The Nobel Prize

What creates sustained economic growth? Investigate with your students in our latest Nobel Prize lesson. The lesson explores this year’s economic sciences prize, which provided new insights into what is necessary for continued economic growth. Find the teacher material, which includes a short video and a student assignment here: https://bit.ly/4qgC63E

Have you read the ‘Kristin Lavransdatter’ trilogy by Sigrid Undset? It’s the epic story of one woman's life in 14th century Norway from childhood to death. Sensitive and rebellious Kristin is sent to a convent as a girl, where she meets the charming but irresponsible Erlend. Defying her parents' wishes to pursue her own desires, she marries and raises seven sons. However, her husband's political ambitions threaten catastrophe for the family, and the couple become increasingly estranged as the world around them tumbles into uncertainty. Learn more about its author, Undset, who was awarded the 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature “principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages”: https://lnkd.in/eEX7jfjz

#OnThisDay in 1958 Boris Pasternak, author of 'Doctor Zhivago', sent a telegram accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature before declining it just four days later. Pasternak is one of four laureates forced to decline the prize by government authorities. When he originally accepted the prize he said he was "immensely thankful, touched, proud, astonished, abashed." Although Pasternak did not accept the prize, his rejection did not alter the validity of the award and he remains a Nobel Prize laureate. Learn more: https://bit.ly/2ZRYQO9 Photo: Boris Pasternak in 1959. Credit: Unknown source via Wikimedia commons.

Can you imagine reading works by all Nobel Prize laureates in literature? One book club in Canberra, Australia have spent over ten years exploring the literary worlds of 121 literature laureates. The book club members come from an array of backgrounds: poets, artists and those that work in the sciences. It began when Bernadetta Hence, who loves reading, became curious about the Nobel Prize laureates in literature. Her colleague Lenore Coltheart, a historian, joined her and encouraged the development of the club. At the end of August 2025, the book club members completed their goal of reading all laureates from 1901 to 2024. At their final meeting they discussed the works of Juan Ramón Jiménez (1956), Joseph Brodsky (1987) and Günter Grass (1999). When asked what books they enjoyed most during these eleven years, they mentioned many Scandinavian writers such as Thomas Tranströmer, Selma Lagerlöf and Jon Fosse. Gabriela Mistral, Wislawa Szymborska and John Steinbeck were also favourites. Now the 2025 Nobel Prize laureate, László Krasznahorkai, has been announced these avid readers have a new writer to add to their list. How many literature laureate's books have you read? Photo: Ulrika Eriksson

Teach your students the importance of peace and how we can fight for democracy. With this lesson on the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, your students get to learn about this year's peace laureate, Maria Corina Machado, who is a unifying force for the political opposition against the authoritarian rule in Venezuela. She has been prevented from running for election and lives in hiding due to the threats she is facing. Don't miss the informative short video for use with your class: https://bit.ly/47hnmJ7

Did you know that 5% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions are created by electricity for lighting? The work of three physics laureates is making a positive difference. Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura invented efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white LED bulbs, which illuminate everything from Christmas trees to football stadiums. LED light sources have the least environmental impact. They use at least 75% less energy and last around 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs, but they are not used everywhere. A global shift to energy efficient bulbs such as LEDs is urgently needed, and could help to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more about their work and five other innovations that have changed our everyday lives for the better: https://lnkd.in/ecC6u9iH

"There is fear... but in our hearts we know we must do this job." Ishrat Rahim is one of almost 400,000 women working across Pakistan to vaccinate the country's 40 million children against polio. In her work, she often encounters suspicion and mistrust, due to cultural and religious reasons. While she works, she and her female colleagues are constantly protected by armed guards. Despite sometimes threatening situations, she persistently continues her work to convince the city’s residents of the benefits of the vaccine and the potential for eradicating polio. This clip is from the documentary 'Shadows in Sunlight', one in a series of films that explore how researchers and health care professionals are building on the foundation laid by Nobel Prize laureates to prevent and treat diseases today. The film was made possible through a collaboration between Nobel Prize Outreach and Grain Media, with support from the Novo Nordisk Foundation #WorldPolioDay

In the 20th century polio was one of the most worrying childhood diseases with epidemics in a large number of cities. Today polio is almost eradicated thanks to a safe and effective vaccine. The virus causing polio was discovered in 1908 by Karl Landsteiner and Erwin Popper. Landsteiner was later awarded a Nobel Prize for another discovery - that of human blood groups. Later, in 1949, Enders, Weller and Robbins showed how to produce large quantities of the virus and was awarded the 1954 ‪‎Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Jonas Salk applied the Enders-Weller-Robbins technique and developed a polio vaccine in 1952. Visualising the 3D structure of a polio vaccine was enabled by yet another Nobel Prize awarded discovery. Cryo-EM, or cryo-electron microscopy, allows scientists to see intricate details in biological structures. Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson were awarded the 2017 chemistry prize for their work developing the technique.

Immerse your classroom in the literary world of 2025 Nobel Prize laureate and author László Krasznahorkai. Teach your pupils to write like a Nobel Prize author and unlock their writing potential with our newly released Nobel Prize lesson. Don't miss the short video with our Nobel Prize expert Gustav Källstrand. The lesson is available here: https://bit.ly/4nauQDO

"We fail much more than we ever succeed. We know that. We accept that. We're amazing at dealing with failure. That's what scientists do." 2021 chemistry laureate David MacMillan on what failure means to him as a scientist. On 3 November, MacMillan joins other laureates and expert panellists to discuss what future we want to build for ourselves and for the next generation of scientists. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gT4JHsTu