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On October 3, 2017, physicists Rainer Weiss, Kip
Thorne, and Barry Barish received the Nobel Prize for Physics, for
their discovery of gravitational waves—distortions in the fabric of
space and time.
The trio, who led the Laser Interferometer
Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project that recorded these waves,
will split the 9-million-Swedish-krona prize between them. Perhaps more
importantly, they will carry the status of “Nobel laureate” for the
rest of their lives.
But what of the other scientists who contributed to the LIGO project, and whose names grace the three-page-long author list in the paper that describes the discoveries? “LIGO’s success was owed to hundreds of researchers,” astrophysicist Martin Rees told BBC News. “The fact that the Nobel Prize 2017
committee refuses to make group awards is causing increasingly frequent
problems and giving a misleading impression of how a lot of science is
actually done.”
This refrain is a familiar one. Every year, when
Nobel Prizes are awarded in physics, chemistry, and physiology or
medicine, critics note that they are an absurd and anachronistic way of
recognizing scientists for their work. Instead of honoring science, they
distort its nature, rewrite its history, and overlook many of its
important contributors.
There are assuredly good things about the prizes. Scientific discoveries should be recognized for the vital part they play in the human enterprise. The Nobel Prize website is an educational treasure trove, full of rich historical details that are largely missing from published papers...
In fairness, unlike the problem of how many scientists to award in a given year, the issue of laureates going off the rails is not one that the Nobel committee can solve. That one’s on us—on our tendency to see the Nobel Prize as the apotheosis of scientific worth. It is not. Like every other prize, it is flawed and subjective. By reifying it, we overinflate the egos of those who receive it, and we undermine those who do not. “Ultimately, it’s up to us to dethrone the Nobel Prizes,” wrote science writer Matthew Francis last year. “They rule our perception of science and how it’s done by our consent, and it’s past time we withdrew that consent.”
Read more...
Source: The Atlantic
