[math-fun] Bogus Nobel prizes
It seems that many Nobel Prizes were awarded that, in retrospect, were very bad decisions. It looks like the Physics & Chemistry prizes are pretty much free of embarrassment, but the Medicine, Peace, and Economic prizes include many howlers. [The Peace prize to H.Kissinger & Le Duc Tho in 1973 jointly, was amazing (Le Duc Tho actually refused it!) as was its award to B.Obama.] Anyway, here's a list of Medicine prizes: 1904 to Ivan Pavlov re digestion. Unfortunately Pavlov's main discovery was refuted in 1902 by EH Starling & WM Bayliss, and the refutors by discovering the first hormone, "secretin," actually accomplished something far more important (as well as correct this time), but they didn't get a prize... 1923 to Banting & Macleod for discovering the existence of insulin. But in 1962 the Nobel prize committee announced it had made a mistake since "Macleod had taken no active part in the work." 1926 to Johannes Fibiger for "discovering" that the cause of cancer was worms. He was totally wrong. 1927 to J.Wagner-Jauregg for "curing" dementia caused by syphilis by intentionally infecting patients with malaria. The patients that he cured, were defined to be cured, by him. 1949 to Antonio Egas Moniz for inventing the "revolutionary therapy" of lobotomy, aka intentional brain mutilation. (Which also was later used to "cure homosexuals.") 1952 to Selman Waksman for discovering streptomycin. Actually it was Albert Schatz, a doctoral student of SW's. They both were credited as discoverers on US patent and Schatz was 1st author of the paper, but Waksman grabbed all the royalties of about $350K in secret while giving Schatz essentially nothing (a "gift" of $1500) plus explained that Schatz had nothing to do with it and was only included on the paper & patent as a "courtesy." There then was a lawsuit, and Schatz was recognized as co-discover and awarded a 3:10 split of royalties with Waksman. This all happened before the Nobel award. 1997 Stanley B. Prusiner for "prions" and diseases they cause. However there remains some substantial fraction of scientists who do not believe prions really exist, so let's hope the Nobel Prize committee got this right. The prion detractors feel that the Award may have shut down anti-prion research, which, if prions really do not exist, was a very bad thing. It's very hard to prove it was prions and not anything else, and Prusiner's proof was necessarily not very convincing. However, based on this 2004 paper http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15286374 and several followup papers, where they synthesized prion protein than showed it caused disease, I think Prusiner must have been correct. So the Nobel committee got lucky on this one!
I began my graduate studies (in physics)at the University of Oklahoma where the Physics Deaprtment Chairman was J. Rudd Neilsen, whose PhD advisor had been Neils Bohr. Neilsen's research speciality was Raman spectroscopy. Neilsen taught a course in Raman spectroscopy each year which he always began by saying; Raman spectroscopy is a physical phenomena discovered by a graduate student of Ramen's for which Sir Ramen received the Nobel prize. The Nobel committee has not only made some errors in awards, but has made some really weird ones like the physics prize awarded to Nils Dalen for designing a regulating valve for the acetylene gas used in marine bouys. Of course oversights abound. The most obvious being not awarding the Nobel prize in medicine to Jonas Salk who discovered the first polio vaccine and almost eliminating what had been a worldwide scourge. Salk lived another 42 years after his vaccine was introduced so there was ample time for them to have awarded him the prize. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Warren D Smith" <warren.wds@gmail.com> To: "math-fun" <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2014 10:16 AM Subject: [math-fun] Bogus Nobel prizes
It seems that many Nobel Prizes were awarded that, in retrospect, were very bad decisions. It looks like the Physics & Chemistry prizes are pretty much free of embarrassment, but the Medicine, Peace, and Economic prizes include many howlers.
[The Peace prize to H.Kissinger & Le Duc Tho in 1973 jointly, was amazing (Le Duc Tho actually refused it!) as was its award to B.Obama.]
Anyway, here's a list of Medicine prizes:
1904 to Ivan Pavlov re digestion. Unfortunately Pavlov's main discovery was refuted in 1902 by EH Starling & WM Bayliss, and the refutors by discovering the first hormone, "secretin," actually accomplished something far more important (as well as correct this time), but they didn't get a prize...
1923 to Banting & Macleod for discovering the existence of insulin. But in 1962 the Nobel prize committee announced it had made a mistake since "Macleod had taken no active part in the work."
1926 to Johannes Fibiger for "discovering" that the cause of cancer was worms. He was totally wrong.
1927 to J.Wagner-Jauregg for "curing" dementia caused by syphilis by intentionally infecting patients with malaria. The patients that he cured, were defined to be cured, by him.
1949 to Antonio Egas Moniz for inventing the "revolutionary therapy" of lobotomy, aka intentional brain mutilation. (Which also was later used to "cure homosexuals.")
1952 to Selman Waksman for discovering streptomycin. Actually it was Albert Schatz, a doctoral student of SW's. They both were credited as discoverers on US patent and Schatz was 1st author of the paper, but Waksman grabbed all the royalties of about $350K in secret while giving Schatz essentially nothing (a "gift" of $1500) plus explained that Schatz had nothing to do with it and was only included on the paper & patent as a "courtesy." There then was a lawsuit, and Schatz was recognized as co-discover and awarded a 3:10 split of royalties with Waksman. This all happened before the Nobel award.
1997 Stanley B. Prusiner for "prions" and diseases they cause. However there remains some substantial fraction of scientists who do not believe prions really exist, so let's hope the Nobel Prize committee got this right. The prion detractors feel that the Award may have shut down anti-prion research, which, if prions really do not exist, was a very bad thing. It's very hard to prove it was prions and not anything else, and Prusiner's proof was necessarily not very convincing. However, based on this 2004 paper http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15286374 and several followup papers, where they synthesized prion protein than showed it caused disease, I think Prusiner must have been correct. So the Nobel committee got lucky on this one!
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 10324 (20140827) __________
The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 10324 (20140827) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com
On Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 12:53 PM, Gustavus Simmons <gsimmons30@comcast.net> wrote:
Of course oversights abound. The most obvious being not awarding the Nobel prize in medicine to Jonas Salk who discovered the first polio vaccine and almost eliminating what had been a worldwide scourge. Salk lived another 42 years after his vaccine was introduced so there was ample time for them to have awarded him the prize.
I think that only ranks as #2 in Nobel Prize oversights. #1 has to be Relativitry. EInstein got a Nobel for his work on the photoelectric effect, but never received one for Special and General Relativity. Andy
Andy, You are absolutely right. It is inexplicable Einstein wasn't awarded a second Nobel prize for the theories of special and general relativity. Especially so since he lived long past the point where the significance of what he had done was universally recognized. As you will have noticed, I may not rush to judgement, but I do rush to comment. Both equal faults of character. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andy Latto" <andy.latto@pobox.com> To: "math-fun" <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2014 12:08 PM Subject: Re: [math-fun] Bogus Nobel prizes
On Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 12:53 PM, Gustavus Simmons <gsimmons30@comcast.net> wrote:
Of course oversights abound. The most obvious being not awarding the Nobel prize in medicine to Jonas Salk who discovered the first polio vaccine and almost eliminating what had been a worldwide scourge. Salk lived another 42 years after his vaccine was introduced so there was ample time for them to have awarded him the prize.
I think that only ranks as #2 in Nobel Prize oversights. #1 has to be Relativitry. EInstein got a Nobel for his work on the photoelectric effect, but never received one for Special and General Relativity.
Andy
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 10325 (20140827) __________
The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 10325 (20140827) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com
On Aug 27, 2014, at 12:36 PM, Gustavus Simmons <gsimmons30@comcast.net> wrote:
Andy,
You are absolutely right. It is inexplicable Einstein wasn't awarded a second Nobel prize for the theories of special and general relativity. Especially so since he lived long past the point where the significance of what he had done was universally recognized.
As you will have noticed, I may not rush to judgement, but I do rush to comment. Both equal faults of character. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Andy Latto" <andy.latto@pobox.com> To: "math-fun" <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2014 12:08 PM Subject: Re: [math-fun] Bogus Nobel prizes
On Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 12:53 PM, Gustavus Simmons <gsimmons30@comcast.net> wrote:
Of course oversights abound. The most obvious being not awarding the Nobel prize in medicine to Jonas Salk who discovered the first polio vaccine and almost eliminating what had been a worldwide scourge. Salk lived another 42 years after his vaccine was introduced so there was ample time for them to have awarded him the prize.
I think that only ranks as #2 in Nobel Prize oversights. #1 has to be Relativitry. EInstein got a Nobel for his work on the photoelectric effect, but never received one for Special and General Relativity.
Andy
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 10325 (20140827) __________
The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 10325 (20140827) __________
The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
"Polio, An American Story," by David M. Oshinsky, Oxford University Press 2005, details the history of the vaccine research and the politics surrounding Salk and Sabin. I mention this because I recently heard an invited talk in which a senior researcher admonished his community to consider the far-reaching effects of the scientific review process in determining what research avenues are pursued and how that affects thinking across an entire field. Biases and politics are unavoidable, but they can do more than misdirect prizes, they often retard scientific progress. Hilarie
From: "Gustavus Simmons" <gsimmons30@comcast.net> To: "math-fun" <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 10:53:54 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: Re: [math-fun] Bogus Nobel prizes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; Format="flowed"
I began my graduate studies (in physics)at the University of Oklahoma where the Physics Deaprtment Chairman was J. Rudd Neilsen, whose PhD advisor had been Neils Bohr. Neilsen's research speciality was Raman spectroscopy. Neilsen taught a course in Raman spectroscopy each year which he always began by saying; Raman spectroscopy is a physical phenomena discovered by a graduate student of Ramen's for which Sir Ramen received the Nobel prize.
The Nobel committee has not only made some errors in awards, but has made some really weird ones like the physics prize awarded to Nils Dalen for designing a regulating valve for the acetylene gas used in marine bouys. Of course oversights abound. The most obvious being not awarding the Nobel prize in medicine to Jonas Salk who discovered the first polio vaccine and almost eliminating what had been a worldwide scourge. Salk lived another 42 years after his vaccine was introduced so there was ample time for them to have awarded him the prize.
I grew up in Cincinnati, where the Sabins were friends of our family, and my siblings went to grade school and high school together with the Sabin kids. Albert's wife died tragically in 1966 after I had already started at MIT. At 12:16 PM 8/27/2014, Hilarie Orman wrote:
"Polio, An American Story," by David M. Oshinsky, Oxford University Press 2005, details the history of the vaccine research and the politics surrounding Salk and Sabin.
I mention this because I recently heard an invited talk in which a senior researcher admonished his community to consider the far-reaching effects of the scientific review process in determining what research avenues are pursued and how that affects thinking across an entire field.
Biases and politics are unavoidable, but they can do more than misdirect prizes, they often retard scientific progress.
Hilarie
From: "Gustavus Simmons" <gsimmons30@comcast.net> To: "math-fun" <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 10:53:54 -0600 Subject: Re: [math-fun] Bogus Nobel prizes
I began my graduate studies (in physics)at the University of Oklahoma where the Physics Deaprtment Chairman was J. Rudd Neilsen, whose PhD advisor had been Neils Bohr. Neilsen's research speciality was Raman spectroscopy. Neilsen taught a course in Raman spectroscopy each year which he always began by saying; Raman spectroscopy is a physical phenomena discovered by a graduate student of Ramen's for which Sir Ramen received the Nobel prize.
The Nobel committee has not only made some errors in awards, but has made some really weird ones like the physics prize awarded to Nils Dalen for designing a regulating valve for the acetylene gas used in marine bouys. Of course oversights abound. The most obvious being not awarding the Nobel prize in medicine to Jonas Salk who discovered the first polio vaccine and almost eliminating what had been a worldwide scourge. Salk lived another 42 years after his vaccine was introduced so there was ample time for them to have awarded him the prize.
I agree, it's ridiculous to give a Nobel to someone who hasn't done anything but win an election. Yes, Salk, and Einstein's relativities were astonishing oversights. Anyone have insight into why these happened? It's likewise ridiculous to rigorously enforce the folk age-limit of 40 for the Fields medal -- not in the charter -- which excluded Andrew Wiles at age 41. As for bogus prizes, let's not forget Rigoberta Menchu (originally reported to be "Rigoberto"): she later admitted inventing a great deal of her "non-fiction" book that won the prize. --Dan On Aug 27, 2014, at 12:16 PM, Hilarie Orman <ho@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
"Polio, An American Story," by David M. Oshinsky, Oxford University Press 2005, details the history of the vaccine research and the politics surrounding Salk and Sabin.
I mention this because I recently heard an invited talk in which a senior researcher admonished his community to consider the far-reaching effects of the scientific review process in determining what research avenues are pursued and how that affects thinking across an entire field.
Biases and politics are unavoidable, but they can do more than misdirect prizes, they often retard scientific progress.
Hilarie
From: "Gustavus Simmons" <gsimmons30@comcast.net> To: "math-fun" <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2014 10:53:54 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: Re: [math-fun] Bogus Nobel prizes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; Format="flowed"
I began my graduate studies (in physics)at the University of Oklahoma where the Physics Deaprtment Chairman was J. Rudd Neilsen, whose PhD advisor had been Neils Bohr. Neilsen's research speciality was Raman spectroscopy. Neilsen taught a course in Raman spectroscopy each year which he always began by saying; Raman spectroscopy is a physical phenomena discovered by a graduate student of Ramen's for which Sir Ramen received the Nobel prize.
The Nobel committee has not only made some errors in awards, but has made some really weird ones like the physics prize awarded to Nils Dalen for designing a regulating valve for the acetylene gas used in marine bouys. Of course oversights abound. The most obvious being not awarding the Nobel prize in medicine to Jonas Salk who discovered the first polio vaccine and almost eliminating what had been a worldwide scourge. Salk lived another 42 years after his vaccine was introduced so there was ample time for them to have awarded him the prize.
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
participants (6)
-
Andy Latto -
Dan Asimov -
Gustavus Simmons -
Henry Baker -
Hilarie Orman -
Warren D Smith