Things that should have won a Nobel Prize...but didn't

[melm00se]

Article

[rocktivity]

1. The guitar string winder

Last edited Tue Oct 6, 2015, 01:35 PM - Edit history (1)

At least, that's what I said while standing on line at a music store. The guy standing next to me responded: "Tell me about it -- I play a twelve-string."


rocktivity

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. Someone has no idea how the Nobel Prizes work

Things like electric lighting (which Thomas Edison didn't invent, anyway) are a practical application of theoretical principles that were by then already well understood (since Alessandro Volta, at least). Things like the discovery of X-rays, or Mme Curie's work with radium, were recognised for what they added to human knowledge, not for their practical applications. And in any case Nobel's stipulation of "discoveries in the past year" would let out things like electric lighting...which was first demonstrated by Humphry Davy in the early 1800s.

That's also why the internet isn't Nobel-worthy.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. "those who, during the preceding year" has always been interpreted as going back further

It's rare in the sciences for a discovery to be recognised in the following year, and literature is normally for a body of work than any one year. Peace is often for a particular achievement in a year, but often for a sustained accomplishment. As long as they're still alive when they decide on the prize. But you're right that it's more the science than the practical application.