Major Developments Major Developments by Calendar Year

The 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics has been awarded to Paul Krugman(USA) “for his study on trading methods and location of economic activity(expanding business)” as described by nobel foundation. He secured nobel prize for his contribution to analyse economies of scale( are the cost advantages that a business obtains due to expansion).All the consumers get satisfied for diversity of business and on location of economic activity(any trade can be done in any country).

Krugman proposed New Trade Theory. According to this theory (for trade between rich and poor country), based on the comparative edge, that is, a company or a firm producing products at a cheaper cost than other company, poor country should export agricultural goods to rich country in exchange for industrial goods. Krugman in his theory explains how each country should specialize in producing a few brands of any given type of product, instead of producing in different types of products. If people of different countries wish to buy BMW (Brand car), then it is not profitable to produce BMWs in all countries, as it is very expensive one. It should be produced in few countries (or one) and should be sold in other countries. He also explains in his theory about transportation costs, which lead to the concept of “Home Market effect”. The concept Home market effect is, a country should have a huge demand, goodwill, should be in a position to produce excess goods and export all the excess goods. Krugman always supports globalization, that is, all national economies coming together to form international economy by trade and foreign direct investment.

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Nobel peace prize 2008 has been awarded to Martti Ahtisaari (Finland) for his significant efforts to resolve international conflicts for more than thirty years. Martti Ahtisaari has involved in peacemaking efforts in Namibia, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, Indonesia, and Kosovo in various diplomatic capacities (in a polite manner) as described by Nobel foundation. Unlike other Nobel Prize winers Martii Ahtisaari is not a political leader or controversial figure. He is the former president of Finland (1994–2000).

Ahtisaari has played a prominent role in resolving dispute (which was there for a long time) in Kosovo and declared its independence from Serbia on 17th February 2008. When Yugoslavia had made break up with Kosovo, there were many regoinal conflicts arising, which led to Kosovo war 1999. The result of the war is, United Nations administered Kosovo. However, the politicians of Kosovo did not accept it. They wish to have independence. United Nations asked Serbia to withdraw its forces from Kosovo. Serbia do not want Kosovo to get independence. Ahtisaari brought the parties together on February 2006 to discuss independence of local government, which is an important for the protection of Kosovo and Serb peple. On 24 July 2006, Ahtisaari brought the parties together in Vienna for the first high-level talks on the status of Kosovo issue. On 2 February 2007, UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari delivered a settlement proposal, which included Kosovo Security system, Kosovo Justice system, and religious and cultural heritage. These provisions convinced the leaders of Kosovo. Later, all countries like United States,United Kingdom and other European countries supported Kosovo’s independence after many settlements made by Ahtisaari. Finally, on 7th February 2008 Kosovo parliament declared officially its independence from Serbia.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009 was given to three scientists who produced atom-by-atom maps of the mysterious, life giving ribosome that allows researchers to produce powerful new antibiotics. The ribosome present in the DNA translates the information in the DNA to life. Ada Yonath from Israel and US scientists Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas Steitz shared the 10 million Swedish crown (US$1.4 million) prize for showing how the ribosome operates at the atomic level. According to the Nobel Committee for Chemistry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, since ribosomes are crucial to life, they are major target for new antibiotics.

A method known as X-Ray crystallography was used to pinpoint each of the hundreds of thousands of atoms present in the ribosome. The technique involves impinging X-rays at a crystal. The rays are scattered when they impinge on the atoms and by looking at how they spread out, scientists can determine where atoms are positioned. Yonath was the first person to research into this area when she first tried the method on the ribosome. She began by taking a microorganism found in the nearby Dead Sea and crystallizing its ribosomes by freezing them at nearly minus 200 degree Celsius. But it took another 20 years before a full map was made. The three scientists arrived to the same conclusion almost simultaneously in 2000, publishing crystal structures that were sharply enough defined to locate atoms. The research has vast implications in the field of medicine, since fifty percent of all antibiotics target the ribosome, this finding can lead to the development of other substances that can block and disturb bacteria in our bodies.

German novelist, Herta Muller has become the 12th woman in 108 years to win the Nobel Prize for literature. She was praised by the Nobel judges for depicting the landscape of the dispossessed with the concentration of poetry and frankness of prose. Muller constantly returns to the oppression, dictatorship, and exile of her own life in her novels, essays, and poems. Worth 10 million Swedish kronor the Nobel is awarded to “the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”, as described in Alfred Nobel’s will of 1895.

According to the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, Peter Englund, Muller had the capacity of really giving you the sense of what it was to live in a dictatorship, to be as a minority in another country and to live in exile. Muller has a very fine tuned precision in her language.

Born in Romania in 1953, Muller rejected to work together with Ceausescu’s Securitate, lost her job as a teacher, and was a subject of repeated threats until she emigrated in 1987. She now lives in Berlin, where she has received a multitude of literary awards, including Germany’s most prestigious, the Kleist prize, the Frankz Kafka, and the 100,000 Euro Impac award for Hertzier.