麻豆视频

Nobel Conference

Nobel Conference panel discussion

Science and Ethics, in Dialogue

Since 1965, the Nobel Conference has been bringing leading researchers and thinkers to 麻豆视频, to explore revolutionary, transformative and pressing scientific issues and the ethical questions that arise alongside them. As the only event in the United States authorized by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden to use this name, it is our privilege to host a space in which we can talk about big scientific questions, and the big ethical issues to which they inevitably give rise. The world needs more people who think critically about the crucial issues of our time, and who ask questions in ways that open up the conversation.

2025 Nobel Sugard visual
Nobel conference teacher and students watching lecture

Nobel Conference Speakers

Sugar Less: Conquer Your Addiction

Her Lecture

We rely on sugar for flavor and energy, but too much affects our health negatively on multiple fronts. In this talk, we'll unpack how added sugars鈥攅specially those found in sodas, sweetened beverages, and processed foods鈥攁ffect our bodies and hearts, and explore just how much might be "too much." A growing body of evidence shows that high intake of added sugars is linked to serious health problems, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, fatty liver, and hypertension. These effects aren鈥檛 just about extra calories鈥攕ugar, particularly in liquid form, can directly promote fat storage in the liver, raise blood pressure and blood fats, and worsen insulin resistance. More recently, research has revealed new pathways through which sugar may harm health. A large study of Latino adults found that people who consumed more sugary drinks had changes in their gut bacteria and blood metabolites that predicted a higher risk of type 2 diabetes over time. These findings suggest that added sugars can disrupt metabolism in ways that go beyond what we鈥檝e traditionally measured. Artificial sweeteners are often used as substitutes, but they are not a free pass. Emerging studies suggest that some non-nutritive sweeteners may also disrupt the gut microbiome and negatively affect metabolic responses in certain individuals.

 

Biography and Background

The concept of food addiction has garnered increasing scientific interest, particularly in the context of how sugar-rich foods engage neural circuits implicated in reward, motivation, and addiction. Unlike traditional models of obesity that focus on caloric surplus and metabolic imbalance, recent neuroscientific findings indicate that excessive and repeated consumption of sugar can produce neuroadaptive changes that mirror those seen in substance use disorders. This presentation synthesizes current evidence from neuroimaging, behavioral, and clinical studies that investigate the addictive potential of sugar.

Functional neuroimaging studies, including positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have revealed that sugar consumption robustly activates dopaminergic pathways, notably within the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area鈥攔egions integral to the brain鈥檚 reward system. Chronic overexposure to sugar has been associated with neuroplastic changes, such as downregulation of D2 dopamine receptors and altered prefrontal cortex activity, potentially impairing inhibitory control and reinforcing compulsive intake. Animal models further demonstrate that intermittent sugar access can induce behavioral phenotypes analogous to drug addiction, including bingeing, withdrawal, and craving. Clinically, individuals exhibiting signs of sugar addiction often report a loss of control over intake, persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down, and continued use despite adverse consequences鈥攃riteria consistent with those outlined in the DSM-5 for substance-related disorders.

These findings have significant implications for understanding the neural underpinnings of compulsive eating behaviors and refining intervention strategies. By elucidating the neurobiological mechanisms by which sugar hijacks reward-related brain circuits, this research contributes to a growing body of evidence supporting the classification of certain dietary behaviors as addictive. This presentation will critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of the sugar addiction model, address ongoing controversies in the field, and explore how these insights may inform the development of neuroscience-informed prevention and treatment strategies for obesity and related conditions.

She works at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience.

Glycans: the Sugars Coating Our Cells

Biography and Background

Human cells鈥搇ike all cells on Earth鈥揳re covered with sugars: large carbohydrate molecules called glycans. Glycans have vastly more complex chemical structures than sucrose, the substance we know as table sugar. In humans, they are long, branching chains of complex carbohydrates formed from nine types of simple sugars called monosaccharides. (By contrast, sucrose is formed from two such monosaccharides, glucose and fructose.) 

In textbook drawings of cells, glycans are often depicted simply as halos around a cell. That鈥檚 because until recently, little was known about the structure and role of these sugars. As chemical biologist Carolyn Bertozzi often notes, when giving a lecture to a popular audience, she first learned about glycans in a college biochemistry course, where they were described as being like the coating on a peanut M&M: a smooth protective surface that guarded the cell鈥檚 inner workings. Period. Bertozzi has spent her career exploring glycans: working to understand their structure and identifying ways they can be manipulated to be used as the basis of diagnostics or therapeutics. It turns out they are almost nothing like that delicious candy coating. 

Glycans represent an important potential source of treatments for cancer and a range of genetic and autoimmune diseases. The glycans on cell surfaces protect healthy cells from the immune system鈥ut they can also shield harmful cells like cancer cells in tumors. Researchers at , one of eight startup companies Bertozzi has co-founded, are developing ways to chemically alter glycans on specific cells so that the immune system can target and eliminate cancer cells. In December 2024, Palleon entered into a clinical collaboration with the biopharmaceutical company Henlius for a , using a Palleon glycan editing platform. 

 In addition to her innovative work at the interface of chemistry and biology, Bertozzi is well known for her support of underrepresented scientists. When Bertozzi won the 2024 Priestley Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Society lauded her both for her work in chemistry and for her efforts to shape the culture of the field of chemistry. A press releas announcing her prize notes that 鈥渨hen she began her career, 叠别谤迟辞锄锄颈鈥檚 field barely tolerated a person like her.鈥 Bertozzi is a lesbian. The press release goes on to note that 鈥淏ertozzi epitomizes an ongoing cultural shift in chemistry: from professor as resident of the ivory tower to professor as entrepreneur, from scientific silos to interdisciplinary research and team science, and from an old boys鈥 club to an environment that values diversity of background in all its forms.鈥 In remarks at Stanford in 2022, Bertozzi notes that her team鈥檚 diversity 鈥渃reated an environment where we felt we didn鈥檛 have to play by the same old rules as scientists. We could do things like organic chemistry in living animals鈥攚hy not?鈥

After many years on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, Bertozzi left to join the newly-formed interdisciplinary institute ChEM-H (Chemistry, Engineering, and Medicine for Human Health) at Stanford University. 叠别谤迟辞锄锄颈鈥檚 many awards for her work in chemistry include a MacArthur Fellowship (1999) and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2022). Her efforts to create a new 鈥渃ulture of chemistry鈥 were recognized with the LGBTQ Scientist of the Year award from the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals. 

Carolyn Bertozzi is the Baker Family Director of the ChEM-H Institute at Stanford University. She holds a PhD chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. 

From Luxury to Bulk: Sugar's Global Conquest

His Lecture

Drawing on his book The World of Sugar: How the Sweet Stuff Transformed Our Politics, Health, and Environment over 2,000 Years (Harvard University Press, 2023), Bosma will discuss the earliest evidence of sugar production and explain how traders brought small quantities of precious white crystals to rajahs, emperors, and caliphs during the Middle Ages. Later, when European consumers discovered the sweet stuff, increasing demand spawned a brutal quest for supply, based on enslaved labor. Two-thirds of the 12.5 million Africans taken across the Atlantic were destined for sugar plantations. By the twentieth century, sugar had become a major source of calories in diets across Europe and North America. Sugar has been at the heart of capitalism, and this goes a long way in explaining why it poses such a threat to our bodies, our environment, and our communities.

 

Biography and Background

When you scoop a teaspoon of sugar into your cup of tea or coffee do you ever think about its origins or history? You may know that sugar cane can only be grown in tropical environments. You may also know that sugar was produced by enslaved Africans on tropical islands in the Caribbean beginning in the sixteenth century. These are critical facts for understanding the history of sugar, but there is also much more. Sugar has a wider global history beyond the Atlantic world in terms of its production, trade, and consumption. 

Ulbe Bosma, who hails from the Netherlands, began his study of sugar not in the Caribbean, but in Indonesia. Bosma鈥檚 earliest historical research focused on Karel Zallberg, a journalist involved in anti-colonial politics in Batavia, Java in the Netherlands Indies, now Indonesia. Bosma鈥檚 later work on the Dutch East Indies focused on identity and culture as well as labor exploitation and migration. His fascination with the Netherlands Indies led him to sugar. In 2013 Bosma published a book on the industrialization of sugar production in India and Indonesia beginning in the eighteenth century under European colonialism. The Sugar Plantation in India and Indonesia, 1770-2010 shows the divergent paths India and Java pursued in producing sugar. The British largely failed to produce industrialized sugar in India after the abolition of slavery, but the Dutch succeeded, by bringing the plantation system to Java. 

Bosma鈥檚 interest in commodities, labor, and migration led him to write a global history of sugar. The World of Sugar: How the Sweet Stuff Transformed our Politics, Health, and Environment over 2,000 Years (Harvard, 2024) takes a sweeping look at the history of sugar around the world from the perspective of production, sale, transportation, and consumption. It is a history of culture, business, economics, identity, race, slavery, and capitalism. From Brazil, Cuba, and Jamaica, to India, Taiwan, Java, Egypt, and the United States, Bosma shows us how sugar shaped our world in fundamental ways. Sugar changed our habits of consumption when the Hershey bar came on the market. It led American banks to establish branches in the Caribbean to supply capital to big sugar. And it spurred French engineers to head to Egypt to import their technical expertise. 

Unlike many historians, Bosma brings his research on sugar into the present. In his work on southeast Asia and the global history of sugar, he shows how the exploitation of sugar laborers continues. He also explores how 鈥渃orporate sugar鈥 has flooded our diets with cheap sugar and marketing campaigns. By putting our world鈥檚 current dilemmas about sugar production and consumption into a historical context, Bosma gives us new ways of thinking about sugar past and present. 

Bosma is one of the leaders of the Commodity Frontiers Initiative, a network of scholars committed to studying the role of commodities in our world. Bosma has been a teacher and researcher in Paris, France and Bonn, Germany as well as the Netherlands. He has been awarded a major grant from the European Research Council to support commodities research. Bosma has appeared on BBC radio and published in Time Magazine. He is currently Senior Researcher at the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam and professor of 鈥淚nternational Comparative Social History鈥 at the Free University of Amsterdam. He has a Ph.D. in history from the University of Leiden. 

Sweet light from sugar: The counter-plantation and the trap of imperial discourse

His Lecture

Thought on Haiti is currently framed by ideas and values from the Modern Age not shared by its inhabitants. The emerging concept of statehood in the colonial 鈥淧earl of the Antilles鈥 institutionalized enslavement as a massive, if slow, execution of the workers. After centuries of stubborn resistance, the enslaved workers attempted, in 1791, to put an end to the slaughter. A counter-plantation system emerged, opposed to the avowed aims of modern public life. While the latter creates hierarchies of White, mixed-race, and Black people, Haitian Krey貌l spurns distinctions in skin color, differentiating only between foreigners, or Blan, and locals, or N猫g.

Though linked by power relations, French and Haitian Krey貌l speakers have been living two different realities. The incompatibility of these two realities and their unbearable hierarchy became increasingly apparent as Krey貌l speakers kept invading the public space. The resulting crisis remains insoluble within the framework of modern values. Life flourished out of a laborious search for dignity and sovereignty that the modern State cannot grant the descendants of the enslaved without destroying itself. Since they must solve their problems by themselves, Haitians will not enjoy the sweetness of sugar soon.

 

Biography and Background

Sugar, in the form of refined, added sugar, came into our collective lives through Europe鈥檚 invention of the plantation. The plantation is a modern economic and social institution central to the West鈥檚 project of industrialization, globalization, and racialization. It is a product of colonialism, and sugar cane is its preeminent crop. Through the wholesale abuse and forced labor of captive humans, tropical sugarcane was turned into a global commodity to be consumed by the West even as it consumed the bodies of indigenous people and captives kidnapped from Africa. 

If Europe invented the racist, enslaving, destructive plantation that used forced labor to produce empty, addictive calories for export, what would its opposite look like? Prof. Jean Casimir says we can look to Haiti for an answer: the Haitian people have invented a counter-plantation. If we have ears to listen, Haiti can teach us a lot.

An author, teacher, researcher, and diplomat, Dr. Jean Casimir is Professor of Humanities at the Universit茅 d鈥櫭塼at d鈥橦a茂ti and a renowned scholar of decolonization and historical sociology. He has served as Ambassador of Haiti to the United States, Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States, and as an international civil servant with the United Nations, and he has taught internationally at the Universidad Nacional Aut贸noma de M茅xico; Stanford University; Duke University; University of Utrecht, and University of the West Indies, Mona.

His numerous books, beginning with La cultura oprimida in 1981, seek to understand how a sovereign nation forms out of the hell that was the slave plantation. Published in Spanish, French, Haitian Creole, and English, his scholarship, while historical, becomes more relevant with each passing year, by offering an analytical perspective to examine contemporary (ongoing?) issues of racial injustice, the legacies of slavery, decolonization, and political sovereignty.

His awards include the 2013 Jean-Price Mars Award of the Faculty of Ethnology at the University of Haiti and the 2016 Haitian Studies Association Award for Excellence. His most recent book, The Haitians: A Decolonial History (2020, English translation), received the Frantz Fanon Outstanding Book Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association.

Sugar in the Hands of the Modern Pastry Chef

Her Lecture 

If we trace sugar back to colonial times, we see the beginnings of an industry that stealthily wove its way into our daily lives until it grew to permeate nearly every aspect of our diet. Is there no going back? Pastry chefs have the choice to continue feeding the cravings or influence a change in attitude, one that is deeply rooted in our culture. Let鈥檚 dive into the pastry chef鈥檚 role and view how chefs understand and work with sugar. Sugar is at the core of what pastry chefs do; we manipulate sugar to create stunning works of visual art and edible treats that provide comfort, happiness, and a sense of community. Modern pastry chefs recognize cultural shifts and more are focusing on health-conscious consumers. Psychological and physiological adjustments can be made to gradually rewire our brains to enjoy sweets with less detriment to our bodies.

 

Biography and Background

When we think about sugar, we often think of sweet treats like candies, cookies, and cakes. If you enjoy baking, you might have even searched for a butter cake recipe and encountered one of . For Hsu, sugar is not just an ingredient. It is an art medium. Whether shaped into showpieces or baked into pastries, sugar is at the core of everything she creates.

En-Ming Hsu credits the design and presentation of her desserts to her training in studio arts at Skidmore College. She later pursued formal training in pastry at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. She then used her skills and creativity at some of the most renowned hotels and restaurants in America, including The Ritz-Carlton, Chicago, where she held the position of Executive Pastry Chef.

Today, Hsu continues to use sugar to create desserts that people all over the world can enjoy, often drawing inspiration for her creations at local farmers' markets. As a pastry consultant, she creates recipes for pastry product manufacturers. During the pandemic, she partnered with her sister, Yih-Ming, to launch Sip!, a company offering a nutrient-rich chocolate drink mix.

In addition to consulting and running a business, En-Ming also shares her expertise as a guest chef at culinary educational institutions including the King Arthur Baking Education Center and The French Pastry School. She also has served as a jury member for competitions like the World Pastry Team Championship, where she evaluates the creativity and technical skills of others using sugar.

En-Ming鈥檚 skills earned her several awards, including the Amoretti World Pastry Team Championship 鈥淧astry Chef of the Year鈥 award in 2010, one of the highest honors in the pastry world. She was team captain of the first and only US pastry team to capture the gold medal at the Coupe du Monde de la P芒tisserie (Pastry World Cup) in Lyon, France. Her work has been published leading baking and pastry magazines, as well as several recent books on baking and pastry. 

En-Ming has transformed what most people think of as a simple ingredient into a form of art. From stunning sugar showpieces to classic European and American pastries, and now to luxurious chocolate mixes, she continues to redefine what is possible with sugar.

En-Ming Hsu is the co-creator of Sip! She holds a BA in studio art from Skidmore College. 

How Sweet is Too Sweet? Health Effects of Sugars and Artificial Sweetners

Biography and Background

What does the word 鈥渉ealth鈥 mean to you鈥揳nd what roles does food play in our health? We know that food can heal and food can hurt. An absence of certain foods can cause harm and disease, but too much of certain foods can have the same effect. According to the Pew Research Center, about 40% of people report restricting their consumption of sugar. Is the case against sugar really that simple? Where do we start as we stand in the grocery store aisle and make the choice to put something into the cart or leave it on the shelf?

Dietary guidelines, such as those developed federally by the Departments of Agriculture and of Health and Human Services, and by nonprofit organizations such as the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association, help us understand how to choose foods to aid in the prevention of nutrient deficiencies and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and Type II diabetes. But researchers are discovering that there is much more to the relationship between nutrition and health. It is, for instance, a much more individualized matter than those dietary guidelines might suggest. 

Frank Hu is helping to uncover the vast differences in the ways in which individual bodies metabolize particular nutrients. Thanks to his research, we better understand how certain physiological variables such as lipid profile and physical activity combine with the gut microbial environment to shape how a body responds to sugar, and, further, how these variables can explain why different bodies respond so differently. Hu鈥檚 research is contributing to the development of new strategies for creating personalized nutrition recommendations that can improve our health by taking into account these additional factors. 

Sugar is everywhere and we humans are hardwired to desire it鈥揵ut our bodies don鈥檛 all respond to it in the same way. Furthermore, our bodies respond differently to the forms in which we consume that sugar. A solid body of research suggests that individuals who consume sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) are more likely to develop obesity and Type II diabetes than those who do not. Frank Hu鈥檚 research shows that our bodies鈥 mechanisms for telling us when to stop are at a disadvantage when we consume calories in liquid form. When carbohydrates like sugar are consumed in a liquid form, research indicates that people fail to reduce their total calorie intake in future meals which is referred to as incomplete compensation. Fructose in particular is thought to decrease insulin and leptin release when consumed which may lead to a decrease in the stop signals that are sent to the brain.

Frank Hu takes inspiration from the view that 鈥渇ood is love, food is joy and food is culture.鈥 It seems, however, that at times, love, joy and cultural norms can also be at odds with health. What humans love to eat may also harm. The line between pleasure and pain can become fuzzy. 

An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Frank Hu is the chair of the Department of Nutrition and Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He received his MD from Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, in Wuhan, China, and his PhD in epidemiology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

Sugar as an Economic and Social Commodity

His Lecture

Cane sugar is an ancient commodity but its global reach and impact are only a few centuries old. This impact has been been profound and complex. Its supply has propelled forces of colonization, slavery and commercial trade in complementary goods such as tea, coffee and cocoa. Its cultivation has led to ecological and social destruction and protectionist regimes to subsidize and protect domestic markets. It has encouraged the conversion of beets and maize to produce other sugars. The demand for sugar sweeteners has been a major force in the global spread of obesity and diabetes.

 

Biography and Background

If you think you鈥檝e imagined that young people are drinking more sugar-based carbonated drinks, you鈥檙e not dreaming. Called 鈥渟ugar-sweetened beverages鈥 or SSBs in research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that every day, more than a third of our young people (12 to 17-year-olds) consume one or two SSBs, and a third take in more than two. 鈥淲ell,鈥 you think, 鈥淪o what? Who doesn鈥檛 love an icy soda as a pick-me-up?鈥 Research has consistently found that our bodies do not love it. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) routinely finds that youth SSB consumption contributes to a gamut of persistently poor health outcomes: obesity, Type-2 diabetes, heart disease, non-alcohol-related liver disease, tooth decay with cavities, and a form of arthritis called gout. Although these health outcomes disproportionately burden all youth, such impacts are concentrated disproportionately among non-Hispanic Black youth, and across lower socioeconomic sectors; these are clear signs that lowering SSB consumption has an urgent ethical imperative. 

One impactful research effort toward lowering and reversing youth SSB consumption comes from economics: How much are you willing to shell out for your mid-afternoon jolt of caffeine and sugar? What if you knew that the beverage was being heavily taxed as a way to offset the negative health effects of SSBs? Can we use incentives and disincentives--those ubiquitous economic levers--to change consumption patterns?

Economist C. Ford Runge and a multidisciplinary group of researchers thought so. Their research suggested you鈥檒l be less likely to buy that SSB if you鈥檙e told that the rise in price is linked to a health-related aim, such as offsetting healthcare costs, than if you鈥檙e given no reason for the rise. Specifically, messaging that your price increase helps protect kids and helps lower obesity rates contributed to lower SSB purchases. 

The paper is one example of Runge鈥檚 research on the ways in which incentives and disincentives can affect our buying and consuming behaviors. This set of findings suggests that hitting us in the wallet, when we know it鈥檚 for our own good, can encourage us to reconsider our relationship to sugary drinks and change our buying behavior. 

For much of his career, Ford Runge has studied food and agriculture, examining population-level or policy-level impacts on consumption, health, and hunger. One recent strand of that work examines the impact of food policy on particular populations, of which the sweetened beverage study is one example. An earlier body of research examined the 鈥渇ood versus fuel鈥 debate that arose in response to the move to create ethanol from cellulosic plants such as corn and sugarcane. An often-cited 2008 paper in Foreign Affairs magazine was titled 鈥淗ow Biofuels Could Starve the Poor.鈥 A third strand of food-related research has focused on food insecurity. 

The throughstory across Runge鈥檚 research is an interrogation of policies鈥 everyday impacts on consumers, particularly those who are vulnerable or traditionally marginalized. Whether the topic is agricultural policy, dispersion and labeling of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in our food, or climate implications for global food production, Runge asks the big questions in his research. 

Runge is the recipient of both Rhodes and Fulbright fellowships. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. C. Ford Runge is the Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Applied Economics and Law at the University of Minnesota. He earned his PhD in economics from the University of Wisconsin.

Learn more sugar graphic
  • A chemical definition from the Exploratorium
  • take on the substance
  • A culinary definition from Master Class
  • by pastry chef Rose Levy Berenbaum, author of The Cake Bible, explains the multiple varieties of this baking essential.
  • Britannica explains it, in a nutshell. 

How does sugar enable our bodies to function?

  • from Harvard Med.
  • a summary from the American Diabetes Association
  • a look at medieval uses of sugar, using manuscripts from the British Library. 

 

What health challenges does sugar present for our bodies?

  • reviews the association between high sugar consumption and increased cardiometabolic risk, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Emphasizes the importance of reducing added sugars to improve long-term health outcomes.
  • What are the This article, from the Harvard Medical School, quotes Frank Hu, Nobel Conference presenter.
  • from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition explores the links between the high consumption of particular kinds of sugar and the risks of coronary disease .
  • , from the Harvard Nutrition Source includes recommendations for reducing the consumption of added sugars--and the reasons to do so.

 

The addiction potential of sugar

  • This blog post examines the earliest research on the question

 

Might (some kinds of) sugar become medicines (again)?

  • , the sugars that bathe our cells.
  • Conference presenter Carolyn Bertozzi and Nobel Prize winner tells us , and points to its future therapeutic uses.
  • 叠别谤迟辞锄锄颈鈥檚

Public health and environmental health impacts of sugar consumption

  • Does the long-term consumption of sugar sweetened (or artificially sweetened) beverages pose a public health risk? from the journal Circulation is co-authored by Frank Hu.
  • How does shape adults鈥 consumption of sugar sweetened beverages such as soft drinks? An article from the American Journal of Health Promotion.
  • from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association studying correlations between sugar consumption, race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status
  • Frank Hu: a talk on , delivered to the Harvard Food Systems Initiative.
  • from the Science History Institute explores the relationships between the history of sugar production and the public health implications of increased sugar production (and consumption). 

 

Public policy implications 

  • , an article in the journal Public Health Nutrition coauthored by Nobel Conference speaker Ford Runge
  • another article coauthored by Runge, examines the use of soda taxes to reduce sugar intake and improve public health, with examples from various countries. From The American Interest

Sugar in religious holidays and practices

  • Can you say it with sugar? A of the way cloistered nuns convey meaning through the sweet pastries they create for sale.
  • How is Eid al-Fitr, the feast that ends Ramadan and is sometimes called the Sugar Feast, celebrated around the world? at the holiday from the BBC.
  • explores the Indian tradition of marking new beginnings with something sweet, symbolizing good fortune and positivity. From the Culturally Yours podcast.
  • The history of also from the Culturally Yours podcast.

 

A recipe for your next birthday

  • A developed by conference presenter, pastry chef En-Ming Hsu. 

Sugar in World History - Its roles in imperialism, colonialism and enslavement

  • from the British Museum
  • selections from the Newberry Library
  • This half hour podcast (which includes an interview with conference presenter Ulbe Bosma) explores the ways that sugar has transformed "our politics, health, history and even family relationships."
  • An article on thefrom the Australian Broadcasting Network.
  • and their role in Caribbean enslavement, from the National Museums Liverpool
  • discusses the global impact of sugar production, from its ties to colonialism and slavery to its influence on modern agriculture. Examines the enduring economic and social effects sugar has had on different regions.
  • a five-episode podcast about the present-day sugar industry. Hosted by Celeste Headlee.

Attendee Information

All lectures and panel discussions will be livestreamed and archived.

All Nobel Conference questions may be answered via email at nobelconference [at] gustavus.edu (nobelconference[at]gustavus[dot]edu).

Nobel Conference lectures and panel discussions take place in Christ Chapel.
The location of other conference activities is indicated on the schedule.

 

Seating

  • All seating in Christ Chapel is general admission.
  • No reserve seating is available.
  • The majority of seating is on the main floor. There is not an elevator to the balcony seating.
  • Doors to Christ Chapel open at 8:30 a.m. each day.
  • Heroic Productions technical support including large screens viewable from anywhere in the room projecting the speaker and any visuals.

 

Bathrooms

One accessibility restroom is located on the main floor of Christ Chapel. Additional restrooms are located downstairs on the lower level of Christ Chapel and in other buildings on campus. 

 

Accessibility Information

  • Christ Chapel and other campus locations are wheelchair accessible.
  • A limited supply of hearing assistance units will be available during the conference on a first-come, first-served basis. They can be checked out at the registration table in the lobby of Christ Chapel.
  • Open-captioning services will be offered for the conference. Open-captioning is a text display of words spoken during the lecture for people with hearing disabilities, who may also use assistive listening devices, hearing aids, cochlear implants, sign language, and lip reading.
  • Learn more about accessibility resources at 麻豆视频. For a specific accessibility request for an event, please complete this form.

 Nobel Conference is free and open to the public!
Due to the generosity of past and current donors, 麻豆视频 is able to offer this amazing conference at no cost to attendees.
 

If you plan to attend, we request you 

麻豆视频 offers a general certificate of attendance that may be submitted for CEU credits. They are available at the conference information desk in Christ Chapel. If an attendee needs further information to submit to their professional organization, please email nobelconference [at] gustavus.edu (nobelconference[at]gustavus[dot]edu).

Parking locations

  • Parking signs will direct you to parking areas.
  • Many guests will attend the Nobel Conference, so please allow ample time for driving, traffic, parking, and walking to Christ Chapel.
  • All lots are open for parking with overflow parking on grass lawns by the football stadium where directed.

 

  • Accessibility Parking: Limited accessible parking for people with special needs will be available near Christ Chapel. Vehicles will be allowed to drive close to Christ Chapel for drop-off or pick-up.
  • Valet parking is not offered.
  • Electric Vehicle Charging Stations
    • Several parking spaces with charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs) are available on a first come, first serve basis for all employees, students, and visitors in accordance with the following Use Policy and Guidelines. There is currently no fee for the vehicle charge. The College cannot guarantee that the EV charging parking spaces will be open. There are EV chargers available in St. Peter at the St. Peter Food Coop and River Rock Coffee, as well as Tesla Superchargers at Hy-Vee.

High School Groups

Bring a high school group
麻豆视频 is offering an opportunity for high school groups to attend the Nobel Conference. %20lowens [at] gustavus.edu (Contact the Admission Office) to reserve your spot. There is not cost to attend. Bring students one or both days. Students attending find it fun to be on a college campus and to be learning in a totally different setting.

If you cannot manage the logistics of leaving school, gather students in your own school to聽watch live and view the archive of specific lectures as part of your class time.

Check out these Classroom Resources about the upcoming Conference curated for teachers.

Carolyn Bertozzi, Stanford University, Professor of Chemistry and 2022 Chemistry Nobel Prize

  • Article: 
    • The article highlights Carolyn 叠别谤迟辞锄锄颈鈥檚 groundbreaking research on glycans鈥攖he complex sugars that coat cells鈥攁nd their role in disease. Her development of bioorthogonal chemistry has revolutionized the study of these sugars, enabling new medical advancements, particularly in cancer and genetic disorder treatments.
  • Video: 
    • This talk explores how glycans鈥攕ugar molecules on cell surfaces鈥攑lay a crucial role in immune system function and cancer development. Normally, glycans help the immune system distinguish between healthy and harmful cells, but cancer cells manipulate these sugars to evade detection, forming a protective "sugar shield" that prevents immune attacks. 叠别谤迟辞锄锄颈鈥檚 research focuses on breaking down this shield to make cancer cells more visible to the immune system, potentially leading to new therapies. By targeting glycans, scientists could improve immunotherapy, enhance early cancer detection, and develop new treatments that help the body fight cancer more effectively.
  • Video: 
    • A TED Talk, that explains how glycans鈥攕ugar molecules on cell surfaces鈥攑lay a vital role in communication and disease. These sugars help cells interact, signal changes, and even influence immune responses. However, diseases like cancer exploit this system by altering their glycan structures to evade immune detection. 叠别谤迟辞锄锄颈鈥檚 research focuses on understanding these sugar patterns to develop new ways to detect and treat diseases, particularly cancer. By targeting glycans, scientists could improve early diagnosis and create innovative therapies that help the immune system recognize and attack harmful cells more effectively.

Ulbe Bosma, Vrije Universiteit, Professor of History, Senior Researcher at the International Institute of Social History Amsterdam

  • Author of "The World of Sugar: How the Sweet Stuff Transformed Our Politics, Health, and Environment over 2,000 Years"
    • Book Review on 
    • The article reviews Ulbe Bosma鈥檚 book 鈥淭he World of Sugar鈥, which traces the history of sugar over 2,000 years. It explores how sugar production was deeply tied to slavery, colonialism, and the rise of capitalism, showing how plantations fueled economic systems built on exploitation. The review also highlights the environmental destruction sugar cultivation has caused and its long-term effects on global health through increased consumption.
    • This interview, for the podcast 鈥淪ustainable Dish,鈥 digs into Bosma鈥檚 new book, The World of Sugar, with an emphasis on the rise of the sugar industry.

Jean Casimir, University of Haiti, Professor of Humanities, Former Haitian ambassador to the United States

  • A Review of
    • A review of "Self-Invention, Worldmaking, and the Struggle for Another Revolutionary Event" explores Jean Casimir鈥檚 鈥淭he Haitians: A Decolonial History.鈥 Casimir reinterprets Haiti鈥檚 history by centering the experiences of the formerly enslaved, emphasizing their agency in building a counter-colonial society. It highlights how Casimir critiques Eurocentric narratives, pointing out that Haiti鈥檚 poverty results from ongoing neocolonial exploitation rather than internal failure. Casimir envisions a future rooted in Haitian autonomy and dignity.
  • Lecture: 
    • This lecture, discussion, and Q&A with African Studies scholars explore the history of the Haitian people, lecture is led by Casimir.

En-Ming Hsu, Founder of Owner of Sip, Pastry World Champion

    • This interview details Hsu鈥檚 career, including her education, her work as a pastry chef, her participation in the Coupe du Monde Pastry (Pastry World Cup), and her work to found a company during the global pandemic.
  • Recipes from Hsu

Frank Hu, Harvard University, Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology, T.H. Chan School of Public Health

  • Article: 
    • The article discusses the health risks of consuming too much added sugar, which is found in processed foods, sugary drinks, and desserts. While natural sugars in fruits and dairy are part of a healthy diet, added sugars contribute to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Research links high sugar intake to fat buildup in the liver, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and chronic inflammation, all of which increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
  • Video: 
    • The video discusses the health impact of saturated fats and emphasizes that their effects depend on what nutrients replace them in the diet. Replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats, particularly polyunsaturated fats, can reduce the risk of heart disease. However, replacing them with refined carbohydrates, including sugar, does not offer the same health benefits and may even be harmful. Dr. Hu stresses the importance of a balanced diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats, to promote overall cardiovascular health and reduce the risks associated with both saturated fat and sugar intake.

C. Ford Runge, University of Minnesota, Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Applied Economics and Law

  • Article: 
    • A study conducted at a large US Midwestern university delves into how different ways of justifying a price increase on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) can shape young adults' purchasing decisions and their perceptions of soda companies. By offering various rationales鈥攕uch as framing the price hike as a user fee, a strategy to reduce obesity, a means to offset healthcare costs, or a protective measure for children鈥攖he study found that these messages significantly influenced participants' intentions to buy SSBs. Interestingly, these effects were more pronounced among individuals who consumed fewer sugary drinks, and the way soda companies were perceived also shifted based on the rationale presented.
  • Article: 
    • This article examines the use of taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) as a way to reduce obesity. It highlights examples from places like Mexico, Berkeley, and Philadelphia, where such taxes have been implemented to decrease consumption and generate revenue for public health initiatives. The article suggests that, when effectively applied, these taxes can significantly reduce SSB consumption.
  • Video:
  • Video:
  • Documentary: 
High school group at Nobel Conference
Nobel 2024 Lecture

Explore the Evolution of Science

View Past Lectures: Dive into decades of groundbreaking thought by watching Nobel Conference lectures and panel discussions鈥攃ompletely free of charge. With archived recordings dating back to 1965, you can witness how science has evolved through the lens of leading researchers, thinkers, and Nobel laureates. Start exploring today and be inspired by the ideas that have shaped our world.

2024 (60th) - Sleep, Unraveled

Sleep is a universal human experience and yet its importance is often overlooked. In addition to its role in physical rejuvenation, sufficient high-quality sleep is crucial for cognition, memory, learning, and general health. Sleep loss 鈥 whether triggered by noise or light pollution, stress, overwork or conflict with circadian rhythms 鈥 has been associated with high blood pressure, weight gain, diabetes and a plethora of other medical conditions. Conference presenters explore the centrality of sleep for human physical health and mental wellbeing. The conference will delve into the neurological and psychological processes of sleep, the cultural evolution of sleep practices, and the implications of a twenty-four-hour convenience society that leads to permanent sleep deprivation.

 

2023 (59th) - Insects: Little Body, Big Impact

Conference presenters address the disproportionate effects insects have on humans and the earth. From the caterpillar that eats our crops before metamorphosing into a stunning moth, to the mosquito that elegantly sips our blood (in exchange for a proboscis full of virus particles or parasites), to the socially-connected bee that pollinates flowering plants, to the humble, but mighty fruit fly that continues to teach us how our bodies function, these tiny creatures fascinate, confound, and inspire us. 鈥淟ittle Body/Big Impact鈥 invites us to learn about, wonder at, and celebrate these little creatures that run the world.

  •  Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson -
  • Jonathan Birch -
  • Segenet Kelemu -
  • Julie Lesnik -
  • Jessica Ware -
  • Michael Young -

 

2022 (58th) - Mental Health (In)Equity and Young People

Prioritizing the mental health concerns of young people has become essential amid times of global pandemic, racism, sexism, ableism, social unrest, climate change, and political upheaval. These social inequities limit our ability to promote resilience in the mental health of adolescents and young adults, especially those from marginalized communities. Young people often experience little control over their wellbeing, are affected by the decisions of parents, schools and society, and in these technology-driven times are vulnerable to the negative side effects of social media and information overload. In considering how to eradicate inequities and promote mental health, technology becomes central in how it both aids and hinders our modern existence, in the U.S. and around the world.

  • Meryl Alper -
  • Manuela Barreto -
  • Daniel Eisenberg -
  • Joseph P. Gone -
  • Priscilla Lui -
  • G. Nic Rider -

 

2021 (57th) - Big Data (R)Evolution

How is big data changing our lives, and what challenges and opportunities does this transformation present? In less than a generation, we鈥檝e witnessed nearly every piece of personal, scientific, and societal data come to be stored digitally. Stored information is both an intellectual and an economic commodity; it is used by businesses, governments, academics, and entrepreneurs. The velocity with which it accumulates and the techniques for leveraging it grow at a pace that is remarkable and often intimidating. But this revolution also promises hope, in areas as diverse as public health, drug development, child welfare, and climate change.

  • Wendy Chun - 
  • Francesca Dominici -
  • Pilar Ossorio - 
  • Michael Osterholm- 
  • Cynthia Rudin -
  • Rhema Vaithianathan -
  • Talithia Williams -

 

2020 (56th) - Cancer in the Age of Biotechnology

Nobel Conference 56 explored the science of new cancer treatments, the structural and societal factors that will determine who has access to these life-saving treatments, and the therapies and practices that will enable people to live with cancer for the long term. In recent decades, researchers have made great strides in understanding both the progression of cancer in the human individual and the ways the individual鈥檚 immune system responds to it. Their findings have led to the development of cancer therapies that can strategically target cancer cells, with the result that persons undergoing the treatments experience fewer side effects than they would with traditional chemotherapy. The complexity of these biological drugs allows for their specificity and greater effectiveness, but also makes them very expensive to develop, produce and administer. Advances in treatment also increase the number of individuals living with cancer raising questions about how to most effectively support patients in the long-term following diagnosis.

  • Carl June -
  • Chanita Hughes-Halbert -
  • Jim Thomas -
  • Kathryn Schmitz -
  • Suzanne Chambers -
  • Charles Sawyers -
  • Bissan Al-Lazikani -

2019 (55th) - Climate Changed: Facing Our Future

The changes being wrought on the earth鈥檚 climate system are vast, without precedent, and of such magnitude and scale as to potentially alter life itself.  鈥淲hat tools are available, what research efforts do we require, and what kind of people do we need to be to conceptualize and address global climate challenges?鈥 Nobel Conference 55 brought together seven leading thinkers to address climate change from perspectives including paleoclimate studies, climate justice, climate modeling, and climate adaptation. Attendees were encouraged to grapple with the causes and consequences of climate change and with our responses to the challenges it presents us, as individuals and as a society.


 

2018 (54th) - Living Soil: A Universe Underfoot

Scoop up some soil in your hands and consider there are more organisms in that handful of soil than humans who have ever lived. Soil is a living entity in its own right, a community of micro- and macro-organisms that interact with the earth鈥檚 mineral resources to create this complex entity that undergirds all life on the planet. The 54th Nobel Conference, Living Soil: A Universe Underfoot, invited participants to consider the vast diversity and complexity of soil, and to ponder the challenges we face in protecting this most fundamental resource.

What is soil health, and what processes sustain healthy soils? What interactions connect the living entities in the soil, and how do these interactions shape natural systems? How will climate change affect soils, and (how) can soils be used to mitigate rising levels of carbon in the atmosphere? How do we develop sustainable agricultural practices that will protect against soil erosion and promote soil health? How might we best promote exploration of beneficial compounds from soils? How might we re-imagine our relationship to soil culturally and socially, as well as biologically? 

  • David Montgomery -
  • Claire Chenu -
  • Rattan Lal -
  • Frank Uekotter -
  • Ray Archuleta -
  • Jack Gilbert -
  • Suzanne Simard -


 

2017 (53th) - Reproductive Technology: How Far Do We Go?

From artificial insemination to in vitro fertilization to contraception, reproductive technologies have long raised a host of complex scientific, social, and ethical questions. New techniques and technologies, such as genome editing and mitochondrial transfer, complicate those questions even further. The 53rd Nobel Conference invites participants to consider how continuing innovations in reproductive technology challenge us to think about what it means to be human. How have scientific and technological discoveries assisted, transformed, and suppressed reproduction, and how will they continue to shape age-old debates about fertility and reproduction, motherhood and fatherhood? How safe are new techniques and what might be their impact on human health and social health? Who decides which technologies to develop, how they are funded, and who should have access to them? This conference will explore the science of these emerging technologies and delve into the ethical complexities and social consequences that result when we reshape a process so central to human life.

  • Ruha Benjamin 鈥
  • Jacob Corn 鈥
  • Marsha Saxton 鈥
  • Alison Murdoch 鈥
  • Diana Blithe 鈥
  • Charis Thompson 鈥
  • Jad Abumrad 鈥 Reproductive Technology and the Radiolab Podcast


 

2016 (52nd) - In Search of Economic Balance

The transition to a world economy has revealed a variety of tradeoffs that polarize economists and policy makers. Optimizing a business for efficiency often results in fewer and lower paying jobs. Regulating businesses for the public good may reduce their ability and incentive to develop innovative solutions to challenging problems. In the end, we are left with questions like: Why does inequality matter?  Can we bring the prosperity enjoyed by the world鈥檚 advanced economies to the rest of the world? How do we grow economies in a sustainable way that benefits most, if not all of the population?

  • Dan Ariely 鈥&苍产蝉辫;The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty
  • Orley Ashenfelter&苍产蝉辫;鈥
  • Joerg Rieger 鈥
  • Panel Discussion 鈥
    Paul Collier&苍产蝉辫;鈥
  • John List&苍产蝉辫;鈥
  • Deirdre McCloskey&苍产蝉辫;鈥
  • Chris Farrell&苍产蝉辫;鈥


 

2015 (51st) - Addiction: Exploring the Science and Experience of an Equal Opportunity Condition

Addiction permeates our society. With the scourge of methamphetamine, increasing use of heroin, and the ubiquity of alcohol, addiction is an 鈥渆qual opportunity condition.鈥 The substances and behaviors to which people become addicted continue to grow as well, with investigations into the possibilities of addictions to food, the Internet, and sex. But what does it mean to be addicted? Is it a brain condition? A psychological and sociological problem? What are the treatment options available? How do the various understandings of addiction influence public policy decisions?

  • Eric Kandel 鈥
  • Denise Kandel with Eric Kandel 鈥
  • Sheigla Murphy 鈥
  • Panel Discussion 鈥
  • Carl Hart 鈥
  • Owen Flanagan 鈥
  • Panel Discussion 鈥
  • Marc Lewis 鈥


 

 

2014 (50th) - Celebrating 50 Years of the Nobel Conference: Where Does Science Go from Here?

For nearly 50 years, the Nobel Conference at 麻豆视频 has hosted preeminent scientists, theologians, and ethicists to discuss deep questions at the intersection of science and society. From the newest results in physics, chemistry, and biology to the newest fields of multidisciplinary study, scientists at the Nobel Conference have examined the universe at its largest and smallest scales, explored the oceans, and described new materials. Conference speakers have debated the mechanisms of aging as well as the science and economics of food. Often, speakers have given us a glimpse of the next big questions and how they might be answered. Throughout all of the conversations, ethicists and theologians have grounded the science in a human dimension.

  • Sean B. Carroll 鈥
  • Steven Chu (Nobel Prize in Physics '97) 鈥
    Transcript of lecture
  • Patricia Smith Churchland 鈥
  • Antonio Damasio 鈥
  • W. Gary Ernst 鈥
    Transcript of lecture
  • Harry Gray 鈥
  • Sir Harry Kroto (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1996) 鈥 & preview lecture The Birth of Natural Philosophy and Its Son: Science
  • Svante P盲盲bo (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012)&苍产蝉辫;鈥
    Transcript of lecture
  • Steven Weinberg (Nobel Prize in Physics 1979) 鈥 Glimpses of a Hidden World
  • Jennifer West 鈥
     

 

2013 (49th) - The Universe at Its Limits

We live at a remarkable moment in the understanding of the most fundamental questions of science. What is the universe made of? Where did it come from? Where is it going? Western science has roots in ancient Greece, where two seemingly opposite lines of inquiry began over 2,000 years ago. The first was astronomy, the study of what is 鈥渙utside,鈥 beyond the boundaries of Earth. Over the centuries this discipline has looked outward to our solar system, our home galaxy, and beyond, to examine the large-scale structure of the Universe. The second was the study of 鈥渋nside鈥 matter, which began with the concept of the atom but has reached the realm of subatomic particles and the fundamental forces in nature.

  • Fr. George V. Coyne, SJ 鈥
  • Alexei V. Filippenko 鈥
  • S. James Gates Jr. 鈥
  • Lawrence M. Krauss 鈥
  • Tara G. Shears 鈥
  • George F. Smoot III (Nobel Prize in Physics 2006) 鈥
  • Samuel C.C. Ting (Nobel Prize in Physics 1976) 鈥
  • Frank A. Wilczek (Nobel Prize in Physics 2004) 鈥

 

2012 (48th) - Our Global Ocean

The oceans have long been a source of fascination, from the tales of Sinbad to the popular Blue Planet documentary. The marine world provides us with necessities like seafood and medicines, fertilizers and petroleum. But the oceans are also associated with danger, from the devastating hurricanes we face each year to the under-reported facts of the oceans鈥 roles in climate change. Nobel Conference 48 examines 鈥淥ur Global Ocean鈥 as a source of inspiration, danger, and knowledge.

Today, we know less about our own oceans than we do about the surfaces of other planets hundreds of millions of miles away. It鈥檚 time to take a new look at our oceans by gathering some of the top researchers in biogeochemistry, oceanography, deep-sea biology, molecular genetics, and coral ecology to speak about their research and our roles regarding the ocean. Through the lectures of these leading marine scientists, we hope to ignite thought and conversation about the interconnected bodies of water that play a crucial role in the development of human life and culture.

 

2011 (47th) - The Brain and Being Human

In recent years, novel collaborations between neuroscientists and researchers in seemingly disparate fields have forged new ideas and new questions about the working of the brain. Aspects of daily human life are now incorporated into the scientific arena in a new synthesis to understand the human experience and what it means to be human. The braiding of neuroscience with the humanities, arts, social sciences, theology, and engineering has empowered explanations of the motivations and operations of our daily activities. This insight engenders uncertainty in terms of how to best apply this knowledge responsibly and ethically, and perhaps is even challenging the distinctiveness of our own species.

  • John Donoghue 鈥
  • Martha Farah 鈥
  • Paul W. Glimcher 鈥
  • Helen Mayberg 鈥
  • Nancey Murphy 鈥
  • Aniruddh D. Patel 鈥
    Transcript of lecture
  • Vilayanur Ramachandran 鈥
  • Larry J. Young 鈥


 

 

2010 (46th) - Making Food Good

In asking the question 鈥淲hat makes food good?鈥 ethical, agroecological, physiological, economic, and aesthetic conceptions of 鈥済ood鈥 intertwine, clash, and vie for attention. Few issues seem to demand consideration so frequently as does the need for 鈥済ood food.鈥

  • Bina Agarwal 鈥
  • Linda Bartoshuk 鈥
  • Cary Fowler 鈥
  • Jeffrey Friedman 鈥
    Transcript of lecture
  • Frances Moore Lapp茅 鈥
  • Marion Nestle 鈥
  • Paul Thompson 鈥

Additional Participants

  • Mitch Davis 鈥
  • Martin Lang 鈥 Screening of Farming Forward
  • Jeff Larson 鈥
  • Thomas Nuessmeier 鈥
  • Margo O鈥橞rien 鈥

2009 (45th) - H2O Uncertain Resource

Water is essential to all life, yet the supply of water is both vulnerable and finite. The conference examines the current state of world water resources. Immediate threats to the health of rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal waters, oceans, and all forms of aquatic environments will be confronted by leading scientists. Environmental ethics and potable water as a basic human right will be examined alongside human tragedy resulting from contaminated resources. Water is critical and precious. It is key to the well-being and survival of planet Earth.

Additional Participants

  • Erin Binder 鈥 The Acara Challenge: Applying Corporate Best Practices to Local, Sustainable Water Solutions
  • Steve Colman 鈥 The Superior Sea: What about All That Water?
  • Lucinda Johnson 鈥
  • Shawn Lawrence Otto 鈥
  • Fred Rose 鈥 The Acara Challenge: Applying Corporate Best Practices to Local, Sustainable Water Solutions
  • Edward Swain 鈥
 

 

2008 (44th) - Who Were the First Humans?

Study of the first humans, where they came from and how they lived, has long been the sphere of knowledge attributed to archaeologists and paleoanthropologists. During the last couple of decades, however, biologists, climatologists, geneticists, mathematicians, and psychologists, among others, have been adding to the scientific database. Using new techniques and state-of-the-art technologies, they have both aided the painstaking work of extracting skeletal remains and artifacts from ancient sites around the world and bolstered the physical findings.

Together, these scientists have produced a host of exciting, far-reaching discoveries. While they are still debating the exact relationships among the species of hominids, the genus from which modern humans arose, they are getting closer and closer to finding the very first of our kind with research that is rewriting our history and informing us in dramatic ways.

Through study of mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomes, for example, molecular biologists and geneticists have traced the birth of modern humans to Africa around 200,000 years ago. They created art and musical instruments, buried their dead, learned to make tools, invented languages, and ventured out. From Africa, they headed to Asia, Europe, and across the seas to the Americas.

For tens of thousands of years, our forebears coexisted with Neanderthals, who, it turns out, were "wired" with the same language gene. While the Neanderthals headed for extinction in the forests, however, scientists recently found humans headed for the beach. Our ancient ancestors discovered the "basket" of food along Africa's coastlines and expanded their hunting and gathering skills from woolly mammoths and berries to seals and shellfish at least 167,000 years ago. Learning to harvest marine resources, in fact, just may have enabled them to survive the last ice age, as well as make it to the Americas. Perhaps the most thought provoking "find" is how the research has been consistently showing that for all our physical and genetic differences, we are more alike than anyone imagined鈥攁nd the implications of that are nothing less than profound.

  • Robin Dunbar 鈥
  • Marcus Feldman 鈥
  • J. Wentzel van Huyssteen 鈥
  • Curtis Marean 鈥
  • Svante P盲盲bo (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022) 鈥
  • Dennis Stanford 鈥

Additional Participants

  • Scott Anfinson 鈥 Finding Minnesota: The First People of the North Star State
  • Guy Gibbon 鈥 After the PaleoIndians: Archaic and Woodland Peoples in Minnesota
  • Rod Johnson 鈥 Flintknapping Demonstration
  • Tom Sanders 鈥 Atlatl Dart Throwing Demonstration


 

 

2007 (43rd) - Heating Up: The Energy Debate

Harnessing and using energy has played a key role in both the development and the decline of civilizations since the dawn of human existence. The rapid technological advances and prosperity enjoyed in the 20th century were driven by the use of fossil fuels鈥攏amely, coal and oil. In the 21st century, however, energy demand and prices are soaring, conflicts threaten political stability in the most oil-rich region of the world, and we are realizing the effects of a rapidly warming planet. In the United States, oil production has been declining since the early 1970s, and dependence on foreign oil continues to increase amid the threat of terrorism arising from the oil-rich Middle East. What will be the energy sources of the future? Several new and exciting technologies are on the horizon, including hydrogen, solar and wind power, biofuels, and advanced nuclear power.

  • Steven Chu (Nobel Prize in Physics 1997) 鈥
  • Kenneth S. Deffeyes 鈥
  • James E. Hansen 鈥
  • Paul L. Joskow 鈥
  • Lee Rybeck Lynd 鈥
  • Joan M. Ogden 鈥
  • Will Steger 鈥

Additional Participants

  • Doug Cameron 鈥 Advances in Biofuels: Ethanol and Beyond
  • J. Drake Hamilton 鈥 Global Warming: Minnesota Impacts, Minnesota Solutions
  • Bishop Craig Johnson 鈥 Care for Our World鈥檚 Resources: A Biblical Perspective
  • Dan Juhl 鈥 Community-Based Energy: Local Ownership of Renewable Energy


 

 

2006 (42nd) - Medicine: Prescription for Tomorrow

  • Henry J. Aaron 鈥
  • J. Michael Bishop (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1989) 鈥
  • Daniel Callahan 鈥
  • James Orbinski 鈥 Family emergency prevented him from attending.
  • Michael T. Osterholm 鈥
    Transcript of lecture
  • Dame Julia M. Polak 鈥
  • Jennifer L. West 鈥

Additional Participants

  • Robert Brown 鈥 Research in Neurology: Unlocking the Cause and Optimal Treatment of Selected Disorders of the Brain
  • James Hart 鈥 A Collaborative and Alternative Approach to Medicine of the Future
  • William Manahan 鈥 A Collaborative and Alternative Approach to Medicine of the Future
  • Dean V. Marek 鈥 Healing and Spirituality
  • Anne L. Taylor 鈥 Population Variability and Cardiovascular Disease


 

2005 (41st) - The Legacy of Einstein

  • George F.R. Ellis 鈥 The Existence of Life in the Universe and the Crucial Issue of Ethics
  • Wendy Freedman 鈥 The Legacy of Albert Einstein for Cosmology
  • S. James Gates Jr. 鈥 Is Cosmic Concordance in Concomitance with Superstring/M-Theory?
  • Wolfgang Ketterle (Nobel Prize in Physics 2001) 鈥 Bose-Einstein Condensates and Other New Forms of Matter Close to Absolute Zero
  • Thomas Levenson 鈥 The Education of Albert Einstein
  • Kip S. Thorne 鈥 Warped Spacetime: Einstein鈥檚 General Relativity Legacy

Additional Participants

  • Ira Flatow 鈥 Closing panel moderator
  • John F. Haught 鈥 Issues in Science and Religion: Einstein and Religion


 

2004 (40th) - The Science of Aging

  • Laura L. Carstensen 鈥
  • Leonard Hayflick 鈥
  • Cynthia J. Kenyon 鈥
  • S. Jay Olshansky 鈥
  • Dennis J. Selkoe 鈥
  • Peter J. Whitehouse 鈥

Additional Participants

  • Joseph Gaugler 鈥 Caregiver and Healthcare Policy Issues
  • Michael Hendrickson 鈥 Caregiver and Healthcare Policy Issues
  • Gabe Maletta 鈥 Clinical Aspects of Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease: Assessment and Treatment

 

2003 (39th) - The Story of Life

  • Sean B. Carroll 鈥
  • Philip J. Currie 鈥
  • Christian R. de Duve (Nobel Prize in Medicine '74) 鈥 Life Evolving
  • Niles Eldredge 鈥
  • Peter and Rosemary Grant 鈥
  • John F. Haught 鈥
  • Tim D. White 鈥


 

2002 (38th) - The Nature of Nurture

Our distinguished panel of speakers will be sharing the latest research that provides new insights into the age-old question of whether nature or nurture is more determinative for child development. The implications from studies in "behavior genetics" for social, political, economic, medical and educational policy around family and child development issues are profound.

  • Avshalom Caspi -
  • Jerome Kagan -
  • Eric R. Kandel (Nobel Prize in Medicine 2000) -
  • Eleanor E. Maccoby -
  • Thomas H. Murray - Parents and Children: What We Value and How That Is Challenged by Cloning and New Reproductive Technologies
  • Robert Plomin -
  • Judith L. Rapoport -


 

2001 (37th) - What is Still to be Discovered?

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prizes by reflecting on the great discoveries, works of art, and accomplishments in the pursuit of peace that, in the words of Alfred Nobel's will, "conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." In a century that produced two world wars, the atomic bomb, and tremendous social upheaval, we've also seen the virtual elimination of once-feared contagious diseases, incomprehensible increases in the speed of transportation, the fall of communism, the elimination of apartheid, and forms of communication completely unimagined by previous generations. 

  • G眉nter Blobel (Nobel Prize in Medicine '99) -
  • Edmond H. Fischer (Nobel Prize in Medicine '92) -
  • Roald Hoffman (Nobel Prize in Chemistry '81) - Science and Ethics: A Marriage of Necessity and Choice for This Millennium
  • Sir Harold W. Kroto (Nobel Prize in Chemistry '96) -
  • Sir John R. Maddox - What Remains to Be Discovered
  • Erling C.J. Norrby -
  • Stanley B. Prusiner (Nobel Prize in Medicine '97) -


 

2000 (36th) - Globalization 2000: Economic Prospects and Challenges

The closing decades of the twentieth century brought momentous and surprising changes to the world's economic and political landscape. The sudden but quiet collapse of the Soviet Union spelled the apparent demise of an alternative to market capitalism that seemed to some for a time to promise a superior system, and for even longer at least a workable one. This event coincided with and encouraged a major change in thinking around the world concerning models for economic development. And in the world's developed nations, there has been heightened commitment to and movement toward greater economic integration and free trade.

These events taken together amount to much of what has come to be called "globalization." A world of increasingly interdependent and highly competitive global capitalism seems upon us. Powerful economic institutions, such as The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, have been active in policy formulation and assistance in this transition. Governments in the Americas, Europe, and Asia have undertaken very profound initiatives toward economic integration and much freer trade. And the "Asian model" of export-driven development has become the most widely accepted vision of a path to successful development. All of this has not occurred without cost or controversy, as recent events in Seattle and Washington, D.C., attest. Concerns for the environment, for economic equity, for economic and cultural diversity have been voiced, often with force and passion. There is much concern and confusion about just what this new "global" era will mean. Even among those who greet this transition with optimism and enthusiasm, there is debate about important practical questions of implementation strategy.

  • Jagdish N. Bhagwati -
  • John B. Cobb Jr. -
  • Amitai Etzioni -
  • Robert Mundell (Nobel Prize in Economics '99) -
  • Jeffrey D. Sachs -
  • Michael Sohlman -
  • Joseph E. Stiglitz -

1999 (35th) - Genetics in the New Millennium

In 1965, with assistance and official authorization from The Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, 麻豆视频 organized the first public American conference on "Genetics and the Future of Man." Those attending the first Nobel Conference learned how new concepts and techniques of molecular biology and genetics were providing answers to questions such as, What is a gene? How does a gene act? and How does a gene change or mutate? Participating scientists discussed studies on bacteria, viruses, and fungi that were promising to reveal the "solution of the amino acid code."

In the intervening years, much of what was predicted at that conference has come to pass. Today we are able to isolate and clone genes from any organism. We obtain the nucleotide sequence of the identified gene. We reintroduce the gene into the organism. A number of genome projects, of which the Human Genome Project is the largest in size and scope, provide us with information that constitutes the ultimate reductionist view of a living organism. This information is giving us new perspectives on old questions regarding the structure and function of genes, the control of biological processes such as development, and the relationship of species.

  • Bruce Baker -
  • Elizabeth Blackburn -
  • Lindon Eaves -
  • Dean Hamer -
  • Leroy Hood -
  • Evelyn Fox Keller -
  • J. Craig Venter -


 

1998 (34th) - Virus: The Human Connection

  • Alfred Worchester Crosby 鈥
  • Robert C. Gallo 鈥
  • John J. Holland 鈥
  • Wolfgang K. Joklik 鈥
  • Elizabeth and Gary Nabel 鈥
  • Clarence J. Peters 鈥 Emerging Virus diseases: 5000 B.C. to the Present
  • Ted Peters 鈥


 

1997 (33rd) - Unveiling the Solar System: 30 Years of Exploration

  • Alan P. Boss 鈥
  • Story Musgrave 鈥
  • F. Sherwood Rowland (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1995) 鈥
  • Robert John Russell 鈥
  • Carl Sagan 鈥 Scheduled to speak but died prior to conference.
  • Roald Sagdeev 鈥
  • Eugene Shoemaker 鈥 Scheduled to speak but died prior to conference.
  • David J. Stevenson 鈥
  • Edward C. Stone 鈥

 

1996 (32nd) - Apes at the End of an Age: Primate Language and Behavior in the '90s

For nearly a generation, research into primate studies shed little light on human language and behavior. That may well have been by intent. Until recently, most primate researchers believed that human language was distinct and, as such, was separable from everything nonhuman. That point was well illustrated on the 麻豆视频 campus nearly 30 years ago, when presenters for Nobel Conference庐 IV, "The Uniqueness of Man," rejected the notion of studying apes in order to learn about humans. Today, the argument may have turned to support an early theory formed by evolutionist Charles Darwin, who anticipated continuity in mental and behavioral processes among primates. While there are important exceptions, it has become increasingly clear to researchers that animals developed their identities largely through historical cultures, not essential laws of physiology. With that in mind, the study of apes has taken on new importance as a way to better understand the roots of human language and behavior.

  • Birut茅 M.F. Galdikas -
  • Gordon Kaufman -
  • Tetsuro Matsuzawa -
  • Duane M. Rumbaugh -
  • Sue Savage-Rumbaugh -
  • Frans B.M. de Waal -
  • Richard W. Wrangham -

 

1995 (31st) - The New Shape of Matter: Materials Challenge Science

Experimentalists, the diversifiers of the scientific world, have both revealed and created the rich texture of the universe. Theorists, the unifiers of science, have traditionally met this challenge by establishing a framework for understanding this experimental diversity. But in the past quarter century, this fundamental balance has changed. Much of today's leading technologies have been created with little or no theoretical guidance. For example, while synthetic chemists have created and improved polymers over several decades, they have done so with only limited theoretical constructs for understanding polymer behavior. The discovery of ceramic superconductors in the mid-1980s challenged physicists to reformulate theories developed for metallic superconductors in the 1950s. And today, advances in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, X-ray spectroscopy and atomic resolution microscopy, coupled with the wide availability of inexpensive high-speed computing, have enabled organic chemists and biochemists to investigate larger and more complex molecules without a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding how this new technology could be applied.

  • Philip W. Anderson (Nobel Prize in Physics 1977) - New Physics of Metals: Fermi Surfaces without Fermi Liquids
  • Susan N. Coppersmith - The Complexity of Materials
  • Frederick Ferr茅 -
  • Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (Nobel Prize in Physics 1991) -
  • Harry B. Gray - Engineered Enzymes for Photosynthesis
  • Harold W. Kroto (Nobel Prize in Chemistry '96) -
  • Silvan S. Schweber - The Metaphysics of Physics: The Landscape at the End of a Heroic Century

 

1994 (30th) - Unlocking the Brain: Progress in Neuroscience

Dramatic advances in our understanding of how the human brain functions have been made in the past decade.Rapid growth in what is known about the biochemistry of brain cells, development of network models of neural processing, and technological advances in our ability to watch the brain at work all promise even further advances. Indeed, the National Science Foundation has declared the 1990s to be the "Decade of the Brain." The 1994 Nobel Conference will offer its audience an opportunity to hear what leading researchers think about how the brain performs its tasks. Emphasis will be placed on how changes in the tools we use to study the brain have heightened our level of understanding.

The 1994 Nobel speakers will address a number of very interesting questions: Are the connections within the brain fixed at birth, or subject to change with experience? How can a visual image of the activity of the brain improve our understanding of motor control, language, and memory? To what extent can we use a computer as a model for understanding how the brain works? What changes in the brain are associated with diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's? Can these changes be reversed?

  • Anders Bj枚rklund -
  • Patricia Smith Churchland -
  • Antonio Damasio -
  • Apostolos Georgopoulos -
  • David Hubel (Nobel Prize in Medicine '81) -
  • Eric R. Kandel (Nobel Prize in Medicine '00) -
  • Oliver Sacks -

 

1993 (29th) - Nature Out of Balance: The New Ecology

As the dominant species on the planet Earth, human beings have not been good caretakers of their world. Many environmentally-concerned citizens and political leaders believe that by-products of an industrialized world, including threats to the integrity of nature, diversity of species, or impoverishment of ecosystems, are threatening our environment and, ultimately, the sustainability of all life. Solutions to these problems do not come easily. While the world's environmental problems arise from a combination of political, social and economic factors, long-term solutions must be based on the science of ecology. This science has been working for more than a century to unravel the complexities of the world's natural ecosystems.

In the past 15 years, however, scientists have learned that disturbances鈥搒uch as fires and hurricanes鈥損lay a natural role in ecosystems. Scientists have also found that the traditional solution of reducing an ecological system to its smallest parts will not explain the behavior of the whole. People all over the world are becoming increasingly interested in ecological issues.

  • Daniel B. Botkin -
  • Jared M. Diamond -
  • Thomas E. Lovejoy -
  • Robert McCredie May -
  • Donella H. Meadows -
  • Bryan G. Norton -
  • George Masters Woodwell -

 

1992 (28th) - Immunity: The Battle Within

Even in the relative peace and calm of a normal day, the human body is constantly under attack. Viruses, bacteria, and other trespassers launch regular assaults against the body's immune system, which raises an intricate web of defense to identify and repel these biological invaders. 

In recent years, researchers have slowly begun to unlock the mysteries surrounding how the body's immune system works. Research in molecular biology, for example, has shown that white T-cells are the linchpins of the body's immune system, they also can become a devastating enemy when they malfunction. Scientists also have learned that bacterial molecules called superantigens can overstimulate production of infection-fighting agents, causing more damage to the host than an invading enemy. 

  • Baruj Benacerraf (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1980) 鈥 The Requirement of Antigen Processing and Presentation to Initiate Immunologic Response
  • R. Michael Blaese 鈥
  • Robert C. Gallo 鈥
  • Philippa Marrack 鈥
  • Candace Pert 鈥 Immune System Neuro-Receptors: The Mind in the Body
  • Holmes Rolston III 鈥
  • Jonas Salk 鈥 The Immune System: The Mind of the Body


 

1991 (27th) - The Evolving Cosmos

  • Timothy Ferris 鈥
  • William A. Fowler (Nobel Prize in Physics 1983) 鈥
  • Margaret Geller 鈥 Where the Galaxies Are
  • Edward Harrison 鈥
  • Ernan McMullin 鈥 Extrapolating to a Distant Past
  • Phillip Morrison 鈥 Newton and Anti-Newton: Enforced Simplicity, Inaccessible Origins

 

1990 (26th) - Chaos: The New Science

 A science of chaos?! How can there be a science of chaos? if something is chaotic, then it is complicated and unpredictable. Its patterns seem random-beyond the scope of normal science which describes orderly predictable processes. Nevertheless, in the past quarter-century scientist from many disciplines have focused their attention on complex and irregular phenomena in their fields and have discovered an underlying simplicity and regularity. They have found that complex, unpredictable phenomena may have elegantly simple, deterministic models, and conversely, that simple, deterministic models may exhibit startlingly complex and unpredictable behavior. 

  • Mitchell Feigenbaum 鈥
  • James Gleick 鈥
  • Benoit Mandelbrot 鈥
  • Heinz-Otto Peitgen 鈥
  • John Polkinghorne 鈥
  • Ilya Prigogine (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1977) 鈥
  • Stephen Smale 鈥

1989 (25th) - The End of Science?

  • Sheldon Lee Glashow (Nobel Prize in Physics '79) 鈥 The Death of Science!?
  • Ian Hacking 鈥 Disunified Sciences
  • Sandra Harding 鈥 Why Physics Is a Bad Model for Physics: Feminist Issues
  • Mary Hesse 鈥 Need a Constructed Reality Be Non-Objective? Reflections on Science and Society
  • Gerald Holton 鈥 How to Think about the End of Science
  • Gunther S. Stent 鈥 Cognitive Limits and the End of Science


 

1988 (24th) - The Restless Earth

  • Don L. Anderson 鈥 Earth鈥檚 Interior: The Last Frontier
  • W.G. Ernst 鈥 The Pacific Rim: Plate Tectonics, Continental Growth, and Geological Hazards and The Future of the Earth Sciences
  • David Ray Griffin 鈥 The Restless Universe: A Postmodern View
  • Jack Oliver 鈥 Plate Tectonics: The Discovery, the Lesson, the Opportunity
  • David M. Raup 鈥 Catastrophes and the History of Life on Earth
  • J. Tuzo Wilson 鈥 Some Controls That Greatly Affect Surface Responses to Mantle Convection beneath Continents

     

1987 (23rd) - Evolution of Sex

  • William Donald Hamilton 鈥 Sex and Disease
  • Philip J. Hefner 鈥 Sex, for God鈥檚 Sake: Theological Perspectives
  • Sarah Blaffer Hrdy 鈥 The Primate Origins of Female Sexuality and Raising Darwin鈥檚 Consciousness: Was There a Male Bias?
  • Lynn Margulis 鈥 Sex in the Microcosm
  • Dorion Sagan 鈥 Sex in the Microcosm
  • Peter H. Raven 鈥 The Meaning of Flowers: Evolution of Sex in Plants
  • John Maynard Smith 鈥 Theories of the Evolution of Sex


 

1986 (22nd) - The Legacy of Keynes

  • Karl Brunner 鈥
  • James M. Buchanan (Nobel Prize in Economics '86) 鈥
  • Geoffrey C. Harcourt 鈥
  • Axel Leijonhufvud 鈥
  • Ronald Haydn Preston 鈥
  • Baron Stig Ramel 鈥
  • Lester Thurow 鈥
  • James Tobin (Nobel Prize in Economics '81) 鈥


 

1985 (21st) - The Impact of Science on Society

  • Winston J. Brill 鈥
  • Daniel J. Kevles 鈥
  • Salvador E. Luria (Nobel Prize in Medicine '69) 鈥
  • J. Robert Nelson 鈥
  • Merritt Roe Smith 鈥


 

1984 (20th) - How We Know: The Inner Frontiers of Cognitive Science

  • Daniel Dennett 鈥
  • Gerald Edelman (Nobel Prize in Medicine '72) 鈥
  • Brenda Milner 鈥
  • Arthur Peacocke 鈥
  • Roger Schank 鈥
  • Herbert Simon (Nobel Prize in Economics '78) 鈥


 

1983 (19th) - Manipulating Life

  • Christian Anfinsen (Nobel Prize in Chemistry '72) 鈥
  • Willard Gaylin 鈥
  • June Goodfield 鈥
  • Clifford Grobstein 鈥
  • Karen Lebacqz 鈥
  • Lewis Thomas 鈥


 

1982 (18th) - Darwin's Legacy

  • Stephen Jay Gould 鈥
  • Richard E. Leakey 鈥 African Origins: A Review of the Record
  • Sir Peter Medawar (Nobel Prize in Medicine '60) 鈥 The Evidences of Evolution
  • Jaroslav Pelikan 鈥 Darwin鈥檚 Legacy: Emanation, Evolution, and Development
  • Edward O. Wilson 鈥 Sociobiology: From Darwin to the Present

Additional Presenters

  • Irving Stone 鈥 The Human Mind after Darwin


 

1981 (17th) - The Place of Mind in Nature

  • Ragnar Granit (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1967) 鈥 Reflections on the Evolution of the Mind and Its Environment
  • Wolfhart Pannenberg 鈥 Spirit and Mind
  • Richard Rorty 鈥 Mind as Ineffable
  • John Archibald Wheeler 鈥 Bohr, Einstein, and the Strange Lesson of the Quantum
  • Eugene Wigner (Nobel Prize in Physics '63) 鈥 The Limitations of the Validity of Present-Day Physics

Additional Presenters

  • Czes艂aw Mi艂osz (Nobel Prize in Literature '80) 鈥 Reflections


 

1980 (16th) - The Aesthetic Dimension of Science

  • Freeman J. Dyson 鈥 Manchester and Athens
  • Charles Hartshorne 鈥 Science as the Search for the Hidden Beauty of the World
  • William N. Lipscomb Jr. (Nobel Prize in Chemistry '76) 鈥 Some Aesthetic Aspects of Science
  • Gunther Schuller 鈥 Form and Aesthetics in Twentieth Century Music
  • Chen Ning Yang (Nobel Prize in Physics '57) 鈥 Beauty and Theoretical Physics

Additional Presenters

  • Isaac Bashevis Singer 鈥 On Beauty

1979 (15th) - The Future of the Market Economy

  • Robert Benne 鈥 Ought the Market Economy Have a Future?
  • Richard Lipsey 鈥 An Economist Looks at the Future of the Price System
  • Kenneth McLennan 鈥 Redefining Government鈥檚 Role in the Market System
  • Baron Stig Ramel 鈥 Sweden: How a Mixed Economy Gets Mixed Up
  • Mark Willes 鈥 Rational Expectations and the Future of the Market System
     

 

1978 (14th) - Global Resources: Perspectives and Alternatives

  • Ian Barbour 鈥 Justice, Freedom, and Sustainability
  • Barry Commoner 鈥 A New Historic Passage: The Transition to Renewable Resources
  • Garrett Hardin 鈥 An Ecolate View of the Human Predicament
  • Tjalling C. Koopmans (Nobel Prize in Economics 1975) 鈥 Projecting Economic Aspects of Alternative Futures
  • Letitia Obeng 鈥 Benevolent Yokes in Different Worlds


 

1977 (13th) - The Nature of Life

  • Max Delbr眉ck (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1969) 鈥 Mind from Matter?
  • Ren茅 Dubos 鈥 Biological Memory and the Living Earth
  • Sidney W. Fox 鈥 The Origin and Nature of Protolife
  • Bernard M. Loomer 鈥 The Web of Life
  • Peter R. Marler 鈥 In the Mind鈥檚 Eye: Perception and Innate Knowledge

Additional Presenters

  • Elizabeth Shull Russell 鈥 Panelist


 

1976 (12th) - The Nature of the Physical Universe

  • Murray Gell-Mann (Nobel Prize in Physics 1969) 鈥 What Are the Building Blocks of Matter?
  • Sir Fred Hoyle 鈥 An Astronomer鈥檚 View of the Evolution of Man
  • Stanley L. Jaki 鈥 The Chaos of Scientific Cosmology
  • Hilary W. Putnam 鈥 The Place of Facts in a World of Values
  • Steven Weinberg (Nobel Prize in Physics 1979) 鈥 Is Nature Simple?
  • Victor F. Weisskopf 鈥 What Is an Elementary Particle?


 

1975 (11th) - The Future of Science

  • Sir John C. Eccles (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1963) 鈥 The Brian-Mind Problem as a Frontier of Science
  • Langdon Gilkey 鈥 The Future of Science
  • Polykarp Kusch (Nobel Prize in Physics 1955) 鈥 A Personal View of Science and the Future
  • Glenn T. Seaborg (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1951) 鈥 New Signposts for Science

Panelists

  • Ian Barbour, Theologian
  • John Cobb Jr., Theologian
  • William Dean, Theologian
  • Van Austin Harvey, Theologian
  • Hans Schwartz, Theologian
  • Christian Anfinsen (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1972)
  • George Beadle (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1958)
  • Hans Bethe (Nobel Prize in Physics 1967)
  • Felix Bloch (Nobel Prize in Physics 1952)
  • Walter Brattain (Nobel Prize in Physics 1956)
  • Leon Cooper (Nobel Prize in Physics 1972)
  • Andr茅 Cournand (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1956)
  • Christian de Duve (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1974)
  • Gerald Edelman (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1972)
  • Ulf S. von Euler (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1970)
  • Robert Hofstadter (Nobel Prize in Physics 1961)
  • Charles Huggins (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1966)
  • Simon Kuznets (Nobel Prize in Economics 1971)
  • Willis Lamb Jr. (Nobel Prize in Physics 1955)
  • Willard Libby (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1960)
  • Fritz Lipmann (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1953)
  • Robert Mulliken (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1966)
  • Lars Onsager (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1968)
  • Julian Schwinger (Nobel Prize in Physics 1965)
  • Emilio Segre (Nobel Prize in Physics 1959)
  • William B. Shockley (Nobel Prize in Physics 1956)
  • Ernest Walton (Nobel Prize in Physics 1951)
  • Thomas Weller (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1954)
  • Chen Ning Yang (Nobel Prize in Physics 1957)

Additional Presenters

  • David Matthews 鈥 Closing Address


 

1974 (10th) - The Quest for Peace

  • Rubem Alves 鈥 Diagnosis of a Sickness: The Will to War
  • Elisabeth Mann Borgese 鈥 The World Communities as a Peace System
  • Polykarp Kusch (Nobel Prize in Physics 1955) 鈥 Is Enduring Peace a Realistic Hope?
  • Robert Jay Lifton 鈥 Survival and Transformation鈥擣rom War to Peace
  • Baron Stig Ramel 鈥 Nationalism and International Peace
  • Paul A. Samuelson (Nobel Prize in Economics 1970) 鈥 Economics and Peace


 

1973 (9th) - The Destiny of Women

  • Mary Daly 鈥 Scapegoat Religion and the Sacrifice of Women
  • Martha W. Griffiths 鈥 Legal and Social Rights and Responsibilities of Women
  • Beatrix Hamburg 鈥 The Biology of Sex Differences
  • Eleanor Maccoby 鈥 The Development of Sex Differences in Intellect and Social Behavior
  • Johnnie Tillmon 鈥 The Changing Cultural Images of the Black Woman in America


 

1972 (8th) - The End of Life

  • Alexander Comfort 鈥 Changing the Life Span
  • Ulf S. von Euler (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1970) 鈥 Physiological Aspects of Aging and Death
  • Nathan A. Scott Jr. 鈥 The Modern Imagination of Death
  • Krister Stendahl 鈥 Immortality Is Too Much and Too Little
  • George Wald (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1967) 鈥 The Origin of Death


 

1971 (7th) - Shaping the Future

  • Norman E. Borlaug (Nobel Prize in Peace 1970) 鈥 The World Food Problem鈥擯resent and Future
  • John McHale 鈥 Shaping the Future: Problems, Priorities, and Imperatives
  • Glenn T. Seaborg (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1951) 鈥
  • Joseph Sittler 鈥

Additional Presenters

  • Anthony J. Wiener 鈥


 

1970 (6th) - Creativity

  • William A. Arrowsmith 鈥 The Creative University
  • Jacob Bronowski 鈥 The Creative Process
  • Willard F. Libby (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1960) 鈥 Creativity in Science
  • Donald W. MacKinnon 鈥 Creativity: A Multi-faceted Phenomenon
  • Gordon Parks 鈥 Creativity to Me

1969 (5) - Communication

  • Leroy G. Augenstein 鈥
  • Noam Chomsky 鈥
  • Abraham Kaplan 鈥
  • Eric H. Lenneberg 鈥
  • Peter R. Marler 鈥


 

1968 (4) - The Uniqueness of Man

  • Theodosius Dobzhansky 鈥 The Pattern of Human Evolution
  • Sir John C. Eccles (Nobel Prize in Medicine '63) 鈥
  • Ernan McMullin 鈥
  • W.H. Thorpe 鈥 Vitalism and Organicism
  • S.L. Washburn 鈥
  • Daniel Day Williams 鈥


 

1967 (3) - The Human Mind

  • Sir John C. Eccles (Nobel Prize in Medicine '63) 鈥
  • James M. Gustafson 鈥
  • Holger Hyden 鈥 Biochemical Aspects of Learning and Memory
  • Seymour S. Kety 鈥 Biochemical Aspects of Mental States
  • Francis O. Schmitt 鈥
  • Huston Smith 鈥
  • Nils K. Stahle 鈥 The Nobel Foundation at Work


 

1966 (2) - The Control of the Environment

  • Kenneth E. Boulding 鈥 The Prospects of Economic Abundance
  • Ren茅 Dubos 鈥 Adaptations to the Environment and Man鈥檚 Future
  • Roger Revelle 鈥 The Conquest of the Oceans
  • Carl T. Rowan 鈥 The Free Spirit in a Controlled Environment
  • Glenn T. Seaborg (Nobel Prize in Chemistry '51) 鈥 The Control of Energy

Additional Presenters

  • Orville L. Freeman 鈥 Convocation Speaker


 

1965 (inaugural year) - Genetics and the Future of Man

  • Kingsley Davis 鈥
  • H. Bentley Glass 鈥
  • R. Paul Ramsey 鈥
  • Sheldon C. Reed 鈥
  • William B. Shockley (Nobel Prize in Physics '56) 鈥 Population Control or Eugenics
  • Edward L. Tatum (Nobel Prize in Medicine '58) 鈥

Additional Presenters

  • Philip S. Hench (Nobel Prize in Medicine '50) 鈥 Honorary Chair
  • Polykarp Kusch (Nobel Prize in Physics '55) 鈥
  • Edgar Carlson -

Conference History

The Nobel Conference continues to be guided by that original vision. The list of conference is a documentary record of some of the central scientific and social scientific questions of those five decades, as well some of the pressing ethical challenges to which those questions have given rise. In serving that twofold vision, the Nobel Conference endeavors to realize the spirit of Alfred Nobel鈥檚 original bequest, which honored the efforts of those who 鈥渉ave conferred the greatest benefit to humanity鈥 in the areas of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace.

More about the Conference history can be found in these reflections written in 1998 by Rev. Richard Q. Elvee, former chaplain of the College and Nobel Conference director until 1999.

Finding Our Way

Since its inception, the Nobel Conference has set a standard for timeliness, intellectual inquiry, and free debate of ideas. The 1965 conference, "Genetics and the Future of Man," featured four leading scholars in biology and ethics and three Nobel laureates--Polykarp Kusch, William Shockley, and Edward Tatum鈥攊n a discussion of biological engineering and genetic manipulation. With more than 1,000 people attending from 36 colleges and universities and 82 Minnesota high schools, this first Nobel Conference was at the very least a regional success. That success would expand rapidly. In 1967, the Nobel conference on "The Human Mind" attracted 2,000 people to St. Peter and was covered by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press.

The attention lavished upon the 1967 conference was due in large part to its topicality, as the participants discussed issues including mind control and psychedelic drugs. This topicality would rapidly become one of the hallmarks of the Nobel Conference, as the next several events amply demonstrated.

The 1969 Nobel Conference on communications was highlighted by the speech of linguist and social critic Noam Chomsky. Noted African-American photographer, writer, and filmmaker Gordon Parks illuminated the 1970 Nobel Conference on "Creativity" which also featured a sharp debate between Jacob Bronowski and humanist William Arrowsmith on the sources of creativity.

Running debates between invited scholars and controversial positions during the two-day period have not been unusual. In 1971, one of the most heated confrontations took place between Nobel laureate Glenn Seaborg and theologian Joseph Sittler, who argued whether advances in science and technology were aiding humanity (Seaborg) or destroying the environment (Sittler). And just a year later, theologian Krister Stendahl and Nobel laureate George Wald, both of Harvard, suggested that the "End of Life" was not succeeded by the immortality of the ego. Letters to editors poured into national papers and religious journals protesting the comments of Stendahl and Wald. Not a few of those letters questioned the integrity of the College and its conference, questions that were likely not answered at the next two Nobel Conferences on "The Destiny of Women" and "The Quest for Peace."

Coming of Age

Attempting to address a perception that politics was taking precedence over research science in the selection of Nobel topics, planners of the 1975 conference sought to return it to its roots. "The Future of Science" not only accomplished that goal, but it helped the College celebrate Nobel's first 10 years with an extra measure of pomp and circumstance. In honor of the anniversary, 27 Nobel laureates came to 麻豆视频 for the conference.

The next several conferences focused on physics, chemistry, and biology, with Nobel laureates Murray Gell-Mann, Steven Weinberg, Max Delbruck, and Tjalling Koopmans presenting talks. In 1979, the Nobel Conference grasped an invisible hand and stepped into a new area--economics. "The Future of the Market Economy" aroused controversy through calls from the United States (Kenneth McLennan), Canada (Richard Lipsey), and Sweden (Baron Stig Ramel, president of The Nobel Foundation) for an economy tied more closely to a free market. That controversy was minor, however, compared to the one joined at the 1982 Nobel Conference. With "Darwin's Legacy" as the topic, panelists Richard Leakey, Stephen Jay Gould, Edward O. Wilson, and Nobel laureate Sir Peter Medawar took on both the creationist attack on the theory of evolution and traditional understandings of Darwin's work. The resulting brouhaha, with angry letters again fired off to newspapers and journals, did not dissuade anyone from attending the following conference on "Manipulating Life." Some 4,500 people, including 20 visiting scholars from China, heard Lewis Thomas, Nobel laureate Christian Anfinsen, and four other authorities discuss the latest advances in genetic research.

Into the '90s: On the Cutting Edge

In recent years, the Nobel Conference has continued to attract top-rank scholars from a variety of academic fields. Economist James Buchanan received the 1986 Nobel prize only a week after his appearance at the Nobel Conference exploring "The Legacy of Keynes." Two years later, during the 1988 conference on "The Restless Earth," W.G. Ernst, dean of the school of earth sciences at Stanford University, correctly predicted the San Francisco earthquake of October 1989! And in 1992, medical pioneer Dr. Jonas Salk attracted the largest audience ever for a closing Nobel Dinner when he came to St. Peter to discuss his work at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

In 1994, a panel led by Nobel laureate David Hubel "unlocked the brain," charting the dramatic advances made in neuroscience in the previous decade. In 1995, the Conference explored "The New Shape of Matter," and once again a conference panelist won a Nobel prize in the very next year: Professor Harold Kroto became the 1996 prizewinner in chemistry for his codiscovery of a previously unknown form of carbon. In 1997, led by Nobel laureate F. Sherwood Rowland, the Conference reviewed 30 years of space science with top Russian and American space scientists present. The 1998 Conference on viruses and infectious diseases attracted an audience of nearly 6,000, including representatives from 99 high schools and 50 colleges and universities from the Upper Midwest and beyond.

The Spirit of Nobel: Realizing the Promise

After more than three decades, the original promise of the Nobel conference continues to be realized. It is essentially the promise of Alfred Nobel's testament first ventured by the dying chemist-entrepreneur almost 100 years ago. It is characterized by an endeavor to launch international cooperation within the sciences and other cultural activities, and by cooperation based on reason in the service of humanity. This is the spirit in which the Nobel Conference carries on its work. The festivities and the glamour of the annual event should not draw away from the core scientific values on which the conference was founded. Alfred Nobel himself was a prodigious and dedicated worker, scientist, technician, and entrepreneur--a committed idealist. But he was also a gentle man and a generous host, one who was not above adding festivity and luster to seriousness and toil.

The only ongoing educational conference in the United States to have the official authorization of in Stockholm, Sweden, the Nobel Conference at 麻豆视频, St. Peter, Minnesota, links a general audience with the world's foremost scholars and researchers in conversations centered on contemporary issues related to the natural and social sciences.

Throughout its history, 麻豆视频 has honored its Swedish heritage and its commitment to excellence in education. When the College began planning for a new hall of science in the early 1960s, College officials asked the Nobel Foundation for permission to name the building the Alfred Nobel Hall of Science as a memorial to the great Swedish inventor and philanthropist whose bequest endowed the world-renowned prizes. The Nobel Foundation granted 麻豆视频 permission to use the name, and when the building was dedicated on May 4, 1963, the ceremony counted 26 Nobel laureates, as well as officials from the Nobel Foundation among its distinguished guests. It was the third largest gathering of laureates to date鈥攁nd the largest outside Sweden.

Ralph Bunche delivered the address at the Nobel Memorial Banquet. Bunche was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 for brokering a cease fire between Israelis and Arabs in the 1948 war that followed the creation of Israel. He was the first African American to be awarded the Peace Prize. Chemistry Laureate Linus Pauling (1954) stayed on after the dedication ceremonies to deliver lectures to the 麻豆视频 community about his book No More War.

The following December, representatives of the College attended the Nobel Prize ceremonies in Stockholm. Following the conclusion of the ceremonies, those representatives met one evening with officials from The Nobel Foundation at the country home of the Countess Estelle Bernadotte, the widow of Count Folke Bernadotte, outside Stockholm. The 麻豆视频 contingent, which included President Edgar Carlson, Vice President Reynold Anderson, and Dr. Philip Hench, a Nobel laureate in medicine, made an unusual request of The Nobel Foundation: to endorse an annual science conference at the College, and to allow the conference to be named The Nobel Conference鈥攁 mark of its credibility, and of the high standards it would uphold.

The 麻豆视频 representatives laid out their twofold vision for the conference: to bring cutting-edge science issues to the attention of an audience of students and interested adults; and to engage the panelists and the audience in a discussion of the moral and societal impact of these issues.

At the urging of several prominent Nobel laureates, The Nobel Foundation granted the College鈥檚 request, and the first conference鈥斺淕enetics and the Future of Man鈥濃攚as held in January 1965.

Nobel Hall dedication

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