Breakthrough Prize – 2014
The winners of the largest scientific prize have been announced
12 scientists received three million dollars each, The Guardian reports. Unlike the Nobel Prize, the Breakthrough Prize is awarded to researchers who have just started their activities in science.
The Biomedical Prize was awarded to Jennifer Doudna from the USA and Emmanuelle Charpentier from Germany for the discovery of the Crispr/Cas9 mechanism that protects bacteria from viral attacks. This system detects viruses by DNA and releases the Cas9 enzyme, which works like scissors, cutting the genetic material of the aggressor. However, scientists have found out that using Crispr/Cas9 it is possible to rewrite defective human DNA, replacing damaged genes with healthy ones.
Also, four more biologists received three million dollars each: Frenchman Alim Louis Benabid – for developing the technique of deep brain Stimulation (DBS), which revolutionized the treatment of Parkinson's disease, Americans David Ellis (C David Allis), Gary Ruvkun (Gary Ruvkun) and Victor Victor Ambros – for his work in the field of gene regulation.
The Breakthrough Prize in fundamental physics was awarded to Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, Adam Riess and 48 of their colleagues on the project, which has already received the 2011 Nobel Prize for research that proved the accelerated expansion of the Universe. The winners of the Breakthrough Prize in mathematics were Maxim Kontsevich, a French scientist of Russian origin, Simon Donaldson and Richard Taylor, an American-Australian scientist of Chinese origin Terry Tao and Jacob Lurie, an American.
All this year's laureates will be included in a special committee that will determine who will receive the award in 2015.
The founders of the award held an award ceremony with the participation of show business stars: among the presenters were PayPal and Tesla founder Elon Musk, Twitter President Dick Costolo, actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Kate Beckinsale and Cameron Diaz, singer Christina Aguilera (Christina Aguilera). The banquet dishes (including lasagna with black truffles and a black caviar appetizer) were prepared by Thomas Keller, the chef of the French Laundry restaurant.
The Fundamental Physics Prize was established by Internet entrepreneur and former physicist Yuri Milner in 2012. In 2013, it was followed by the biomedical Breakthrough Prize, in the creation of which Milner was joined by Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and his ex-wife Ann Vozhitsky. In addition to the largest prizes of three million, the Milner Foundation also awards smaller Physics Frontiers and New Horizons in Physics Prizes intended for young researchers.
The main purpose of the award, according to its founder, is to popularize scientific research and give scientists the status of real stars. However, the Breakthrough Prize is often criticized for the fact that huge funds (more than a hundred million dollars have already been distributed, not counting the fees for the participants of the award ceremonies) could serve science better if they were spent on research projects or grants to needy scientists from poor countries of the planet.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.11.2014