Tag Archives: Nobel Prize

Jew of the Week: Rita Levi-Montalcini

The Secret to Living 100 Years

Rita Levi-Montalcini: Knight, Senator, Neurologist, Centenarian

Rita Levi-Montalcini was born in Italy in 1909, and still goes to work every day at the European Brain Institute. If you didn’t catch that: she is 103 years old. That makes her the only Nobel Prize winner in history to live 100 years. She won the prize together with fellow Jew Stanley Cohen for discovering Nerve Growth Factor, the main protein involved in neurological development. Levi-Montalcini went to medical school in the 1930s, but was barred from being a physician by Mussolini’s race laws that prevented Jews from holding academic professions. So she set up a laboratory in her home and studied the nerves of chickens. This was the basis for many of her future discoveries. Wherever her family fled during the war, Levi-Montalcini set up mobile labs; at one point even running a genetics lab from her bedroom! After the war she continued her research and taught at Washington University for 30 years. She has won the National Medal of Science, and was knighted, too. In 2001, Levi-Montalcini was appointed a senator for life and is the eldest member of Italy’s Upper House. Her advice for living a long and healthy life: “minimal sleep, limited food intake, and always keeping the brain active and interested.”

UPDATE: Sadly, Rita Levi-Montalcini passed away in December of 2012, seven months after this post was originally published.

Words of the Week

Walking is man’s best medicine.
– Hippocrates 

Jew of the Week: Lise Meitner

The Mother of the Atomic Bomb

Lise Meitner

Lise Meitner (1878-1968) was born in Vienna, the daughter of the first Jewish lawyer in Austria. Meitner showed an early interest in nuclear physics, working alongside such greats as Max Planck and Neils Bohr. Following World War I (in which she served as an x-ray nurse), Meitner discovered the famous “Auger effect”, but all the recognition was taken from her and given to Pierre Auger, hence the name. Soon after, she became the first-ever female professor of physics in Germany, but it did not last. Meitner was forced to flee from the Nazis. Over the course of her career, she helped discover many new elements of the periodic table, but by far her greatest achievement was the discovery of nuclear fission. Meitner was the first to show a nuclear chain reaction can release tremendous amounts of energy, the basis for nuclear bombs (and power plants). This inspired celebrity genius Albert Einstein to write a letter to President Roosevelt, initiating the Manhattan Project. Meitner was asked to work on the Project, but she refused with the words: “I will have nothing to do with a bomb!” Nonetheless, she is often called the Mother of the Atomic Bomb. Unbelievably, she was slighted once again when the Nobel prize for nuclear fission was given to Otto Hahn. If it is any consolation, the element Meitnerium (Mt, number 109) is named after her. November 17 was her birthday.

Words of the Week

When something is broken below, repair it above. And know that it is never truly repaired above until it is in order below.
– The Chassidic Masters

 

Jew of the Week is One Year Old! See the Jew that started it all…

Jew of the Week: Rosalind Franklin

The One Who Revealed DNA’s Secret

Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) The world’s most famous biophysicist was born into a wealthy Jewish-British family, well-known for their roles in founding the Jewish state and helping Jews flee from the Nazis. Her great-uncle, Herbert Samuel, was the first observant Jew in history to serve in the British government, and carried the title “Viscount”. From an early age, Franklin was noted for her talent in scientific exploration. Combining her knowledge of biology, chemistry and physics, she was able to produce the highest quality images of DNA and RNA, evidence used by Watson and Crick to deduce DNA’s structure, a breakthrough moment for science. Additionally, she discovered DNA’s two forms (A and B), designed an ingenious method to separate them, and unraveled the mysteries of TM virus. Likely due to high doses of radiation, Franklin battled at least three different types of cancers. But this wouldn’t slow her down. She continued working, publishing 13 papers and serving on the team that developed the vaccine for polio. Unfortunately, she succumbed to her illnesses at a very early age, and was unable to claim her Nobel prize (which is not awarded posthumously). She would become an icon of feminism, breaking the barriers of the then male-dominated world of science. Franklin’s work has been described as “the most beautiful x-ray photographs of any substance ever taken”.

Words of the Week

A person is obligated to say: The entire world was created for me.
– Talmud, Kiddushin 82b