On 20 May 1964, the first measurements clearly showing the presence of the cosmic microwave background radiation were made. But Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias first had to make sure the weird static they had detected was not caused by pigeons roosting in their antenna.

“All my days I have longed equally to travel the right road and to take my own errant path,' Sigrid Undset wrote in her trilogy of historical novels, 'Kristin Lavransdatter'.

Undset was awarded the 1928 #NobelPrize in Literature.

Read more: nobelprize.org/prizes/literat…

High school isn’t fun for everyone … even #NobelPrize laureates.

“Overall, my high school days were nothing like one sees in the movies; Ferris Bueller or Tom Cruise, I was not.” - medicine laureate Harvey Alter.

Learn more about his life: nobelprize.org/prizes/medicin…

#OTD (20 May) in 1983, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier in France reported the discovery of a retrovirus that could be the cause of AIDS.

Their discovery was crucial in improving treatment methods for people living with HIV. In 2008, they shared the medicine prize.

“Great discoveries are not done behind the office desk, they are done in the laboratory.”

Chemist Morten Meldal on discoveries and how to make a great discovery. What discovery do you dream of making?

#NobelPrize

'Scientists are the working-class noble community, and they are doing everything for the community.'

- Chemistry laureate David MacMillan on the role of scientists and their contributions to our society.

Watch the full dialogue: youtube.com/playlist?list=…

#NobelPrizeDialogue

Chemist Max Perutz (right) mapped the structure of haemoglobin - the protein that allows blood to transport oxygen to the body's muscles. Perutz shared the 1962 chemistry prize with John Kendrew (left), the first person to successfully determine the atomic structure of a protein.

'When I draw a molecule in China or in Argentina, it is the same molecule. People understand immediately without knowing Spanish or Chinese. That is beautiful. Our common goal is not about power or borders of the country, it is about bringing forward human knowledge.' Ben Feringa

From revolutionary drugs to helping our immune system attack tumour cells, do you know which life-saving cancer therapies have been pioneered by Nobel Prize laureates?

Chief of his tribe and president-general of the African National Congress, Albert Lutuli was the leader of ten million black Africans in their nonviolent campaign for civil rights in South Africa. He received the 1960 peace prize “for his non-violent struggle against apartheid.”

This suitcase (pictured) was carried by 1966 literature laureate Nelly Sachs and her mother as they escaped from Nazi Germany in 1940. It and the clothes they wearing were the only things they brought to Sweden. The suitcase was donated to the #NobelPrize Museum last year.

'The big issue that we are facing is justice. And justice cannot be provided by the hospital, cannot be provided by civil society. It's only the state who can provide justice.'

Learn more about peace laureate Denis Mukwege in this NPR article:
npr.org/sections/goats…

“A big failure as an experimentalist is something very easy to achieve.”

In his official Nobel Prize interview, physics laureate Pierre Agostini speaks about failure and his best advice for overcoming obstacles.

Watch the full interview with Agostini: nobelprize.org/prizes/physics…

A few weeks ago, medicine laureate May-Britt Moser took part in our Nobel Prize Dialogue in Rio, Brazil. She discussed her passion for science and its role in creating our shared future.

Watch the full event here: youtube.com/playlist?list=…

#NobelPrizeDialogue

In 1966, Charles Kao made a discovery in fiber optics: he calculated how to transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibers. Together with laser technology, his solution made telecommunication using optical fibers possible.

#WorldTelecommunicationDay

Bertha von Suttner was a pioneering peace activist. She was the first woman to be awarded the #NobelPeacePrize . In fact, she's credited as the inspiration behind the very creation of the peace prize.

Discover more: nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1…

These two laureates paved the way towards the shortest and most intense laser pulses ever created.

Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland received the 2018 #NobelPrize in Physics for their work whose uses include laser eye surgery.

#InternationalDayofLight

'After tortuous months, we arrived in Stockholm... We breathed the air of freedom without knowing the language or any person.'

Fleeing from the Nazi regime, German-Jewish writer Nelly Sachs arrived in Sweden #OTD in 1940 and began a new life as a translator and writer.

Before the blue LED was invented we were unable to create white LEDs.

When laureates Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura produced bright blue light beams in the early 1990s, they triggered a transformation of lighting technology.

#InternationalDayofLight

Did you know that physics laureate Frank Wilczek has made many contributions to fundamental particle physics, cosmology and the physics of materials? One contribution is discovering asymptotic freedom in the theory of strong interaction.

Learn more: bit.ly/2FQdUkC