Some of the signers asked us to help spread the word about the Nobel Laureates appeal for peace in Ukraine. And we are, here, asking you, too, to help. The signers say (and so do we): “Please circulate as you see fit, but especially to scientists in Russia, Ukraine, and China.” The appeal, and its […]
“We attempt to measure the impact of winning a Nobel Prize on longevity by comparing winners to a control group, namely, those scientists nominated for a Nobel Prize who were never successful.” The 2007 study was performed by Professor Andrew Oswald [pictured] of the Department of Economics, The University of Warwick, UK, and Dr Matthew […]
A strange (and true) news report from 1996, about an aftermath of that year’s Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, begins: Sorting Out This Case Could Take The Wisdom of a Learned Hand —- By Ross Kerber Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal The value of a Nobel Prize-worthy feat is clearly established: The Royal Swedish Academy […]
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 […]
A news report from Stanford University says that Dick Taylor died today. We had a good time back in 1998 at an Ig Nobel show at Stanford University. Lila Guterman, writing in the Stanford Report, described part of that evening: Theories of improbability: Gum-chewing Nobelists talk silly science A paper airplane whizzed through the air […]
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. […]
Nobel laureates don’t grow on trees, but they do go a-wandering in pleasant places. Sheldon Glashow (standing on the left, and possessor of a 1979 Nobel Prize for physics) and Rich Roberts (standing on the right, and possessor of a 1993 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine) sent us this photo of them in Bali. […]
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 […]
Someone at Alternet is confused about a brassiere and a prize. Really, at least two people there are confused: the person who wrote the report headlined “Nobel Prize Winning, Gas-Mask-Convertible Bra Provides Defense Against Chemical Warfare“, and the editor or editors who handled the article during its gestation and journey on to the Internet. [NOTE, […]
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, […]