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Nobel Prize Conversations
Alain Aspect: Nobel Prize Conversations
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"I settled a debate between Bohr and Einstein – which is not bad!" – Meet physicist and 2022 Nobel Prize laureate Alain Aspect, who speaks of his respect for both of these giants of physics. He also opens up about his love of teaching and explaining difficult things and shares how his teachers as well as Jules Verne's novel L'île Misterieuse sparked his interest in science and convinced him that with science and engineering you can build a new world.
The host of this podcast is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer at Nobel Prize Outreach.Nobel Prize Conversations is produced in cooperation with Fundación Ramón Areces.
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First Reactions | Nihon Hidankyo, Nobel Peace Prize 2024 | Telephone interview
03:00|“The dream came true!” The prize came as a big surprise, says Masako Wada, a representative from the Japanese organisation Nihon Hidankyo, which works to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons. In this interview shortly after learning about the Nobel Peace Prize 2024, she shares her deep concerns on the world’s backlash on nuclear disarmament, not least after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “Rather than anger, I feel sorrow and fear how deep humans will fall into darkness.”First Reactions | Han Kang, Nobel Prize in Literature 2024 | Telephone interview
07:30|”I’m so surprised and honoured.” 2024 literature laureate Han Kang had just finished dinner with her son at her home in Seoul when she received the news. In this interview with the Nobel Prize, she reflects on being the first South Korean literature laureate and talks about how writers as a collective have influenced her. “All their efforts and strengths have been my inspiration.” Han Kang also talks about her writing process on the international hit “The Vegetarian”, and recommends her most recent book “We Do Not Part” for anyone who’s curious to start reading her books.First Reactions | David Baker, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 | Telephone interview
06:15|“I got the phone call and my wife promptly started screaming.” News of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry gave David Baker’s household a very early wake up call. Here, just after the prize announcement, Baker speaks to the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith about the exciting potential of building brand new proteins, the inspirational effect his fellow laureates have had on his field and whether it is necessary to understand how predictive algorithms work.First Reactions | John Jumper, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 | Telephone interview
03:34|“It’s absolutely extraordinary.” John Jumper had just heard the news of his 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry when he spoke to the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith. “I thought I had a 10 % chance,” he reveals. To save his nerves, his plan had been to sleep in until after the announcement, which didn’t quite work out. In the interview, he talks about being the youngest chemistry laureate in over 70 years, and about AI’s role in science. “What I love about all this is that we can draw a straight line from what we do to people being healthy.”First Reactions | Demis Hassabis, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 | Telephone interview
05:08|“The best scientists paired with these kinds of tools will be able to do incredible things.” Demis Hassabis, 2024 Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry, reflects on building the right research environment and the interplay between AI and individual scientists. This short conversation with Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith was recorded just after he had received the call from Stockholm.First Reactions | John Hopfield, Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 | Telephone interview
10:02|“You have to build up from the bottom.” In this interview shortly after the announcement, 2024 physics laureate John Hopfield talks about how he found out about the prize when he was going through his e-mails. ”It didn't sink it until I got to the fourth e-mail!” Hopfield reflects on how to tackle big questions, such as how the mind works, in this conversation. He and his wife Mary Waltham spoke to the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith from his cottage in the village of Selborne in England, which was home to the 18th century naturalist Gilbert White.First Reactions | Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 | Telephone interview
06:47|“How could I be sure it wasn’t a spoof call?” 2024 physics laureate Geoffrey Hinton received the phone call from Stockholm at around 2am in a hotel room in California, and multiple Swedish accents helped reassure him that his Nobel Prize in Physics was real. Greatly surprised, he talks to the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith about the state of machine learning, the pressing need for safety research, and his hopes that the award might make people take the fears he voices more seriously.First Reactions | Victor Ambros, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024 | Telephone interview
05:38|“We see it as a celebration of the way of doing science,” says Victor Ambros of his Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In this call with the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith, Ambros speaks about the joy of basic research and the ever-expanding fascination of RNA. Recorded just after Ambros found out about the prize, we also discover how the news was broken to the new laureate by his son, who began with the leading question, “Have you been getting calls from Sweden?”First Reactions | Gary Ruvkun, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024 | Telephone interview
06:26|“I heard what sounded like an authentic call from the Nobel Committee!” New medicine laureate Gary Ruvkun might have received a prank call or two in the past, but today’s was genuine. He talked to the Nobel Prize’s Adam Smith minutes after hearing the news, about the pleasure of finding things out, the electrifying growth of the microRNA field over the years, and the benefits of taking time out. And as for what’s about to follow: “It’s going to be a fun ride!”