These models depict molecules that are essential for autophagy. Autophagy means “self-devouring” and is a process in our cells where molecules are broken down and recycled. These structures are composed of "ATG proteins", where ATG stands for "autophagy-related". The club-shaped structure is composed of ATG 12, ATG 15 and ATG 16. The spherical structure depicts the ATG 8 protein.
Yoshinori Ohsumi donated the models to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2012.
The statuette represents Yoshinori Ohsumi at his microscope when he started his research on autophagy, the process cells use to recycle chemical substances. Ohsumi was a professor at Tokyo University at the time. The statuette was made several years later, and Ohsumi received it as a gift from his colleagues.
Yoshinori Ohsumi donated the statuette to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2012.
Ben Feringa has a predecessor in Sibrandus Stratingh, who designed the first electric carriage in 1835. This is a replica of this carriage. Like Stratingh, Feringa, is a professor at the University of Groningen. In 2011, he produced a molecular car.
Ben Feringa donated the carriage to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016.
Ben Feringa was the first to produce molecules that look and behave like extremely small cars. In the vial is a white powder that consists of a quintillion (10^18) molecular cars.
Ben Feringa donated the molecular motors to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016.
When Ben Feringa grew up on his parents’ farm in the Netherlands, he wore traditional Dutch clogs, and when he put his right foot in the left shoe or vice versa, it hurt. Since then, he has never forgotten the difference between right and left. This was useful when he later devoted himself to chemistry, where mirror symmetry (or “chirality”) is an important concept when describing various molecular properties. Feringa developed a molecule that worked like a rotary motor. A basic problem with the molecular motor was how to control the rotation to the right or left, respectively.
Ben Feringa donated the clogs to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016.
This document by Jean-Pierre Sauvage includes sketches of rings that are interlinked. The document deals with molecules that are linked together to form molecular machines. The first articles about catenanes, ring-shaped molecules that fit together like the links of a chain, were published a few years later.
Jean-Pierre Sauvage donated the document to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016.
This guidebook describes a cliff in North Wales where Michael Kosterlitz spent a lot of free time. Rock climbing is Kosterlitz’s passion, alongside physics. Rock climbing involves risks, and mistakes can be fatal. During the climb, all other thoughts are excluded. You must constantly concentrate on the next metres of the climb, and the outside world is blocked out.
Michael Kosterlitz donated the guidebook to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016.
In this copy of a manuscript, Duncan Haldane presents some of the ideas that laid the foundation for his theories that were awarded the Nobel Prize. The article was never published, however, as some of the manuscript’s reviewers felt that the content ran counter to basic principles of physics. When Haldane won the Nobel Prize and was contemplating a gift to the Nobel Prize Museum’s collections, he happened to think of this article. He no longer had a copy of the manuscript himself, but it turned out that a colleague had kept one.
Duncan Haldane donated the manuscript copy to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016.
This graph shows data that are consistent with the theory of phase transitions that David Thouless and Michael Kosterlitz developed. Thouless received the graph as a gift from colleagues on his 65th birthday and hung it on his office wall. David Thouless’ main contributions to physics are theoretical discoveries. Experiments confirming his theories have been performed by other physicists. This graph shows data from experiments by John Reppy and David Bishop.
David Thouless donated the graph to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016.
This cap is one that Desmond Tutu owned and wore for more than 30 years of his life. His enthusiasm for this type of cap arose in the 1970s when he saw German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt wearing one. After a while, he bought one for himself and was later given several as gifts. This type of cap probably originated in France and is used by sailors. Tutu used it in the winter to protect against the cold and in the summer to protect against the sun.
Desmond Tutu donated the cap to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016.
This small reaction vessel was used for the synthesis of small amount of peptides that Bruce Merrifield used in experiments. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his efficient methods for the synthesis of peptides and proteins. The reaction vessel was made at the Rockefeller University glass blowing shop.
The reaction vessel was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by Bruce Merrifield's family in 2016.
This book, Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science by Herman Weyl, was an important source of inspiration for Frank Wilczek, who has done his ground-breaking work in theoretical physics. In an introduction to a new edition of Weyl’s book, Wilczek wrote: “I’ve consulted Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science many times, and each time I've come away enriched.”
Frank Wilczek donated the book to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016.
These high jumping shoes with spikes were used by Kurt Wüthrich in the early 1960s. Wüthrich’s interest in competitive sports was awakened during his years as a high school student at Biel high school in Switzerland. Although he decided to pursue a career in chemistry and physics, athletics remained an important part of his life.
Kurt Wüthrich donated the shoes to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016.
The knowledge found in the Encyclopaedia Britannica was vital for chemist Archer Martin. But obtaining knowledge from the world of books was not easy at first. As a child, he struggled with dyslexia, and he took a long time learning to read. His love of science began with devices and experiments that he assembled in his family’s basement.
The encyclopedia was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by Archer Martin's daughter Sara Beck in 2016.
This watercolour, dedicated to Edward B. Lewis, was painted by his wife Pamela Lewis. Butterflies and other insects refer to Edward Lewis’s scientific interest in genetic traits and the development of organisms. In addition to science, the flute was central to his life. He played the instrument from early childhood and continued playing in a chamber orchestra and taking lessons. While fighting his losing battle against cancer, he found comfort in playing the flute. Chess pieces also feature in the picture, reflecting another of Lewis’s interests. The keys hint at his absent-mindedness, which caused him to lose his car keys, glasses and other important objects.
The watercolour was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by Pamela Lewis in 2016.
This is Françoise Barré-Sinoussi’s description of these puppets:
“In the 90s, I attended the show of the world-famous Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre in Hanoi and received this gift from Vietnamese colleagues when visiting Vietnam to develop an official partnership with the Health Authorities.
This is symbolic of the day-to-day life of people in low-middle-income countries, with their culture and traditions from which I personally have learned a lot. It embodies my respect for these people, but also my love for theatre.
I think this gift also quite well represents my commitment to strengthening capacity and for developing evidence-based interventions, including community-based interventions to improve access to health care services in low-middle-income countries.”
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi donated the puppets to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016.
A 1994 issue of the journal Science largely focused on the cell’s system for repairing continuous damage to DNA. The enzymes that handle DNA repair were named Molecule of the Year. Aziz Sancar and Paul Modrich were among the scientists noted in the journal, and they also contributed articles.
Aziz Sancar donated the journal issue to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
Using this model, Aziz Sancar illustrates how our cells repair damage to their DNA molecules. It was built in 1986 and shows at the red mark how UV radiation has caused two base pairs of the DNA double helix to join together. Bacteria and humans have molecules – repair enzymes – that sense damage and remove strings of 12 or 27 half-base pairs around the damage. The model indicates the boundaries of these areas with the yellow and green markers. The double spiral's remaining strand then acts as a template to recreate the damaged strand.
Aziz Sancar donated the model to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
Peter Agre has completed the 90-kilometre Swedish ski-race Vasaloppet five times together with his brother Jim. This is some of the equipment he used.
A descendent of Norwegian and Swedish emigrants to the US in the 19th century, Peter Agre has always felt a strong link to his Scandinavian heritage. Besides research in biochemistry, Agre enjoys outdoor life, especially canoeing and cross-country skiing.
Peter Agre donated the skiing equipment to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016.
This is part of a microscope that was vital to Eric Betzig’s work on super-resolved fluorescence microscopy. Betzig made his breakthrough after leaving academia. Together with his colleague and friend Harald Hess, he built the new microscope in Hess’s living room.
Eric Betzig donated the microscope parts to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016.
On the title page of this copy of his collected works, Sully Prudhomme has written and signed one of his poems, “Les Yeux” – “The Eyes”.
The book was presented to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2016 by Dr. Maarten Asscher, director of Athenaeum Booksellers in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
This document, known as the Road Map, describes a way toward democracy in Tunisia. After the Jasmine Revolution in 2011, Tunisia experienced social unrest. To establish a stable democracy, the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH), and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers formed the National Dialogue Quartet. In this document, the quartet presented four proposals: the government would resign, a new constitution would be adopted, a new prime minister would be appointed, and a date for general elections would be determined. The document was signed by the leaders of the four organisations on 17 September 2013 and presented to the parties the following day.
The National Dialogue Quartet donated the road map to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
Even in his youth, Angus Deaton eagerly went on fishing trips for some time alone. These fishing trips taught him that he is often at his most creative when doing something other than his regular routine. While fishing, he could unconsciously explore scientific problems – an experience he shares with many. This box of flies is from the mid-1950s. The flies are all different and have specific names. Deaton has tied some of them himself but says his talent lies more in economics.
Angus Deaton donated the fishing flies to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
Dictaphones have been important to Svetlana Alexievich's literary process. Her documentary novels are based on large numbers of interviews. This dictaphone was used when collecting material for the books Zinky Boys and Voices from Chernobyl. The tapes contain some of the many interviews.
In her Nobel Prize lecture Alexievich said,
“It always troubled me that the truth doesn’t fit into one heart, into one mind, that truth is somehow splintered. There’s a lot of it, it is varied, and it is strewn about the world. Dostoevsky thought that humanity knows much, much more about itself than it has recorded in literature. So, what is it that I do? I collect the everyday life of feelings, thoughts, and words. I collect the life of my time.”
Svetlana Alexievich donated the dictaphone and the tapes to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
This book is the first publication describing the results of a project on antimalarial drugs. Tu Youyou played a crucial role in the project.
Malaria is a widespread disease in tropical countries. It is caused by a parasite that spreads through mosquitoes and is often treated with quinine. During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese soldiers suffered from a form of malaria in which the parasite was resistant to quinine. After North Vietnam asked China for help in developing a new treatment for malaria, China initiated a project where Tu Youyou participated. Drawing inspiration from ancient Chinese herbal recipes, she was able to extract a substance, artemisinin, from sweet wormwood extract. Artemisinin inhibits the malaria parasite.
Tu Youyou donated the research report to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
This picture is a collotype photograph and is an image of the bacterium Streptomyces avermectinius. The image, originally taken with a scanning electron microscope, highlights the captivating beauty that Satoshi Ōmura sees in bacteria.
Satoshi Ōmura donated the collotype photograph to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
This dish contains the bacteria Streptomyces avermectinius, cultivated by Satoshi Ōmura, who often cultivated bacteria from soil, which can produce substances that inhibit other microorganisms. This can be useful when developing pharmaceuticals. Ōmura’s bacterial strain led to the drug avermectin, used to fight the diseases elephantiasis and river blindness.
Satoshi Ōmura donated the bacterial culture to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
This model shows the structure of the ivermectin B1a molecule. The substance could be extracted from a bacterial strain cultured by Satoshi Ōmura. This led to the drugs used to fight the diseases elephantiasis and river blindness.
Satoshi Ōmura donated the model to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
When Paul Modrich was 15 years old, he convinced his father to order samples of radioactive isotopes of different substances. At that time, small amounts of radioactive isotopes could be purchased without a license. Modrich made solutions of isotopes in which he then put seeds to germinate and leaves that absorbed the isotopes. He also injected isotopes into frogs. He could then use X-ray photographs to see how the substances were distributed in the sprouts, the leaves and the frogs.
Paul Modrich donated the photographs to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
The picture shows the structure of the protein MutS alpha, which was discovered by Paul Modrich in 1996. The protein is vital in detecting when errors have occurred in the replication of DNA molecules in our cells. A few years after Modrich's discovery, Lorena Beese determined the structure of the protein. It hung in Paul Modrich’s laboratory until he donated it to the Nobel Prize Museum.
Paul Modrich donated the image to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
The Royal Medal is one of the top scientific awards in the United Kingdom, and was an important recognition for Tomas Lindahl's scientific achievements. Awarded annually, the medals are given for the most outstanding scientific efforts made in the British Commonwealth. Tomas Lindahl is from Sweden, but has conducted his most important scientific work in the UK and received the medal in 2007. The medal is awarded by Queen Elizabeth II on the recommendation from the Royal Society, the independent scientific academy of the UK and the Commonwealth.
Tomas Lindahl donated the medal to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
Arthur McDonald has let heavy water represent his research at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO). The bottles on the scales contain equal volumes of heavy and regular water respectively. As the scales show, the density of heavy water is about ten per cent higher.
(SNO) was an underground facility where physicists from Canada, the US and the UK studied neutrinos, some of the universe's smallest and most elusive particles. Almost all neutrinos zip unimpeded through the earth, but some of could be captured in the SNO detector. The detector used heavy water, where the nucleus of the hydrogen atoms has both a proton and a neutron. Heavy water allows the neutrinos to react differently than with regular water.
Arthur McDonald donated the heavy water to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
This photomultiplier tube representa Takaaki Kajita's research at the Super-Kamiokande underground facility in Japan. The facility is a collaboration between several nations. This photomultiplier tube belongs to a part managed by the US.
Takaaki Kajita donated the photomultiplier tubes to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
This photomultiplier tube represents Takaaki Kajita's research at the Super-Kamiokande underground facility in Japan. At the Super-Kamiokande, physicists study neutrinos, some of the smallest particles in the universe. The detector consists of a large water-filled container with walls lined with photomultiplier tubes. Neutrinos exist in large quantities but very rarely react with other particles. When they hit a particle in the Super-Kamiokande, this generates a small flash that can be detected and amplified by the photomultiplier tubes.
Takaaki Kajita donated the photomultiplier tube to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn gave this LP record of him reading his epic poem Prussian Nights to Swedish journalist Stig Fredriksson, who hade become his friend. Because of his criticism of the Soviet social system, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's books were banned in the Soviet Union. Fredriksson smuggled out several of Solzhenitsyn’s manuscripts, including his Nobel Prize lecture. After Solzhenitsyn was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974, Solzhenitsyn and Fredriksson met in Zurich. That was when the author gave Fredriksson this LP. It had been recorded secretly in the Soviet Union in 1969 and was released in the West.
The LP was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by Stig Fredriksson in 2015.
This model depicts the molecule butadiene, which consists of four carbon atoms and six hydrogen atoms. This molecule was crucial to Roald Hoffmann's work on the role of electron orbits for chemical reactions. In 1964, Hoffmann’s mentor Robert Woodward told him about the novelty of butadiene’s chemical characteristics. He suspected that this was due to how the electron at the outer edge of the molecule moves in an orbit. Hoffmann expanded on this explanation. This plastic model is flexible, and he was able to use it to illustrate how the molecule could change its shape.
Roald Hoffmann donated the model to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
For Eric Kandel, this toy car is associated with memories from his childhood in Vienna in the 1930s.
When Kandel turned nine, he received a remote-controlled model car that had wished for. Two days later, on 9 November 1938, the November pogroms took place, when the Nazis persecuted Jews in Germany and Austria. The Kandel family was forced to leave their home, which was then looted. The toy car was lost, but Kandel never forgot it.
Later in life, Kandel devoted himself to research on the physiological foundations of memory: how memories are preserved in brain cells. In this context, he has told people about his memory of the toy car and received similar cars as gifts. This is one of those gifts.
Eric Kandel donated the toy car to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
Paul Crutzen was wearing this tie on a memorable occasion, namely when he told his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize.
Crutzen was born in the Netherlands but has worked in many different countries. His research on the chemistry of the atmosphere began in Sweden. When he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995, he was working in Germany.
Paul Crutzen donated the tie to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2015.
In a 1954 letter Albert Einstein replies to Evert Fornäs, a teacher at a Swedish folk high school, who had written Einstein about his general theory of relativity and the limitations of science based on mathematics. Einstein believes that in principle the laws of nature can be described in mathematical terms, but that the limitations of human intelligence makes it impossible to describe even elementary rules of psychology on the basis of physics and chemistry.
This letter was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by the Fornäs family.
When Kailash Satyarthi visited the Nobel Prize Museum in December 2014 and donated a costume, he also handed over a sheet of paper with a message:
I am TODAY
You are TODAY
Let us march from
apathy to compassion TOGETHER.
From here and NOW.
Kailash Satyarthi wore this garment to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in 2014. It is a khadi kurta, a traditional shirt of hand-spun and hand-woven cotton fabric. Khadi was also the name of a movement that the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi began in the 1920s and which campaigned for domestically-produced goods and reduced imports. When Kailash Satyarthi visited the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm a few days after the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony in Oslo, he donated his khadi to the museum.
This diode is an early version of the blue-light-emitting diode (LED) developed by Isamu Akasaki in 1978. It is a MIS (metal-insulator-semiconductor) LED and was the brightest until then. In the 1980s, working with Hiroshi Amano, Akasaki did further research on gallium nitride crystals, which eventually led to blue diodes that could be combined with red and green ones to make white light.
Isamu Akasaki donated the LED to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2014.
For Mario Molina, this umbrella symbolised both his old school and the fragile ozone layer, to which he devoted his research.
When Molina was 11 years old, his parents sent him to the Institut auf dem Rosenberg boarding school in St. Gallen, Switzerland. It was there he developed his interest in chemistry and mathematics. Many years later, Molina was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on the atmosphere’s ozone layer. His Nobel Prize diploma bears the image of an umbrella; a symbol for the way the ozone layer protects us from harmful ultraviolet radiation. When Molina later visited his old boarding school, this umbrella was presented to him as a gift.
Mario Molina donated the umbrella to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2014.
For women Nobel Prize laureates, the choice of attire for the Nobel Prize banquet is more complicated than for men. Men wear tailcoats, while women wear long evening dresses that can be in a variety of colours and designs. Elizabeth Blackburn, a 2009 laureate in medicine, had only a black dress and wanted to wear another colour to the banquet. The day before she went to the Nobel Week in Stockholm, she found this dress in a small shop in Paris. She wore her black dress to the award ceremony and changed into this red dress for the banquet.
The dress was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by Elizabeth Blackburn in 2009.
Patrick Modiano often draws the inspiration for his books from interviews, old newspaper cuttings, and his own notes. For many years, he also had this photograph on his desk, which gave him inspiration for his writing. It was taken by photographer Willy Ronis and is entitled The Caretaker’s Cat.
Patrick Modiano donated the photograph to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2014.
For William E. Moerner, a paper with measurement data mark an important step in the development of microscopes capable of showing levels of detail that had previously been impossible.
When an electron shifts to a lower energy level, light is emitted. When it shifts to a higher energy level, light is absorbed. The wavelengths of the light emitted differ for each element. In 1989, Moerner succeeded in measuring the light-absorption for a single molecule. The curves on the paper show which wavelengths were absorbed.
William E. Moerner donated the graph to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2014.
When Stefan Hell read a section in this book, it opened up a new way of thinking. For many years, he had pondered the possibility of circumventing the theoretical boundary that limited the size of objects visible through a microscope. His idea met scepticism in Germany, so he left for Turku, Finland. While in Turku, he read this book about quantum optics. Reading about stimulated emission, the basis of laser technology, he had a new idea. This led to the development of a new form of microscopy that gave more detailed images than had previously been thought possible.
Stefan Hell donated the book to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2014.
Even after completing his Nobel Prize-awarded work on blue-light-emitting diodes (LEDs), Shuji Nakamura has continued to research this field. This LED lamp is an example of a later generation of LED lamps that Nakamura has helped to develop.
Shuji Nakamura donated the LED lamp to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2014.
