This year's roll of Nobel honour

It has been a week of Nobel prizes – with the economics prize to be announced on Monday. Here’s a quick guide to who has won what, and why

THE NOBEL PRIZE for PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINEAwarded "for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase" to Elizabeth H Blackburn, an Australian-American biological researcher from the University of California; Carol W Greider, a molecular biologist from John Hopkins University School of medicine in Baltimore; and Jack W Szostak, a biologist and pioneering geneticist of Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Why: Telomeres are found on the end of chromosomes and telomerase is the enzyme that forms the ends of those chromosomes. The three scientists solved an age-old biology question when they discovered how chromosomes can be copied in a complete way when cells divide, and how they are protected against degradation.

In a nutshell, their discovery will enable breakthrough developments in therapeutic strategies to fight previously unbeatable cells in illnesses including cancer.

CHEMISTRY"For studies and structure of unction of the Ribosome" was awarded to Venkatraman Ramakrishan, an Indian-born structural biologist at Cambridge, Thomas A Steitz, of Yale University, and Ada E Yonath, an Israeli crystallographer.

Why: Ribosomes are found in all living cells. They produce proteins which translate DNA information into life in the chemistry of all living organisms. The winners showed for the first time what a ribosome looks like and how it works. They mapped the position of hundred of thousands of atoms by using a method called X-ray crystallography which will help in the development of treatments for various diseases. Most of today’s antibiotics cure diseases by blocking the function of bacterial ribosomes, which bacteria need in order to survive. The winners generated 3D models of how different antibiotics affect the ribosome and these models are now being used to develop new antibiotics.

PHYSICSOne half went to Charles K Kao – working out of both the UK and Hong Kong – "for ground-breaking achievements concerning the transmission of light fibres for optical communication". Willard S Boyle, a Canadian physicist, and George E Smith, an American scientist, both of Bell Laboratories in New Jersey, share the other half "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – CCD sensors".

Why: In 1966, Kao discovered how to transmit light over long distances via pure glass fibre-optic cables, which became pivotal for modern communication networks that carry phone calls and high speed internet data all around the world. Willard Boyle and George Smith’s Charged Couple Device (CCD) was the first imaging technology using a digital sensor. By designing an image sensor that could transform light into a large number of image points, or pixels, they revolutionised photography, enabling pictures to be captured digitally rather than on film.

LITERATUREAwarded to Herta Müller, a Romanian-born German novelist "who with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose depicts the landscape of the disposed".

Why: Born in 1953, in the historically German-speaking town of Nitchidorf, Muller grew up as part of Romania’s German minority. Her father served in the Waffen SS during the second World War, and her mother survived five years in a slave labour camp during and after the war. Feted for her exposure of the horrors of totalitarianism, her 1993 novel The Land of Green Plums dealt with Ceausescu’s Romania, and this year’s Atemschaukel, meaning “Everything I Own I Carry With Me”, uses one man’s story as representative of the Soviet Union’s brutal treatment of millions.

PEACEMuch to the world's surprise, it was yesterday awarded to Barack Obama for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".

Why: “Very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the Nobel committee said in its citation. His work in reducing the world’s nuclear arsenal was also pivotal. His critics in the US are unimpressed, as are some Arab and Muslim commentators, who feel it is a little premature. Time magazine yesterday commented that “the award also risks adding to the huge burden of expectations that Obama carried when he entered office. The reality of governing has already proved how ridiculous many of those expectations were.” As for Obama, he is “humbled”, although a senior adviser admitted they were “stunned”.