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  • The Nobel Prizes are handed out to humanity's best

  • and brightest, but sometimes even the best and brightest

  • get overlooked.

  • Howdy folks.

  • Trace here wrapping up the coverage for DNews.

  • The Nobel Prizes were announced over the last week,

  • and there were a couple of surprises out there.

  • The prizes come in six categories, chemistry,

  • economics, literature, medicine, peace and physics.

  • This year, three scientists shared the chemistry prize

  • for creating computer models of molecules

  • so we don't have to use these peg and ball ones anymore.

  • Canadian author, Alice Munro, took the literature award home,

  • three Americans won the Nobel Prize in medicine

  • for discovering how cells transport things around.

  • They're like little factories.

  • The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

  • was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,

  • and the prize for physics went to two scientists who

  • discovered the Higgs boson particle.

  • Economics doesn't get handed out until Monday.

  • Kind of an incredible list, don't you think?

  • But what about the amazing projects

  • that didn't warrant a Nobel win?

  • The Nobel Prize for peace is pretty existential.

  • How do people encourage peace globally?

  • Removing chemical weapons is a great one,

  • but what about promoting non-violence

  • in the face of a much more powerful aggressor?

  • Mahatma Gandhi promoted a free and independent India

  • and was assassinated in 1948.

  • Though his efforts helped the Britons to quit India,

  • he never won a Nobel Prize for peace.

  • Though he was nominated posthumously.

  • I think we all agree the idea that DNA and genes passed

  • from parents to offspring is pretty much a game changer,

  • but the scientists credited for the discovery never

  • won the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine.

  • In the 1940s, Oswald Avery discovered

  • it wasn't a protein which passed your hereditary traits

  • to your children, but DNA itself.

  • Which might seem kind of like, oh, duh now.

  • But then, it was revolutionary, because most scientists

  • thought the opposite.

  • The Human Genome Project might be

  • one of the most interesting and wonderful things

  • to happen with the human DNA since it was discovered.

  • And since that project was completed in 2003,

  • we've been learning things about humans

  • we may never have discovered without it.

  • We've catalogued all the DNA of the whole human, and still

  • no Nobel Prize.

  • There are so many more of these, you guys.

  • The Nobel Prize for chemistry was never

  • given to Dmitri Mendeleev for creating

  • the modern periodic table.

  • The inventor of radio telecommunications,

  • Nikola Tesla, never received a prize for physics.

  • Robert Noyce, the inventor of the microchip,

  • never got a prize.

  • Fred Hoyle, who coined the term the Big Bang,

  • claimed new elements were made inside stars during fusion,

  • never got a Nobel Prize for that.

  • Leo Tolstoy, one of the most critically acclaimed novelist

  • in human history, no Nobel medal we're hanging around his neck.

  • We could talk about this all day.

  • There are only so many Nobel prizes.

  • And unfortunately for some, once in awhile

  • you've got this great season and it's hard to pick.

  • And other times it's pretty sparse.

  • I mean, personally, I'd love to see Malala Yousafzai win

  • for her work toward peace.

  • The Taliban shot her in the head for simply

  • trying to go to school.

  • Education, it's important.

  • She stood up to them peacefully, survived,

  • and is still working for peace today.

  • I think the Nobel Prizes are an incredible way

  • to show recognition for humanity's best achievements.

  • But how do you feel about it?

  • Share your own opinions in the comments below the video,

  • and thanks a lot for watching DNews today.

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  • and we hope you come back soon.

The Nobel Prizes are handed out to humanity's best

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