The Swedish royal family, King Carl Gustaf (front row, R), Queen Silvia (2nd row, L) and Princesses Victoria (3rd row, L) and Madeleine (4th row, L), arrive with their guests of honour for the Nobel banquet in Stockholm December 10, 2006. (Reuters)

Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk won the literature prize for a body of work that illustrates the struggle to find a balance between East and West.

The Nobel Prize in medicine went to Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello for discovering a powerful way to turn off the effect of specific genes.

John C. Mather and George F. Smoot won the physics prize for work that helped cement the big-bang theory of how the universe was created.

Roger D. Kornberg won the prize in chemistry for his studies of how cells take information from genes to produce proteins, a process that could provide insight into defeating cancer and advancing stem cell research.

Economics winner Edmund S. Phelps was cited for research into the relationship between inflation and unemployment, giving governments better tools to formulate economic policy. (Xinhua)