Ramakrishnan receives Chemistry Nobel

Tamil Nadu-born Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, one of the three winners of this year’s Nobel in Chemistry, on Thursday received the prize at a gala ceremony here along with other recipients.
The other Nobel laureates in literature, economics, physics and medicine also received their prizes from Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal event in Stockholm’s Concert Hall. A record five women were awarded the Nobel this year.
Born in 1952 at Chidambaram, Dr. Ramakrishnan, a senior scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at Cambridge, shared the Nobel with Thomas A Steitz (U.S.) and Ada E. Yonath (Israel) for their “studies of the structure and function of the ribosome.”
They “showed what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at atomic level,” the Nobel committee said in its citation. All the three used a method called X-ray crystallography to map the position for each and every one of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome. Dr. Ramakrishnan earned his B.Sc. in Physics (1971) from Baroda University and Ph.D. in Physics (1976) from Ohio University, U.S.
He moved into biology at the University of California, San Diego, where he took a year of classes, and then conducted research with Dr. Mauricio Montal, a membrane biochemist.

A.R. Rahman bags two Grammy nominations

A.R.Rahman has done it again. After bagging two Oscars for his stupendous musical score in Slumdog Millionaire earlier this year, Rahman is now all set to bring home the Grammy. In case you are wondering what we are talking about, it's the big news that A.R. Rahman has been nominated in two categories at the 2010 Grammy awards.Rahman's chartbuster 'Jai Ho' from Slumdog Millionaire has been nominated for 'Best Song written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media' while the second nomination for the music maestro is under the category 'Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.' This is the first time that the Musical Genius has been nominated for the prestigious Grammys. The Grammy awards will be presented on January 31st 2010 at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. We hope and pray that Rahman emerges victorious once again and brings home the Grammy.

Lata Mangeshkar Honoured with French Award

India’s most beautiful and enigmatic voice from bollywood is indeed that of Lata Mangeshkar. She is often addressed as India’s Nightingale due to the flawless rhythm in her melodious voice. This magical owner of the outstanding voice box has been honoured with the French Award ‘Legion D honneur.’ The honour was bestowed in Mumbai on the 3rd of December 2009.
She is the second Indian to be given this prestigious award by France. The first bollywood star to be given this honour was none other than Amitabh Bachchan.