Sunday, October 11, 2009

Nobel Prizes 2009

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2009
1. Charles K. Kao (China): For groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication.
2. Willard S. Boyle (USA) and
3. George E. Smith (USA): For the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor
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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009
1. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
(United Kingdom)
2. Thomas A. Steitz (USA) and
3. Ada E. Yonath (Israel): For studies of the structure and function of the ribosome
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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009
1. Elizabeth H. Blackburn (USA)
2. Carol W. Greider (USA) and
3. Jack W. Szostak (USA): For the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.
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The Nobel Prize in Literature 2009
Herta Müller (Germany): Who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.
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The Nobel Peace Prize 2009
Barack Obama
(USA): For his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.

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Saturday, October 10, 2009

Memory Flash Points

  • The Chairperson of the Children Film Society is Nandita Das.
  • India defeated South Africa to clinch the Emerging Player Tournament on August 1, 2009 in Brisbane.
  • “Swaranajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana” has been restructured under a new nomenclature National Livelihood Mission.
  • India's Deep Joshi, who has done pioneering work for rural communities on August 3, 2009 was named along with five others for the Prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2009- considered Asia's equivalent of the Nobel prize.
  • N. Rangbashyam, a Chennai based surgical gastroenterologist has been nominated to the Wall of Honour of the Royal Society of Medicine UK.
  • The National Solar Mission, recently approved by the Prime Minister's National Action Plan on Climate Change envisages 10 year tax holiday for solar plants- both photovoltaic and thermal set up by 2020.
  • World Tiger Summit will be held in 2010 at Ranthambore (Rajsthan).
  • India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) , 2009 signed a Free Trade Agreement in Bangkok after 6 years' negotiations.
  • Environmental activist and Director of Centre for Science and Environment Sunita Narain has been chosen for the Raja Lakshmi Award- 2009 instituted by the Shri Raja Lakshmi Foundation, Chennai.
  • The Special Representatives of India and China M.K. Narayanan and Dai Bingguo began the 13th round of talks on the boundary issue with a wider ambit in New Delhi on August 7, 2009.
  • India will hold joint military exercise Cope-09 with United States that would see for the first time the deployment of the C-17 Globemaster, a heavy lift military trasport aircraft.
  • Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament to be held in September 2009 is the strongest ever Open Chess Championship in Asia with 124 players from 18 countries taking part.
  • The number of drought hit districts in the country as declared by the government is 246 of 600 odd disctricts in 10 states.
  • NASA has teamed up with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to locate water - ice on Moon. During their recent Bi-static experiment, both NASA and ISRO through instruments on board ISRO's Chandrayan and NASA's Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter (LRO) trained their radars to a specific point to locate water- ice on the floor of permanently shadowed craters of moon.
  • Indra Nooyi (Ranked 3rd), Sonia Gandhi (Ranked 13th), Chanda Kochhar (Ranked 20th) and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (Ranked 91st) have been named among the world's 100 most powerful women by Forbes magazine.

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