Inside Science's Weekly Newsletter

What Happened in Science this Week

Because this is the week that the Nobel Prizes are announced, our team has been reporting on the winners for physiology or medicine, physics, and chemistry, as well as follow up stories related to the prizes. Unfortunately, our predictions missed the mark this week. It's possible that the Peace Prize will recognize the remarkable work that medical workers, vaccine researchers, or public health authorities have done during the global pandemic, but that the prize isn't announced until Friday morning. We have stories that summarize each of the science prizes, along with a story about what researchers haven't yet discovered about how bodies sense pain. We even had one about forensic research related to letters between Marie Antoinette and a Swedish count (that last one is not related to any of the 2021 Nobel Prizes).   Chris Gorski, Senior Editor The 2021 Nobel Prizes In Physiology or Medicine, Physics and Chemistry Physics Nobel Recognizes the Science of Complex Systems Two scientists share the prize for modeling Earth's climate, while a third is honored for discovering hidden patterns in the behavior of disordered complex materials.                                    By Catherine Meyers, Editor There's So Much More To Explain About How Bodies Sense Pain The medicine Nobel Prize recognized researchers studying how our bodies sense temperature and touch. Pain is much more complicated.                                                                 By Brian Owens, Contributor Marie Antoinette's Censored Letters Revealed with X-Rays A new study looked beneath blacked-out portions of letters to see if a relationship with a Swedish count was more than a friendship.                                         By Katharine Gammon, Contributor How Tree Rings Can Encode a Violin's Age and Place of Origin Will Sullivan, Staff Writer                                                                                                                                          2 Share Chemistry Nobel Prize for Developing New Way to Make Organic Molecules Chris Gorski, Editor 2 Share Medicine Nobel for Discovering Receptors for Touch and Temperature Haley Weiss, Staff Writer Barney Graham laid the groundwork for the world to battle this pandemic, and the scientists he mentored will equip us for the next one By Carolyn Johnson, Washington Post This profile of recently retired vaccine scientist Barney Graham explains how a small team he led at the National Institutes of Health became one of the key groups involved in developing what writer Carolyn Johnson calls "the scientific foundation for the vaccines that altered the course of the pandemic." It's a richly detailed story that starts in Geneva a few weeks before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and takes readers through Graham's long and fascinating life and career.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Radiometric dating puts pieces of the past in context. Here's how By Sid Perkins, Science News To understand the story of an object, it's important to know its age. This story explains how radioactive elements are used as the clocks that reveal the age of bones, artifacts and even rocks. The technology continues to get better, faster and more detailed. How Will We Remember Coal? By Jessica M. Smith, Sapiens Magazine What happens when the coal industry leaves a mine, and a town, and a way of life behind? What happens to the equipment and the people, and how can we make sense of that change? This is a thought-provoking essay and exploration of those questions, written by an anthropologist, filled with humanity and empathy. Read More from Inside Science Copyright 2021 American Institute of Physics. Inside Science syndicates its articles, columns, blogs and videos to news organizations. To initiate syndication, or request permission to republish our content (on a one-time or continuing basis), please contact Inside Science at insidescience@aip.org. News organizations seeking permission to republish Inside Science content must fully credit Inside Science as the original source of the content, include the author byline, and republish the original, unaltered form (excluding content titles, headlines, or sub-headlines). The reprint format can be seen here. Copyright conditions and usage terms are subject to change at any time without consent or any type of prior notice. To unsubscribe from all future mailings from Inside Science please click here. To manage your email subscriptions please click here.

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