Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded

On Sunday, October 3, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awareded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics to University of Manchester professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for their work on isolating graphene from the graphite crystal. The Norwegian committee announced, “Carbon, the basis of all known life on earth, has surprised us once again.”

Interestingly, isolating the graphene was simple – as simple as peeling graphene off of a graphite crystal using Scotch tape.

To learn more about graphene and its real life applications, visit http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101005085507.htm.

Nobel Literature Prize Awarded

This Thursday the Peruvian writer and author of novels such as “The Time of the Hero” and “Conversation in the Cathedral,” Mario Vargas Llosa, won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature for “his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat.”

Mr. Vargas Llosa is one of the most celebrated writers in the Spanish speaking world and is the first South American to win a Nobel prize in literature after Gabríel Garcia Márquez won the prize in 1982.

Mr. Vargas Llosa has over 30 novels, plays and essays to his name at age 74.

Responding to reporters in New York he said, “I am very grateful … I think it is, for any writer, a great encouragement, a recognition of a world."

To learn more about Mr. Vargas Llosa visit http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101007/ap_on_en_ot/eu_nobel_literature.

Nobel Peace Prize Awarded

The Norwegian Nobel Institute has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident. Mr. Liu has won the award for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.”

The 54 year old is serving an 11 year long term on subversion charges 300 miles from Beijing. Two other Nobel laureates have received the prize while they were incarcerated by their own goverments, Burmese Aung San Suu Kyi and German Carl von Ossietzky, in 1991 and 1935 respectively.

A high-ranking Chinese official warned the Norwegian committee that giving the prize to Mr. Liu would negatively affect relations between the two countries.

Headlines as to Mr. Liu's award were not found in China, and many luxury compounds and hotels were blacked out throughout the evening.

Mr. Liu still does not know that he has won the award and neither the media nor his family has been able to meet him.

For more information on the Nobel Peace Prize please visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575539450175386036.html.