Your guide to the 2013 Nobel Prizes

Martin Karplus describes molecular behavior as he speaks to reporters at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., after being awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013. Karplus, who splits his time between Harvard and the University of Strasbourg, France, is among three U.S.-based scientists awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing powerful computer models that any researcher can use to understand complex chemical interactions and create new drugs. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Martin Karplus describes molecular behavior as he speaks to reporters at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., after being awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013. Karplus, who splits his time between Harvard and the University of Strasbourg, France, is among three U.S.-based scientists awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing powerful computer models that any researcher can use to understand complex chemical interactions and create new drugs. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Arieh Warshel, a University of Southern California Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, poses at his home in Los Angeles after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013. Warshel shares the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Michael Levitt and Martin Karplus for developing powerful computer models that others can use to understand complex chemical interactions and create new drugs. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Michael Levitt, a professor at Stanford University who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, talks about his work during a news conference Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013, in Stanford, Calif. Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel, three U.S.-based scientists, won this year's Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for developing powerful computer models that researchers use to understand complex chemical interactions and create new drugs. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

FILE - In this Wednesday, July 4, 2012 file photo Belgian physicist Francois Englert, left, and British physicist Peter Higgs leave after they answer journalist's questions at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin near Geneva, Switzerland. Francois Englert and Peter Higgs were awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday Oct. 8, 2013. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the two scientists for the "theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles." (AP Photo/Keystone/Martial Trezzini, File)

Stanford University professor Thomas Sudhof smiles in his hotel during an interview with a journalist in Baeza, Spain, Monday Oct. 7, 2013. German-born researcher Sudhof and Americans James Rothman and Randy Schekman have won the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine it was announced on Monday Oct. 7, 2013, as the Nobel committee cited their discoveries of unlocking the mysteries of the body's cell internal transport system, which relies on bubble-like structures called vesicles to deliver substances the cell needs. (AP Photo/Daniel Tejedor)

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Here's a look at the achievements being honored by this year's Nobel Prizes, the $1.2 million awards handed out since 1901 by committees in Stockholm and Oslo:

NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

The literature prize was given to Canada's Alice Munro, hailed by the award-giving Swedish Academy as a "master of the contemporary short story." The 82-year-old author is often called "Canada's Chekhov" for her astute, unflinching and compassionate depiction of seemingly unremarkable lives. She is the author of a series of story collections chronicling the lives of girls and women before and after the 1960s social revolution, including "The Moons of Jupiter," ''The Progress of Love" and "Runaway."

NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY

The chemistry prize was given to three U.S.-based scientists for developing computer models that predict complex chemical reactions that can be used for tasks like creating new drugs. Their approach combined classical physics and quantum physics. The winners are Martin Karplus of the University of Strasbourg, France, and Harvard University; Michael Levitt of the Stanford University School of Medicine, and Arieh Warshel of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS

The physics prize was awarded for a theory about how subatomic particles get their mass. The theory made headlines last year when it was confirmed at the CERN laboratory in Geneva by the discovery of the elusive Higgs particle. The prize was shared by two men who proposed the theory independently of each other in 1964: Peter Higgs of Britain and Francois Englert of Belgium.

NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE

The medicine prize, the first of the 2013 awards, honored breakthroughs in understanding how key substances are moved around within a cell. That process happens through vesicles, tiny bubbles that deliver their cargo within a cell to the right place at the right time. Disturbances in the delivery system can lead to neurological diseases, diabetes or immunological disorders. The prize was shared by Americans James E. Rothman of Yale and Randy W. Schekman of the University of California, Berkeley; and German-American Dr. Thomas C. Sudhof of the Stanford University School of Medicine.

WHAT'S NEXT?

A Norwegian committee will announce the Nobel Peace Prize winner or winners on Friday. This year's Nobel season ends with the economics award on Monday.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-10-10-Nobel%20Glance%202013/id-c83da00ab48f408daa529fd0a7389287
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