The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Foundation for outstanding discoveries in the fields of life sciences and medicine. One of five prizes bequested in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, it is an award for scientific progress through laboratory discoveries in experimental physiology; the Nobel Prize is presented annually on the anniversary of 10 December. As of 2019, 110 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded to 12 women; the first one was awarded in 1901 to the German physiologist Emil von Behring, for his work on serum therapy and the development of a vaccine against diphtheria. The first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Gerty Cori, received it in 1947 for her role in elucidating the metabolism of glucose, important in many aspects of medicine, including treatment of diabetes; the prize consists of a medal along with a certificate for the monetary award. The front side of the medal displays the same profile of Alfred Nobel depicted on the medals for Physics and Literature.

The most recent Nobel prize was announced by Karolinska Institute on 7 October 2019, has been awarded to Americans William Kaelin Jr. Gregg L. Semenza and British Peter J. Ratcliffe – for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability; some awards have been controversial. This includes one to António Egas Moniz in 1949 for the prefrontal lobotomy, bestowed despite protests from the medical establishment. Other controversies resulted from disagreements over, included in the award; the 1952 prize to Selman Waksman was litigated in court, half the patent rights awarded to his co-discoverer Albert Schatz, not recognized by the prize. The 1962 prize awarded to James D. Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins for their work on DNA structure and properties did not acknowledge the contributing work from others, such as Oswald Avery and Rosalind Franklin who had died by the time of the nomination. Since the Nobel Prize rules forbid nominations of the deceased, longevity is an asset, considering prizes are awarded as long as 50 years after the discovery.

Forbidden is awarding any one prize to more than three recipients. In the last half-century, there has been an increasing tendency for scientists to work as teams, resulting in controversial exclusions. Alfred Nobel was born on 21 October 1833 in Stockholm, into a family of engineers, he was a chemist and inventor who amassed a fortune during his lifetime, most of it from his 355 inventions, of which dynamite is the most famous. He was interested in experimental physiology and set up his own labs in France and Italy to conduct experiments in blood transfusions. Keeping abreast of scientific findings, he was generous in his donations to Ivan Pavlov's laboratory in Russia and was optimistic about the progress resulting from scientific discoveries made in laboratories. In 1888, Nobel was surprised to read his own obituary, titled "The merchant of death is dead", in a French newspaper; as it happened, it was Nobel's brother Ludvig who had died, but Nobel, unhappy with the content of the obituary and concerned that his legacy would reflect poorly on him, was inspired to change his will.

In his last will, Nobel requested that his money be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in physics, peace, physiology or medicine, literature. Though Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime, the last was written a little over a year before he died at the age of 63; because his will was contested, it was not approved by the Storting until 26 April 1897. After Nobel's death, the Nobel Foundation was set up to manage the assets of the bequest. In 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly created statutes were promulgated by Swedish King Oscar II. According to Nobel's will, the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, a medical school and research center, is responsible for the Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Today, the prize is referred to as the Nobel Prize in Medicine, it was important to Nobel that the prize be awarded for a "discovery" and that it be of "greatest benefit on mankind". Per the provisions of the will, only select persons are eligible to nominate individuals for the award.

These include members of academies around the world, professors of medicine in Sweden, Norway and Finland, as well as professors of selected universities and research institutions in other countries. Past Nobel laureates may nominate; until 1977, all professors of Karolinska Institute together decided on the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. That year, changes in Swedish law forced the Institute to make public any documents pertaining to the Nobel Prize, it was considered necessary to establish a independent body for the Prize work. Therefore, the Nobel Assembly was constituted, it elects the Nobel Committee with five members who evaluate the nominees, the Secretary, in charge of the organization, each year ten adjunct members to assist in the evaluation of candidates. In 1968, a provision was added. True to its mandate, the Committee has chosen researchers working in the basic sciences over those who have made applied science contributions. Harvey Cushing, a pioneering American neurosurgeon who identified Cushing's syndrome, was not awarded the prize, nor was Sigmund Freud, as his psychoanalysis lacks hypotheses that can be experimentally confirmed.

The public expected Jonas Salk or Albert Sabin to receive the prize for their development of the polio vaccines, but instead the award went to John Enders, Thomas Weller

Alex Epstein is a dual citizen American Canadian writer, film producer and educator. Alex Epstein began his writing career as an author of short stories for literary magazines. In Hollywood, he worked as a development executive for independent films, including with his own and Angelique Gulermovich Epstein's company Muse of Fire, as a vice-president of Blue Rider Pictures, his first film writing credit was for 1994's Warriors. In Montreal, he co-created and co-wrote the comedy television series Naked Josh and co-wrote the buddy cop crime film Bon Cop, Bad Cop, he was head writer for the second half of the sci-fi series Charlie Jade with writer credit on three episodes. He has written and directed several short films, wrote young adult historical fantasy novel The Circle Cast: The Lost Years of Morgan le Fay. Epstein has worked in the video game industry as the story and voice director of Contrast by Compulsion Games. For Spearhead Games' Stories: The Path of Destinies, he was brought in to assist with the branching storylines and to add humor.

He returned to work for Compulsion Games as the narrative director of We Happy Few. Vampire High Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension 15/Love Naked Josh Charlie Jade Bon Cop, Bad Cop Contrast Stories: The Path of Destinies We Happy Few He was part of the writing team along with Patrick Huard, Leila Bason and Kevin Tierney, nominated for the Prix Iris and won the Canadian Comedy Award for Bon Cop, Bad Cop in 2007. Naked Josh which he co-wrote with Laura Kosterski and the short film Role Play which he co-wrote with Lisa Hunter, have been nominated for the WGC Screenwriting Awards in 2005, 2006, 2014; the Circle Cast was shortlisted for the Quebec Writers' Federation Awards in 2011. In addition, Epstein is a screenwriting teacher. Crafty Screenwriting: Writing Movies That Get Made, published in 2002, is a screenwriting manual for feature films, derived from his career in development. In 2006, he wrote Crafty TV Writing: Thinking Inside the Box, focusing on his experiences in television and guiding writers in creating series and pilots.

He has a tie-in blog, "Complications Ensue". Raised in New York, Epstein graduated from the Yale in 1985 in Computer Science and English and has lived in France for a year. Afterwards he graduated from the UCLA School of Theater and Television and has worked in Los Angeles for a decade, before moving to Montreal, Canada. Official website Alex Epstein on IMDb Alex Epstein on MobyGames

My Favorite Instrument is a 1968 album by jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. It was his first solo piano release. Writing for AllMusic, critic Scott Yanow wrote "A prelude to his outstanding Pablo recordings, My Favorite Instrument is one of Peterson's top albums of the 1960s." This album was the fourth part of Peterson's Exclusively for My Friends series on MPS. "Someone to Watch over Me" – 4:18 "Perdido" – 6:17 "Body and Soul" – 4:36 "Who Can I Turn To" – 5:02 "Bye Bye Blackbird" – 4:56 "I Should Care" – 4:48 "Lulu's Back In Town" – 2:10 "Little Girl Blue" – 6:07 "Take the "A" Train" – 2:39 Oscar Peterson – piano Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer - music production Gene Lees - liner notes Hans B. Pfitzer - design Sepp Werkmeister - photography My Favorite Instrument at Discogs