Kazuo Ishiguro Wins Nobel Prize for Literature

British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro
British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro
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Kazuo Ishiguro Wins Nobel Prize for Literature

British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro
British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro

British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, best known for his book "The Remains of the Day," has been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature, the Swedish Academy said.

Ishiguro, "in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world," the Academy wrote.

The prize is worth 9 million kronor ($1.1 million).

A revolutionary technique dubbed cryo-electron microscopy, which has peered closer at the Zika virus and an Alzheimer's enzyme, earned scientists Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson the Nobel Chemistry Prize on Wednesday.

Thanks to the international team's "cool method", which uses electron beams to examine the tiniest structures of cells, "researchers can now freeze biomolecules mid-movement and visualise processes they have never previously seen," the Nobel chemistry committee said.

This has been "decisive for both the basic understanding of life's chemistry and for the development of pharmaceuticals," it added. 

The ultra-sensitive imaging method allows molecules to be flash-frozen and studied in their natural form, without the need for dyes.

It has laid bare never-before-seen details of the tiny protein machines that run all cells.



Ancient Egyptian Coffin Given New Life in Britain

Staff at Swansea University welcome back the artifact. Photo: Swansea University
Staff at Swansea University welcome back the artifact. Photo: Swansea University
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Ancient Egyptian Coffin Given New Life in Britain

Staff at Swansea University welcome back the artifact. Photo: Swansea University
Staff at Swansea University welcome back the artifact. Photo: Swansea University

An ancient Egyptian coffin was given a new life after it has been returned to Swansea University's Egypt Center in Wales.

The artifact, believed to date from about 650 BC, is now back at the university after thousands of hours of conservation work at Cardiff University, where it was painstakingly cleaned, reconstructed and consolidated to prevent it from deteriorating further, according to BBC.

The coffin, originally made for a man called Ankhpakhered in the Greek city of Thebes, was transported back under the watchful eye of the center’s curator Dr. Ken Griffin.

Staff described the finished project as “beyond our wildest dreams.”

“The coffin was gifted to us by Aberystwyth University in 1997 but details about its history are sketchy,” Griffin said.

He added: “It actually ended up being used as a storage box at one time, with other Egyptian objects placed in it for safekeeping.”

The university’s Phil Parkes explained that the wooden coffin was covered in textile and then had a thin layer of decorated plaster over the top.

He said: “Much of that textile had become detached over time and was just hanging loose.”

Parkes added that the separate wooden head was detached and there were a couple of large pieces of wood missing, the side of the base had fallen off and it was in a very sorry condition overall.