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October 9th 2008 - French writer Jean-Marie Le Clezio wins the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature, considered to be by some the greatest living French writer. The Swedish Academy says Le Clezio is an “author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilisation.” Among his better known works are “Onitsha” (1991) and “Wandering Star” (1992). He travelled the world and even lived with the Embera Indians of Panama for a time. That gave him an outsider’s view of the life people live in the cities of the West. He says, “‘If I had to venture into philosophy, I’d say I was a poor Rousseauist who hasn’t really figured it out.”

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October 8th 2008 - The Nobel Prize for Chemistry was won by two Americans and one Japanese citizen for their work on green fluorescent protein (GFP). The winners were Osamu Shimonura of Japan, who discovered GFP, and Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien of America, who made it into a comon way for scientists to see what goes on inside the body.

GFP gives off a green light and is found naturally in jellyfish (Aequorea victoria) in the sea. Shimonura found the protein that was causing the light, Chalfie found a way to put it in other animals to study how parts of the body, healthy or diseased, grow and change, while Tsien found ways to make the light stronger and give off different colours.

Shimonura is the third Japanese citizen to win a Nobel Prize so far this year. One of the Americans to win is Japanese-American.

The Literature Prize comes out on the 9th, the Peace Prize on the 10th and the Economics Prize on the 13th.

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October 8th 2008 - Government banks cut interest rates today. Not just in America, where Wall Street is in deep trouble, but all across the world: the European Union, Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada and even China. Japan will probably cut rates too. Despite this move, stock markets are still falling.

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