Nobel 2018 & 2019 – Literature

Nobel 2018 & 2019 - Literature

Beyond the immediate news of who won the Literature award and why, there is also another question. What the heck happened in 2018 and why are they only now announcing the 2018 winner along with the 2019 winner? It is all a very sordid tale, a drama that includes sexual assault, and rape. One wonders … Read more

IgNobel 2019 – Funny and Fascinating – #IgNobel

The 29th First Annual IgNobel Prize ceremony happened last night at the Sanders Theatre in Harvard University, Cambridge. It is a tad tricky to explain. The IgNobel awards are parody, but also serious, and yet still done as a spoof , but the research that wins is real research published in credible peer-review journals. Those that win … Read more

2016 Nobel Prize – Chemistry – Tiny Machines win

And so today it is on to the third of the big three Nobel Prizes. The announcement of a Nobel award is always a surprise. If you ever hear about a claim that somebody was once nominated for a Nobel prize but did not actually win, then unless it was a nomination that is fifty … Read more

The #IgNobel awards have been announced

This year’s Ig Nobel awards have been announced. No, not Nobel, but Ig Nobel, because these are spoof awards, but the research that gets an Ig Nobel is wholly real. The fact that the scientific community is prepared to both mock and laugh at itself is indeed both praiseworthy and truly entertaining as well. To qualify … Read more

The John Maddox Prize – given for taking a bold scientific stance

You might perhaps have never heard about the John Maddox Prize, and so you might be inclined to think … “The What?”. This however is special. First, lets run over the background to it all. Sense about science is a British charity that promotes the public understanding of science, and they, amongst others, are folks who promote the … Read more

The 2015 IgNobel awards have been announced

OK yes, I’d a tad behind the curve, the 2015 awards were actually announced on the 17th. You might be wondering what IgNobel is all about, and so, as suggested by the name, they are a series of awards that usually precede the actual Nobel announcements by a couple of weeks (which will be happing on … Read more