IG and Nobel Prizes

Jorge Ali TorresElisabeth Ortega Carrasco

Manuel Angel Ortuño Maqueda

Analyze people and social trends

INTRODUCTION

YourDictionary.com !

Keyword: chemistry

Honoring men and women from all corners of the globe for their achievements

Stockholm (Sweden)

Diploma and medalOver USD 1 million **

From 1901

Research that makes people laugh and then think

Harvard University (MA, USA)

Very awful prize…

From 1991

NP AND IG-NP

** JEAN-PAUL SARTRE (France) declined NP of Literature in 1964

“The capital shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.”

“The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, [...] physics [...] chemical discovery [...] medicine [...] literature [...] and peace congresses.”  

His last will

NP ORIGIN

IG-NP ORIGIN

(1) Make people laugh, then think

(2) Spur people’s curiosity

(3) How do you decide what's important and what's not, and what's real and what's not ?

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but, 'That's funny..." —Isaac Asimov

How to nominate someone marca@chem2.harvard.edu

How the winners are chosen

Board of Governors:scientists, writers, athletes

+ random passerby

Finalist exists?

True work?

Pool> 5000 each year

Top 10

Congratulations!

Finalist accepts?

refine

YES YESNO

NO NO

YES

IG-NP NOMINATION

ALL NP STATS

Male

Female

Organization

33%

24%

24%

14%5%

By Scientific Fields

Physical

Organic

Biochemistry

Inorganic

Other

CHEM NP STATS

49%

22%

11%

6%6% 6%

By Countries

USA

Japan

UK

France

Mexico

Spain

42%

19%

17%

4%

3%15%

By Countries

USA

Germany

UK

France

Japan

Other

CHEM NP STATS

NP

IG-NP

First Nobel Prize

Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff in 1901

“in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions”

Jacobus van’t Hoff

• He made the most importants discoveries in theoretical chemistry since Dalton’s time.

• He explained Osmotic Pressure according to Avogadro’s Law.

• Because of that, he was awarded with the first Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Last Nobel Prize

Richard F. Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi, Akira Suzuki in 2010

“for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis”

• Cross-coupling reactions:

• Applications:

 

PdCtrl+X Ctrl+V

I

[Si]

A special case of Nobel Prize:the ammonia synthesis

Fritz Haber in 1918

"for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements".

Fritz HaberWhy is to important this Nobel Prize?

Ammonia + land = more production = more food

= MORE POPULATION!

Selected Nobel Prizes

• Marie Sklodowska (1911): "in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element"

• Linus Pauling (1954):  "for his research into the nature of the chemical bond and its application to the elucidation of the structure of complex substances“

Selected Nobel Prizes

• Walter Kohn, John Pople (1998): "for his development of the density-functional theory“ (Kohn) and "for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry“ (Pople)

• Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz, Ada E. Yonath (2009): "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome"

IG Nobel and Nobel Prizes: A Link

The Curious Case of Andre Geim

“First make people laugh, and then make them think"

Some Chemistry Selected Cases2008, Chemistry

To Sharee A. Umpierre of the University of Puerto Rico, Joseph A. Hill of The Fertility Centers of New England (USA), Deborah J. Anderson of Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School (USA), for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide, and to Chuang-Ye Hong of Taipei Medical University (Taiwan), C.C. Shieh, P. Wu, and B.N. Chiang (all of Taiwan) for discovering that it is not.

2010, ChemistryEric Adams of MIT, Scott Socolofsky of Texas A&M University, Stephen Masutani of the University of Hawaii, and BP [British Petroleum], for disproving the old belief that oil and water don’t mix.

And, Spanish Local Cuisine…

The Earth is Round!!!

In the XV century!!! Some years ago!!!

Why Randomly-Selected Politicians Would Improve Democracy

A small number of randomly selected legislators should make parliaments more effective!!!

Let me think about it…

…The research of the future?

The other side of the coin

Sometimes people think that Nobel prizes are actually IG Nobel prizes!

http://www.wirefresh.com/obamas-nobel-peace-prize-69-of-twitter-users-say-wtf/

The Ig Nobels: Honor or Ridicule?

Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century.

—Dame Edna Everage