On today’s Fresh Air, physicist Saul Perlmutter, who  is part of the team awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery that the expansion of the universe wasn’t slowing down but accelerating. The results of that research suggest the universe is filled with dark energy. [Full Interview Here]

Work produced by a person since deceased shall not be considered for an award. If, however, a prizewinner dies before he has received the prize, then the prize may be presented.

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From NPR’s Two-Way Blog:

That’s one of the rules in the Statues of the Nobel Foundation, and it’s suddenly pertinent because it’s just been announced that Rockefeller University scientist Ralph Steinman died on Friday. Today, Steinman and two other scientists were awarded the Nobel in medicine for their discoveries about the human immune system.