2020 Nobel Prize Award Ceremony

welcome to the nobel prize ceremony 2020 a year that will go down in nobel history as an exception due to covet of course stockholm city hall which is normally the venue for the nobel banquet is now the stage for this year's slightly different prize ceremony and we will be uh meeting now our host stephan forsberg the executive director of the stockholm concert hall where the prize ceremony normally is held on this day the 10th of december nobel day december 10 how that date resonates within the world of science and humanism welcome to the nobel day and to the grand finale of the nobel period that started already in october when the names of the laureates became official and here we are standing in the beautiful stockholm city hall almost precisely in the golden hall one of the most exquisite venues in the world and this is actually where the nobel day ends for the laureates because the nobel day starts at another fantastic venue the stockholm concert hall home of the royal stockholm philharmonic orchestra and also the venue where i normally work as executive and artistic director and there on the grand podium are the nobel laureates receiving the nobel medals and diplomas from the hands of his majesty the king but unfortunately not this year and i will come back to that a bit later on there although some ingredients that always are present at the ceremony and one of them is music and when we today are honoring the greatest minds within science and humanism what could be a better way doing so than with music by one of the greatest composers ever walked on planet earth wolfgang amadeus mozart so please enjoy the wonderful soprano elizabeth meyer in the arya rue sanfted from mozart's opera said [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] is is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] she [Music] is [Music] peace [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] this [Music] is [Music] earlier i mentioned that music is an ingredient at the ceremony the welcome speech by today's host is however a cornerstone at the ceremony it is my great honor to welcome to the podium the chairman of the board of the nobel foundation professor carl hendrick heldeen your majesties your royal highnesses esteemed nobel laureates ladies and gentlemen around the world on behalf of the nobel foundation it's a great honor for me to welcome you to this year's nobel awards ceremony it is gratifying that during a year when the humanity has been subjected to such major hardships new nobel laureates could be announced this october and we are glad that we have been able to bring the nobel prize medals and diplomas to you nobel laureates in your home countries when it was not possible for you to come to us here in stockholm nevertheless you will be honored and celebrated here today in the city hall the nobel prize shows humanity's ability to constantly find solutions to difficult challenges that we face this year when we are all deeply affected by the corona pandemic it feels especially important to highlight scientific literary and humanitarian efforts that inspire us and gives us hope for the future the ongoing pandemic has reminded us that the conditions for our lives can very quickly change dramatically we have also been reminded of the importance of science to solve severe problems only by understanding the virus how it infects people and the mechanisms whereby it causes disease in patients can we combat the covid19 disease with an impressive speed the scientific community has joined forces to answer these questions a pandemic shows no borders and this year we have seen how important research and international cooperation are to find solutions to global problems earlier today in oslo the world food programme was awarded the nobel peace prize for its effort to combat hunger again we are reminded that global problems can only be addressed efficiently by global cooperation over the last 120 years nobel prizes have been awarded to persons who have made important discoveries about ourselves and the world around us today we celebrate scientific achievements which spans from discoveries that protect us from infection and death by another virus the hepatitis c virus and that has taught us about dark holes in the universe to the development of an efficient method to change dna and to new formats for auctions we also celebrate poetry that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal these achievements are well within line of the vision of alfred nobel to honor those who has made the greatest benefit to humankind i welcome you all to today's nobel prize award ceremony thank you due to the situation in the world are there only a handful of people present live here in the stockholm city hall today and we are therefore deeply grateful to his majesty the king and her majesty the queen that they instead have invited all of us to the royal palace so please join me in a digital journey to our beautiful palace and deloreans it is an honor for me introducing you to his majesty the king esteemed nobel laureates wherever you are in the world i hope that this message from the royal palace in stockholm finds you well this is indeed a different nobel prize ceremony at the end of a very different year the global pandemic has affected the whole world it presents new challenges for individuals and societies and it has also shown a light on the important role of science while countries have been focused to close their borders scientists around the world have been working together like never before to understand the kovi 19 virus and to develop a vaccine at a time like this it is more important than ever to celebrate those who in the words of the great donor alfredo bell have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind esteemed lawrence i i offer you a warmest congratulations on your outstanding contribution and i very much hope to see you here in stockholm in the future so very welcome you will now meet another fantastic musician mr magnus lindgren he moves freely within the world of music both as an instrumentalist and as a composer and he has today composed a brand new piece for you reflecting on the times we now are experiencing a darker present time but looking forward to a brighter future and he has called the piece 20 21 i don't know how many compositions have already been dedicated to you but dear laureates this one is for you [Music] foreign [Music] hey [Music] uh [Music] uh [Music] so [Music] you [Music] down uh [Music] foreign [Music] hmm [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] this year's nobel prize award ceremony will of course be very different but the nobel foundation has been very determined that there has to be a ceremony also this year the nobel medals and diplomas have already been presented by various swedish diplomatic missions around the world and we have of course made sure that these great moments have been filmed but one thing will be performed live here in stockholm the introductory speeches held by professors from the prize awarding institutions and we will now start the actual prize award ceremony by honoring the laureates in physics it is my great honor to welcome to the podium professor ulf danielson from the royal swedish academy of sciences your majesties your royal highnesses esteemed nobel laureates ladies and gentlemen this year's laureates have made groundbreaking discoveries concerning the most mythical and strange objects in physics black holes black holes are bodies with gravity so strong that not even light can escape to create a black hole the earth would have to be squeezed down to the size of the pea and the sun compressed into sphere comparable in size to the central parts of stockholm the first speculation that such a thing could exist in our universe dates back to the end of the 18th century but it was not until einstein had presented his general theory relativity in 1915 that one had a theory powerful enough to describe them according to einstein's theory of gravity time and gravity are intimately connected time goes by a trillion trillions of seconds slower at my feet than at my head although the difference is small it gives rise to what we call gravity it is strange that only by lifting a glass of water with my own hand can i feel this small difference in the passage of time at the horizon of a black hole on the other hand gravity is so strong that time seems to stand still and within the horizon time curves so that it points inward toward the center of the black hole anyone who is unlucky enough to fall into a black hole therefore has as much difficulty getting out again as traveling back in time and in the middle of the black hole in the unfortunate travelers near future lurks the singularity for the known laws of nature cease to apply black holes are truly the most extreme objects in physics but the mathematics of the general theory relativity is difficult and for a long time black holes were mere speculation and many physicists for good reasons doubted their existence not even einstein thought they could exist it was only in 1965 half a century after einstein formulated his theory that roger penrose was able to master the mathematics and show that black holes are an inevitable consequence of general relativity if matter accumulates densely enough nothing can prevent a collapse into a black hole but where are they for a long time it was suspected that black holes could hide in the center of many galaxies where they could explain eruptions of extreme energy could there perhaps also be a black hole in the center of our own galaxy the milky way reinhardt guentzel and andrea gais used powerful telescopes to study the mysterious interior of the milky way the heart of our galaxy is hidden inside a cloud of dust and it is only by using infrared light that one can discern what is going on with the help of the instruments they developed they were able to follow the motions of individual stars and discover how these stars revolved around something they could not see calculations show that the invisible object must have a mass about four million times that of the sun within the framework of current theories there is no other explanation than a black hole a more than 200 year old riddle has been solved but black holes also mark the limit of our knowledge of the physical world as we look into the dark embassies of black holes there may be new secrets to reveal professors penrose gensel engages you have been awarded the 2020 nobel prize in physics for your outstanding contributions to our understanding of black holes it is an honor and privilege to convey it to you on behalf of the royal swedish academy of sciences our warmest congratulations and roger penrose born in england 1931 will receive the prize here at the residence of the swedish ambassador provencal roger penrose in london in munich at the bayer statscansly we have the ambassador per tourism handing over the medal to reinhartkins [Applause] and in los angeles in the garden of the laureate la sierra del rey council of the swedish embassy is handing over the price [Applause] [Music] sometimes simplicity is the best way to go when you want to create pure beauty you will now hear a very beloved piece by the french composer maurice ravel it's from his sonatin originally composed for solo piano but here in a version for violin cello and guitar [Music] me [Music] [Music] my [Music] [Music] so [Music] we will now continue the ceremony by honoring the laureates in chemistry it is my great honor to welcome to the podium professor claus gustafsson from the royal swedish academy of sciences your majesties your royal highnesses esteemed nobel nobel laureates ladies and gentlemen the fertilized egg cell contains all the information needed to create a human being and this information is stored in our genetic material our dna in 1953 jim watson and francis crick reported a simple structural model for dna which immediately suggested how the dna molecule could store genetic information and how this information can be passed on to the next generation of cells what the dna structure did not explain was how genetic information can be used to give rise to proteins the main components of human tissues a breakthrough came on good friday 1960 when a group of international scientists gathered for an informal meeting at king's college in cambridge the group included sydney brenner francis crick and francia chakop who all later became nobel prize laureates during the meeting shakop described the latest results from the work carried out at the institute pasteur in paris the information provided had an almost seismic effect on brenner and crick who jumped to their feet they both instantaneously realized the importance of the french findings for their own work at that very moment they understood that the dna must first be copied into rna which in turn functions as a template for protein synthesis as so many times before and after the free exchange of ideas and information between international scientists led to an in an important breakthrough today we celebrate another scientific breakthrough resulting from an international collaboration between a french scientist working in the northern part of sweden and an american scientist based in sunny california ever since the early pioneers described the nature of genetic material scientists have tried to develop technologies that can manipulate dna sequences of cells and organisms with the discovery of the crispr cas9 genetic sisters emanel cho pontie and jennifer doudna now has provided us with such a tool as often in science the discovery of these genetic sisters was unexpected during shopping tier studies have been harmful bacterium the streptococcus p orginus she discovered a previously unknown molecule termed which she called tracer rna her work showed a tracer rna support of an ancient bacterial immune system crispr gas that protects the bacterium from invading viruses by cleaving the viral dna how this cleavage was accomplished was demonstrated a year later when chopin t and doudna together succeeded in recreating the bacteria's genetic sisters in the test tube in a series of crucial experiments the two scientists set out to simplify and reprogram the genetic systems in the natural form the css recognized dna from viruses patcho pontie and daudner proved that they that the css could be controlled so that they can cut any dna molecule at the predetermined site where the dna is cut it is done easy to introduce new genetic information and thereby rewrite the code of life since chopin the endowment discovered the crispy cas9 united sisters in 2012 their use has increased exponentially this tool has complete contributed to many important discoveries in basic science in plant research scientists have been able to develop crops with new and decide properties in medicine clinical trials of new cancer therapies are underway and the dream of being able to cure inherited diseases is about to come true emmanuel pentir and jennifer doudna your studies of crispy cas9 of the crisper cas9 genetic scissors have taken the molecular life sciences into a new epoch and are bringing a great benefit to humankind in many ways that is a truly great achievement on behalf of the royal swedish academy of science it is my great privilege and honor to convey to you our warmest congratulations emmanuel ponte born in france 1968 will receive the medal and diploma at the residence of the swedish ambassador in berlin [Music] and in berkeley jennifer doudna will receive her prize in the garden of well in her garden in her own garden about the fact that this year's chemistry prize is awarded to women dauna said she hopes to see the day when two women getting the price is not a notable fact [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] i [Applause] [Music] it's [Music] [Music] we will now continue the ceremony by honoring honoring the laureate in physiology or medicine it is my great honor to welcome to the podium professor ganila carlson here the stem from the nobel assembly at karolinska instituted majesties your royal highnesses esteemed laureates ladies and gentlemen viruses have always been part of our existence through evolution we have acquired versatile functions to handle invading pathogens this has equipped us with a finely tuned and in most cases highly effective immune system that protects us against daily threats different kinds of life forms bacteria plants animals and different species of these have their all their own unique set of viral intruders that infect them and circulate within the given population but new threats continuously arise viruses often cross species barriers to increase their host range and spread more effectively as this is their sole reason to exist while we cannot see viruses with a naked eye we know that they come in many different shapes and forms and they frequently take us by surprise this year the world is facing a viral pandemic that affects almost every aspect of our society the expeditious identification of the causative agent of this pandemic cyrus kovi ii was unprecedented and our understanding of the virus and the disease it causes is increasing by the day progress towards the goal of containing the pandemic is now being made hosting this year's nobel prize ceremony in the absence of the laureates is one of many consequences of the pandemic but one which also highlights the significance of this year's nobel prize in physiology or medicine the discovery of the hepatitis c virus a major human pathogen and the causative agent of a much more long-lasting and invisible pandemic the work performed by the laureate spans several decades and illustrates the importance of scientific collaboration and systematic experimentation using both traditional and emerging technologies the starting point was the observation that an increasing number of individuals who had received blood transfusions developed chronic liver inflammation years later the clinical course of this disease was different from that observed with the known hepatitis viruses this was a silent condition which rarely gave symptoms in the acute face of the infection but which resulted in progressive damage of the liver over time in almost all infected people dr harvey walter set out to investigate this new disease through carefully designed studies of samples from blood donors and individuals who had developed this form of hepatitis he could lay the puzzle in 1978 alter demonstrated formally that the disease was transmissible and the race to identify the causative infectious agent could start around this time molecular biology-based techniques were becoming increasingly available but they were nowhere near as efficient as they are today dr michael horton and his team set out to clone the unknown virus using an entirely novel screening technique almost against all odds given the limitations of the techniques at the time the screen was successful and identified hepatitis c virus dr charlie rice immediately embarked on studies to define how the virus copies itself in our cells to make new infectious particles by defining the fine details of this process he could generate a virus clone that alone induced productive infection and liver disease this was the final evidence that hepatitis c virus alone caused this form of hepatitis the discovery of the hepatitis c virus by this year's lawyers laid the foundation for our current understanding about how this virus survives in its niche during the long chronic phase of the infection and importantly it led to the development of highly effective antiviral medicines that now cure the infection in almost all treated individuals this year's nobel prize in physiology or medicine puts viruses at center stage viruses will continue to surprise us they exploit different routes of transmission and they are masters at adaptation to ensure their own persistence to be prepared for new viral threats we need research such as that performed by this year's laureate and we need deep appreciation for the fundamental aspects of different classes of viruses and how they interact with their hosts dear professors alter howton and rice on behalf of the nobel assembly of karolinska instituted it's my great privilege to convey to you our warmest congratulations harvey alter is receiving the price in washington dc handed over by the swedish ambassador carnot's daughter at the national institute of health [Music] we have now moved to the garden of michael howden in danville california in new york at the residence of the swedish council general anika ramba we have charles rice receiving his part of the prize [Music] [Applause] [Music] bye [Music] foreign [Music] me [Music] as a humble worker within the wonderful world of arts is it always a special moment when the nobel laureate in literature is being announced it is my great honor to welcome on to the podium professor andesh ulson from the swedish academy it is m [Music] [Music] in truth i am speaking now the way you are i speak because i am shattered which luis click control street understanding afterwards shall i be raised from death the spirit asks and the son says yes and the desert answers your voice is sand scattered in wind we see that on the classics [Music] elliott [Music] on behalf of the swedish academy it is my privilege to convene convey to you our warmest congratulations to the nobel prize in literature 2020. on the school zone of the switch academy cited from one of her most uh lauded collections of wild iris and said that change is a key word in her poetry and here louise click is receiving the prize in her own garden in boston behind the mask in in the picture to the right there was the swedish ambassador [Music] this old house seems to breathe [Music] sometimes i hear a neighbor snoring [Music] sometimes i hear it baby cry sometimes i hear a staircase breaking sometimes the distance [Music] house [Music] how [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] with all these folks around i guess there must be something i don't comprehend [Music] even straight dogs find their friends [Applause] [Music] in this [Music] hmm [Music] [Applause] with all these [Music] is unlock the stars and take them [Music] down [Music] [Music] there are almost eight billion people living on the planet and suddenly is a small virus forcing most of us into some kind of loneliness this was kurt weil's thoughts about loneliness in his own lonely house we will now continue the ceremony by honoring the laureates in economic sciences it is my great honor to welcome to the podium professor tommy anderson from the royal swedish academy of sciences your majesties your royal highnesses esteemed laureates ladies and gentlemen most of us have similar morning routines we wake up prepare our morning coffee and have something to eat during breakfast we scroll through social media on our cell phones and search the internet for the latest news what we don't normally think about is that auctions influence every step of this simple morning routine the cost of the electricity to brew our morning coffee was decided by an auction which advertisements we are exposed to on the internet was decided by an auction the price our telecom operators pay to use radio frequencies and thus what it costs us to serve the web was decided by an auction each day auctions transfer astronomical amounts between buyers and sellers but it's not only their scope and size that are the reasons for investigating how auctions work different sellers have different objectives from revenue to public welfare how should you design an electricity auction that both provides electricity in this short land run and make sure that there is enough investments to secure future electricity supply how should auctions for carbon emission allowances be designed to create incentives for firms to invest in green energy to answer questions like this we must understand how different auction formats shape bidding and final prices in the 1960s robert wilson provided a theory for auctions of objects with a common value a value which is uncertain beforehand but in the end is the same to all bidders most auctions have a common value for example the amount of minerals in the ground because it is difficult to estimate this common value the winner of an auction may overpay and therefore become a loser a phenomenon known as the winner's curse in the 1980s paul milgram extended and generalized wilson's theory to include both common and private values thanks to the laureates most standard auction formats are now well understood in the beginning of the 1990s cell phones and internet became parts of our daily lives as a consequence the demand for radio frequencies skyrocketed traditional methods for allocating radio spectrum such as lotteries and different administrative procedures were inefficient and unfortunately also the standard auction formats were inefficient would it be possible to design an auction that avoids the winners curse and generates high revenue to the government while at the same time benefiting the end users as they browse the news at their breakfast tables first auction for format that accomplished this task relied on basic research by milgram and wilson but it was also designed by them this auction format has now been used in around 100 countries around the world to allocate radio spectrum dear professors milgram and wilson your research has helped us to understand how auctions work like few other economists you have crossed disciplinary boundaries drawing on mathematical sciences behavioral sciences and computer science but you have also brought theory to practice the auction formats analyzed and designed by you and your colleagues are now being used all over the world to sell fishing quotas emission allowances financial assets radio spectrum and many many more objects thanks to your research resources are now being more efficiently allocated to the benefit of the buyers the sellers the taxpayers the end users and the society as a whole it is an honor and a privilege to convey to you on behalf of the royal swedish academy of sciences our warmest congratulations now we'll go to the garden of one of the serious economics laureates and uh robert wilson and paul milgram they actually live close next to each other on on the same street and milgram is one of professor wilson's former students and uh well wilson has other students who have received the nobel prize such as being holdstrom and al roth previously but today it's as the world has turned the 2020 nobel prize awards ceremony has come to an end and from stockholm we once again would like to express our warmest congratulations to you dear laureates wherever you are around the world for the finale the artistic director of the ceremony mr linus felboom wanted to find out a little bit more about your musical taste dear laureate that was though a bit tricky but finally we found that one of you is a david bowie fan and to be honest who isn't so we will end this ceremony with david bowie's heroes because that is what you are to us heroes for all the great things you are doing for mankind thank you and once again congratulations [Music] i i will be queen and you i hope in my king though nothing will drive them away or we can beat them just for one day we can be heroes just for one day [Music] and you you can be mean and i i drink all the time because we're lovers and that is a fact yes we're lovers well that is that and nothing will keep us together we could steal time [Music] just for one day we can be heroes and ever what you say i i wish you could swim like dolphins like dolphins can swim though nothing nothing will keep us together [Music] we could beat them forever and ever we can be heroes [Music] queen [Music] us just for one day i can't remember [Music] they shut up of our heads [Music] we could be heroes [Music] just i just [Music] foreign and nothing will help us maybe we're lying then you better not stay but we could be safer [Music] just for one day [Music] just [Music] fantastic interpretation of david bowie's heroes performed by edda magnusson and the lorry 2 has david bow as a favorite artist well that's andrea guess who used to listen to music all night in her observatory to keep her awake this closes this year's nobel prize ceremony thanks from stockholm and hope to see you here again especially you laureates in person next year let's hope that then everything will be as usual again thank you for being with us today and take care [Music] you

Channel: Nobel Prize

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Length: 80min 58sec (4858 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 10 2020