NOBEL PRIZES
Alfred Nobel's Legacy
Tomorrow when the Nobel Prizes are handed out in Stockholm, Sweden, the world will pay homage to some of the crowning intellectual achievements of our time in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature, and economics. Tomorrow's recipients will be initiated into the legendary fellowship whose members include Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and Marie Curie .
Most people will give only momentary attention to the groundbreaking accomplishments of the individual recipients. And, more than likely, most will be even more fleeting in their reflection on the benefactor himself -- Alfred Nobel -- inventor, poet, industrialist, pacifist; fluent in Swedish, Russian, French, English and German.
Driven by his inquisitiveness in chemistry, Nobel's research in the controlled detonation of nitroglycerin earned him a patent for dynamite (TNT), one of 350 patents granted him, for an array of inventions that laid the foundation for the industrialization of the modern world, through the blasting of rock, building of canals, and drilling of tunnels. He garnered enormous wealth from more than 90 explosives and munitions factories in 20 countries.
Notably, the Peace Prize is not among the awards given out in Stockholm tomorrow night, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The fanfare of this preeminent presentation is saved, as directed in his will, for a separate commemoration held in Oslo, Norway on the same night.
Alfred Nobel was galvanized to establish The Peace Prize, the original of the distinguished awards, upon learning of an erroneous report in a French newspaper of his own death, rather than that of his brother. The headline synopsized the exposives magnate's life with "Le marchand de la mort est mort" (the merchant of death is dead). Confronted with the devastating realization that his lifetime commitment to promoting peace and world improvement through building and industrialization risked being sullied by the violent use of his inventions, Alfred Nobel committed the riches from his exposives dynasty to the permanent endowment of the Nobel Foundation, including the Peace Prize, the world's most prestigious recognition of commitment to global peace.
http://nobelprize.org/alfred_nobel/
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About Me
- Julie Greenberg Hazan
- Julie Greenberg Hazan practices Intellectual Property Law at the law firm of Gifford, Krass in the Detroit area, under her professional name Julie Greenberg. She graduated from the University of Michigan School of Law in 1985. She and her husband are parents to 3 teens/young adults.
Nitroglycerine isn't just an explosive and a munition. It's also a powerful drug, a vasodilator which has long been used to treat episodes of coronary insufficiency.
ReplyDeleteThe pharmacology of nitrates causing this effect (via nitrous oxide) was actually the topic for the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998.
The life-saving use of nitrates for heart disease was not only a paradox in our times. When it was used to treat none other than Alfred Nobel, he was struck that they chose a less menacing for the therapy, calling it "Trinitrin".
Nitrates & the vasodilator effects of NO are also the mechanism for the Viagra-like drugs, known as PGE-5 inhibitors inhibits, and even for the older abusables called poppers.
ReplyDeleteMakes it sound like the macho nature of munitions, the testosterone link to military aggression might also be mediated by a nitrate vascular effects? Nah. We're only talking blood flow, not libido or aggressiveness.