Secrets revealed: The Nobel Prize for Medicine 2009 was awarded for the solution to one of the greatest mysteries of biology: how are chromosomes copied upon cell division and protected from degradation? The answer can be found at the ends of the chromosomes—the telomeres—and in the enzyme that forms them—telomerase. The laureates describe the events leading to the discovery first-hand.

Secrets revealed: The Nobel Prize for Medicine 2009 was awarded for the solution to one of the greatest mysteries of biology: how are chromosomes copied upon cell division and protected from degradation? The answer can be found at the ends of the chromosomes—the telomeres—and in the enzyme that forms them—telomerase. The laureates describe the events leading to the discovery first-hand.

A complex structure: The 2009 Nobel Prize was awarded for investigations into the structure and function of the ribosome, the protein factory of the cell. The Laureates describe first hand the course of the discoveries in this area, from the beginning of their research to the current detailed understanding.

Viruses are the uniting theme of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier received their Prize for the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and Harald zur Hausen identified that cervical cancer is triggered by papillomaviruses. The Nobel Laureates describe their research first-hand.

Viruses are the uniting theme of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier received their Prize for the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and Harald zur Hausen identified that cervical cancer is triggered by papillomaviruses. The Nobel Laureates describe here their research first-hand.

Viruses are the uniting theme of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier received their Prize for the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and Harald zur Hausen identified that cervical cancer is triggered by papillomaviruses. The Nobel Laureates describe their research first-hand.

Trip the light fantastic: The green fluorescent protein (GFP) is an invaluable tool for biochemical and medicinal research. It can make tumors, amyloid plaques from Alzheimer′s disease, or pathogenic bacteria equally visible. Ground-breaking contributions in this field have resulted in the 2008 Nobel Prize for Chemistry being awarded to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Tsien. The Nobel Laureates describe their research first-hand.

Trip the light fantastic: The green fluorescent protein (GFP) is an invaluable tool for biochemical and medicinal research. It can make tumors, amyloid plaques from Alzheimer′s disease, or pathogenic bacteria equally visible. Ground-breaking contributions in this field have resulted in the 2008 Nobel Prize for Chemistry being awarded to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Tsien. The Nobel Laureates describe their research first-hand.

Trip the light fantastic: The green fluorescent protein (GFP) is an invaluable tool for biochemical and medicinal research. It can make tumors, amyloid plaques from Alzheimer′s disease, or pathogenic bacteria equally visible. Ground-breaking contributions in this field have resulted in the 2008 Nobel Prize for Chemistry being awarded to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, and Roger Tsien. The Nobel Laureates describe their research first-hand.

The green fluorescent protein is an invaluable tool in molecular and cellular biology. The cover picture shows the confocal fluorescence image of a cell with GFP-labeled peroxisomes (blue: DNA, red: microtubules of the spindle fibers). At mitosis, most peroxisomes are randomly distributed in the cytoplasm and the majority are not associated with the microtubules in the mitotic spindle. As the cell divides, the peroxisomes are distributed randomly, together with the cytoplasm, to the daughter cells, which suggests that the inheritance of peroxisomes in cells is stochastic rather than ordered. All that can be achieved with the green fluorescent protein can be found in the Nobel Lectures by O. Shimomura, M. Chalfie, and R. Tsien on page 5590 ff. Picture courtesy of Thomas Deerinck, Mark Ellisman, and Roger Tsien, University of California San Diego.

Going for a spin: The discovery of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) opened up a new area of technology—spintronics—which, in contrast to conventional electronics, uses not only the charge, but also the spin of the electron. Applications of GMR have revolutionized hard-disk technology (see picture). Albert Fert, Nobel laureate in Physics 2007, describes firsthand the discovery of GMR and the development of spintronics.

The spatio–temporal formation of patterns on the surface during a chemical reaction is one phenomenon that can now be understood and modeled thanks to the Nobel Prize winning research on the course of heterogeneous catalysis. The picture shows a pattern formed by a feedback mechanism during the oxidation of CO. Reactions that have been illuminated by this work include the synthesis of ammonia and the purification of waste gases.

Shhh! Gene silencing is a cell process in which the action of double-stranded RNA molecules suppresses the expression of single genes. Decisive contributions to this area have been made by Andrew Fire and Craig C. Mello, for which they have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine. The Nobel Laureates describe here first hand their research.

Life under the microscope: Transcription, the copying of a DNA strand to produce an RNA strand, is a central operation in biology. The complex mechanism of eukaryotic transcription has been broken down into molecular details through the work of Roger Kornberg.The Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry describes here first hand the course of his research. The picture shows the pre-initiation complex that must be formed for initiation of transcription.

Metathesis reactions are among the most important processes in organic synthesis. The decisive breakthrough in making these reactions practical for industrial purposes, which range from the synthesis of polymers to pharmaceuticals, came with the discovery of the reaction mechanism by Yves Chauvin and the targeted development of transition-metal-based metathesis catalysts by Richard Schrock and Robert Grubbs. The winners of the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 2005 present first-hand accounts of these developments.

Metathesis reactions are among the most important processes in organic synthesis. The decisive breakthrough in making these reactions practical for industrial purposes, which range from the synthesis of polymers to pharmaceuticals, came with the discovery of the reaction mechanism by Yves Chauvin and the targeted development of transition-metal-based metathesis catalysts by Richard Schrock and Robert Grubbs. The winners of the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 2005 present first-hand accounts of these developments.

Metathesis reactions are among the most important processes in organic synthesis. The decisive breakthrough in making these reactions practical for industrial purposes, which range from the synthesis of polymers to pharmaceuticals, came with the discovery of the reaction mechanism by Yves Chauvin and the targeted development of transition-metal-based metathesis catalysts by Richard Schrock and Robert Grubbs. The winners of the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 2005 present first-hand accounts of these developments.