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Science

Nobel Prizes 69

Posted by michael from the play-by-play dept.
An AC sends: "The guys at Bottomquark.com are pledging to bring NBC-esque coverage of the Nobel Prize releases. The first prize, for Medicine, is already posted."
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Nobel Prizes More

Nobel Prizes

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  • Although I have not followed this closely, I recall seeing titles of articles in Nature [nature.com] and/or Science [sciencemag.org] announcing support for Prusiner's idea. Of course, he might still be wrong, but right now there seems to be more support for him than criticism...


    Lars
    __

  • Yeah, I've heard the same thing, but I think I've also heard that the Abel thing is unlikely. It kinda does make sense for it to be an award for inventions to help humanity since Nobel did invent dynamite which in some ways is useful.

    Besides, there is the Fields Medal in mathematics which is the equivalent of the Nobel except that there is an age limit associated with the Fields Medal. You have to be under 40 by the time you make your breakthrough else you don't get a medal! This is why Andrew Wiles, who cracked Fermat's Last Theorem did not get one. He was a little bit over 40 when his proof was published etc etc. So they gave him a special Field's Medal. Btw, Field's medal is not named after the idea of fields in mathematics but is actually the name of the guy who endowed the trust that funds the medals.

  • I didn't get to see the original page, but I think that you are looking for the following: http://www.nobel.se/announcement/2000/index.html#M IRRORS [nobel.se]

  • The Nobel site (Score:3)

    by Lars Arvestad ( 5049 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2000 @01:27AM (#719250) Homepage Journal
    Instead of /.-ing the NBC wannabes you should aim your browser at the Nobel e-museum [nobel.se] (organized by the Nobel foundation is seems) where the announcements are made. They are hopefully better prepared!


    Lars
    __

  • The nobel price for physics has been awarded, too:

    http://www.nobel.se/announcement/2000/physics.html

    Half the prize were awarded to a russian and american (german origin) scientist, the other half to JACK S. KILBY, Texas Instruments for his invention of the IC.

    Chemistry follows this afternoon mbanck

  • You can't be serious.
  • The server problems that probably prevented everyone from getting to the site are now gone. Proceed to slashdot the site into submission again.

    You Like Science?
  • We have the Nobel prize for Physics.. how about a Nobel Prize for Psychics? I know whos getting next years.

  • Now the norwegians may view the "union" a bit differently...

    You bet.... :-) (The schoolbook story is that Denmark and Sweden were colonial powers....)

    Actually, the Nobel Peace prize is awarded by a norwegian comittee, possibly a gesture by Nobel to improve the relations between Sweden and Norway.

    The reasons Nobel had for choosing a Norwegian Committee (or rather, let the Norwegian Parliament appoint a committee), is a long and difficult story, probably with no clear answer.

    One possibility is that Norway was the only nation around that had never gone to war on anybody.

    Another is that he did not trust the Swedish politicians, only the Swedish scientists.

    Another is that he might have had personal reasons, and another is that it was such a gesture. I don't think we'll ever know for sure...

  • My dad worked with Kilby at TI in the early 60s, when the integrated circuit development was really hopping. My dad has a couple of patents on early ICs - but he had to sell them to TI for one cent. It was part of the employment contract.

  • Anyone got a link to the solution to Fermat's Last Theorem?

    yes, i have the link to the solution; unfortunately, it is too small to fit in the comment box.

    sorry.

    ---

  • I see your Minister for Reconcilliation has suddenly suffered from a case of "foot in mouth" disease then.

    Not really. The media just likes making big deals out of very little. I'm surprised you heard about it. Although, with most ministers, it's best when something is in their mouth. Stops them saying anything else.

    Of course, we must remember that Aborigines didn't have shoes to protect their feet and hence mouths, so are therefore inferior.

    The fact that Australia has a "Reconcilliation Minister" at all is pretty embarrassing

  • The photoelectric effect was indeed damn good work. That, unfortunately, does not affect the fact/rumor that he would have been given the prize for the theory of relativity (too?) if it wasn't for academic pride and politics.

    I didn't really mean that they were simply looking for an excuse to give him the prize, but that it was a great relief when they could give him his well deserved award without giving any credit to the theory of relativity.

  • Schwarzchild said, "So at least two Nobels could be invalidated because of new research or having awarded the prize too quickly."

    No, all Nobels could be invalidated because that is the "way of science". All science has the ability to be refuted. Most of science will eventually be replaced by "newer better theory".

    The main crutch of science is its reliance on the belief in the existence of mathematics, outside of the mind of the creative subject. Ever since the Greek's popularized the idea of the existence of ideal mathematical objects, outside of and separate from our minds - popular mathematics and science have held onto that belief. Note that this belief is metaphysical.

    It wasn't until a little over a hundred years ago, that a few mathematicians started to object to the metaphysical belief of ideal/transcendent mathematical objects (mathematical laws, constants, etc... which forever exist, independently from the creative subject's mind). One of these insightful mathematicians was Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer [st-and.ac.uk], who passionately argued against the use of these metaphysical beliefs in mathematics, and he went as far as to claim that the law of the excluded middle was in fact, not a mathematical law at all. It was a metaphysical belief.

    Mathematics around the turn of the last century was in a crisis. Several branches of mathematics were showing inconsistencies/paradoxes - errors! Mathematics is without error, and therefore, many mathematicians were running wild, hoping that their mathematical edifices didn't crumble into dust, by the quake of another paradox. Brouwer argued that these paradoxes were the result of the use of non-constructive mathematics - he began to reconstruct all of mathematics, but the more popular David Hilbert [st-and.ac.uk] feared that Brouwer was trying to drive mathematicians from the paradise of classical mathematics. So there was a big fight [umt.edu], and Hilbert ended up getting Brouwer black-listed from the popular mathematics scene. To this, Albert Einstein made the famous comment, "What is this frog and mouse battle among the mathematicians"?

    It turned out that Hilbert's program was impossible and still most likely contained paradoxes.

    Today, most people still use non-constructive methods in their math, and many people still believe in the existence of ideal/transcendent mathematical objects. This is why we end up with "laws of nature", in science. Time and time again, we have forgot what Brouwer was throwing such a fuss about, and time and time again, we find our mathematics and science in error.

  • Chemistry [nobel.se] has been awarded as well.

    More info at NY Times (free registration required)on both the physics [nytimes.com] and the chemistry [nytimes.com] awards.

    Its seems like kind of a down year for the Nobels. The physics award is for work that is closer to engineering than to pure research (not that there's anything wrong with that ;0) and similarly the chemistry award seems more like material science.

  • My dad worked with Kilby at TI in the early 60s [...]

    Bah! I flunked a pharmacology exam for Arvid Carlsson, the laureate for the Medicine & Physiology prize! (Score: 5, Interesting)

    .-. .- -.. .. --- -....- .- -.- - .. ...- .. - .-.- - ...-.-
  • Does this mean that we'll have Jim Grey there to insult all the non-US Noble Prize winners right after they are awarded, like he did to many medal winners at the Olympics?
  • 1) I concede that Robert Noyce did come up with the same idea shortly afterwards.
    2) I also admit that Kilby's prototype was not feasible for mass production (I did not know that it never worked.) However, he did plan on using a solid-state process for the interconnects, independent of his original idea for having multiple components on a single piece of silicon. (If I remember correctly he even considered contacting Fairchild eventually about licensing their process for interconnects.)
    3) The patent fight only occured because of some vague wording and a bad diagram in the TI patent. IIRC, specifically, the meaning of the words "laid down", and the meaning of Kilby's famous "flying wire" diagram.

    Intel could possibly claim credit for a computer on every desk, since they were the first to develop the general purpose processor, but the first "embedded" application for IC's was the TI pocket calculator, for which Kilby was one of the engineers. While this was only a significant (as opposed to revolutionary) device, it served as an effective demonstration of what IC's were capable of.

    If Robert Noyce were still alive today, I have no doubt that he would have shared the Nobel Prize.

    On the other hand, the reason I have great respect for Jack Kilby is because he never sought a great fortune or fame for his discovery. AFAIK, he remained on the engineering staff from TI. That is not to say that seeking riches is ignoble, just that neither is not seeking them.

    Perhaps I should have changed the wording of my post somewhat recognize the fact that Robert Noyce developed it at about the same time, and later won the patent. I did not mean to take anything away from anyone else.
  • It seems that the prizes this year, in the physical sciences, were given to inventors/discoverors rather than scientists.

    Does anyone know if the guys who got the Nobel Prize in Chemistry actually explained why the polymers work or did they just discover it.

  • A strange irony about Nobel that I thought I'd add on because it's interesting...

    He wanted to bring about world peace by inventing a bomb powerful enough that nobody would ever go to war.
    Not too far off from what really happened....
    now we have "conflicts" and "disturbances"

  • Was Alfred Nobel swedish, norwegian or simply scandinavian?

    Sweden and Norway was in a union from 1814-1905
    That is: Norway was under Danish government but was "given" to Sweden (who sought some compensation for the recent (1809) loss of Finland to Russia in 1814.

    Nobel was indeed swedish, born in Stockholm 1833 if my memory is correct, but all his life (he died 10 dec 1896, the prizes are given the day of his death) Sweden and Norway was in union.

    Now the norwegians may view the "union" a bit differently...

    Actually, the Nobel Peace prize is awarded by a norwegian comittee, possibly a gesture by Nobel to improve the relations between Sweden and Norway.

    Hey, I've found a link so I can end this rambling: www.nobel.se [nobel.se]

  • You might note that Alfred Nobel was never married!
    Though he did have a mistress named Sophie Hess. It seems to be something of an urban legend that Nobel held a grudge against mathematicians because one supposedly screwed around with his wife on the side. Go here [almaz.com] to hear it from the horses' mouth(taken from the sci.math newsgroup).
  • There are several active rumors going around why there is no Nobel prize for mathematics. None of which seems to be true. The most popular rumor is that Nobel disliked the Swedish mathematician Mittag-Leffler (some say because of an extramarital affair, but there seems to be _no_ solid support for this) and that Nobel feared that Mittag-Leffler might be awarded the prize. However, the most likely explanation is that Nobel, an engineer at heart, did not realize the importance of mathematics. The rationale for the peace prize may have been a guilty conscience (for inventing dynamite and nitroglycerine) and the literature prize comes from his and his family's interest in poetry and drama.
  • Anyone got a link to the solution to Fermat's Last Theorem?

    And I wasn't aware of the age limit on the Field's Medal... have to tell someone to hurry up... he's only got 12 years left...

    Kierthos

  • Finally Kilby gets the recognition he deserves... (Score:3)

    by sirwired ( 27582 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2000 @04:23AM (#719271)
    Since I first started reading computer history, Jack Kilby has been the computer person I admire most. His discovery (the Integrated Circuit) has more or less created modern technology as we know it today, and without it, we arguably could still be using discrete components. What is more interesting is even though he revolutionized technology, he received (until now) no great public recognition. Since he created the IC as a staff engineer for TI, he was not entitled to royalties or anything of that nature. Sure the IEEE has named a medal after him, and he figures prominently in computer history books, but he is a virtual unknown to the public.

    In other words, it couldn't have happed to a better guy.

  • The theories of relativity were considered "too radical" by the comittee at the time (or rather, it was an embarrassing case of academic pride)

    It was clear, however, that Einstein deserved the prize, so he got it as soon as there was another work (the photoelectric effect) to award it for.

    (or so the story goes)

  • Iron Scientist! (Score:3)

    by G-Man ( 79561 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2000 @04:24AM (#719273)
    Screw the NBC-style coverage. They should have four finalists in each area square off in front of a studio audience -- the Iron Chemists would have to whip up some new and useful compound from a set of ingredients, the Iron Doctors would have to perform speed-surgery, and the Iron Peacemakers would have to break up some arguments.
  • Oh drat ... thats exactly what I was going to say!
  • Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-1896) was rather a pratical chemical engineer from Sweden who invented dynamite in 1866. He to say the least, dynamite revolutionized mining and made him very wealthy.
    The Nobel Prize was established shortly after Nobel, a pacifist, had an epiphany after he saw his invention being used in warfare and killing people. The Nobel Foundation was created in 1900 and the Swedish Academy of Sciences has been governing it since.
    There is no reason a mathematics prize cant be added. In 1968 the Economics Prize was added.
  • Will the Nobel Committee be sending nasty letters to other web sites to protect Bottomquark's coverage?
  • One of the co-winners in Physics is:

    Jack S. Kilby
    Texas Instruments, Dallas, Texas, USA

    "for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit"

    I find it kind of funny that he got this award after Y2K has pasted.

  • Yes. I share your respect for Kilby not seeking riches and fame, and no offense whatsoever was taken. I just wanted to point out that they both deserved the credit for it, and that if my stupid grandfather hadn't died, I'd have gotten a trip to Sweden out of this. *sigh*
  • he's also very dead

    as opposed to being only slightly dead...

    to blaaaaiiittthhheeee
  • You *are* aware that the Nobel Peace Prize is not the only Nobel prize awarded. There are Nobel's for all fields of science. I believe that several contributers to the first Atomic bomb were awarded Nobel prizes.......And oh dear, I've just been trolled!
  • The inventors of Viagra should have win this prize, it's a lot more efficient against depression.

    They already did, in 1998, to Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro and Ferid Murad [nobel.se] "for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system". From the press release [nobel.se]:

    Impotence: NO can initiate erection of the penis by dilating the blood vessels to the erectile bodies. This knowledge has already led to the development of new drugs against impotence.
  • Ralph Alpher was one of the first people to develop the Big Bang theory. I saw an interview with him on CNN last night. He also doesn't know why he never got the Nobel. In my opinion, he should have been a natural!

    The whole Penzias and Wilson thing is also a bit sad. In my opinion, Dicke and Peebles should (at least!) have shared the prize for expanding on the theory (they were also in the midst of setting up a receiver to measure it). In fact, the CMBR temperature had been measured many years before Penzias and Wilson, but nobody recognized it for what it was!

  • anyone have a mirror for this?

  • Like their Olympics coverage ? (Score:4)

    by gibodean ( 224873 ) on Monday October 09, 2000 @09:02PM (#719284)
    So does that mean it's going to be 12 hours late ?
  • Does that mean that there will be informative news.... OR will we be greeted with voyeur style 'house scientists' that are all competing to be the last voted out of the lab to win a Nobel prize? Now that's MUST SEE TV!
  • I think there are already plenty, but I can see as a guy in bioresearch why he would want to give money to that....

    What _REALLY_ needs attention is women in physics, ugh, I'm dying here.
  • ...don't forget the guy who invented de-ionized plasma.

  • Re:The mandatory question for all stupid americans (Score:3)

    by fReNeTiK ( 31070 ) on Monday October 09, 2000 @09:26PM (#719288)
    Cut'n'paste from this [nobel.ki.se] site found trough google [google.com] . [goatse.cx]

    Alfred Nobel was born in 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden to a family of engineers. His family was descended from Olof Rudbeck, the best-known technical genius of Sweden's 17th century era as a great power in northern Europe. At age 9, he moved with his family to Russia where he and his brothers were given first class education in the humanities and natural sciences by private teachers.

    Nobel invented dynamite in 1866 and later built up companies and laboratories in more than 20 countries all over the world. A holder of more than 350 patents, he also wrote poetry and drama and even seriously considered becoming a writer.

    The idea of giving away his fortune was no passing fancy for Nobel. Efforts to promote peace were close to his heart and he derived intellectual pleasure from literature, while science built the foundation for his own activities as a technological researcher and inventor.

    On November 27, 1895, Nobel signed his final will and testament at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris. He died of a heart attack in his home in San Remo, Italy on December 10, 1896.

  • We still haven't rewarded the guy who came up with the Big Bang Theory yet. Until then I'm protesting.

    Regards
  • There is one given to Medawar & Burnet in 1960 [nobel.se] in Physiology or Medicine back in the 50's on the mechanism of the immune system and it apparently is being refuted by work done by Polly Matzinger [rri.on.ca] at the NIH. Also another guy, Stanley Prusiner, won the Nobel in 1997 [nobel.se] for the discovery that prions can cause disease; This award is being criticized [ou.edu] on the grounds that there is no real proof that unusual proteins cause disease. So at least two Nobels could be invalidated because of new research or having awarded the prize too quickly.

  • Oh drat ... thats exactly what I was going to say!

    Ha! And to top it off, I'm an Australian, and hence I didn't have to suffer with that 12 hour delay anyway.

    That must mean I'm going to get the Nobel information in real time too

  • PBS's NOVA showed a really great interview of Andrew Wiles and his colleagues called "The Proof." [pbs.org]

    There is a link to the complete transcript [pbs.org] of the show.

    I highly recommend Singh's book (he helped produce the NOVA show). It gave enough of the history and the essential parts of the mathematics.

    Also a key reason that the Field's medal is restricted to under 40 is that it was considered that a mathematician does his best work under 40. An interesting article about aging and science [feedmag.com] is on www.feedmag.com [feedmag.com].

  • No, only the Peace Prize is awarded by a norwegian comitte

    Well, isn't that what I said?

  • Until it can survive being slashdotted, that is.

    BottomQuark is a nice quiet little slash site that posts a lot of interesting science articles (/., BQ, and Kuro5hin are my news sites). BQ went down recently (funding) but came back up when someone in the readership took over hosting (mention was made of a cable-modem, which certainly couldn't stand up to being /.ed if that's the case)

    It's actually funny to watch, there's some folks that snag the articles from BQ each day and submit them here.

  • They've gotten rather applied this year,
    but took forty years to recognize this achievement. I don't know I'd consider it physics.

    This is almost like Stanford University finally
    recognizing it is in Silicon Valley and promoting
    a tech-geek to president after decades of lawyers and humanities types.
  • Which guy you talking about? Do you mean a group of people? I would not hold my breath. All these other guys have had actual impact in science with REALISTIC science, while Big Bang ... well you know. A lot of stuff now done have little impact in science and little hope of proof, its novel. Its not like solid state, chemical physics, or theoretical chemistry, etc.
  • Except for the Economics prize, all the prizes are awarded according to specific rules specified by Alfred Nobel. These provide for awards for "discovery or invention" in physics, chemistry, or physiology/medicine. So no Math prize because Alfred didn't endow one. There could be such a prize if the Nobel foundation agreed to sponser it, and if somebody with deep pockets agreed to endow it, the way Sveriges Riksbank endowed the Economics prize.

    Alfred Nobel probaby had a certain bias toward science with a practical application versus pure or theoretical science. There's been a lot of armchair psychologizing about this (Nobel made his fortune off of munitions; many members of the Nobel family were killed in industrial accidents), but the fact is that his attitude was pretty standard for his time.

    It is sort of interesting that Planck's Quantum Theory counted as a "discovery" but not Einstein's Relativity Theory. Perhaps it was because the Quantum was seen as an actual physical entity, whereas Relativity was seen to be largely a work of Mathematics.

    Incidentally, my orange roomate is very pleased that the inventor of the laser diode has finally been recognized. He also vows to capture and devour that glowing red thingee at all costs!

    __________

  • Jack Kilby was the first to invent the intgrated circuit, but his prototype didn't work, and his patent application wasn't granted for some time. Meanwhile, Robert Noyce independently came up with the same idea, and also filed for a patent. His was granted, but there was quite the legal fight over it. Eventually, Noyce did end up with the patent. He eventually went on to found Intel (with Gordon Moore) which is today the best-known (and I think largest, but I'm not sure) manufacturer of computer chips. Noyce, and Intel, are probably more responsible than Kilby for the revolution that resulted in integrated circuits being in absolutely everything we have. Unfortunately, Noyce died in 19990, and Nobel Prizes aren't given posthumously. (And I'm Noyce's granddaughter, so my history is right, I have an interest in this)

  • What's even scarier is that by any reasonable measure he should have had at least 4

    1. Relativity
    2. Photoelectric effect
    3. Brownian motion
    4. Heat capacity of crystals

    Any one of these would have put a physicist in the "legend" category. Einstein was one scary smart dude.

    Eric

  • What happened to the Nobel jury? Prozac is not a good thing for people, It's just another expensive legal drug for depressed people.
    The inventors of Viagra should have win this prize, it's a lot more efficient against depression.

    -- Mon université chérie: www.polymtl.ca

  • Other famous prizes. (Score:5)

    by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Monday October 09, 2000 @09:39PM (#719301)
    Here are some other important prizes that the media tend to neglect:

    The No Bail Prize, given for major advances in waterproofing.

    The No Ball(s) Prize, given in to the judge who caves in to corporate interests the fastest.

    The No Belle Prize, given to a randomly selected geek as a consolation for the geek lifestyle.

    The No Bill Prize, given to the programmer who comes up with the best innovation that does not get bought out by Microsoft within a year.

    And my favorite, the No Bull Prize, which will go to the candidate that gets caught out in the fewest lies during the debates.

    --
    Give me a candidate who speaks out against the war on drugs.
  • Nah, we'll probably get profiles of the scientist's family origins, and their desire for knowledge, and their will to learn.

    Trust me. You'll have a tear in your eye by the time the segment is over.

  • Re:Prozac??? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I've been depressed to the point of almost committing suicide.

    Let me just tell you that when you're depressed, you're not thinking about sex -- Viagra or not. The world disappears in a haze of almost physical pain of not feeling anything. Only the pain remains and you think (know) that there's nothing you can do to stop it; any more than if you were gagged and tied to a chair and a torturer was coming in from his coffee break for a second round of beating, slashing and bone cracking.

    When you're at that state you cannot function at any level the least of all sexual.

  • gibodean said: So does that mean it's going to be 12 hours late ?

    Yes. It also means that we'll get to watch 7 minute inspirational vignettes featuring the struggles and sacrifices of all the nominees, and in an hour of programming, we'll see 38 minutes of commercials.

  • They could not make it any more boring than NBC did the coverage in Sydney.

    Cyclists striking manly poses as they describe the life story and the Cancer drama one more time before you find out the guy came in like 16th.

    Then we get to see 14 year old children sitting back in contemplative sexy poutty poses as the NBC strains his voice trying to sound excited about a bunch of eurotrash children chunking their medals off when they only get silver. Gawd, it sucked!!

    The times they could have honestly profited off some drama like all the nonsense with the horse thing being put too low they did not (yeah my wife likes gymnastics so sue me).

    I can see the coverage in my head now. Rock video lighting on the lab coated scientist squaring off against the lab on the other side of the world. One is from a rich western country making an advance against the backdrop of high tech toys while in the other corner some dedicated schmuck in the third world come through with some success in his field with nothing but a test tube and McGuiver like sense of resourcefullness. Who will win? Will anyone outside of their own fields give a shit?

  • Re:uhm... (Score:3)

    by deglr6328 ( 150198 ) on Monday October 09, 2000 @09:51PM (#719306)
    uhm. Einstein died in 1955. And Alexander Friedmann (the physicist who first implied the Big Bang from the complete solution of Einsteins equations) is also LONG since dead(like 1920's or something). Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson who discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation (taken as direct evidence of the big bang in the form of leftover EM radiation) at Bell Labs in 1965, were granted their nobel in 1978. George Gamow who predicted the CMBE was scooped by the Bell Labs team and never got his nobel, he's also very dead.
  • guran writes:
    Actually, the Nobel Peace prize is awarded by a norwegian comittee, possibly a gesture by Nobel to improve the relations between Sweden and Norway.
    I think the peace prize came about through a Norwegian peace activist and friend of Alfred's.

    The story goes that he would indeed fund a peace prize if she could give hime one good reason for the prize. And it seems she did. That prize was set up from the beginning to be a completely Norwegian affair.

    /jeorgen

  • Well, the second suggestion can only be true if spooky in the true sense of the word as Nobel was born 1833 and Abel died 1829. Furthermore, as I recall Nobel was not married. The mathematician that is most often mentioned in this story is Gösta Mittag-Leffler which at least is theoretically possible as he was born 1846 and Nobel died 1896 (because of the other problem mentioned wife is usually replaced by mistress). No evidence for this theory has been given however. For one thing Mittag-Leffler and Nobel were active in quite different Swedish socal circles. In fact that in itself and the fact that Mittag-Leffler was a somewhat controversial person could possibly be the reason for some dislike of mathematics from Nobel's side. Again however no evidence exists. The real answer is probably the first sugggestion, Nobel was an engineer and probably thought of mathematics as something of no possible benefit to anyone (being a mathematician myself I of course do not agree...).
  • I'll get the nobelprize for first post. :)
  • I see your Minister for Reconcilliation has suddenly suffered from a case of "foot in mouth" disease then.

  • Re:Einstein and the Nobel prize (Score:3)

    by /dev/kev ( 9760 ) on Tuesday October 10, 2000 @01:04AM (#719311) Homepage
    Huh? Einstein did the photoelectric effect stuff at the same time as (special) relativity (and Brownian motion), 1905. He got the prize in 1921 for the photoelectric effect because it was damn good work, and had been vindicated as such, not because they were looking for an excuse to give the prize to him.

    Remember that his explanation of the photoelectric effect required particle-like photons of light, which at the time were considered silly in the face of all the evidence that light was a wave. His explanation of the photoelectric effect was very important indeed, and can rival relativity as his most important work (though not his most well-known).
  • Mousollini won the Nobel Peace Prize.

  • Until it can survive being slashdotted, that is. I have yet to be able to get through. There's something to be said for accessibility, even if the coverage is better (biased in a way I prefer). Whatever problems I may have with NBC, I have a strong suspicion that their site is up and doing just fine (I'll admit I haven't checked).

    BTW, any mirrors up yet?

    So what was it for, anyway? I gather from the comments it was prozac, but that could be completely wrong. Anyone have something more specific?

  • So does this mean we get to see 3 commercials per human interest story, and 2 human interest stories per event (award)? If so, I'm there! The two weeks of the Olympics wasn't enough.

  • Nobel Prizes for Mathematics (Score:3)

    by nihilogos ( 87025 ) on Monday October 09, 2000 @10:05PM (#719315)
    Does anyone know why there aren't any? I have heard two plausible explanations. One is that Nobel Prizes are given for achievements with tangible benefit to humankind which is why Einstein got his for his work on the Photoelectic effect rather than for general relativity which is far and away his greatest work. The second I think is much more likely - the mathematician Niels Abel was fooling around with Nobel's wife.

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