Nobel Week 2024 in Europe: AI, Neural Network Learning, Breakthroughs in Genetics with microRNA
Nobel Week has started in Sweden and Norway, where the winners of the prestigious prize for 2024 will be announced.
On Monday, 7 October, the Nobel Committee in Stockholm announced the winners of the prize in physiology or medicine. The research of American scientists has revolutionised the treatment of the most serious diseases.
Scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun became the first laureates of 2024 and the first in line for this year's Nobel Week and will share 11 million Swedish kronor (about one million euros) for the discovery of microRNAs. The regulation of genes by microRNAs is universal in multicellular organisms. This regulatory mechanism has existed for hundreds of millions of years and is responsible for the evolution of complex organisms.
‘MicroRNAs have been shown to be fundamentally important for the development and functioning of organisms, and so the study of a small worm has led to a major breakthrough,’ the Nobel Committee explained in a press release.
The research of Victor Ambros and Gary Ravkun has the potential to change the treatment of various diseases, including complex and incurable ones.
On Tuesday, the second day of Nobel Week, the winners in the Physics category were announced. The American-Canadian duo of scientists John Hopfield and Jeffrey Hinton developed the basic principle for artificial intelligence - self-learning. These scientists will share 11 million Swedish kronor (about a million dollars). Their fundamental discoveries and inventions enable machine learning using artificial neural networks.
‘The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2024 to John Hopfield and Jeffrey Hinton for their fundamental discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning using artificial neural networks,’ the statement said.
On Wednesday, the winners in chemistry will be announced, and on Thursday - in literature.
And this Friday, the winner of the Peace Prize will be announced in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.
The winner of the Alfred Nobel Prize in Economics will be announced in the Swedish capital on 14 October.