STOCKHOLM (Reuters), – American scientists David Julius, and Ardem Paputian have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 2021 for the discovery of temperature and touch receptors. The award-giving body announced Monday.

It said that their groundbreaking findings “have enabled us to understand heat, cold, and mechanical force can trigger nerve impulses which allow us to perceive the world around us”

“This information is used to find treatments for various diseases including chronic pain.”

This prize, which dates back more than 100 years, is presented by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is worth 10,000,000 Swedish crowns (or $11.5 million).

Alfred Nobel, a Swedish businessman and inventor of dynamite, created the prizes for outstanding achievements in literature, science and peace. The economics award was first awarded in 1969.

The Nobel Prize for Medicine often lives in the shadow of the Nobels for literature and peace https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/nobel-peace-prize-is-this-greta-thunbergs-year-2021-10-01, and their sometimes more widely known laureates. However, the COVID-19 epidemic has brought medicine into focus. Some scientists suggested that those who have developed coronavirus vaccines might be awarded this year and in the future.

The Nobel ceremonies continue to be haunted by pandemics. These events are often full of glamour and old-world pomp. The banquet https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/nobel-prize-banquet-postponed-again-this-year-due-pandemic-2021-09-23 in Stockholm has been postponed for a second successive year amid lingering worries about the virus and international travel.

Last year’s prize https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nobel-prize-medicine-idUSKBN26Q1CN went to Americans Harvey Alter and Charles Rice and Briton Michael Houghton for work in identifying the Hepatitis C virus, which causes cirrhosis and liver cancer.

($1 equals 8.7272 Swedish crowns).