Its sales have slid 41% in the past year, catalysed by the revelation that the company had systematically been hiding records of faults and then secretly repairing vehicles.

BBC: NEWS | Business | Peugeot deal boosts Mitsubishi

With Catholicism's importance in Ireland waning - church membership is shrinking and there are fewer priests entering the profession - might Ireland be witnessing a gradual shift in public opinion, catalysed by the Savita Halappanavar case?

BBC: Ireland shifts as abortion debate flares

Since an awful lot of industrial chemistry is catalysed this way, and the chemical industry lies, one way or another, at the base of most manufacturing, there is a good argument that this is the most important prize of the lot.

ECONOMIST: The 2007 Nobel science prizes