Mechnikov Nobel Prize 1908. Nobel laureates: Paul Ehrlich. G

Louis Pasteur - Founder of Immunology

1887 - lecture at the French Academy of Sciences

Principles of the prevention of infectious diseases by weakened or killed pathogens (chicken cholera)

In the Russian chronicles, along with numerous descriptions of the diseases of princes and representatives of the upper class (boyars, clergy), horrifying pictures of large epidemics of plague and other infectious diseases are given, which in Russia were called "pestilence." For the period from XI to XVIII centuries. the annals mention 47 "morales". They began, as a rule, in the border cities - Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, through which foreign merchant caravans passed.

In 1546 Professor of the University of Padua, J. Frakastro wrote his work "On Contagion, Contagious Diseases and Treatment" in three books, in which he significantly shattered the earlier concept of "miasms".

Joseph Lister (1827-1912)

English physician, surgeon, founder of the theory of antiseptics. He proved that MO cause suppuration of wounds, come from the external environment with dust, tools, honey on hands and clothes. staff. He suggested using carbolic acid.

Paul Ehrlich (1854 - 1915)

The German pharmacologist and immunologist, the first discoveries in the field of chemotherapy, scientifically substantiated and for the first time used drugs for the treatment of syphilis (salvarsan 606 is an arsenic compound).

1908 - Nobel Prize

Sergei Nikolaevich Vinogradsky (1856-1953)

Founder of soil microbiology and the theory of chemosynthesis. He worked in St. Petersburg in the field of microbial ecology, studied MO in the natural environment. He opened MO breathing due to chemical oxidation of inorganic substances: oxidation of ammonia, sulfur, nitrate.

Nikolay Fedorovich Gamaleya (1859-1949)

Creator of bacteriological stations in Russia, rabies vaccination station

Edward Jenner (1749-1823)

Gloucestershire English physician, founder vaccination (vaccinating with vaccinia to prevent smallpox). Young Jenner had the idea of ​​inoculating cowpox in a conversation with an elderly milkmaid, whose hands were covered with skin rashes.

1908 G. - I. I. Mechnikov and Ehrlich p.

Phagocytic theory of immunity.

The humoral theory of immunity.

Attempts to elucidate the mechanisms of protection.

Nobel Prize for the Study of the Nature of Immunity.

I.I. Mechnikov

S. Ivanovka (Kharkov).

1879 - theory of the origin of multicellular organisms.

1882 - phagocytosis.

1883 - phagocytic theory of immunity.

1892 - theory of comparative pathology of inflammation.

Emil Adolf fon Behring (1854 - 1917)

Nobel Prize in 1901 for the discovery of the protective properties of anti-tetanus and anti-diphtheria sera.

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (1843 - 1910)

In 1905, Robert Koch was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "research and discoveries concerning the treatment of tuberculosis".

Ehrlich, Paul (1854-1915)Respiration processes in tissues.

Different forms of leukocytes.

The role of bone marrow in hematopoiesis.

Mast cells.

Method for staining tuberculosis pathogens.

Arsenic treatment for syphilis.

Experimental tumor growth.

Nils Kai Erne (1911, London)

Affinity of AG and AT.

1954 - the theory of selective formation of antibodies (applied the theory of natural selection: antibodies seem to undergo selection)

Side chain theory - 1984 Nobel Prize (AT itself may be AG, and antibodies will be produced on it).

Macfarlane BURNETH (1899 - 1985), Australian

He graduated from the medical faculty in Melbourne, defended his dissertation in London.

In Melbourne - vaccination against diphtheria (Staphylococcus) in 1928, death of 12 children.

Returned to England (chicken embryos) - virology, the question is: how does the organism distinguish its own and "not - its"?

The basis of the theory of tolerance ("own-not-own").

1960 - Nobel Prize for clonal selection theory.

Snell, Dosse, Benaceraf

1980 - Nobel Prize for discoveries concerning certain structures on the cell surface that regulate immune functions.

Mechanisms of cell recognition, immune reactions, transplant rejection.

Paul Ehrlich

1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (with Ilya Mechnikov). The wording of the Nobel Committee: "For their work on immunity."

The era of modern medicine can be called the era of pharmacotherapy or chemotherapy, because a more successful method of combating pathogens than a directed (targeted) effect on the pathogen or a link in pathogenesis has not yet been found. And the first person who introduced this concept into medicine, having come up with a "magic bullet" from syphilis, was our current hero. However, he did not receive the award for this at all. He, as is expected of all scientists of the beginning of the 20th century, was engaged in various things, achieving success everywhere. It is he who, in addition to the beautiful "point" in the study of blood cells, also belongs to the fundamental for immunology "theory of side chains", as well as the concept of the blood-brain barrier.

The scientist lived a not very long, but extremely eventful life. He was born into the family of an innkeeper and innkeeper from the small Polish town of Strzelin. Thanks to his cheerful disposition, Ehrlich easily found contact with completely different people, and therefore many acquaintances believed that Paul would continue his father's career. But it was not there. The boy, whose parents were not at all fond of science, fell under the influence of his paternal grandfather, who taught physics and botany at the local university. His mother's cousin, bacteriologist Karl Weigert, helped the young histologist finally develop his interest in science. He lured Paul into the mysterious world of living tissues and aniline dyes, with which he was one of the first to work.

Karl Weigert

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Part of this was the "fault" of the book that Ehrlich read when he entered the medical faculty of the University of Breslau (modern Wroclaw). It talked about how lead is distributed in a special way in different tissues, and the inquisitive mind of a young man immediately became interested in "the nature and methods of distribution of substances in the body and its cells", which he did not fail to do in later years of studying medicine.

It is interesting that Ehrlich at universities (and he, in addition to his own family, managed to study at both Starsburg and Leipzig universities) was known as a typical "failing student", just like Newton, Helmholtz, Einstein and many other "geniuses" ... Apparently, they thought the same: why waste time on something that is not interesting, if it can be spent on more exciting things. The corpses and the healing of Ehrlich did not in any way seduce, but the dyes ...

Over the years of his studies, Paul developed many new dyes with specific affinity for various cells, and by the time he graduated in 1878, he was already something of himself as a scientist. A unique "vision" of the three-dimensional structure of molecules, which helped him to predict the connection of dyes with certain tissues, allowed him in 1879 to publish the results of his research on the dyeing of blood films. The researcher was then only 25 years old.

Our hero found everything necessary for the full-fledged existence of hematology as follows: he separated the populations of white cells (agranulocytes - cells without granules, and granulocytes - cells containing specific granules in their cytoplasm), and not only from each other, but also inside. Thanks to him, we know that there are lymphocytes that do not contain granules (later it turned out that they are divided into B- and T- and NK-cells), and granulocytes, in turn, are divided into several types, among which neutrophils can be found, eosinophils and basophils.

Granulocyte

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Ehrlich was attracted by another detail. In one of the clinics in Berlin, where he worked, no one bothered to engage in various studies, including the color of pathogens. Therefore, he came up with the idea of ​​\ u200b \ u200bthe "magic bullet". "If there is such a paint that stains only one fabric, then, undoubtedly, there should be one that will stain only the microbes that have entered the body," the scientist thought. And, accordingly, if there is paint that will color only microbes, then there must be a substance that will only be able to kill them. And, perhaps, one of the dyes can become this "killer".

In this capacity as a "virtuoso dyer" and in the position of chief physician of the Friedrich von Freerichs clinic at the Berlin Charite Hospital, Ehrlich met the then famous Robert Koch, who in 1882 discovered the causative agent of tuberculosis. He offered Koch an improved method of coloring his sticks (which, incidentally, is still used today), which began their long-term friendship and close cooperation.

Robert Koch on a stamp dedicated to the centenary of his prize

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But here's the trouble: in 1888, during another experiment with a dangerous pathogen, Paul himself became infected with the bacillus, and, in addition, infected his family, which he acquired in 1883. With his wife Hedwiga Pincus and two daughters, he was forced to leave for treatment in Egypt, the hot and dry climate of which was the best possible way to get rid of the pathogen. They lived there for two years.

A holy place is never empty, and as a result of undercover intrigues, the absent Ehrlich was dismissed from his post at the Charite clinic, which he discovered when he returned to Berlin in 1890. Undeterred, he continued his scientific research in his laboratory, which, fortunately, could not be appropriated until Koch offered to help and took him to his Institute of Infectious Diseases. In addition, Ehrlich also became a professor at the University of Berlin.

Clinic Charite

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His "infectious" past brought him together with the discoverer of anti-diphtheria serum, von Behring, who won the 1901 Nobel Prize. Initially, however, vaccination, which was supposed to protect mice from toxins by gradually increasing doses, did not give reliable results. But Ehrlich found methods to increase the effectiveness of the serum: he advised to "enhance" it by reintroducing the diphtheria toxin to horses until the required concentration of antitoxin was obtained, and then helped Bering to establish mass production. At the same time, the scientist began to think about the theory of "side chains".

Ehrlich and Bering on a postage stamp

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“Living protoplasm must correspond to a giant molecule interacting with ordinary chemical molecules in the same way as the sun does with the smallest meteorites. We can assume that in a living protoplasm, a nucleus with a special structure is responsible for specific functions inherent in the cell, and atoms and their complexes are attached to this nucleus like side chains, ”Ehrlich wrote.

This is also the origin of ideas about specific receptors in cells that can bind to pathogens. The researcher continued to "dig deeper" and in 1897 proposed the first theory. He believed that these side chains outside the cell membranes (which later came to be called receptors) were able to bind to certain chemicals in the environment. Some of them can combine with toxins that microorganisms release into the environment, and this connection is built according to the "key-lock" type (the discovery was confirmed by Linus Pauling in the 40s). After contacting the toxin, the cell begins to transform and freely release “side chains” into the intercellular environment, where they would meet with the toxin and neutralize it, protecting other cells and the whole organism from “invasion”. Even the name of these chains was given by Ehrlich familiar - Antikörper or antibodies. His theory remarkably resembled the mechanism of humoral immunity known today, which is based on antibodies produced by B cells.

Such a peculiar theory of immunity, by the way, caused a harsh dispute between Ehrlich and Mechnikov: an emigrant from Russia believed that all immunity was provided by phagocytosis, and Ehrlich fiercely argued that antibodies played the main role. In fact, both were right, as it happens. Ehrlich's most important achievement is that he was the first to present the interaction between antibodies, pathogens and cells as chemical reactions. In addition, it was he who formed the basis of modern immunological terminology.

Ilya Mechnikov. Nadar Photos

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Apparently, the Nobel Committee at the beginning of its existence set one of the tasks of reconciliation of irreconcilable rivals. We have already described how the ardent opponents of Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramon y Cajal, who are also the founders of modern neurosciences, received the prize in 1906. Apparently, guided by the same principle, the Nobel Committee gave in 1908 a prize to the two founders of modern immunology - Mechnikov and Ehrlich. In general, Ehrlich was nominated only 76 times. Interestingly, there were many nominations after 1908, including one nomination for a chemistry prize. For what? Read on!

A little later Paul was called director of the State Institute for the Development and Control of Serums in Steglitz (a suburb of Berlin), which in 1899 expanded to the Institute for Experimental Serotherapy in Frankfurt am Main. Seven years later, Ehrlich became director and here, and now the institute bears his name - Paul-Ehrlich Institut.

The "magic bullet" never left the researcher's mind. With his Japanese assistant Sahashiro Hata, he tried more than 500 different dyes, expecting to find an effective remedy against trypanosome, the causative agent of sleeping sickness. Once, leafing through another chemical journal, he came across an interesting drug against sleeping sickness - atoxil or, from Latin, "non-poisonous", which, as the authors said, perfectly relieved patients of their ailment.

Atoxil

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Having independently studied the drug, scientists came to the conclusion that the name was lying. Atoxil, containing arsenic in its composition, had a colossal toxic effect on the optic nerve, "helping" patients to recover and taking away their vision. Researchers spent several years before they found a more or less effective and less toxic analogue - arsenophenylglycine.

And when Hoffman in 1905 determined that syphilis is caused by a specific microbe - a pallid spirochete, which is very similar in structure to a trypanosome, Ehrlich began looking for a "magic bullet" against it. All this led to the creation of substance No. 606 from atoxil in 1909 (it really turned out to be the 606th in a row among the tested organoarsenic preparations), which was called arsphenamine or salvarsan. In the very first clinical trials conducted at the Magdeburg hospital, it showed high efficiency against syphilis. Thus, salvarsan became the first chemotherapy drug in the history of medicine. Ehrlich announced the discovery of a remedy for syphilis in 1910 and the drug immediately began its journey around the world: for example, in the same year it was already used in Russia.

Inoculation of the drug "606" for an employee of the Imperial Orphanage. Russian Empire, 1910.

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Finally, I need to write about one more discovery that Ehrlich made while working on Salvarsan. This discovery posed a problem for pharmacology that has not yet been solved. Ehrlich introduced toxic dyes into laboratory animals. Opening the bodies, he saw that all tissues were stained except the brain. At first, he decided that since the brain is mainly composed of lipids, they simply do not stain. Subsequent experiments showed that if a dye is introduced into the blood, then the maximum that it is able to stain is the so-called choroidal vascular plexus of the ventricles of the brain. Further, "the way is closed" for him. If a dye is introduced into the cerebrospinal fluid by performing a lumbar puncture, then the brain is stained, but the rest of the body is not stained. It became clear that there is a certain barrier between the blood and the central nervous system, which many substances cannot overcome. So the blood-brain barrier was opened, which protects our brain from microorganisms and toxins, and has become a headache for neurologists who are trying to treat brain cancer. It is the blood-brain barrier that prevents chemotherapy from reaching tumors in the head. Therefore, the tasks set by Paul Ehrlich are still being solved by scientists.

Literature
Rudolf Aiken. Nobel Prize in Literature, 1908
Rudolf Eiken was awarded the prize for a serious search for truth, an all-pervasive power of thought, a broad outlook, liveliness and persuasiveness with which he defended and developed idealistic philosophy. Professor Aiken wrote serious research in various fields of philosophy and was a champion of true spirituality, not superficial morality, but a life full of nobility and dignity.

Physiology and Medicine
Ilya Mechnikov. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1908
The Russian scientist Ilya Mechnikov was awarded a prize for his work on immunity. M.'s most important contribution to science was of a methodological nature: the scientist's goal was to study "immunity in infectious diseases from the standpoint of cellular physiology." Mechnikov's name is associated with the popular commercial method of making kefir.

Medicine
Paul Ehrlich. Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1908
German pharmacologist and immunologist. In 1908, Ehrlich, together with Ilya Mechnikov, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his work on the theory of immunity." In the Nobel lecture E. expressed confidence that scientists began to "understand the mechanism of action of therapeutic substances ..,". “I also hope,” he further noted, “that if these areas are systematically developed, it will soon become easier for us than until now to develop rational ways of synthesizing drugs.”

Peace
Claes Arnoldson. Nobel Peace Prize, 1908
Claes Arnoldson received the award for his participation in the resolution of the Norwegian conflict. The journalist Arnoldson was one of the most popular speakers in the early days of the European peace movement. He devoted all his efforts to the struggle for individual rights and democracy, striving to legislatively ensure religious tolerance and moderate militarism.

Peace
Frederick Bayer. Nobel Peace Prize, 1908
Danish pacifist. in 1908 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for the creation of the Scandinavian Inter-Parliamentary Union to strengthen regional cooperation." Emphasizing the importance of international law for resolving disputes, he noted: “Sometimes we hear that treaties lose all meaning with the outbreak of war ... This is a militaristic view that a pacifist cannot put up with. We must do everything possible for the idea of ​​law to prevail. "

Chemistry
Ernest Rutherford. Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1908
Ernest Rutherford received the award for his research on the decay of elements in the chemistry of radioactive substances. The discoveries led to an amazing conclusion: a chemical element is capable of converting into other elements. Rutherford proposed a new model of the atom that is generally accepted today. This model is like a tiny solar system and assumes that atoms are made up mostly of empty space.

Physics
Gabriel Lippmann. Nobel Prize in Physics, 1908
French physicist. "For the creation of a method of photographic reproduction of colors based on the phenomenon of interference" L. was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1908, referring to the "key position that photographic reproduction of various objects in modern life", K.B. Hasselberg of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said at the award ceremony that "L.'s method of color photography marks a new step forward ... in the art of photography."

Kharkiv, Odessa, St. Petersburg, Parisian. A person who has twice unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide. Russian and French Nobel Prize. Heir to Pasteur. The man who helped make the transparent larvae of starfish. All this is Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov.

Mechnikov student

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Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov

1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (with Paul Ehrlich). The wording of the Nobel Committee: "For works on immunity" (in recognition of their work on immunity).

Our today's Nobel laureate is a special person both for our column and for the author. Firstly, this is the second Nobel laureate from Russia and the last “our” laureate in the field of physiology and medicine - for more than a hundred years Russia has not been able to boast of new successes in this field. And secondly, he made a noticeable part of his scientific career in my native Odessa, and it is his name that bears the university where I studied. So, meet Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov.

In fact, if the Mechnikovs were more strict about their surname and their roots, then the Odessa National University would now bear the name Spafariya. The fact is that Ilya Ilyich came from an old boyar Moldavian family. His ancestor was Nicolae Milescu-Spafari (Spataru), a prominent Russian diplomat, theologian, traveler, who spoke nine languages, a polyglot translator, geographer, head of the embassy of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in China.

Monument to Nikolai Spafari

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Spataru, translated from Romanian, means "having a sword, a swordsman" - well, it seemed easier for a family on the territory of the Russian Empire to have a Russian surname.

The father of the future Nobelist, Ilya Ivanovich Mechnikov, was a guards officer and a Kharkov landowner (more precisely, his estate was located in the village of Ivanovka in the Kupyansk district of the Kharkov province). Mom, Emilia Lvovna, nee Nevakhovich, was from Warsaw. Her father is considered the founder of a whole trend - Russian-Jewish literature. By the way, Ilya Ilyich's uncle was also a writer, and Uncle Misha was generally Boris Grachevsky of the 19th century - he published the humorous magazine Yeralash. As a result, literature will always accompany Mechnikov. So, he will be quite familiar with Leo Tolstoy, and his brother, Ivan Ilyich Mechnikov, a former Tula prosecutor, is well known to us from Tolstoy's almost documentary story "The Death of Ivan Ilyich."

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One cannot fail to mention another elder brother of our hero, Lev Ilyich, who went down in history as a Swiss geographer and publicist. Yes, yes, studying in St. Petersburg as a lawyer, the young man went to fight under the banner of Garibaldi, became an anarchist, settled in Clarence and died at the age of 50 from emphysema.

Lev Mechnikov

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It was in such an environment that our hero was formed. I must say that he was generally a very elevated person and knew how to love. He twice tried to commit suicide when his wives were dying. The first time, fortunately, he drank too much morphine, and he vomited - but by that time his first wife had indeed died of tuberculosis. The second suicide turned out to be more "happy": when his young wife, Olga Belokopytova, fell ill with typhus, Mechnikov injected himself with relapsing fever bacteria. Both survived, and Olga Nikolaevna survived her husband by 27 years and lived to 86 years.

But back to young Ilya. He graduated from the Kharkov Lyceum with a gold medal and at the age of 16 he already wrote a scientific article criticizing the geology textbook, from which he happened to study. In 1862, Kharkiv believed that studying abroad was more prestigious. The means were sufficient, and the young man, who had already chosen biology as a field of scientific activity, decided that he would go to Würzburg to study cytology, which was fashionable at that time. True, he arrived at the university six weeks before the start of classes, and it was only in Germany that he realized that he was not very fluent in German. The young man got scared and returned home, where he entered the Kharkov University. The young man brought with him from Europe a Russian translation of Darwin (I wonder where he found it there!), And since then has become an ardent admirer of the theory of evolution.

But in Kharkov, he decided not to stay for a long time and completed the university four-year course in the natural department of the physics and mathematics faculty in two years. Thus, he "carved out" three years for himself to study animal embryology in different parts of Europe - from the island of Helgoland in the North Sea to Naples, where he met another young Russian scientist - zoologist Alexander Kovalevsky. Together they did the first "real" scientific work: they showed that the germ layers of embryos of multicellular animals are homologous (demonstrating structural correspondence), as it should be in forms related by a common origin. At 22, Mechnikov received the Karl Ernst von Baer Honorary Prize. At the same time, he defended his doctoral dissertation on the embryonic development of crustaceans and fish and became a teacher at the prestigious St. Petersburg University.

Alexander Kovalevsky

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For six years he taught anatomy and zoology there, and then, having gone on an anthropological expedition to measure the skulls of the Kalmyks, he was elected assistant professor at Novorossiysk University in Odessa. The story was unpleasant: Sechenov recommended Mechnikov for the post of professor at the Military Medical Academy, but he was blacklisted. The indignant Sechenov together with Mechnikov (and at the same time with Kovalevsky) took offense and waved to Odessa.

In South Palmyra, Mechnikov liked more than in North: warmth, sea, girls. However, Mechnikov moved to Odessa already married - in 1869 in St. Petersburg he married Lyudmila Feodorovich. But it was in Odessa that she died (in 1873), and it was there that Ilya Ilyich first tried to kill himself, and having survived, he decided to devote himself to the fight against diseases and tuberculosis.

It was here that he met his companion for the rest of his life, student Olga Belokopytova, who became not only a beloved wife, but also a faithful helper.

However, the blood of the elder Mechnikov-anarchist made itself felt in Odessa. In 1881, the People's Will killed the reformer Tsar Alexander II, being firmly convinced that in the end it would be better. In the end, everyone got Alexander III and the tightening of the nuts. Mechnikov in 1882, in protest, left his professorship at the university and left for a while for Messina, Italy. It was there, in his own words, that his scientific life turned upside down: he left as a zoologist, and became a pathologist.

The Mediterranean coast played a major role in the discovery of human immunity. The Mechnikovs rented a small house near Messina, and Ilya Ilyich "without straightening his back" studied the inhabitants of the sea: by that time he had already discovered intracellular digestion in protozoa (amoebas), and hoped to find it in more complex animals.

The best model animal was the starfish larva: it is transparent. Mechnikov came up with the idea of ​​injecting the carmine dye into the larvae - and saw how some wandering cells "eat" the carmine grains. It occurred to him that it was these cells that should form the basis of immunity, destroying foreign bodies and microorganisms that entered the body. To test his theory, Mechnikov plucked a thorn from a rose in the garden and stuck it into a starfish larva. The next morning he saw that the splinter was all surrounded by wandering cells - phagocytes.

The presentation of the Nobel Prize is one of the main scientific events of the year. This award is one of the most prestigious awards, which has been awarded since 1901 for outstanding scientific research, revolutionary inventions, major contribution to culture or the development of society. The prize was awarded to the citizens of Russia and the USSR 16 times, and 23 times the laureates of the prize were people who lived on the territory of other countries, but had Russian roots. Our author's sample of Russian laureates in the field of medicine, physics and chemistry allows you to trace several time periods at the same time, at the turn of which the prize was awarded, and you can also get acquainted with the contribution to science made by these outstanding scientists.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1904 - medicine).

We say "Pavlov", we immediately remember the dogs. Those famous "Pavlov's dogs", which the scientist taught to salivate when calling, thereby opening conditioned reflexes.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov built his entire scientific career in St. Petersburg. Having entered the law (!) Faculty of St. Petersburg State University after the seminary, he transferred to the faculty of natural sciences after 17 days and began to specialize in animal physiology.

During his scientific career, Pavlov, in fact, created the modern physiology of digestion. And in 1904, at the age of 55, I.P. Pavlov was awarded the Nobel Prize for his research on the digestive glands. Thus, Pavlov became the first Nobel laureate from Russia.

Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov (1908 - medicine)

Medicine in the 19th century in the Russian Empire flourished. Russian scientists invented anesthesia, compiled the most detailed anatomical atlases, which are still used today. And if such remarkable scientists as N.I. Pirogov, P.A. Zagorsky, F.I. Inozemtsev, E.O. Mukhin and others did not receive the Nobel Prize, this is only because in their time it simply did not exist.

Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, following in the footsteps of his great predecessors, studied microbiology. He discovered fungi that cause insect diseases and developed a theory of immunity. His scientific works touched upon the most terrible diseases of that time, spreading in the form of epidemics - cholera, typhus, tuberculosis, plague ... For his discoveries in the field of immunity, Mechnikov was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1908.

The sharp rise in life expectancy in the 20th century was driven mainly by the victory over infectious diseases, which were responsible for about 50% of deaths in the 19th century. And the works of Mechnikov played an important role in this.

Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov paid a lot of attention to aging issues. He believed that a person grows old and dies very early due to the constant struggle with microbes. To increase life expectancy, he proposed a number of measures - to sterilize food, limit meat consumption and consume fermented milk products.

Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov (1956 - chemistry)

Nikolai Nikolaevich Semenov is the first Soviet Nobel laureate. For almost forty years, from the October Revolution to the 1950s, all the scientific discoveries of Soviet scientists were ignored by the rest of the world. Not least because of the “iron curtain” built by Stalin.

As a scientist, Semenov was engaged in the theory of "chain reaction", explosions and combustion. It turned out that these processes closely link physics and chemistry. Thus, N.N. Semenov became one of the founders of chemical physics. His research was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1956.

Nikolai Semenov preferred to focus on one task until the result was obtained. Therefore, he published a very small number of scientific papers. And if we use modern methods of assessing scientific achievements, which are based on the number of articles in scientific journals, Semenov would become the worst employee of the Institute of Chemical Physics for the entire time of its existence.

Lev Davidovich Landau (1962 - physics)

Lev Davidovich Landau was very well versed in mathematics from childhood. At the age of 12, he learned to solve differential equations, and at the age of 14 he entered the Baku University, and at once at two faculties: chemistry and physics. It is not known what discoveries in chemistry we would owe to Landau, but he ultimately chose physics as his specialty.

In the course of his scientific work, Lev Davidovich Landau had a chance to communicate with such pillars of modern physics as Albert Einstein, Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, and already at the age of 19, Landau makes a fundamental contribution to quantum theory. His concept of "Density Matrix" became the basis of quantum statistics.

Landau is considered a legend in the world of physics. He contributed to almost all branches of modern physics: quantum mechanics, magnetism, superconductivity, astrophysics, atomic physics, the theory of chemical reactions, etc. Landau is also the author of the theoretical physics training course, which has been translated into 20 languages ​​and continues to be reprinted in the 21st century (the last edition in Russian was published in 2007).

Werner Heisenberg nominated Landau for the Nobel Prize three times - in 1959, 1960 and 1962. And, finally, his efforts were rewarded, and Landau's work was appreciated. For his studies of liquid helium, Lev Davidovich Landau in 1962 became a Nobel Laureate.

Lev Landau also developed the "theory of happiness." He believed that every person must be happy, and for this you need to have a favorite job, family and close friends.

Nikolay Gennadievich Basov (1964 - physics)

At the beginning of the 20th century, it seemed that physics had finished its development. Many scientists believed that fundamental discoveries and breakthroughs were no longer possible, humanity, basically, understood and described physical laws. And just a few years later, an incredible breakthrough happened - quantum physics, the discovery of atoms, the theory of relativity.

On the basis of new fundamental physical principles, discoveries, new laws and inventions poured from a cornucopia.

Nikolai Gennadievich Basov specialized in quantum electronics. His research first proved the theoretical possibility of creating a laser, and then made it possible to create the world's first maser (differs from a laser in that it uses microwaves rather than light beams).

It was for "fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which led to the creation of generators and amplifiers on the laser-maser principle" Basov in 1964 was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics.

Until the end of his life, Basov continued to work in the chosen field. He designed several types of lasers that are still used in various fields, and also investigated various fields of application of lasers, for example, in optics, chemistry, medicine.

Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa (1978 - physics)

And again physics. An interesting fact, but Peter Leonidovich Kapitsa wrote his first scientific work together with Nikolai Semenov, which we mentioned above. True, in 1918, neither one nor the other knew that both would become Nobel laureates.

Kapitsa's scientific specialization was magnetism. The scientist's contribution to science is highly appreciated, his name is given to: "Kapitsa's law", linking the electrical resistance of metals and the voltage of the magnetic field; “Kapitsa's pendulum” is a phenomenon of stable disequilibrium; the quantum-mechanical Kapitza-Dirac effect is also known.

Together with Landau, Kapitsa studied liquid helium and discovered its superfluidity. The theoretical model was built by Landau, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize. But Peter Leonidovich had to wait for the recognition of his merits. Niels Bohr recommended Kapitsa to the Nobel Committee back in 1948, then repeated the recommendations in 1956 and 1960. But the award found its hero only 18 years later, and only in 1978 did Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa finally become a Nobel laureate - the last in the history of the Soviet Union.

Zhores Ivanovich Alferov (2000 - physics)

Despite the fact that science in the post-Soviet space has fallen into serious decline, our physicists continue to make discoveries that amaze the world. In 2000, 2003 and 2010, the Nobel Prizes in Physics were awarded to Russian scientists. And the first Nobel laureate of the Russian Federation was Zhores Ivanovich Alferov.

The scientific career of the scientist took place in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Alferov entered the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute (LETI) without exams. After graduation, he began to work at the A.F. Yoffe, where he took part in the development of the first domestic transistors.

Alferov's greatest scientific achievements are associated with electronics and nanotechnology. In 2000, his developments in the field of semiconductors and microelectronic components were awarded the Nobel Prize.

Alferov is the permanent dean of the Faculty of Physics and Technology of St. Petersburg State University, the founding rector of the Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the scientific director of the innovation center in Skolkovo.

Alferov is also involved in state policy, since 1995, being a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, where he defends the interests of the scientific community, in particular, opposing the recent reforms of the Russian Academy of Sciences.