This special episode covers the facts and history of the Nobel Prizes. Topics include the founding of the Nobel Prizes by Alfred Nobel, how Nobel Prize winners are selected, what you win if you win the Nobel Prize, the details of the Nobel Prize ceremony, qualities and demographics of Nobel Prize winners in the sciences, and some predictions about the future of the Nobel Prizes.

This episode covers the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Stanley B. Prusiner. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Prusiner the award “for his discovery of Prions - a new biological principle of infection”. Topics include the work Prusiner did to define prion diseases, the amazing molecular nature of how prion diseases spread, and mad cow disease.

This episode covers one half of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to D. Carleton Gajdusek. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Gajdusek the award “for [his] discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases”. Topics include the Kuru neurodegenerative disease, the discovery of a new category of infectious diseases, and cannibalism.

This episode covers one half of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Elion and Hitchings the award, “for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment”. Topics include the discovery of the antiviral drug acyclovir, how acyclovir works to treat herpes simplex virus infections, and the rational approach to drug discovery.

This episode covers one half of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Campbell and Satoshi the award “for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites”. Topics include the pathobiology of river blindness (also called onchocerciasis), a generous act by a major pharmaceutical company, and how a golf course in Japan gave us the drug ivermectin.  

This episode covers one half of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Tu Youyou. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Tu the award “for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against malaria”. Topics include Tu’s discovery of the anti-malarial drug artemisinin from an ancient Chinese text, the natural medicine movement, and the Vietnam War.

This episode covers the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Karikó and Weissman the award “for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19”. Topics include the different historical vaccine design platforms, the development of modified mRNA and ionizable lipid nanoparticles for mRNA vaccines, and the rapid roll out of the mRNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This episode covers the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton, and Charles M. Rice. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Alter, Houghton, and Rice the award “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus”. Topics include the recognition that another hepatitis virus existed other than Hepatitis A and B viruses, the experiments that lead to the identification of the Hepatitis C virus, and antiviral drugs that cure chronic Hepatitis C virus infections. 

This episode covers one half of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Baruch S. Blumberg. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Blumberg the award “for [his] discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases”. Topics include the unusual research route that led Blumberg to the Hepatitis B virus, the discovery of a link between Hepatitis B and liver cancer, and strategies to prevent and cure chronic Hepatitis B virus infections.

This episode covers one half of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Harald zur Hausen. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give zur Hausen the award “for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer”. Topics include the use of Pap smears to screen for cervical cancer, zur Hausen’s discovery of HPV DNA in cervical cancer cells, and the development of highly effective HPV vaccines.

This episode covers one half of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Luc Montagnier and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Montagnier and Barré-Sinoussi the award “for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus”. Topics include how the AIDS pandemic unfolded at the start of the 1980s, the work scientists did to discover the virus behind the pandemic, the ongoing search for an HIV vaccine, and some of the novel strategies scientists are testing to find a cure for HIV infections.

This episode covers the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to David Baltimore, Renato Dulbecco, and Howard Temin. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Baltimore, Dulbecco, and Temin the award “for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumor viruses and the genetic material of the cell”. Topics include the identification of Rous Sarcoma Virus as the first known retrovirus, the discovery of an enzyme called reverse transcriptase that can synthesize a DNA copy of a molecule of RNA, and how reverse transcriptase has become an essential tool for solving some of biology’s biggest problems.

This episode covers the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to J. Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Bishop and Varmus the award “for their discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes”. Topics include Bishop and Varmus’ discovery of the first cellular proto-oncogene c-src, how the discovery of that gene lead to a fundamental shift in our understanding of the essence of cancer, and Beowulf.

This episode covers one half of the 1966 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Peyton Rous. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Rous the award “for his discovery of tumor-inducing viruses”. Topics include Rous’ discovery of a virus that caused cancer in chickens, how that sparked a search for cancer-causing viruses in humans, and the discovery of Epstein-Barr virus, the first virus linked to a human cancer. 

This episode covers the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to John Enders, Thomas Weller, and Frederick Robbins. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Enders, Weller, and Robbins the award “for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue”. Topics include the work that culminated in the creation of the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines, the nearly completed mission to eradicate polio from the face of the earth, and the reason Franklin D. Roosevelt’s portrait is on the American dime. 

This episode covers the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Max Theiler. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Theiler the award “for his discoveries concerning yellow fever and how to combat it”. Topics include the discovery that yellow fever is spread by mosquitos, the discovery that yellow fever is caused by a virus, and how Theiler was able to create a live-attenuated vaccine for yellow fever that we still use today.  

This episode covers the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Paul Hermann Müller. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Müller the award “for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods”. Topics include the use of DDT to control the spread of insect-borne diseases, the creation of the United States CDC and the Environmental Protection Agency, and bacteria that prevent mosquitos from spreading dengue virus.

This episode covers the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Selman Waksman. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Waksman the award “for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis”. Topics include the isolation of streptomycin, how antibiotics work molecularly, and the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

This episode covers the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Alexander Fleming, Ernst Chain, and Howard Florey. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Fleming, Chain, and Florey the award “for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases”. Topics include Fleming’s completely accidental discovery of penicillin, how Chain and Florey turned penicillin into a global wonder drug, and some of the properties of a good antibiotic.

This episode covers the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Gerhard Domagk. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute chose to give Domagk the award “for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil.” Topics include the process Domagk used to discover prontosil, the fashion industry’s largest dye company, and Adolf Hitler.