how-to-win-Nobel-prizes

Exercise: For questions 1 to 5, listen to a recording about how to earn a Nobel prize and
answer the questions. Write NO MORE THAN FOUR WORDS taken from the recording for
each answer in the corresponding questions provided.
1. How is the status of Nobel Prize winners in the eyes of the world?
____________________________________________________________
2. What were the first Nobel Prize fields to attract media attention?
____________________________________________________________
3. To whom was the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded instead of Jocelyn Bell Burnell?
____________________________________________________________
4. What is the title given to individuals who win the Nobel Prize?
____________________________________________________________
5. What tool was essential for detecting the Higgs boson?

____________________________________________________________
Answer key:
1. respected and revered
2. peace and literature
3. her doctoral thesis advisor
4. Nobel laureates
5. atom smasher
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a1_3aW-VD8
Script:
Why do we care about scientists’ Nobel efforts?
Hello everyone, Trace here for DNews. When someone wins the Nobel prize, everyone
instantly knows they’re kind of a big deal. Winners not only get a shiny medal but 8 million Swedish
Krona, and of course they're respected and revered.
But it’s far from the only prize recognizing contributions to the advancement of humanity. So
why is the Nobel prize held in such high esteem?
Maybe it’s because of the prize’s past. The Nobel prize has existed for over 100 years and has
been given to some of the most recognizable names in history, like Albert Einstein -- the relativity
guy, Ivan Pavlov -- the dog guy, and Werner Heisenberg -- no, not the meth guy.
It was established by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, who made a considerable fortune off his
invention of dynamite. In 1895, he secretly drafted his will to set aside the bulk of his estate for
prizes in 5 fields: physics, chemistry, physiology/medicine, literature, and peace. Economics was
added later by Sweden’s central bank, though technically it’s not a Nobel Prize, it’s just named in
honor of Alfred Nobel.
Nobel passed away in 1896 and in 1901, the first prizes were handed out. At first, the press
was only interested in the peace and literature awards, as the sciences were thought to be a bit too
niche for the general public.
But when Marie Curie and her husband were awarded the 1903 prize in physics, along with
Henri Becquerel, their story captured the public’s imagination. The idea of the poor Curie’s scraping
by in a laboratory while they revolutionized our understanding of atoms made for great headlines.
They became celebrities, and the scientific Nobel prizes started getting recognition.
Now the Nobel prize has become a shorthand for greatness, though the awards are not always
given out controversy free. Part of the problem is Alfred Nobel stipulated only 3 people could share
the award and the cash prize that comes with it. The cutting edge of science today requires a lot of
collaboration, and sometimes people who do valuable research are left out. Other times they’re
straight up snubbed, like Joycelyn Bell Burnell. She was the first person to observe radio pulsars, but
the 1974 prize in physics was given to her doctoral thesis advisor. Talk about a No-Bell prize. It’s
important to remember the winners are selected by committees and so, of course they’re fallible.
Their members are appointed by the Royal Swedish Academy or the medical university Karolinska
Institutet. Except for the peace prize committee; Alfred Nobel stipulated that they have to be
Norwegian for... some reason.
Anyway, the committees invite thousands of people respected in their respective fields to
nominate winners and narrow it down from there. When it comes time to announce the winners, they
don’t always make the most perfect or most obvious picks. Usually they do select scientists who
have made lasting impacts their field, like Peter Higgs. Higgs had to wait almost 50 years for his
prize, because he proposed the Higgs boson’s existence in 1964, but it wasn’t confirmed until 2012.
In 2013, the Nobel committee recognized that he made this massive contribution (pun intended) to
particle physics. Because of the delay between a scientist's work and its visible influence, the Nobel
Prize has become something of a career award. That doesn’t mean Nobel laureates are resting on
their laurels and calling it a day once they’ve won though.
Four scientists have won the nobel prize twice, including the aforementioned Marie Curie.
She’s not only the first woman to win it, she remains the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two
different scientific categories.
Higgs’ proposed boson took so long to find because we had to build the most powerful atom
smasher in the world to look for it. I actually visited; you can go see that video right here. “They
collide about 25 nanoseconds, so if you have a bunch colliding with other bunch, you may have a
proton here and a proton here, which has a heart would be called scattering, a heart event, and out of
that comes out a whole mess of particles.” Do you guys keep track of the Nobel prizes? Do you care?
Are there any that blew your mind? Let us know in the comments, make sure you come back every
day for more DNews and thanks for watching!

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Exercise: For questions 1 to 5, listen to a recording about how to earn a Nobel prize and

5. What tool was essential for detecting the Higgs boson?

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