobel Prize, published a list of 63 living scientists who had won at least two of the lesser-known awards.
“The Nobel committee is famously conservative — they don’t want to go out on a limb and elevate a discovery that’s later overturned,” he said.
The terms set by Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist who left the prizes in his will in 1895, are that the prize goes to the person who “made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine”.
The medical award will be followed by the prizes for physics on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, literature on Thursday and, in Norway rather than Sweden, peace on Friday. The economics award come the following week.
Scientific discoveries do not have to be recent, and may have gained in significance over time. Evaluators for the medicine prize are asked to discreetly prepare a report on potential candidates and report back over the summer.
A final decision on the medicine prize will be made on Monday by the 50 members of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. There can be multiple winners in one year.
Only then, moments before the winning names are announced to the world at 11.30am in Sweden — which can be the middle of the night in a winner’s home country — will Karolinska scientist Thomas Perlmann give them the famous call.
Scientists tipped for this year’s medical award include Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissmann as mRNA vaccine pioneers.
The development of effective mRNA vaccines was the breakthrough that tamed the pandemic, earning much acclaim for scientists at Pfizer, BioNTech and other manufacturers.
Although novel in some ways, mRNA technology had been in development for many years before Covid-19 emerged, notably through the work of scientists
Their work in the early 2000s could be a prime example of research that bears fruit over time, and the pair have already collected the Horwitz Prize, the Albany Prize and the Breakthrough Prize.
Virginia Man-Yee Lee, from University of Pennsylvania, is tipped as one-to-watch for her often-cited work on malformed protein aggregates in different cell types.
Mary-Claire King at University of Washington for her work on mutations in breast and ovarian cancer and Stuart Orkin, from Harvard Medical School, for identifying genetic changes behind the various types of thalassaemia, have also been named by experts as having the kind of work Nobel like to honour.
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
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RESULTS
Bantamweight:
Zia Mashwani (PAK) bt Chris Corton (PHI)
Super lightweight:
Flavio Serafin (BRA) bt Mohammad Al Khatib (JOR)
Super lightweight:
Dwight Brooks (USA) bt Alex Nacfur (BRA)
Bantamweight:
Tariq Ismail (CAN) bt Jalal Al Daaja (JOR)
Featherweight:
Abdullatip Magomedov (RUS) bt Sulaiman Al Modhyan (KUW)
Middleweight:
Mohammad Fakhreddine (LEB) bt Christofer Silva (BRA)
Middleweight:
Rustam Chsiev (RUS) bt Tarek Suleiman (SYR)
Welterweight:
Khamzat Chimaev (SWE) bt Mzwandile Hlongwa (RSA)
Lightweight:
Alex Martinez (CAN) bt Anas Siraj Mounir (MAR)
Welterweight:
Jarrah Al Selawi (JOR) bt Abdoul Abdouraguimov (FRA)
FIXTURES (all times UAE)
Sunday
Brescia v Lazio (3.30pm)
SPAL v Verona (6pm)
Genoa v Sassuolo (9pm)
AS Roma v Torino (11.45pm)
Monday
Bologna v Fiorentina (3.30pm)
AC Milan v Sampdoria (6pm)
Juventus v Cagliari (6pm)
Atalanta v Parma (6pm)
Lecce v Udinese (9pm)
Napoli v Inter Milan (11.45pm)
INFO
Everton 0
Arsenal 0
Man of the Match: Djibril Sidibe (Everton)
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
