Did Nobel Physics Committee Get it Wrong?

Ever since Nobel prizes were awarded to Al Gore and Barrack Obama, I'm wondering if the entire thing isn't a sham.

Well said! Ditto!

agreed

maybe they can justify it like the al gore fanatics by saying..."Thier really good spokesman". They would fit in because of course they didn't referenced or credit their work.

Different prize, awarded by different committee in a different country. I am sure people were saying the same thing when the 2nd peace prize was awarded to Teddy Roosevelt.

positively saying the same thing.........its all political

they have been wrong in the past.....but atleast they are becoming more consistent about it. China does have a founded claim about bocotting it.

IMO Walt de Heer was right to speak up. There is a standard in science, that you acknowledge the work of others and do so accurately. The Nobel committee should be held to that standard in their documentation.

Any scientist should feel an ethical obligation to speak up boldly when he or she is aware of errors in documenting science to the public. It's an embarrassment to the Nobel in this case, but it would be far worse to let it slide!!

Maybe you could swing your gun toward the Turner Prize award.

The Nobel Peace Prize for Mother Teresa was especially grotesque. It does make one wonder about weird politics within their system.

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Who is John Gault?

The noble Peace Prize has always been political, look at how many US presidents and poltiicians have won it for nothing more than their political aspirations and policies in the US governance. This is why the Peace Prize is awarded in Norway and the Noble prizes are awarded in Sweden (FYI economics is not a Noble prize). It is important that the Noble committees for sciences award prizes at the highest level and be above suspicion/corruption, unlike the peace prizes.

They way I look at it is it's their money and they can award prizes to whomever they choose for whatever reason they choose. The rest of us do not have to agree with them. When they award a prize based on politics as opposed to something a bit more credible, then they harm themselves and their own credibility with the international community. Eventually it become worthless or perhaps those making the decisions will change their criteria for their choices.

agreed, with the addendum that the only way their credibility actually goes down is if the knowledgeable complain about it so that the ignorant sheep watching cable news have a chance of getting wind that something is amiss...

On that note... see this thread...

Or alternately they award a priz and the awards winner are proven horrendously wrong by some simple experiment in the research the award was based on, such that it makes the news and public attention.

There has been controversy since they started.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_controversies

How about a Nobel Prize just for really good spokesman?