Nobel Prize Winners Helped by Independence, Coffee.

[elleng]

Intellectual freedom, independent research and frequent coffee breaks with colleagues helped this year's Nobel Prize winners make their groundbreaking scientific discoveries. . .

''What a fabulous place! Coffee in the morning, lunch in the afternoon, tea in the afternoon, I wondered how does anyone get any science done,'' he recalled about his first day at Cambridge University in 1967. ''It's because they are talking to each other and they are learning what experiments they should do.''

Economics prize winner Elinor Ostrom said she had a similar experience at Arizona State University's Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity, which she set up with her husband.

''Development of good, solid, science requires environments in which you can discuss future ideas, sum up your recent findings, sum up your puzzles,'' the 76-year-old professor said. ''I have benefited greatly from that environment.''

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/07/science/AP-EU-Sweden-Nobels.html