The Nobel Prizes are arguably the world’s most prestigious recognition that a person can receive for their work in science, medicine, literature, or for world peace. For most winners, getting the call to tell them they’ve won represents the high point of their lives. Notice I said most.
Not everyone is so joyful. Some didn’t seem bothered. The others seem quite angry.
In fact, one of this year’s award winners Nobel Prize in MedicineFred Ramsdell conveniently decided to leave.Off the gridAnd he’s spending his time “living his best life” somewhere in the mountains of Idaho – just in time for the awards to be announced. (He eventually found out 12 hours after his win – and upon hearing the news, The first reaction was rejection The idea is clear. At least he didn’t get very angry, unlike some Nobel laureates…)
So, as We continue to learn about this year’s Nobel laureateswe look at some of the most unconventional reactions from Nobel laureates, from the brutally indifferent to the surprisingly recognizable.
1. Is this a scam?
Many Nobel Prize winners have assumed that the call from an unknown Swedish number is a phishing scam (honestly, who doesn’t think so?). This is what happened to Mary Bronko, who shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine with Ramsdell. She said in an email that she thought the phone call with Noble was “just some kind of spam, so I hung up the phone and went back to sleep.” interview With the Nobel Committee.
The Broncos are not alone. Paul Romer, winner Nobel Prize in Economics 2018 “In order to integrate technological innovations into long-term macroeconomic analysis,” Nobel’s call also went to voicemail several times before Thinking That perhaps this constant caller is in touch with him for something important.
Convincing others was less easy. Abdul Razzaq Qorna won Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 “For his tenacious and compassionate traversing of the effects of colonialism and the fate of refugees in the Gulf between cultures and continents,” but it took some convincing for Jornah to believe it was not a scam.
“I was making a cup of tea and thought it was a scam call.”
Novelist Abdel Razzaq Qorna tells the BBC how he discovered he had won the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature.
In his novels, @GurnahAuthor explores themes of colonialism, migration, and the immigrant experience. pic.twitter.com/4ZwWeFwXPk
– BBC News Africa (@BBCAfrica) October 8, 2021
“This guy said, ‘Hey, I won the Nobel Prize for Literature,’ and I said, ‘Come on, get out of here. Leave me alone,'” Jurna told the newspaper. BBC at the time. “He got me out of it and gradually convinced me.”
2. Now is not the time
Adam Smith, chief scientific officer at the Nobel Foundation, said: BBC Nobel laureate in physics Konstantin Novoselov (2010 Discovery of graphene) and Arthur Ashkin (2018, Optical Tweezers) They were “disgruntled” when they heard the news of their victory, because it disrupted their day. “You mean I should stop my experiment? I’m kind of busy,” Smith recalls.
When Linda Buck won an award 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Because of her work in the biology of smell, she was asleep. So the director of her research center answered the crucial phone call at 2 a.m. local time.
The manager thought the call was from a job applicant with limited understanding of time zones, and grumbledly told the voice on the other end of the phone that this type of behavior would not get them a position. When Smith told him the real reason he called the director It is said that he shouted“This will get you a job here!”
3. Then there’s Bob Dylan
Speaking of people who have won the Nobel Prize in seemingly uncomfortable moments, when the legendary singer-songwriter won the Nobel Prize Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 “Because he created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition,” he was not there to hear the news.
It took the Nobel Committee more than two weeks to reach Dylan by phone. At the time, the managing director of the Swedish Academy, Odd Scheidrich, admitted this CNN They “stopped trying – we said whatever we needed to to his manager and friend, and he knew we were keen to get confirmation from him, but we heard no response.”
The decision to award the award to Dylan sparked some controversy in literary circles, and while Dylan himself initially seemed very unenthusiastic, he later accepted the award, Saying He was “speechless” and honored. And then, perhaps not so shockingly, he skipped the awards ceremony because…Pre-existing obligations“.
4. Doris Lessing gave a lesson in discontent
British novelist Doris Lessing was shopping when the Swedish Academy awarded her the Nobel Prize 2007 Nobel Prize for LiteratureDescribing it as “that saga of the feminine experience which, with doubt, fire and the power of vision, has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny.”
When Lessing heard the good news, he just wanted to get on with it and go home. We’ve picked out some choice moments from the interaction, but the video of her win is worth watching in its entirety.
“Oh my God,” Lessing said indignantly, as reporters reported the news. “Well, I’m sure you’d like some encouraging remarks of some sort.”
“But this is an acknowledgment of your life’s work,” one reporter insisted.
Lessing replies: “What do you think I should say? Look, tell me what to say and I will say it.”
Finally, when asked if the award meant anything to her, she said, sounding very angry: “I’ve won all the awards in Europe – every bloody one. So I’m happy to win them all. It’s a royal flush. OK.”
All fun aside, Smith later told BBC Lessing was much less “dismissive” in their conversations, and was happy with this recognition.
5. Peter Higgs went into hiding
Sometimes, a famous scientist has a feeling that their Nobel Prize is going to fall, and they don’t want anything to do with it. And so it was with Peter Higgs, the award-winning physicist Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 “For his theoretical discovery of the mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of the mass of subatomic particles.” He shared the award with François Englert.
In 1964, the Higgs and Englert formulated a theory about an invisible field with zero mass or charge that gives any particle its mass, a concept that became known as the Higgs boson. When the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) successfully confirmed the existence of the boson, the physicist who bears his name went into hiding, literally.
On the day the award was due to be announced, Higgs holed up in a pub (with “a great selection of good beers”, he said). Telegraph) in order to avoid the eyes of the Swedish Academy and overzealous journalists. His phone was also switched off, and the physicist was eventually alerted to the news from a woman on the street.
The Higgs admitted to physicist Frank Close, who wrote A book Describing the Higgs research, the discovery of the boson “devastating“My relatively peaceful existence was coming to an end,” Higgs said, adding that “his style was to work in isolation and occasionally I would have a bright idea.”
However, Higgs remained optimistic. “Obviously I’m happy and somewhat relieved that it’s all over, because it’s taken so long,” Higgs told The Telegraph.
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