Robert G. Edwards Nobel Prize 2010?

The Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded this year to Robert G. Edwards, an English biologist who developed the in vitro fertilization procedure for treating human infertility.
His work has led to the birth of about four million babies. The 2010 Nobel Prize is worth 10 million Swedish kronor (about $1.5 million).

IVF has been shown to be safe and effective, with 20-30 per cent of fertilised eggs leading to the birth of children without any distinguishing long-term health problems.

In what year did Robert G. Edwards came up with the IVF technique and why is he being recognized just now?

Though in vitro fertilization is now widely accepted, the birth of the first test tube baby was greeted with intense concern that the moral order was subverted by unnatural intervention in the mysterious process of creating a human being.

Robert G. Edwards overcame scientific challenges, practical difficulties, a lack of government funding and a fierce debate over ethics, before training generations of specialists in the field around the world.

On July 25, 1978, Louise Brown was born, the first "test-tube" baby. Her face appeared on the cover of magazines and newspapers around the world; her existence was debated by scientists and religious leaders; every stage of her life was monitored to see if she would be different than babies conceived in the traditional way.

The announcement of Robert G. Edwards' Nobel Prize marks the beginning of a week of prizes, with physics, chemistry, literature and peace coming in the next four days. The prize in economics will be announced next Monday.

Robert G. Edwards was born in 1925 in Manchester, England. After military service in the Second World War, he studied biology at the University of Wales in Bangor and at Edinburgh University in Scotland, where he received his PhD in 1955 with a Thesis on embryonal development in mice. He became a staff scientist at the National Institute for Medical Research in London in 1958 and initiated his research on the human fertilization process.

The controversy over in-vitro technology has not dimmed despite its popularity. In the last few years, the increasing use of IVF has also raised discussions about what age it's appropriate to become a mother.