And the Nobel goes to…

What do you dream about when the hours seem to get longer than usual?

For one who has nothing to crow about in his 27 years of miserable existence, everything: being the negotiator who finally brings peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the scientist who discovers the cure for AIDS, the inventor who redefines the automobile, and the novelist who finally brings the Filipino ordeal onto the world stage.

But for every dream, one needs models for inspiration (and not for emulation). However, in this age of easy access to information, our mind is constantly being filled with notable names and lives, so much so that it has become difficult for pedestrians like us to choose our idols. But surely, one’s achievement or heroism is more important than others’.

In 1896, Alfred Nobel dedicated a large sum of his estate to the establishment of special awards that were eventually given five years after his death. The Nobel Prizes are bestowed annually to men and women whose efforts in the fields of physics, medicine, literature, economics and peacemaking have contributed to overall human progress.

For those who dream about winning a Nobel Prize someday, check out the Nobel e-Museum at www.nobel.se and discover the works and lives of the laureates. The e-Museum, which also serves as the official website of The Nobel Foundation, sports a searchable database of awardees from 1901 to 2002, along with their biographies, acceptance speeches and lectures.

There is also a section of interactive games through which visitors can learn about cell division, how transistors work, and virtually do the same experiments that led to the discoveries of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov and Alexander Fleming. Surfers can also test their knowledge of authors and books with the site’s author puzzle. There are also selected scientific reading materials as well as recordings from The Nobel Literature Radio and The Nobel Peace Radio.

The site’s real gems, however, are found at the articles’ section where the lives of laureates and the impact of their work are discussed more definitely. Irwin Abrams, for example, writes about the works of nine female Nobel Peace Prize laureates, while Anders Cullhed presents the musings of Nobel Prize authors on the subject of time. Reading such pieces on a dull day makes one strive to be better despite personal limitations. Who knows, maybe in a few years this country of ours might yield its first Nobel Prize laureate. Well, if only there’s a Nobel Prize for dreaming.