Yes, the first week of October is coming and it's time for the announcement of this year's Nobel Prizes. The schedule, according to the Nobel website

Medicine: Monday October 3
Physics: Tuesday October 4
Chemistry: Wednesday October 5
Peace: Friday October 7
Economics: Monday October 10
Literature: TBD

Most of us will lose interest after Wednesday, of course. But those three days should be interesting. Any thoughts on what might win? One strong possibility in physics are the folks at SNO and SuperKamiokande who resolved the solar neutrino "problem" and opened the way to some new physics beyond the standard model.

On the other hand, maybe one of our "alternative" types might win and we'll all have to eat crow. ..........Nah!!!!!!

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"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind." - William Thompson, 1st Baron Lord Kelvin

"If it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be, but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!" - Tweedledee

This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. - Wolfgang Pauli

from the September 2005 issue of
The mini-Annals of Improbable Research ("mini-AIR")
*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*

The Fifteenth 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony

The new winners will be journeying, from slightly more than four
continents, to attend the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony on

Thursday night, October 6, at Harvard University.

This year's theme is INFINITY. The ceremony will include three
Infinite Lectures, as well as the premiere of the mini-opera "The
Count of Infinity," and the Win-a-Date-with-a-Nobel-Laureate
Contest.

TICKETS: Tickets for the ceremony are on sale from the Harvard Box
office: <http://140.247.170.40/tickets/details.cfm?EVENT_ID=4537>
Telephone: (+1) 617-496-2222.

WEBCAST: The live webcast is at <http://www.improbable.com>.

TIME: The webcast will begin at 7:15 pm. with a special pre-
concert ("Infinite Chopsticks") by pianist Nicholas Carstoiu.
The ceremony proper begins at 7:30 pm.

AUDIENCE DELEGATIONS: If you have five or more tickets and wish to
register as an audience delegation, please do. The registration
deadline is FRIDAY, SEPT. 30.
<http://www.improbable.com/ig/2005/2005-details.html#delegations>

DETAILS: are at < http://www.improbable.com/ig/2005/2005-details.html>

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"If a tree is cut down in the rainforest, and is used to make paper to print a book, and the book is really bad, and there's nobody that will read it, do you still hear a sucking sound?"
Charlie in Dayton, A.AsC.

hey, the only two I stand a shot of understanding/having heard of are TBD and Friday, so what's all this about losing interest? (well, maybe medicine. medicine's relatively easy to understand.)

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Sorry Gillian, I intended no disrespect toward the Literature prize. It's just that the physics and chemistry (and perhaps medicine) prizes would have more in common with the theme of the board.

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"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind." - William Thompson, 1st Baron Lord Kelvin

"If it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be, but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!" - Tweedledee

This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. - Wolfgang Pauli

Maybe this year the Nobel Committee for Medicine will grant me the recognition I deserve for my intensive research into whether a diet of primarily pizza will cause weight gain!

I will admit that despite my background in accounting I have never had an interest in who wins the Economics prize. The Peace prize is interesting but hard to predict as it often goes to organizations or to people who have done much helping causes that get little attention in North America (conflicts in the third world, etc.). Physics and Chem? I'm not well-versed enough to know about the cutting-edge breakthroughs but I like to read about what the winners' research was all about.

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Now while I might be amused by Cthulhians, I don't necessarily distrust them to carry out the functions of government. -- JayUtah

What's it like being a skeptic in the Middle East? Check out my blog.

True, and with generalists getting no funding--the prize will go to some over-specialized field with the winner being some obtuse paper that will go on the shelf and collect dust--since no one but a handful will read it. The carbon nano-sheet folks, however, deserve to win.

I went to a local college library and found some NASA Documents that couldn't have more dust on them than if they were in the Ark. I also saw old copies of The Journal of Spacecraft & Rockets--but my guess is I was the first human who picked one up ever since the series was donated.

Sickening.

Bono is in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize. One of the songs of U2 is called "Peace on Earth". Did it have any influence on his nomination?

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Travelling around the Universe

Let's start chanting "Bono, Bono, Bono..." and see if it influences the decision. That's what I did with Bergoglio.

Let the awards begin.

The 2005 Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to Barry Marshall and Robin Warren "For their discovery of the bacterium Helicobactor Pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease"

The press release explains the discovery.

Tomorrow: Physics.

__________________
"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind." - William Thompson, 1st Baron Lord Kelvin

"If it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be, but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!" - Tweedledee

This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. - Wolfgang Pauli

I can remember a few casual dismissals of this study in the early eighties. New heroes for the set upon.

Yeah, add this to plate tectonics as an example of a dismissed idea that came out to be correct. Of course, they had the benefit of being right and of being able to provide scientific evidence for H. Pylori being the cause of ulcers.

We could turn this around on the "set upon," however. It's evidence that science does not suppress unorthodox ideas and that if evidence for one of them mounts, then that unorthodox idea will enter the mainstream.

__________________
"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind." - William Thompson, 1st Baron Lord Kelvin

"If it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be, but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!" - Tweedledee

This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. - Wolfgang Pauli

Lubos Motl gives a list of possible winners in his weblog...

http://motls.blogspot.com/2005/09/no...-for-2005.html

Green
Schwartz
Witten
Shuji Nakamura
Yoshinori Tokura
Alan Guth
Linde
Steinhardt
Vera Rubin
Edward Lorenz
Peter Higgs... (this won't win I guess...)

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Travelling around the Universe

They're both Australians!

The Nobel Prize for physics went to two seperate entries:

• "for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence"
• "for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique"

See the Nobel information here.

That little rascal nearly killed me some 15 years ago. Due to the guys from Oz, I got the proper treatment and never had problems again.

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

na zdrowie!

Acck. ToSeeked!. It figures one of the members from Australia would hear the news while I was asleep. The winners were:

Roy Glauber of Harvard : Half the prize for quantum optical coherence.

John Hall of U. Colorado & NIST
Theodor Hansch of Max-Plank-Institute for Quantum Physics: Shared the other half for laser based precision spectroscopy.

The press release is here

Interesting to note the prize was split between a theoritician (Glauber) and two experimentalists (Hall and Hansch). Sorry Iron4. Motl struck out (as did I).

__________________
"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind." - William Thompson, 1st Baron Lord Kelvin

"If it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be, but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!" - Tweedledee

This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. - Wolfgang Pauli

One French, two US. Gee, Nobel Prize Comittee is working hard on improving the relations between the US and Old Europe (compare with yesterdays Physics prize). Maybe they give the Nobel Peace Prize to George W. Bush and Fidel Castro?

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

Press release here.

Why is this important? To quote the release
One does have to wonder a bit about how the committee determines the split. Physics was half - quarter - quarter. Chemistry was evenly split since all three worked on the same thing. Although it's less cash on the barrelhead, in the long run, it doesn't matter. You still get the same medal & diploma and the long term job security that goes with the award.

Tomorrow, a day off. We get the IgNobels instead. That should be amusing.

__________________
"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind." - William Thompson, 1st Baron Lord Kelvin

"If it was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be, but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!" - Tweedledee

This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. - Wolfgang Pauli

The French guy is pretty unhappy about the prize. He said, his research is long time ago and he is living now a quiet life he enjoyed. Due to the prize, he has now lots of trouble.

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

Americans, German Win Nobel Physics Prize
I bet Swansont is ecstatic!