In February 2013, Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg together with Yuri Milner have created the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Foundation to reward lifesaving research. The first 11 winners of the award received $3 million each, compared with Nobel Prize’s $1.1 mln. A Russian internet investor who quit a PhD in physics and invested in social networking, Milner persuaded his fellow internet billionaires to contribute to the prize to encourage a new generation of molecular biologists and geneticists. "Young people will hopefully get the message that not only the careers in sports or entertainment can get a public recognition." Milner, who has homes in Moscow and California, distributed prizes last year for the field of fundamental physics. He decided to repeat the model on a bigger scale for life sciences. "Unfortunately I have two very close relatives with very bad diseases, one of them is cancer. This is part of my personal connection with this prize."
The prize was intended to make a statement. "It's a lot of money, yes. But the people who make game-changing contributions are often scientists who work without much recognition and without much compensation. To my mind these are the true heroes," said Art Levinson, the chairman of Apple, who will also chair the new foundation.
The prize-winners from the United States, Japan, Italy and the Netherlands, expressed shock and delight when told of the awards. "I had to sit down on the floor for a while. I thought it must be a practical joke," said Cornelia Bargmann, 51, who has pioneered work in neurology. Hans Clevers, 55, professor of Molecular Genetics, said he would use some of the windfall to invite about 150 collaborators to a symposium in Amsterdam. "We'll have a big party." Lewis Cantley, director of a cancer centre, whose work could help tackle diabetes and other genetic disorders, said he was overwhelmed when notified of the news. "I almost fell over. I didn't even know this prize existed." Titia de Lange, 57, who researches cell biology, genetics and cancer, said the award felt strange. "I'm not used to having a lot of money. I don't really have possessions." Two women from a list of 11 fairly reflected the percentage of women working at that level, she said. "One would like it to be higher of course." One of the oldest recipients, David Botstein, 70, expressed some unease about the amount of money and said he would give some of it away.
Тексты для восприятия и понимания речи на слух к учебному пособию для гимназий
«Английский язык / Англійская мова. 10 класс” авторов Н.В. Демченко и др.
Минск: Издательский центр БГУ, 2014
