Carl woese awards unlimited

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Crafoord Prize in Biosciences 2003 of USD 500 000 to Carl R. Woese, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA “for his discovery of a third domain of life”.

A Third Branch on the Tree of Life

For a long time it was thought that there were merely two major domains of life: organisms that lack a cell nucleus, called the prokaryotes, and organisms whose genetic material is encapsulated in a nucleus, called the eukaryotes.

Among the prokaryotes bacteria are found, and among the eukaryotes fungi, plants, animals and thus human beings. The American microbiologist Carl R. Woese made a startling discovery that forced a rewriting of the text books: he discovered a third main group, Archaea.

Archaea (previously called archebacteria) comprise unicellular organisms which are often found in extreme environments such as hot springs, waters with high salinity, extreme pH or a high sulphur content, i.