Left to right: John O’Keefe; May-Britt Moser, Edvard MoserUCL, DAVID BISHOP; WIKIMEDIA, THE KAVLI INSTITUTE/NTNUThe Nobels
John O’Keefe, May-Britt Moser, and Edvard Moser won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work identifying the cellular components and networks behind the mammalian brain’s so-called inner GPS. “This is a fascinating area of research,” Colin Lever, a senior lecturer in the department of psychology at Durham University in the U.K., who earned a PhD and continued postdoctoral research in O’Keefe’s lab, told The Scientist in October. “What we’re discovering about the brain through spatial mapping is likely of greater consequence than just for understanding about space. . . . Indeed, it seems to support autobiographical memory in humans.”
Left to right: Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, William Moerner ILL. N. ELMEHED. © NOBEL MEDIA 2014; WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, K. LOWDER
Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, and William Moerner won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in recognition of their contributions to nanoscale microscopy, enabling scientists to image living cells in real time at super high resolution. “This isn’t something that was done 20 years ago and has matured now. We’re all still really excited about further developing these methods and applying them to different problems in biology,” Mark Bates, a postdoc in Hell’s lab, told The Scientist. “These are tools that are going to push forward the fields of neurobiology, cell biology, structural biology.”
Kazutoshi Mori (left), Peter Walter (right)ALBERT AND MARY LASKER FOUNDATIONThe Laskers
Kazutoshi Mori and Peter Walter won the 2014 Lasker Award for basic medical research for their research on the unfolded protein response. “Mori and Walter’s work has led to a better understanding of inherited diseases such as cystic fibrosis, retinitis pigmentosa, and certain elevated cholesterol conditions in which unfolded proteins overwhelm the unfolded protein response,” the Albert and Mary Lasked Foundation announced in September.
The Kavlis
Nobel Laureate O’Keefe shared a 2014 Kavli Prize in neuroscience with Brenda Milner and Marcus Raichle. Nobel Laureate Hell shared a 2014 Kavli Prize in nanoscience with Thomas Ebbesen and John Pendry.
In memory
February 6: Alison Jolly, who discovered that females dominate social hierarchy in lemurs
March 1: Alejandro Zaffaroni, who launched companies that developed birth control pills, microarrays, and transdermal drug patches
May 4: Alan Friedman, who renovated and reinvigorated the New York Hall of Science and pioneered interactive hands-on exhibits
May: Jean-Claude Bradley, the chemist known as the father of the Open Notebook Science movement
May 12: Melvin Glimcher, inventor of the prosthetic “Boston Arm,” which moves in response to electrical signals from the wearer
June 24: Carlos Barbas III, renowned organic chemist
July 5: Peter Marler, best known ...
