The Absurdity of Nobel Prizes in Science

Post by BurningFrog » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 5:22 AM UTC

KGIII wrote: post #75

eesmith wrote: post #61

I visited Sweden once, during the Nobel Prize award ceremony. I loved how the ceremony was broadcast on TV, and the scientists, who are famous in their own field, walk the red carpet and are given the (literally) royal treatment for their visit. I loved the clips where they show the award winners and family visiting places in Sweden - a bit like the background clips they show during the Olympics. For this brief time,…

When I was a young child, I used to daydream about winning a Nobel. I didn't daydream about winning an Emmy or a Grammy, but I did dream of winning a Nobel. (And Formula 1 championship races, but that's not important right now.) Do kids today daydream of getting a Nobel? Science was a Pretty Big Deal when I was young. We were just getting started with space exploration and splitting the atom was pretty new. We kids t…

Post by BurningFrog » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 5:29 AM UTC

yyyyip wrote: post #83

VHRanger wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but he was trying to delegitimize the highest honor in a field of study. The economics Nobel is functionally equivalent to the Fields medal or Turing award, regardless of Alfred Nobel's original intent. The point is the poster above was trying to diminish the field of study's legitimacy. Reading between the lines of his post he was doing so because of his political leanings, not because he disagreed with any pa…

Why can't he, or I, diminishing the legitimacy of economics? If someone had made up a fake Nobel prize in psychology I would diminishing the legitimacy of that too. The field of economics is far, far less rigorous than any of the hard sciences for which Nobel prizes are awarded. The fake Nobel prize for economics is strongly disputed by much of the Nobel family, Keynes, and it makes economists act more blowhard, self…

Post by alkonaut » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 5:52 AM UTC

dna_polymerase wrote: post #50

Typical competitive thinking from everyone here. Just see the Nobel Prize as a little gem alongside the road to greater goals. Focus on the work to come instead of arguing about a procedure older than any human alive. It doesn't matter who gets a shiny medal, the only thing that matters is that we push science to next level. To help our understanding of the world and to help the people.

Post by onion2k » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 6:26 AM UTC

KGIII wrote: post #75

eesmith wrote: post #61

I visited Sweden once, during the Nobel Prize award ceremony. I loved how the ceremony was broadcast on TV, and the scientists, who are famous in their own field, walk the red carpet and are given the (literally) royal treatment for their visit. I loved the clips where they show the award winners and family visiting places in Sweden - a bit like the background clips they show during the Olympics. For this brief time,…

When I was a young child, I used to daydream about winning a Nobel. I didn't daydream about winning an Emmy or a Grammy, but I did dream of winning a Nobel. (And Formula 1 championship races, but that's not important right now.) Do kids today daydream of getting a Nobel? Science was a Pretty Big Deal when I was young. We were just getting started with space exploration and splitting the atom was pretty new. We kids t…

Post by strictfp » Wed, Oct 04, 2017, 6:59 AM UTC

fatjokes wrote: post #87

pipio21 wrote: post #54

For me Nobel prices in Science are one of the things that work better the way they are that most alternatives. Nobel prices in peace are ridiculous. Not talking about (fake) Nobel prices of Economy that do not exist but have managed to buy themselves some recognition because the money printing of central bankers. For me this article is absurd. If you have a better way of giving to science, create your own price with…

Agreed. Nobel laureates in peace are basically bullshit. Look at Obama---good president, but how many drone strikes did he order, and Aung San Suu Kyi--currently accused of genocide. The Nobel laureates in science indisputably pushed forth the frontiers of human understanding. Frankly, I think the Nobel prizes in the sciences are carrying the name.