A world without Jews?
Here’s what we’d be missing:
A thread in response to all the recent antisemitism 🧵
1 - Science 🧪🧑🔬🔬🔭
Jews, just 0.2% of the world, have won 26% of Nobel Prizes in science.
Some of the contributions:
- Albert Einstein – Theory of relativity, transformed physics and led to modern cosmology and nuclear energy
- Jonas Salk – Developed the first effective polio vaccine, saving millions
- Rosalind Franklin – Pioneered X-ray crystallography, crucial to discovering DNA’s double-helix structure
- Emmanuelle Charpentier & Jennifer Doudna (Jewish ancestry) – Developed CRISPR gene editing, revolutionising genetics and medicine
- Richard Feynman – Advanced quantum electrodynamics, created Feynman diagrams, key to particle physics
- Niels Bohr – Father of atomic structure, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, mentor to many nuclear scientists
- Otto Warburg – Discovered the Warburg effect in cancer metabolism, changing cancer research
- Albert Michelson – Measured the speed of light, paving the way for Einstein’s theories
- Isidor Rabi – Discovered nuclear magnetic resonance, leading to MRI technology
- Andrew Viterbi – Invented the Viterbi algorithm, vital for digital communications and error correction
- Paul Ehrlich – Developed chemotherapy and immunology, created the concept of the "magic bullet" for targeted drugs
- Salvador Luria – Pioneered bacterial genetics, laid the foundation for molecular biology
- César Milstein – Discovered monoclonal antibodies, crucial for modern medicine and treatments like cancer immunotherapy
- Robert Lefkowitz – Identified G-protein receptors, essential for many modern drugs
- Baruch Blumberg – Discovered Hepatitis B and developed its vaccine, saving millions of lives
- Gertrude Elion – Created drugs for leukemia, AIDS, malaria, and more, revolutionising pharmaceuticals
- Ada Yonath – Mapped ribosome structures, key for antibiotics and understanding protein synthesis
- Dan Shechtman – Discovered quasicrystals, changing materials science and challenging established theories
- Yakir Aharonov – Discovered the Aharonov-Bohm effect, expanding quantum physics
- Stanley Prusiner – Identified prions, solving mysteries behind diseases like Mad Cow
- Max Born – Key founder of quantum mechanics, developed the probability interpretation of wave functions
- Ilya Prigogine – Developed non-equilibrium thermodynamics, explaining complex systems in physics and biology
- Fritz Haber – Created the Haber process for synthetic fertiliser, feeding billions worldwide
- Aaron Ciechanover & Avram Hershko – Discovered ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation, leading to breakthroughs in cancer treatments