Issues come and go with each American presidential cycle, but one thing that seems to have stayed constant for the past several cycles is China-bashing.

Adam Lerner '13 bemoans this year's pick for the Nobel Prize in Literature and wonders why great American writers — like Philip Roth — have been shut out for almost 20 years.

The Woodward-Hoffmann rules were developed to predict the orientation of molecules in certain reactions between organic compounds. They were developed in a series of papers published by Robert Burns Woodward and Roald Hoffmann at Harvard in 1965. In 1981, two years after Woodward’s death, Hoffmann received a Nobel Prize for the Woodward-Hoffmann Rules.

Cornell’s Division of Nutritional Sciences dedicated a plaque in the lobby of Savage Hall in honor of Prof. James B. Sumner, biochemistry, who won a Nobel Prize in 1946 for his discovery that enzymes can be crystallized. 

Cornell scientists, past and present, are anything but ordinary. The university prides itself in hiring some of the most intelligent people in the world, but its long list of innovative, brilliant, and award-winning minds is bound to have a few misunderstood characters. 

Barbara McClintock was the first female Nobel Laureate for Physiology or Medicine to receive the prize unshared. She is celebrated today, among other things, for discovering transposable elements, for which she received the Nobel Prize in 1983. Her work, at a time when there were very few female scientists, made her a role model for many women.

Hans Bethe plunged into academic life at Cornell. His efforts transformed the physics department, with only fifteen faculty-members, into one of the country’s main centers for physics research.  Although Bethe applied his research to develop the first nuclear weapons, he spent his life advocating for nuclear regulation. And now, he is one of Cornell's most beloved scientists.

In light of this week’s announcement of the Nobel Prize winners, it is worth noting that Cornell can count among its alums three female winners of unshared Nobel Prizes.

The Nobel Committee’s decision to award President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize calls into question the purpose of this prestigious award. If the prize serves to recognize concrete action and tangible efforts towards peace, the committee failed to adhere to these measures. Yet, if the committee sought to praise intent and catalyze future action, their decision was dead on.

Jack Szostak ’77 won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine yesterday, the Nobel Assembly announced. Szostak was part of a three-person team that discovered an enzyme that prevents chromosomes from unraveling when a cell divides. The discoveries may someday lead to a cure for cancer and even an antidote for aging.