Square One

Nobel Laureate Tim Hunt, and other scientists E. O. Wilson, Larry Brilliant, Steven Pinker, Rodney Brooks, Peter Diamandis, David King, Lynn Margulis, Peter Raven and Frans de Waal want two new Nobel prizes for Global Environment and Public Health created. They also suggest expanding or adding to the Physiology or Medicine Prize “to recognise contributions from across the life sciences.” They publish an open letter to the Nobel Prize Committee in this week’s New Scientist:

We appreciate that the foundation is bound by Nobel’s will. But we also note that the foundation has shown flexibility in the past, the creation of the economics prize in 1968 being one example. With that in mind, we would like to recommend two changes that we feel would align the prizes with current challenges:

1. The creation of Nobel prizes for the Global Environment and Public Health. The new prizes would focus on applications of science rather than basic research. As with the existing peace prize, organisations would be eligible. The environment prize would recognise successes in promoting sustainability, mitigating climate change or reducing biodiversity losses. The public health prize would recognise improvements in global health, such as the reduction or eradication of disease. (We present these lists as examples; they are not intended to be complete).

2. The expansion of, or an addition to, the prize for physiology or medicine to recognise contributions from across the life sciences. Fields that are currently excluded, such as ecology, would become eligible. More emphasis would be placed on the rapidly expanding field of neuroscience. This could be achieved by expanding the existing prize for medicine or physiology or by the addition of new prizes for fundamental biology (including ecology, genetics and cellular, molecular and evolutionary biology) and behavioral science (including psychology and neuroscience).

Over the past century, progress in the basic sciences has transformed our world and our understanding of it. By recognizing the men and women that drove that progress, the Nobel prizes have made the public aware of the enormous contribution that science has made. Different forms of science and technology will transform our world during this century. We feel that these suggestions will enable the prizes to appropriately recognise future achievements, and to remain influential for another hundred years.

While I consider this an unnecessary venture, the near equivalent of asking for a separate Nobel Literature Prize for Africa, I think it is at least worthy of some discussion.

My take on it is that the Nobel Committee has often demonstrated flexibility, albeit inconsistently in deciding who wins the award and to how disciplinary boundaries are mapped. Take Nobel Peace Prize to Wangari Maathai, Al Gore and IPCC or even Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank for example. Then again, the 1973 Prize in Physiology or Medicine that went to  Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen for work done in ethology.

We must accept, even if grudgingly that the Nobel Prize is only a prize, and that no prize can possibly be representative of the world’s intellectual output. There’s no need to push it any further.

As we eagerly await this year’s Nobel Prize announcements in a few days, Annals of Improbable Research has once again thrilled the world’s scientific and intellectual community to its junior and supposedly less serious sibling, the Ig® Nobel Prizes, awarded for improbable research that makes you laugh and then think. This year, the awards are:

PUBLIC HEALTH
For inventing a brassiere that, in an emergency, can be quickly converted into a pair of gas masks, one for the brassiere wearer and one to be given to some needy bystander.

Elena N. Bodnar, Raphael C. Lee, and Sandra Marijan of Chicago, Illinois, USA

(Reference: U.S. patent # 7255627, granted August 14, 2007 for a “Garment Device Convertible to One or More Facemasks.”)

BIOLOGY
For demonstrating that kitchen refuse can be reduced more than 90% in mass by using bacteria extracted from the feces of giant pandas.

Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu, and Zhang Guanglei of Kitasato University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Sagamihara, Japan

(Reference: “Microbial Treatment of Kitchen Refuse With Enzyme-Producing Thermophilic Bacteria From Giant Panda Feces,” Fumiaki Taguchia, Song Guofua, and Zhang Guanglei, Seibutsu-kogaku Kaishi, vol. 79, no 12, 2001, pp. 463-9. [and abstracted in Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering, vol. 92, no. 6, 2001, p. 602.]
Reference: “Microbial Treatment of Food-Production Waste with Thermopile Enzyme-Producing Bacterial Flora from a Giant Panda” [in Japanese], Fumiaki Taguchi, Song Guofu, Yasunori Sugai, Hiroyasu Kudo and Akira Koikeda, Journal of the Japan Society of Waste Management Experts, vol. 14, no. 2, 2003, pp. , 76-82.)

PEACE
For determining — by experiment — whether it is better to be smashed over the head with a full bottle of beer or with an empty bottle.

Stephan Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael Thali and Beat Kneubuehl of the University of Bern, Switzerland

(Reference:”Are Full or Empty Beer Bottles Sturdier and Does Their Fracture-Threshold Suffice to Break the Human Skull?” Stephan A. Bolliger, Steffen Ross, Lars Oesterhelweg, Michael J. Thali and Beat P. Kneubuehl, Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, vol. 16, no. 3, April 2009, pp. 138-42. DOI:10.1016/j.jflm.2008.07.013.)

MEDICINE
For investigating a possible cause of arthritis of the fingers, by diligently cracking the knuckles of his left hand — but never cracking the knuckles of his right hand — every day for more than sixty (60) years.

Donald L. Unger, of Thousand Oaks, California, USA

(Reference: “Does Knuckle Cracking Lead to Arthritis of the Fingers?”, Donald L. Unger, Arthritis and Rheumatism, vol. 41, no. 5, 1998, pp. 949-50.)

PHYSICS
For analytically determining why pregnant women don’t tip over.

Katherine K. Whitcome of the University of Cincinnati, USA, Daniel E. Lieberman of Harvard University, USA, and Liza J. Shapiro of the University of Texas, USA

(Reference: “Fetal Load and the Evolution of Lumbar Lordosis in Bipedal Hominins,” Katherine K. Whitcome, Liza J. Shapiro & Daniel E. Lieberman, Nature, vol. 450, 1075-1078 (December 13, 2007). DOI:10.1038/nature06342.)

CHEMISTRY
For creating diamonds from liquid — specifically from tequila.

Javier Morales, Miguel Apátiga, and Victor M. Castaño of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico

(Reference: “Growth of Diamond Films from Tequila,” Javier Morales, Miguel Apatiga and Victor M. Castano, 2008, arXiv:0806.1485.)

LITERATURE
Ireland’s police service (An Garda Siochana), for writing and presenting more than fifty traffic tickets to the most frequent driving offender in the country — Prawo Jazdy — whose name in Polish means “Driving License”.
[Karolina Lewestam, a Polish citizen and holder of a Polish driver's license, speaking on behalf of all her fellow Polish licensed drivers, was present to expressed her good wishes to the Irish police service.]

MATHEMATICS
For giving people a simple, everyday way to cope with a wide range of numbers — from very small to very big — by having his bank print bank notes with denominations ranging from one cent ($.01) to one hundred trillion dollars ($100,000,000,000,000).

Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank

(Reference: Zimbabwe’s Casino Economy — Extraordinary Measures for Extraordinary Challenges, Gideon Gono, ZPH Publishers, Harare, 2008, ISBN 978-079-743-679-4.)

ECONOMICS
The directors, executives, and auditors of four Icelandic banks — Kaupthing Bank, Landsbanki, Glitnir Bank, and Central Bank of Iceland — for demonstrating that tiny banks can be rapidly transformed into huge banks, and vice versa — and for demonstrating that similar things can be done to an entire national economy.