Sensing the world around us

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1981

Sight

David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel disclosed the way brain cells decode messages from the eyes. 
human eye.jpg
  • Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1961

    Hearing

    Helped us understand the hearing process.
  • Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2004

    Smell

    Discovered hundreds of receptors for odours.
  • A culinary story

    Taste

    Take a look back at the Nobel Prize banquet menus.
  • Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2021

    Touch

    Discovered the receptors for temperature and touch.

Meet the laureate

“Writing my thesis was the worst time of my life”

Tim Hunt, Nobel Prize laureate in physiology or medicine 2001, met with PhD student Paulina Tan and spoke about what to do when you have ‘scientist’s block’, the difficulties of research and what caused the Nobel Prize laureate to pursue a career in science. Listen in on their conversation.

Discover more from the series Students meet Nobel Prize laureate

Nobel Prize-awarded work

Imagine life without these discoveries

From the glow of blue LEDs to the ‘miracle’ of IVF. These six discoveries not only improve our daily lives, but save them and help create new ones.
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Podcast series: Nobel Prize Conversations

2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

They opened up a new field of chemistry

Listen to the 2025 chemistry laureates talk about their Nobel Prize-awarded work and life learnings in this podcast conversation with Adam Smith.
The 2025 chemistry laureates

Revealing secrets on a tiny scale

Microscopes play a key role in advancing research, in part thanks to the work of Nobel Prize laureates whose breakthroughs have allowed the tool to evolve.
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Five spellbinding works by Nobel Prize laureates

Much like fairy tales, magical realism novels blur the lines between fantasy and reality.
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Nobel Peace Prize documentaries

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Nobel Peace Prize 1917, 1944 and 1963

He gives hope to those who lost a limb

Makur Diet lost his leg to a bullet in war-damaged South Sudan.
Three people seated
  • UNHCR, Nobel Peace Prize 1954 and 1981

    Helps reunite families

    Kamal Hussein is a beacon of hope for Rohingya families torn apart by violence and ethnic cleansing.
  • ICBL, Nobel Peace Prize 1997

    Clears the land of mines

    For the all-female team of Yazidi deminers, one wrong move means certain death.
  • IPCC, Nobel Peace Prize 2007

    Human effects on nature

    Follow one team’s extraordinary mission to help understand how climate change is affecting our planet.
  • Nelson Mandela, Nobel Peace Prize 1993

    Overcoming violence

    This orchestra uses the power of music to help South Africa overcome decades of violence and division.

High hopes for quantum technologies

Applications of quantum technologies are anticipated to improve our daily lives and contribute to solving global challenges.

Women who changed science

Explore the contributions, careers and lives of women who have been awarded Nobel Prizes for their scientific achievements.

A woman in a laboratory

Photo: Johns Hopkins Medicine

The unseen enemy: navigating antimicrobial resistance

The hunt is on to find new antibiotics with the potential to save millions of lives.

More Nobel Prize-awarded work in medicine

Nobel Prize-awarded breakthroughs

A century of life-changing discoveries

Electronic devices help us in our daily lives, while innovations in medicine make life more manageable for people with chronic conditions.
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Family matters

Meet the families with Nobel Prizes.
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Aage Bohr and Niels Bohr on the occasion of the defence of Aage's doctoral thesis, 1954.

Photo: Niels Bohr Archive, Copenhagen.