The Noble Prize is the most prestigious and coveted award in the world. From the beginning, it bestowed somewhat of a regal glow to the recipient, or recipients, since up to three people can get it at once in the same discipline.
But the Nobel prize has also been criticized for excluding scientists or other possible nominees, even though the ones who were left out might have had equal if not superior standing in the research or discovery that was the basis for the award.
In 2008, the Noble in Physics was awarded to two Japanese scientists for the discovery of the origin of broken symmetry, which predicts the existence of certain families of quarks. But Italian scientists Nicola Cabibbo was excluded, although his work preceded that of the Japanese scientists, and laid the foundation for their work.
Women too, are often overlooked in favor of men. Scientist Rosalind Franklin confirmed the helical structure of DNA through her Xray diffraction work, but the prize went to Crick and Watson and Wilkins, in 1962. Franklin was never even nominated.
Another woman scientist, Jocelyn Burnell, did not share the 1974 Nobel prize, awarded for the first observation of radio pulsars, although she was the one who actually had observed them.
Some of the recipients, however, complain that after receiving the award, their life can become complicated and in some ways miserable. Scientists are by nature, creatures who loath the spotlight, with some exceptions. And the sudden notoriety can subvert or even undermine their work.
Source : Pop Sci/ 10.10.13
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