Tom and Joan Steitz, and a clarinet player

Tom Steitz has died; his obituary is in New York Times. He was half of a marriage of two great and celebrated chemists, who met while they were grad students of the great and celebrated Professor Lipscomb, whom many of you saw and met at two decades of Ig Nobel Prize ceremonies.  (We met at a memorial […]

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen joins the LFHCfS (Luxuriant Facial Hair Club for Scientists)

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845-1923) has joined the Historical Honorary Members of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. Known as the “Father of Radiology”, he discovered and investigated X-Rays while experimenting with vacuum tubes in 1895.  He named them "X-Rays" because they were an unknown form of radiation and he refused to patent his discovery. […]

Magnus Puke, Nordic Sports and Novelty Odds Compiler

A man with the memorable name Magnus Puke has a peripheral—yet financially significant role—in the world’s reaction to the Nobel Prizes. Mr. Puke is employed by Ladbrokes, the British bookmaker firm. Bloomberg News reported on him almost a year ago: the Ladbrokes list has become a guide to a notoriously wide field, at the same time […]

It’s not just chocolate: Foods and Nobel laureates

Professor Rodolfo Baggio [pictured here] has built upon Franz Messerli‘s recent research about chocolate consumption and Nobel laureates. We are publishing, here, Baggio’s study [which you are welcome to download as a PDF “Food consumption, cognitive functions and Nobel laureates“]: * * * Food consumption, cognitive functions and Nobel laureates by Rodolfo Baggio, Bocconi University, Milan, […]