Pratham, an innovative learning organisation in India, produced these children’s books. Esther Duflo collaborated with the organisation when she first headed a field experiment on how to combat poverty. Among other things, Pratham helps teachers learn to teach at the right level, and the books are part of the programme called “Teaching at the right level”. The programme proved to be possible to apply at different levels and different scales worldwide.
Esther Duflo donated the books to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
These bags were made by women in Ghana who were living in extreme poverty. The bags were part of one of Abhijit Banerjee's research projects, which studied ways of improving their economic situation. The participants were provided with support and means of producing textile bags as paid labour alongside their farm work, and their productivity was measured. 170,000 bags were made, and the conclusion was that support given to the extremely poor resulted in increased productivity, not passivity.
Abhijit Banerjee donated the bags to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
This photo shows Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed Ali meeting Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. Abiy Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize for his initiative to resolve the border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Abiy Ahmed Ali donated the photograph to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
Peter Handke found this fossil on a beach on a walk with his wife. It is a prehistoric species of octopus – an orthoceras – which resembles octopuses of the Nautilus genus living today.
Peter Handke donated the mushroom prints and the fossil to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
These mushroom prints are mementos of a couple of Peter Handke’s favourite walks. On his walks, Handke enjoys picking mushrooms that he presses between the pages of his notebooks. He made these “mushroom prints” on separate papers and signed them.
Peter Handke donated the mushroom prints to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
Olga Tokarczuk filled her personal calendar with notes on what she did day by day. In 2019 Tokarczuk was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, which had been postponed from 2018. This made her feel like she was in a time machine. Of course, her personal calendar from 2018 says nothing about the Nobel Prize, because she still did not know that she would be that year’s laureate.
Olga Tokarczuk donated the calendar to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
The image comes from an experiment using electrophoresis to identify the protein that determines how the body reacts to low oxygen levels. Gregg Semenza and his colleagues conducted the experiment. They succeeded in purifying a protein, which they named HIF-1. The results opened a new research field about oxygenation of the body.
Gregg Semenza donated the image to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
William Kaelin used this microscope as a child. When he became a scientist, he contributed to finding the explanations to the molecular mechanism governing the body's reactions to different oxygen levels.
William Kaelin donated the microscope to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
During his internship as a physician at Johns Hopkins University, William Kaelin wore this tie every Friday, according to the tradition there. He also wore the name plate during this period.
William Kaelin donated the tie and the name plate to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
William Kaelin used these instruments during his internship as a physician at Johns Hopkins University. They include a hemostat, which is used to control bleeding during surgery, and a reflex hammer, which is used to test reflexes.
William Kaelin donated the instruments to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
This stethoscope was used for listening to heart and lungs by William Kaelin during his internship as a physician at Johns Hopkins University.
William Kaelin donated the stethscope to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
This otoscope was used for examining the ears by William Kaelin during his internship as a physician at Johns Hopkins University.
William Kaelin donated the otoscope to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
William Kaelin had this doctor’s bag during his internship as a physician at Johns Hopkins University. Kaelin no longer practises medicine but devotes himself entirely to research. He has helped explain the molecular mechanism governing the body’s reactions to different oxygen levels.
William Kaelin donated the doctor’s bag to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
This is a replica of a test cell for the first lithium-ion battery dating back to 1983. The test cell was developed by Akira Yoshino, who played a crucial part in developing lithium-ion batteries.
Akira Yoshino donated the test cell to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
In a handwritten monthly report from February 1983, Akira Yoshino described for the first time an experiment with a new electrode he had developed for lithium-ion batteries. This is a copy of the report.
Akira Yoshino donated the copy of the report to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
This brochure, printed in 1978, introduced and marketed a new type of rechargeable batteries, which were produced at the battery unit of the oil and gas company Exxon. Stanley Whittingham made pivotal contributions to the development of the batteries.
Stanley Whittingham donated the brochure to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
These two batteries are early versions of lithium batteries from the 1970s. They were produced at the battery unit of Exxon, the oil and gas company where Stanley Whittingham made pivotal contributions to the development of the batteries. The smaller battery was intended for a watch and the larger one for a solar cell.
Stanley Whittingham donated the lithium batteries to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
This book Witness to Grace is John B. Goodenough’s autobiography. In the book he recounts his upbringing and intellectual development, his Christian faith and how he came to devote himself to science and technology.
John B. Goodenough donated the book to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
This key, labelled “OHP,” goes to the Haute-Provence observatory in southern France. It was given to Didier Queloz during his time as a doctoral student by his supervisor, Michel Mayor, who was about to leave on an extended trip. Soon afterwards, Queloz made an interesting observation of a star’s movements. After additional observations of the star, Queloz and Mayor concluded that they had made the first discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our sun.
Didier Queloz donated the key to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
This glass was an important part of the equipment Michel Mayor used to search for exoplanets – planets in solar systems other than ours. Stars with planets display a slightly rocking motion. As a result of the Doppler effect, the movement causes the color of the star to change – its spectrum shifts. To study this, a spectrograph coupled with a telescope was used. The glass, which belonged to the spectrograph, served as a template to effectively compare many spectral lines at the same time. If the entire spectrum shifts, the light passing through increases or decreases, depending on the amount of incident light covered by the dark spots on the glass. This glass was the first used when Mayor began investigations in 1977 that would eventually lead to the discovery of exoplanets.
Michel Mayor donated the glass template to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
James Peebles bought this slide rule in 1953 when he was studying at the University of Manitoba. It cost 20 Canadian dollars, a rather hefty sum for a student. It became his constant companion in life as a physicist until 1970, when he bought an electronic calculator. He put the slide rule in a desk drawer, where it lay for years, acquiring a patina.
James Peebles donated the slide rule to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
Werner Arber bought this slide rule when he was a high-school student in Aarau, Switzerland. He used it for several decades for his studies and research, before replacing it with electronic devices. Arber's Nobel Prize-winning work is about restriction enzymes, which are used for DNA analysis and modification.
Werner Arber donated the slide rule to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
This HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) apparatus was used by Robert Lefkowitz and colleagues in the early 1980s, as one of the steps to purify the beta adrenergic receptor, the first G protein coupled receptor to be purified. Drugs targeting G protein coupled receptors account for a substantial part of all drugs used in clinical medicine.
In chemistry, chromatography is an important method for separating substances. A mixture of substances dissolved in a liquid or gas is allowed to migrate through a stationary phase, for example a granular material consisting of solid particles. Because the components in the mixture interact with the grains in different ways, they will move at different speeds. In this way, the components are separated.
Robert Lefkowitz donated the HPLC apparatus to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
This manuscript was written in 1922, when Albert Einstein had just heard that he had been awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. Many physicists were still skeptical of his theory of general relativity, which turned the conceptions of time, space and gravity of classical physics upside down. Einstein did not receive the prize for his theory of relativity but for other ground-breaking work. However, many physicists and mathematicians continued to work according to the theory of relativity. One of the them was Eric Trefftz, who thought he had found a solution to a problem in the theory of general relativity – how two bodies move around a common center of mass. In the manuscript, Einstein comments on Trefftz’s article and demonstrates problems with his solution.
One of the previous owners of the manuscript was Max von Laue, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914. This manuscript was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by Åsa and Per Taube.
This trunk belonged to Erwin Schrödinger, a pioneer of quantum physics. Schrödinger lived an itinerant life. He grew up and studied in Vienna, Austria and later worked at several European universities. When Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, he was working at the University of Graz. Schrödinger, who strongly opposed Nazism, fled to Italy and eventually to Ireland. However, he left this trunk behind in Graz, where it was kept by Schrödinger's friend and colleague Fritz Kohlrausch. The Kohlrausch family stored it in their attic until 2019, when they donated it to the Nobel Prize Museum.
For Pablo Neruda, this pipe was associated with an effort he made at the end of the 1930s alongside his literary work. After the Spanish Civil War, thousands of refugees were living in camps in France under harsh conditions. Pablo Neruda was appointed by the president of Chile, Pedro Aguirre Cerda, to help them get to Chile. On 3 September 1939, the steamer Winnipeg arrived at Valparaiso, Chile. Neruda used to smoke this pipe in those days. He called his achievement his “greatest poem” and preserved the pipe with great care as a memory.
The pipe was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by the Pablo Neruda Foundation in 2019.
Since childhood, Richard Ernst has been deeply interested in music. His first musical instrument was a soprano recorder. He later acquired an alto recorder because a wider range of notes appealed to him.
Richard Ernst donated the recorders to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
Paul Romer regards this gas mantle as a fine example of the historical importance of technological innovation. Romer’s research focuses on how knowledge and new ideas drive economic growth. This type of lamp is based on the principle of Auer’s incandescent light. An incandescent mantle emits light because of the heat given off by burning gas. The lamp was a far more efficient light source than oil lamps and the earlier gas lights. After the lamp was invented in the 1880s, it soon became common as street lighting. Nowadays, lamps like these are used by campers.
Paul Romer donated the gas mantle to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2018.
William Nordhaus acquired this Roman oil lamp in conjunction with an economic-historical study on lighting. The lamp is about 2,500 years old. In his work, Nordhaus examined the cost of achieving a certain amount of light at different times in human history. He investigated methods of producing light, from open fires all the way to incandescent light. He was struck by how much more efficient they have become.
William Nordhaus donated the oil lamp to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2018.
In this calligraphy, Tasuku Honjo has written a motto that has been important to him throughout his life: “Without ambition, success cannot be achieved.” The motto is written in Chinese characters and comes from Chinese Emperor Guangwu of Han, who lived from 6 BCE to 57 CE. When Honjo did his groundbreaking work on how the immune system can be used to fight cancer, what he encountered was not direct resistance but indifference and scepticism. But he kept going and ultimately reached his goal.
Tasuku Honjo donated the calligraphy to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2018.
George Smith gave this piggy bank to one of his colleagues, Stephen Parmley, as a memento of an early experiment when working on phage display. Parmley had developed a vector, a particle used to inject DNA in living cells. The vector was named pIG3C. The experiment was unsuccessful, but the piggy bank became the laboratory mascot for decades.
The piggy bank was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by Stephen Parmley in 2018.
This test tube contains the solution in which George P. Smith first applied the phage display method. The phage display method, which Smith developed, uses bacteriophages, viruses that attack bacteria, to produce new proteins. Smith received the test solution from Paul Modrich (who, incidentally, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015).
George P. Smith donated the test tube to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2018.
A T-shirt from Frances Arnold’s laboratory bears the image of the laboratory’s Wolfbird mascot, a combination of a wolf and a bird. Arnold uses the mascot to convey the message that when you culture molecules in test tubes, you can mix anything.
This particular light blue shirt was worn by Arnold during a trip with all of her lab colleagues. The names of all members of the team are on the back of the t-shirt.
Frances Arnold donated the T-shirt to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2018.
A button from Frances Arnold’s laboratory bears the image of the laboratory’s Wolfbird mascot, a combination of a wolf and a bird. Arnold uses the mascot to convey the message that when you culture molecules in test tubes, you can mix anything.
Frances Arnold donated the button to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2018.
A T-shirt from Arnold’s laboratory bears the image of the laboratory’s Wolfbird mascot, a combination of a wolf and a bird. Arnold uses the mascot to convey the message that when you culture molecules in test tubes, you can mix anything.
Frances Arnold donated the T-shirt to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2018.
This plate with wells for 96 different samples was especially made for Frances Arnold’s experiments with enzymes. By lowering the plate into a water bath near boiling point, the test series could be kept hot, to examine the ability of the various enzymes to facilitate chemical reactions at high temperatures. The distances between the wells correspond to those between the tips of a pipette that was used to produce eight samples simultaneously. In later experiments, plates with wells could be purchased ready-made. The researchers then used this plate simply as a weight to hold down materials in the water bath.
Frances Arnold donated the test plate and the pipette to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2018.
Donna Strickland’s Nobel Prize-awarded work involves creating extremely short and intense laser pulses. She used this laser rod in her experiments. It consists of glass treated with neodymium and was used to create infrared laser light. Strickland did her work when she was still a doctoral student at the University of Rochester.
Donna Strickland donated the photograph and laser rod to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2018.
During an experiment, a laser beam happened to hit one of Gerard Mourou’s students in the eye. When a doctor examined the damage, he asked which laser had caused it. When Mourou wondered why, he replied: “The injury is perfect!” The idea of using this type of laser as a precision instrument for eye surgery was born. This laser amplifier for use in eye surgery was developed at the University of Michigan in 1998.
Gerard Mourou donated the laser amplifier to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2018.
This “diffraction grating” is a glass sheet covered with a thin film of gold. The many microscopic lines in the surface split light into various wavelengths when it is reflected. Gerard Mourou used this diffraction grate to first spread out a laser pulse, then amplify it, and finally transform it into a short laser pulse far more intense than the original. The damage to the surface is from experiments with laser light that was too powerful.
Gerard Mourou donated the diffraction grating to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2018.
Even in his youth, Arthur Ashkin was fascinated by the possibility of moving objects using light. In the early 1940s, he worked on building magnetrons for the U.S. military radar system. Magnetrons produce microwaves, which, like visual light, are a form of electromagnetic radiation. Ashkin tried to move objects using radiation but did not achieve any unequivocal results. Many years later, he succeeded by using laser light instead. These experiments gave rise to optical tweezers.
Arthur Ashkin donated the magnetrons to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2018.
Leymah Gbowee used this fabric in protests to put an end to a devastating civil war in Liberia. In 2002, she assembled women of different ethnic and religious affiliations to protest against violence. The women gathered at a fish market in Monrovia, all wearing white T-shirts and lappas, a traditional Liberian clothing wrapped around the midriff. This is a lappa of that kind.
Leymah Gbowee donated the fabric to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2018.
Salvatore Quasimodo’s journalist ID has him down as a theatre critic at the magazine Tempo. Quasimodo first studied to be an engineer and worked a few years in that field, but he had always been writing poetry and focused entirely on literature from 1938, as a poet, translator and editor.
The journalist ID was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by the Quasimodo family in 2018.
This lighter belonged to Salvatore Quasimodo and bears his initials in gold.
The lighter was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by the Quasimodo family in 2018.
This wristwatch is one of many that were part of Gabriel García Márquez' collection. The different designs and materials were a reference for the wristwatches that his characters later wore.
The wristwatch was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by Gabriel García Márquez’ family in 2018.
Gabriel García Márquez’ sons convinced their father to wear these small bifocals. They would tell him that these glasses were more modern and youthful. He wore them on several occasions, but he preferred larger glasses.
The eyeglasses were donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by Gabriel García Márquez’ family in 2018.
Gabriel García Márquez used this type of large bifocals while working. According to him, these eyeglasses made him forget he had presbyopia, which causes poor near vision, because they covered his entire field of vision.
The eyeglasses were donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by Gabriel García Márquez’ family in 2018.
This handbag belonged to Gabriel García Márquez. The bag brought back many memories for his wife Mercedes Barcha: “For more than thirty years, I saw him carrying this handbag in every one of our trips. Inside, he would always put a book, the day’s newspaper, a notepad, and a pen.”
The handbag was donated to the Nobel Prize Museum by Mercedes Barcha in 2018.
These 1,000 paper cranes are hand-folded by schoolchildren. They were donated by ICAN, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. On the 468 red paper cranes are the names of ICAN’s member organisations. Paper cranes have become a symbol of the innocent victims of nuclear weapons. The reason is the story of Sadako Sasaki, who suffered from leukaemia after the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. According to Japanese folklore, folding 1,000 paper cranes will grant you a wish and good luck. When Sadako became ill, she started folding cranes. Despite folding more than a thousand cranes, she passed away when she was only 12 years old.
ICAN donated the paper cranes to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2017.
