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Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Englert and Higgs

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Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Englert and Higgs

#51

Post by sambeau »

claudius wrote: post #39
sambeau wrote: post #36

I'd like to take this opportunity to remind people of the (sometimes a little forgotten) other person name-checked in the Higgs Boson: Satyendra Nath Bose. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyendra_Nath_Bose He was an interesting chap!

He certainly had an interesting life, but I don't think the person giving their name to half the particles in the universe can be called ‘a little forgotten’.

Ha. True.

But, I'm not sure people know that a Boson is named after him at all and if they do I'd bet they assume (like I once did) that Bose was some German or Hungarian bloke.

(Mind you, I also thought that the Bose of Bose Corporation[1] would have been a European rather than Indian descent, too. Clearly, I have some prejudice I need to work out).

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amar_Bose

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Englert and Higgs

#52

Post by anu_gupta »

kemiller wrote: post #46
flexie wrote: post #8

They say that professor Higgs is shy and not at all comfortable with the attention and almost as hard to find as his particle.

I'm sensing you're being facetious, but not knowing the personalities involved, what does this mean? Is he a notorious publicity hound?

Means pretty much what it says, Professor Higgs is quite uncomfortable with publicity.

Apparently, he's on holiday right now, with no phone / email. Almost certainly deliberately.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Englert and Higgs

#53

Post by aestra »

drrotmos wrote: post #25
_pferreir_ wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any references on that?

The statutes of the Nobel Foundation, § 4 reads (in part and translated): "If a work that is being rewarded has been produced by two or three persons, the prize shall be awarded to them jointly. In no case may a prize amount be divided between more than three persons." Source: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundatio...

It's a controversial restriction. Scientists rarely work alone anymore.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Englert and Higgs

#54

Post by aestra »

_pferreir_ wrote: post #11
henrikschroder wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just listening to the news, and apparently over 3000 people were more or less involved with the work at CERN. I don't think the physics prize has ever been awarded to an institution like the peace prize has been in the past, and I think the Academy simply chose not to break tradition.

They could have awarded it to the CMS and ATLAS experiments as well. No need to award it to CERN.

They can't award it to CERN or CMS or ATLAS. At most 3 individual people can split one prize.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Englert and Higgs

#55

Post by dman »

phaus wrote: post #50
notjustanymike wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I certainly lost a lot of faith in the Nobel peace prize when they gave it to Obama. It seemed like a political gesture more than a true recognition of significant accomplishments.

it took you this long? They awarded it to Al Gore for climate change awareness (has alot to do with peace i guess?) Even worse, they have awarded it to supporters of terrorism(Arafat), and other violent types of people(Mandela).

Gandhi never won the prize.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Englert and Higgs

#56

Post by jessriedel »

bdg wrote: post #43
VLM wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"aren't backed up by experiment" Sadly, I was expecting arguments by string theorists along the lines of the longbets.org bet for $2000 that no one is going to get a Nobel for anything related to string theory, but I guarantee we'll get ten times as much "Obama" instead. Can't we please argue about that instead of making fun of our "concentration camp warmonger in chief", maybe just in one thread please?

This is likely among the last prizes we'll see in physics for a long time that has evidence to back it up. The theory is so far ahead of the practice that things we think we understand just can't be tested in reasonable times. Look at what it took just to get the Boson data.

There's lots of things under the physics umbrella out there, and the Nobel committee has refrained for giving a prize for string theory or other speculative BSM physics for decades; there's no reason to think they'll change, especially given the recent downturn in the popularity of those fields. The Nobel isn't restricted to fundamental physics. You can look at the awards from the recent years to get a sense of what gets honored when there are no fundamental advances: laser spectroscopy, magnetoresistance, optical fibers, semiconductors, graphene, etc.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Englert and Higgs

#57

Post by phaus »

dman wrote: post #55
phaus wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it took you this long? They awarded it to Al Gore for climate change awareness (has alot to do with peace i guess?) Even worse, they have awarded it to supporters of terrorism(Arafat), and other violent types of people(Mandela).

Gandhi never won the prize.

Ahh, you are correct, apparently he has his own peace prize.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Englert and Higgs

#58

Post by ISL »

Steuard wrote: post #34
VLM wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Civilized behavior would imply private splitting of the cash, at least. I can't remember an example of that ever happening with any Nobel award in any field, although its probably happened. One of those things I'm not sure how to google for without getting 99% unrelated. If done completely privately there may be no public record of any sort...

I've always had the impression that the cash is the least important part of a Nobel prize. Even if you're being purely mercenary about it, Nobel laureates can probably get paid speaking engagements whenever they want. But it's the prestige that really matters, and I suspect that for most scientists a share of the cash would be a poor substitute.

As a physicist: There are lots of good reasons to go into physics. Doing it for the money probably isn't one of them.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Englert and Higgs

#59

Post by ISL »

gitaarik wrote: post #35
bfe wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They often award the physics prize for experimentally verifying a theoretical prediction. For example, they awarded the prize to Paul Dirac for predicting the existence of the positron, and to Carl Anderson for confirming it.

I guess the committee thought the theory was a more important achievement than the prove.

Unlikely. Attribution in this case is a very thorny issue. People have been discussing it for decades.

There may yet be an experimental prize, especially once the experimental work at LHC is complete. From a physics perspective, LHC has only just begun. For the Higgs alone, its spin has not yet been conclusively measured; it's an important parameter.

Re: Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Englert and Higgs

#60

Post by drrotmos »

aestra wrote: post #53
drrotmos wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The statutes of the Nobel Foundation, § 4 reads (in part and translated): "If a work that is being rewarded has been produced by two or three persons, the prize shall be awarded to them jointly. In no case may a prize amount be divided between more than three persons." Source: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundatio...

It's a controversial restriction. Scientists rarely work alone anymore.

Agreed, but it's in the statutes, so the board has to abide by them (or risk liability). It's also non-trivial to change the statutes of a foundation ("stiftelse") in Sweden.
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