Nobel Prize time

nqnln · #1 06.10.2009, 12:06

This year's physics award has gone entirely to non-academics:

To Charles Kao

	Quote:
	for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication

and to Willard Boyle and George Smith

	Quote:
	for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit – the CCD sensor

My focus however is on tomorrow's chemistry prize. The Thompson Reuters prediction which successfully predicted yesterday's medicine nominees, though failed at today's physics announcement seems to tip Switzerland heavily. It favours Michael Grätzel at EPFL or Bernd Giesl at Basel. Let's see how they fare in twenty four hours.

crzysilvia · #2 06.10.2009, 12:15

Thanks for the information!!!

Hopp Schwiiiz chemists!

cyrus · #3 06.10.2009, 12:30

The Ig Nobel prizes were also announced recently.

I see a Swiss team won one for peace by researching whether it is better to be hit over the head with a full or empty beer bottle.

Goldtop · #4 06.10.2009, 12:41

	Quote:	cyrus
	The Ig Nobel prizes were also announced recently. I see a Swiss team won one for peace by researching whether it is better to be hit over the head with a full or empty beer bottle.

They won the IgNoble Peace Prize
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...e_winners#2009

The winners for vet medicine are British scientists:
Veterinary medicine: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, UK, for showing that cows with names give more milk than cows that are nameless

lucy_sg · #5 06.10.2009, 13:11

It was just announced:

	Quote:
	The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, has decided to award the Nobel Prize in physics for 2009 with one half to Charles K. Kao, Standard Telecommunication Laboratories, Harlow, UK, and Chinese University of Hong Kong 'for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication' and the other half jointly to Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA 'for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit - the CCD sensor.

Nobel press release here

weejeem · #6 06.10.2009, 13:17

	Quote:	Goldtop
	They won the IgNoble Peace Prize http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...e_winners#2009 The winners for vet medicine are British scientists: Veterinary medicine: Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, UK, for showing that cows with names give more milk than cows that are nameless

And a bra that converts to a gas mask is not to be sniffed at either

nqnln · #7 06.10.2009, 13:33

The Irish police won the Ig Nobel for literature, for the numerous speeding tickets issued to a Mr Prawo Jazdy.

that would be Mr Driving Licence to anyone who speaks Polish

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...255782259.html

FrankZappa · #8 06.10.2009, 23:01

For Chemistry, I'll vote,as every year, for George Whitesides of Harvard & one of the world's most cited chemists. Trouble is he's eclectic instead of obsessive about one thing, which is not a good strategy for getting a Nobel prize. Cleverest bloke I've ever met anyway, also he enjoys jokes about Welshmen and sheep...

nqnln · #9 06.10.2009, 23:43

Whitesides crops up every year in these prediction discussions, but as you say appears he's too spread out for a Nobel prize.

Another guess: Pd-catalysed cross-coupling (Suzuki, Heck, Sonogashira, Negishi)

lucy_sg · #10 07.10.2009, 00:23

	Quote:	nqnln
	Whitesides crops up every year in these prediction discussions, but as you say appears he's too spread out for a Nobel prize. Another guess: Pd-catalysed cross-coupling (Suzuki, Heck, Sonogashira, Negishi)

Oh, my dear friends Suzuki and Miyaura ..... this week is converting into a trip down the memory lane, indeed. I had a teacher who used to terrify their students by asking to explain the mechanism of reaction reaction during the viva exams. It was such a great comfort to know you would have to repeat the exam even before walking into the room. Anyway, its still one of the best ways to get carbon-carbon bonds.

nqnln · #11 07.10.2009, 11:50

So the 2009 prize in chemistry goes equally to

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath

	Quote:
	for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome

lucy_sg · #12 07.10.2009, 14:42

	Quote:	nqnln
	So the 2009 prize in chemistry goes equally to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath

Ribosomes, and a multiculti team, how about that (an Indian based in the Uk, one USA citizen and an Israeli) Yonath is also the first woman to win an nobel prize in chemistry every since 1964.... I will never argue about the importance of a ribosome, but... wow!

Gastro Gnome · #13 12.10.2009, 17:05

The economics prize has gone to Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E Williamson for their work on co-operation within companies and economic governance beyond the financial markets. That sounds like interesting research, not wholly irrelevant to web communities.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...rize-economics

BeastOfBodmin · #14 12.10.2009, 17:21

And the peace prize has gone to someone presiding over two wars.

BeastOfBodmin · #15 12.10.2009, 17:24

	Quote:	Gastro Gnome
	The economics prize has gone to Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E Williamson for their work on co-operation within companies and economic governance beyond the financial markets. That sounds like interesting research, not wholly irrelevant to web communities. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...rize-economics

But I wonder how useful it is, in the sense of how well it actually explains or even predicts anything.

I can't help myself but I must point out the Economics prize is not, strictly speaking, a Nobel Prize.

Gastro Gnome · #16 12.10.2009, 17:31

	Quote:	BeastOfBodmin
	But I wonder how useful it is, in the sense of how well it actually explains or even predicts anything. I can't help myself but I must point out the Economics prize is not, strictly speaking, a Nobel Prize.

It's not one of the original ones set up by Nobel, but it's definitely classed as a Nobel prize now:

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/

Have you read Omstrom and Elinor's work? Difficult to judge its worth without looking at it a bit more closely I'm guessing.

The funniest thing was that the favourite, Eugene Fama, didn't get it as the reputation of the Efficient Markets Theory has suffered somewhat as a result of the recent economic turmoil.