This week, the winners of the 2006 Nobel Prizes in physics, chemistry, and physiology or medicine were announced. Physicists George Smoot and John Mather won the prize in physics for their work in analyzing the cosmic microwave background radiation, work that helped to support theories about the Big Bang. Andrew Fire and Craig Mello won the prize in Medicine or Physiology for for their discovery of RNA interference - gene silencing by double-stranded RNA. And Roger Kornberg won the prize in Chemistry for his work in DNA transcription, the process by which information stored in the genes is copied, and then transferred to the parts of cells that produce proteins.

In this hour of Science Friday, guest host Joe Palca talks with several of this year's winners about their work and what it's like to win the best-known prize in science. Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255 (2-3 Eastern). Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.

Guests:
George Smoot
2006 Nobel Laureate in Physics
Astrophysicist
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Professor of Physics
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California

John Mather
2006 Nobel Laureate in Physics
Senior Astrophysicist and Goddard Fellow
Senior Project Scientist, James Webb Space Telescope
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland

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David Bushnell
Research Associate, Roger Kornberg Laboratory
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford, California

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Andrew Fire
2006 Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology
Professor, Departments of Pathology and Genetics
Stanford University School Of Medicine
Stanford, California

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This segment produced by Karin Vergoth