In this Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020, photo provided by Nobel Prize Outreach, Louise Glck stands beside the medal awarded to her for the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature outside her home in Cambridge, Mass. The pomp and ceremony of the Nobel prize ceremonies were altered this year amid measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. (Daniel Ebersole/ Nobel Prize Outreach via AP)STOCKHOLM – The pomp and ceremony of the Nobel prize ceremonies have been reined in this year amid measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Instead, their achievements will be recognized and rewarded at low-key ceremonies where they live and work in Europe and the United States. A Nobel prize comes with a 10-milion krona ($1.1 million) cash award — to be shared in some cases — diplomas and gold medals.

On Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, they shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for advancing our understanding of black holes. He said our galaxy and the galaxies near us “will ultimately get swallowed by one utterly huge black hole. “If you fall into a black hole, then you pretty well inevitably get squashed into this singularity at the end. It was a black hole. Not just an ordinary black hole, but a supermassive one, 4 million times the mass of our sun.

Alter, Charles M. Rice, and Michael Houghton who jointly won the Nobel Prize for medicine on Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, for their discovery of the hepatitis C virus. “For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating hepatitis C virus from the world,” the Nobel Committee said in announcing the prize in Stockholm. Without such treatment, the virus can lead to permanent scarring of the liver, liver cancer or the need for a transplant. Later, Rice developed lab tools and methods that confirmed the hepatitis C virus could cause liver disease in chimpanzees and humans, directly contributing knowledge that led to tests and treatments. Hepatitis C drugs were around $40,000 when they first came out less than a decade ago.