Malala Yousafzai is the perfect embodiment of everything we think and hope when we imagine a potential Nobel laureate. At the age of 11, she started blogging for the BBC to describe the lives of girls under an oppressive Taliban regime in Pakistan. In October 2012, an anonymous man shot Malala in the face three times at close range while waiting for a school bus. She was 12 years old at the time. Miraculously, Malala not only survived, but prospered, and has since become one of the most vivid and famous champions of children's rights in the world. Especially the rights of oppressed girls. Malala won the Nobel Prize in 2014 at the age of 17.
Nobel Prizes have been awarded each year since 1901 to honor people who have made significant cultural and / or scientific advances in the fields of peace, chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine and literature . Notable Peace Prize recipients are Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr and now Malala Yousafzai.
So who was Alfred Nobel and how did he get the most revered international prize on the planet named in his honor? Was he a champion of human rights? Nope. A doctor who cured a terrible disease? Nope. An international anti-war crusader? In fact, it is exactly the opposite. Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist who invented a little thing called blast. And while this may seem like a harmless invention to us today, during his lifetime, Alfred was regarded as an evil scientist who made a great fortune out of the death and misery of other people. This memory has changed thanks to a small obituary in a French newspaper and a very guilty conscience ...
Youth and inventionsAlfred Bernhard Nobel was born on October 23, 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden. He had seven siblings and grew up in a poor family. The family was so poor that only four of the eight Nobel children survived childhood. His father was an engineer and an inventor who fueled Alfred's interest in explosives and chemistry at a young age.
To improve their luck, the family traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia in 1837. Over the years, Alfred's father became moderately successful as the owner of a factory that made parts. of machines. Sufficiently successful to allow Alfred's private tutors to develop his now rabid passion for chemistry. The tutors also helped Alfred to master English, Russian, French and German.
At 18, Alfred moved to the United States to continue his chemistry studies. In 1857, at the age of 24, he applied for his first gas meter patent. In 1859 the whole Nobel family returned to Stockholm. Back in Sweden, Alfred entered the world of explosives and detonators. He was particularly fascinated by a newly discovered, colorless, oily, extremely volatile explosive liquid known as nitroglycerine.
On September 3, 1864, a nitroglycerin plant just outside of Stockholm exploded and killed five workers. One of the workers was Alfred's younger brother, Emil. The tragedy did not slow Alfred down, but it did inspire him to seek to develop a more stable form of explosive.
In 1867, after three consecutive years of hard work, Alfred, 34, invented and patented a substance that was much more stable (and in fact much more explosive) than nitroglycerin. He called the new stuff blast. The name was a reference to the ancient Greek word for power, dýnamis.
Alfred, who was a lifelong pacifist, initially envisioned that dynamite would be used primarily in mining and construction projects. But, as you can imagine, people quickly understood that dynamite was an extremely effective (and bloody) weapon of war.
As royalties for the invention pour in from around the world, Alfred and his brothers invest the money in oil fields near the Caspian Sea. The remaining three Nobel brothers became immensely wealthy, but no more than Alfred. During his lifetime, Alfred obtained 350 patents and, rather hypocritically, used his royalties to open 100 arms factories across Sweden and Russia.
Death MerchantOn April 12, 1888, Alfred's brother Ludvwig died in France. Upon learning of the death, several French newspapers accidentally printed obituaries for Alfred. The title of one of these obituaries said, "The Merchant of Death is Dead." In English: " The death merchant is dead. "
Alfred was naturally surprised to find himself reading his own obituary. He also apparently hadn't clicked on the fact that his life would be remembered with such derogatory contempt. This feeling shook Alfred Nobel to the heart. He immediately called lawyers to make drastic changes to his will, which until then had been intended to benefit only his direct heirs.
Alfred Nobel died of a brain hemorrhage in his villa in Sanremo, Italy, eight years later, on December 10, 1896. He was 63 years old. To the amazement of the whole world, Alfred's will provided that 94% of his assets would be used to establish a new charitable foundation. The newly created Nobel Foundation will award annual prizes to those who have " greatest benefit to humanity in physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine and literature. "
These 94% corresponded to 31.2 million Swedish crowns. After adjusting for inflation, the donation was approximately $ 200 million after adjusting for inflation. With interest and appreciation, the Nobel Foundation now controls valuable assets $ 560 million.
Since the first prize was awarded in 1901 (to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, the man who discovered X-rays), the Nobel Foundation has awarded 835 people - 791 men and 44 women. Today's winners each receive a gold medal (18 carats and 196 grams of gold), a diploma and a Check for $ 1.2 million.
For his generosity, today, when most people hear the name "Nobel", they think of words like "peace", "progress" and "science". We no longer hear his name and we think of words like "death", "destruction" and "misery". If you think about it, the creation of the Nobel Prize could be the most expensive remedy for a guilty conscience in human history!