2008 marks the first year that the Kavli Prizes have been given. Dubbed the “science prizes for the future,” the awards highlight three disciplines that seldom garner such accolades. They are united, however, by common themes. Each of the three award categories recognizes excellence at the extremes of human inquiry – the smallest scales of molecular matter (nanoscience), the most complex natural phenomenon (the brain; neuroscience), the greatest spans of space and time (astrophysics). In addition, all three fields have seen fundamental advances in recent years thanks to new technology, and all three are ripe for further breakthroughs. According to Fred Kavli, these disciplines “promise remarkable future discoveries and benefits for humanity in the 21st century and beyond.”
The prize in astrophysics was conferred on two scientists whose groundbreaking work revealed the nature of quasars, among the most powerful astronomical bodies in the universe. The experimental work of Maarten Schmidt of the California Institute of Technology (USA) and the theoretical contributions of Donald Lynden-Bell of Cambridge University (UK) showed that quasars are not stars, as previously thought. Rather, they are entire galaxies that swirl around a central black hole like water circling a drain. In the process, the friction caused by the swirling, grinding matter emits massive amounts of energy, making these far-distant phenomena appear to be right in our astronomical backyard. Quasars provide concrete evidence of the size and expansion of the universe.
The nanoscience prize went to Louis E. Brus of Columbia University (USA) and Sumio Iijima of Meijo University (Japan) for their work on carbon nanotubes and “quantum dots,” two landmark achievements in the race to understand the nature of matter at the molecular scale. Iijima’s seminal work on the creation and characterization of nanotubes helped show that these ubiquitous, natural structures can be stronger than steel and have extremely useful electrical properties. Brus introduced the quantum dot, a kind of tiny “molecular flashlight,” and showed that its properties, like those of most substances at this scale, change with size. (In this case, they change color.) These miniature beacons are invaluable tools for studying how molecules interact, and they have immediate application in biomedical studies of drug targeting and response.
In neuroscience, the three laureates share the prize for their work on key features of neurodevelopment. Thomas Jessell of Columbia University (USA) discovered molecular signals that tell a stem cell to become a neuron, and then instruct neurons on how to find and connect to each other and to the rest of the body. Sten Grillner of the Karolinska Institute (Sweden) revealed the essential nature of nerve-muscle circuits in animals that don’t even have a backbone, showing that the same organizing principles are at work throughout the animal kingdom. Pasko Rakic of Yale University School of Medicine (USA) found that the wrinkly surface of the brain, the cortex, develops from the inside out, and that successive waves of neurons migrate along the spoke-like trails blazed by glial cells. The neurons strung along that glial path connect to one another and work as a team forever after, providing the columnar building blocks for higher brain functions.
The Kavli Awards are named after and significantly supported by Fred Kavli, a Norwegian-American engineer who made his fortune in the United States in the field of electronic sensors. He has invested his wealth in support of basic scientific research. The Kavli Prizes are supported jointly by the Kavli Foundation, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, which administers the awards. Winners were selected by three international, blue-ribbon committees, led by Norwegians and composed of members of national academies of science around the world.
Text: Chris Brodie