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The Nobel Prizes are handed out to humanity's best
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and brightest, but sometimes even the best and brightest
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get overlooked.
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Howdy folks.
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Trace here wrapping up the coverage for DNews.
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The Nobel Prizes were announced over the last week,
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and there were a couple of surprises out there.
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The prizes come in six categories, chemistry,
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economics, literature, medicine, peace and physics.
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This year, three scientists shared the chemistry prize
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for creating computer models of molecules
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so we don't have to use these peg and ball ones anymore.
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Canadian author, Alice Munro, took the literature award home,
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three Americans won the Nobel Prize in medicine
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for discovering how cells transport things around.
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They're like little factories.
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The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
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was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,
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and the prize for physics went to two scientists who
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discovered the Higgs boson particle.
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Economics doesn't get handed out until Monday.
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Kind of an incredible list, don't you think?
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But what about the amazing projects
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that didn't warrant a Nobel win?
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The Nobel Prize for peace is pretty existential.
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How do people encourage peace globally?
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Removing chemical weapons is a great one,
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but what about promoting non-violence
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in the face of a much more powerful aggressor?
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Mahatma Gandhi promoted a free and independent India
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and was assassinated in 1948.
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Though his efforts helped the Britons to quit India,
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he never won a Nobel Prize for peace.
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Though he was nominated posthumously.
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I think we all agree the idea that DNA and genes passed
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from parents to offspring is pretty much a game changer,
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but the scientists credited for the discovery never
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won the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine.
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In the 1940s, Oswald Avery discovered
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it wasn't a protein which passed your hereditary traits
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to your children, but DNA itself.
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Which might seem kind of like, oh, duh now.
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But then, it was revolutionary, because most scientists
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thought the opposite.
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The Human Genome Project might be
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one of the most interesting and wonderful things
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to happen with the human DNA since it was discovered.
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And since that project was completed in 2003,
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we've been learning things about humans
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we may never have discovered without it.
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We've catalogued all the DNA of the whole human, and still
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no Nobel Prize.
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There are so many more of these, you guys.
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The Nobel Prize for chemistry was never
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given to Dmitri Mendeleev for creating
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the modern periodic table.
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The inventor of radio telecommunications,
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Nikola Tesla, never received a prize for physics.
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Robert Noyce, the inventor of the microchip,
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never got a prize.
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Fred Hoyle, who coined the term the Big Bang,
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claimed new elements were made inside stars during fusion,
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never got a Nobel Prize for that.
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Leo Tolstoy, one of the most critically acclaimed novelist
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in human history, no Nobel medal we're hanging around his neck.
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We could talk about this all day.
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There are only so many Nobel prizes.
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And unfortunately for some, once in awhile
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you've got this great season and it's hard to pick.
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And other times it's pretty sparse.
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I mean, personally, I'd love to see Malala Yousafzai win
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for her work toward peace.
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The Taliban shot her in the head for simply
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trying to go to school.
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Education, it's important.
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She stood up to them peacefully, survived,
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and is still working for peace today.
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I think the Nobel Prizes are an incredible way
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to show recognition for humanity's best achievements.
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But how do you feel about it?
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Share your own opinions in the comments below the video,
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and thanks a lot for watching DNews today.
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and we hope you come back soon.