The Politics of Excellence

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THE FIRST BEHIND-THE-SCENES INVESTIGATION OF SCIENCE'S GREATEST PRIZE
Widely seen as a mark of genius, the Nobel Prize is the most prestigious reward a scientist can receive in his or her career. A flurry of media attention surrounds the annual announcements, universities aiid research institutions vie with one another to attract Nobel laureates, and students in the sciences dream of one day being prizewinners themselves. With all of this esteem, who would think to doubt the integrity of this award?
In this first detailed study of the Nobel archives, Robert Marc Friedman reveals that the Nobel Prize is above neither the dictates of fashion and politics nor the personal agendas of committee members. Based on years of research using official unpublished documents and private correspondence, The Politics of Excellence explores the history of why and how individuals and groups have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to use the Nobel Prize to fiirdier specific scientific,... Tovább

Fülszöveg

THE FIRST BEHIND-THE-SCENES INVESTIGATION OF SCIENCE'S GREATEST PRIZE
Widely seen as a mark of genius, the Nobel Prize is the most prestigious reward a scientist can receive in his or her career. A flurry of media attention surrounds the annual announcements, universities aiid research institutions vie with one another to attract Nobel laureates, and students in the sciences dream of one day being prizewinners themselves. With all of this esteem, who would think to doubt the integrity of this award?
In this first detailed study of the Nobel archives, Robert Marc Friedman reveals that the Nobel Prize is above neither the dictates of fashion and politics nor the personal agendas of committee members. Based on years of research using official unpublished documents and private correspondence, The Politics of Excellence explores the history of why and how individuals and groups have attempted, with varying degrees of success, to use the Nobel Prize to fiirdier specific scientific, cultural, and personal agendas. Friedman examines the cases of Albert Einstein and Lise Meitner, among many others, to show how on more than one occasion the committee has conferred acclaim on mediocrity and denied recognition to true brilliance. In the case of Ernest Lawrence, the committee awarded the prize for the promise of his cyclotron—rather than to someone who had actually made a discovery—because it wanted to help him raise the tremendous amount of money he would need for the invention.
An eye-opening look at one of our greatest cultural icons. The Politics of Excellence turns a skeptical eye on the chase for glittering prizes in an atmosphere of intense competition for resources, indecorous commercialism, and hype. At stake is not simply the question of what these prizes actually represent but, more broadly, what values and cultures science should embrace in tlie new centurv. Vissza