Weekly poll: which category would you add to the Nobel prize?
Yup, it’s those two weeks again, when that prize is being announced. Sadly, BsB probably will not get it this year. Might have something to so with there being no category for blogging.
Credit: wikimedia commons
Prestige and controversy go hand in hand, mix in science and you have a concoction more explosive than the one Mr. Nobel himself invented. Who won, who didn’t win and which achievement was never recognized. This week’s BsB’s poll asks: which category would you add to the Nobel prize? Feel free to mark “other” and add your own in the comments.
Credit: wikimedia commons
By the way, Alfred Nobel’s wife did not sleep with a mathematician. That is not the reason why there is no Nobel prize in math. Get real.
Also, it might be a good idea to remember the spirit in which Nobel wanted the prize to be awarded:
The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.
I’ve always wondered why there was no biology category… it’s not the same thing as medicine or chem. If Biol were added, then plant sci, genetics, mycology, protistology, various discoveries with prokaryotes etc could theoretically be recognised. As far as I know, it seems that the lack of ‘biol’ category reflects that biology was just barely born as a field at that time, I think it may have even still been something like ‘Animal Chemistry’.
But then again, the whole thing is just a massive tangle of politics anyway, so who cares.