The 2009 Nobel Prizes

One of the winners of this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry describes the efforts that went into piercing the ribosome's secrets

Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson win the prize for their analyses of cooperation and conflict in economic governance

Nobel Committee makes controversial choice by giving the nod to a sitting U.S. president in the midst of disarmament negotiations

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath first determined how to image the ribosome, then revealed how it does its protein-making work

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz and Ada Yonath for studies of the protein-manufacturing ribosome, with implications for antibiotic development. Steve Mirsky reports

The first commercial test of light-wave telephone service is under way in Chicago. The signals are dispatched over glass fibers in pulses generated by tiny solid-state light sources

The three researchers paved the way for broadband telecommunications and the proliferation of digital photography

The 2009 Nobel Prize in physics goes to Charles Kao of Standard Communications Labs in England and the Chinese University of Hong Kong for the invention of practical optical fiber communication, and George Smith and Willard Boyle of Bell Labs in New Jersey, for inventing the charge-coupled device, the CCD, making digital cameras possible. Steve Mirsky reports

Jack Szostak, who just shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, talks about his latest research on the origin of life. And Scientific American editor George Musser talks to Jonathan Mostow, director of the new Bruce Willis sci-fi thriller Surrogates. Web sites related to this episode include www.snipurl.com/surrogates; www.snipurl.com/telomere; www.snipurl.com/origin

An unusual enzyme called telomerase acts on parts of chromosomes known as telomeres. The enzyme has recently been found in many human tumors and is being eyed as a new target for cancer therapy

Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak are recognized for research into telomeres--a key chromosome component--and the related enzyme telomerase

The 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine goes to Harvard's Jack Szostak, Johns Hopkins's Carol Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn at U.C. San Francisco, for their work on telomeres and telomerase. Steve Mirsky reports

On the eve of the Nobel Prize announcements, the Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded at Harvard, for studies into knuckle-cracking and other vital medical and scientific research. Karen Hopkin retorts

Fresh clues hint at how the first living organisms arose from inanimate matter