Considering it is time for a new batch of Nobel Prizes, it comes to my mind a few considerations about this high valued award.
Why does the bread always fall on its buttered side when I drop it while eating? There is no need to deplore that Murphy’s Law always makes only me the victim.
British physicist Robert Matthews (1959- ) proved in 1995 that Murphy’s Law should apply to everyone without exception. A slice of bread dropped from a dining table about one metre high has a high probability of falling on its buttered side because it turns only halfway in the air before it hits the ground. The height of the fall is not long enough for the bread to turn around completely. If it is dropped from a height of two metres, however, the probability of falling on the other side would be higher. In recognition of the contribution to the science made by the experiment, he was awarded with the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics in 1996.
The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes. The name is a play on the word ‘ignoble’ (baseness, lowness, or meanness) and the name ‘Nobel’, after the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel (1833-1893). The official pronunciation used during the award ceremony is IG-no-BELL. It is not pronounced like the word ‘ignoble’.
In the past Ig Nobel Prizes have been awarded for: a chemical spray that can detect a husband’s extramarital affairs by making traces of semen on pants turn green (1999); a formula that can calculate the minimum number of shots you must take to get a group photo with no closed eyes (2006); and an experiment that showed that milk cows produced more milk when they were given names (2009).
There are many other prize-winning studies that have made people laugh. But they should not be taken lightly. Many of them were scientific research accomplishments that were published in scientific journals. The prize, which was first organized by the scientific humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research in 1991, reminds me that the original nature of science is fun.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), the American science fiction writer, said, “The most exciting word to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but ‘That’s funny.’” That was the case with the Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming (1881-1955). When people asked him what he was doing, he used to say that he plays with micro-organisms. He actually discovered penicillin, a miraculous antibiotic, while he was playing with germs.
The wishes of the Korean people to see Koreans win Nobel Prizes are growing strong gradually. But as the Japanese theoretical physicist Toshihide Maskawa (益川 敏英, 1940- ), who shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics with his colleague, put it, the Nobel Prize is awarded to a scientist who has fun studying something. It is not right to make Nobel Prizes the goal of academic research.
Therefore, I propose that Koreans should try to win an Ig Nobel Prize first. If all Koreans indulge in the fun of studying science, I wonder whether one of them would someday win an actual Nobel!
Why does the bread always fall on its buttered side when I drop it while eating? There is no need to deplore that Murphy’s Law always makes only me the victim.
British physicist Robert Matthews (1959- ) proved in 1995 that Murphy’s Law should apply to everyone without exception. A slice of bread dropped from a dining table about one metre high has a high probability of falling on its buttered side because it turns only halfway in the air before it hits the ground. The height of the fall is not long enough for the bread to turn around completely. If it is dropped from a height of two metres, however, the probability of falling on the other side would be higher. In recognition of the contribution to the science made by the experiment, he was awarded with the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics in 1996.
The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes. The name is a play on the word ‘ignoble’ (baseness, lowness, or meanness) and the name ‘Nobel’, after the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel (1833-1893). The official pronunciation used during the award ceremony is IG-no-BELL. It is not pronounced like the word ‘ignoble’.
In the past Ig Nobel Prizes have been awarded for: a chemical spray that can detect a husband’s extramarital affairs by making traces of semen on pants turn green (1999); a formula that can calculate the minimum number of shots you must take to get a group photo with no closed eyes (2006); and an experiment that showed that milk cows produced more milk when they were given names (2009).
There are many other prize-winning studies that have made people laugh. But they should not be taken lightly. Many of them were scientific research accomplishments that were published in scientific journals. The prize, which was first organized by the scientific humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research in 1991, reminds me that the original nature of science is fun.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), the American science fiction writer, said, “The most exciting word to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but ‘That’s funny.’” That was the case with the Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming (1881-1955). When people asked him what he was doing, he used to say that he plays with micro-organisms. He actually discovered penicillin, a miraculous antibiotic, while he was playing with germs.
The wishes of the Korean people to see Koreans win Nobel Prizes are growing strong gradually. But as the Japanese theoretical physicist Toshihide Maskawa (益川 敏英, 1940- ), who shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics with his colleague, put it, the Nobel Prize is awarded to a scientist who has fun studying something. It is not right to make Nobel Prizes the goal of academic research.
Therefore, I propose that Koreans should try to win an Ig Nobel Prize first. If all Koreans indulge in the fun of studying science, I wonder whether one of them would someday win an actual Nobel!
Giorgio Olivotto
Seoul, Korea
November, 28, 2010
Seoul, Korea
November, 28, 2010
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