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30 Years of Collecting in … Celebrating 30 years of brilliance

Nobel Prize Winners - Physics, Chemistry and Physiology or Medicine


Albert Nobel Books by Nobel Prize winners are well represented in the Library. In the last thirty years many books by Nobel laureates have been selected for the science collection.

Notable inclusions:

One of the best known Nobel laureates is James D. Watson. Together with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he was awarded the Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1962 “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material" - solving the puzzle of DNA.

The work of physicist Richard P. Feynman (1965) on elementary particles and the laws of physics, supported and developed the earlier work of Paul Dirac on the union of quantum theory and relativity. Feynman was able to solve the problem of quantum electrodynamics by using a graphical interpretation, the Feynman diagram, which is now an important part of modern physics.

The Nobel Prize in chemistry for 1981 was awarded to Roald Hoffman and Kenichi Fukui for their work on the theory of chemical reactions, the formation and breaking of bonds between atoms. Hoffmann, with his colleague R. B. Woodward, had developed the theory of orbital symmetry to explain stereo-symmetry in molecules. They discovered that orbital symmetry as well as orbital energy was essential for chemical reactivity and this led to the synthesis of vitamin B 12 in a form which could react with the human body. Further developments in orbital symmetry have since led to the synthesis of a wide range of compounds.

Nicholas Bloembergen, together with colleague Arthur Schawlow, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1981 for his contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy. He developed the theory of non-linear optics to help explain how the intensity of laser light affects matter. Applications of laser spectroscopy have enabled further exploration of the interior of atoms and molecules and the constitution of matter.

In 1995 the German geneticist Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard shared the Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development. Her studies used the fruit fly ( Drosophila melanogaster) as a model, and with Erich Wieschaus she identified the genes that control early embryogenesis. Some of the fundamental principles learned from that work have now been applied to higher vertebrates, including humans.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 1999 was awarded to Ahmed H. Zewail "for his studies on the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy". He was able to show the breaking and formation of bonds in molecules in the transition state, using femtosecond (or very fast) laser technology. This has led to the science of femtochemistry.

And finally, the Nobel Sperm Bank, a strange idea that never really took off.

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1980) Baruj Benacerraf

1975

Immunogenetics and immunodeficiency
VET 616.079 I33 3

Nobel Prize in Physics (1981) Nicholas Bloembergen

1976

High-resolution laser spectroscopy
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 535.58 H638 1

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1981) Herbert Brown

1977

The nonclassical ion problem
NORTH WING LEVEL 2

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1987) Donald J. Cram

1978

The essence of organic chemistry
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 547 CRA

Nobel Prize in Physics (1977) Neville Mott

1979

Electronic processes in non-crystalline materials
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 530.41 MOT 1979

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1977) Ilya Prigogine

1980

From being to coming : time and complexity in the physical sciences
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 500.201 P951 1

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1962) James Watson

1981

The DNA story : a documentary history of gene cloning
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 574.873282 W339 1

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1965) Francois Jacob

1982

The possible and the actual
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 575 JAC

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1981) Roger Sperry

1983

Science and moral priority : merging mind, brain, and human values
SOUTH WING LEVEL 2 174.95 S751

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1974) Christian de Duve

1984

A guided tour of the living cell
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 574.87 D278

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1994) George Olah

1985

Superacids
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 546.24 OLA

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1975) David Baltimore

1986

Molecular cell biology
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 571.6 DAR 1986

Nobel Prize in Physics (1965) Richard Feynman

1987

Elementary particles and the laws of physics : the 1986 Dirac memorial lectures
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 539.72 FEY

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1981) Roald Hoffmann

1988

Solids and surfaces : a chemist's view of bonding in extended structures
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 541.224 HOF

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1966) Robert Mulliken

1989

Life of a scientist : an autobiographical account of the development of molecular orbital theory with an introductory memoir by Friedrich Hund
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 540.92 MUL

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1982) Bengt Samuelsson

1990

Trends in eicosaniod biology
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 591.1927 TRE

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1980) Paul Berg

1991

Genes & genomes : a changing perspective
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 575.1 SIN

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1999) Ahmed Zewail

1992

The chemical bond : structure and dynamics
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 541.224 CHE 1992

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1995) Paul Crutzen

1993

Fire in the environment : the ecological, atmospheric, and climatic importance of vegetation fires
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 574.5222 FIR

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1963) John Eccles

1994

How the self controls its brain
SOUTH WING LEVEL 1 128.2 ECC

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1987) Jean-Marie Lehn

1995

Supramolecular chemistry : concepts and perspectives
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 574.192 LEH

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1994) Alfred Gilman

1996

Goodman & Gilman's the pharmacological basis of therapeutics
VET R 615.7 P536

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1977) Ilya Prigogine

1997

The end of certainty : time, chaos, and the new laws of nature
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 530.11 PRI 1997

Nobel Prize in Physics (1965) Richard Feynman

1998

Six easy pieces
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 530 FEY

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1963) Louis Ignarro

1999

Methods in enzymology
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 J 574.1925 M592 1 v 301

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1995) Christiane Nusslein-Volhard

2000

Of fish, fly, worm, and man : lessons from developmental biology for human gene function and disease
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 572.8 OFF 2000

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1997) Stanley Prusiner

2001

Fundamental virology
VET LIBRARY 579.2 FUN 2001

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2002) Sydney Brenner

2002

Encyclopedia of genetics
LINK LEVEL 3 R 576.503 ENC 2002 v 1

Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1980) Paul Berg

2003

George Beadle, an uncommon farmer : the emergence of genetics in the 20th century
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 576.5092 BEA 2003

Nobel Prize in Physics (1991) Pierre-Gilles de Gennes

2004

Petit point : a candid portrait on the aberrations of science
NORTH WING LEVEL 2 502.07 GEN 2004

2005

The genius factory : the curious history of the Nobel Prize sperm bank
VET LIBRARY  362.1783 GRA 2005   

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