NOBELS GO TO

MAPS, LEDS,
MICROSCOPY
Grant, Andrew
Mole, Beth
Rosen, Meghan
Sanders, Laura
Microscopy: Stefan Hell
Developed microscopy techniques that allow
researchers to:

 Peer into the depths of cells

 Watch neurons shift shapes in learning
brains
 Glimpse clumped-together proteins in
diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's
and Parkinson's
Microscopy: Eric Betzig and W.E.
Moerner
The idea is to
selectively turn
on some
fluorescent
molecules in a
sample, but
leave others
dark. Then move
the focus slightly
to adjacent
molecules, and
repeat.
 Protein network in a
mammalian cell

A cancer cell’s
chromosomes pull
apart
Maps: John O'Keefe
He found that certain cells in the rat’s
hippocampus, became active only
when an animal was in particular spots.
These "place cells" allowed an animal
to form an internal map of its
surroundings.
Maps: May-Britt Moser and Edvard
Moser
They found that
when a rat passed
certain points
arranged in a
hexagonal grid in
space, nerve cells
that form a kind of
coordinate system
for navigation were
activated.
While running in the box
(The rat's trajectory is
shown as a grey line in
the background), the grid
cell fires at specific
locations (red dots),
which form a hexagonal
grid.
LED(light-emitting diode): Isamu
Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano
They successfully used the
difficult-to-handle
semiconductor gallium nitride
to create efficient blue LEDs.

0.3mm LED sample

device on a 1cm-square
GaN substrate
LED(light-emitting diode): Shuji
Nakamura
He developed his own method
for creating high-quality
gallium nitride for making
blue LEDs.
Questions:
 Who discovered the grid cell ?
 What object did Stefan Hell used to shot at
fluorescent molecules?
 Who developed a method for creating high-quality
gallium nitride?
References
 Grant, Andrew, Mole, Beth, Rosen, Meghan, &
Sanders, Laura. (2014). www.sciencenews.org.
 Nobel Media.(2014). www.nobelprize.org.