Do you want to drive a scientist completely insane? Then give him/her a Nobel Prize! It’s not a sure thing, and most Nobel Laureates are just fine, but a surprising number of scientists who won a Nobel have gone on to going off the deep end, or at least some weird places, in the years afterward. This phenomena even has a name, although it’s tongue-in-cheek: Nobel Disease.
Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.
Sometimes a Nobel Laureate is considered a genius, and is drawn into discussions of subjects outside their field, where they may not be so knowledgable. In that position, it’s easy to say dumb things that get a lot of publicity. Sometimes a Nobel Laureate becomes stuck in the position of being considered the world’s best in their research, which makes continuing the same work difficult. They may feel they now have to either do something better or nothing at all. That’s a particular problem for someone who wins a Nobel with decades left in their career, something like “peaking too early” syndrome.
An article on Nobel Disease at Big Think has examples from history, but it doesn’t mean to imply anything about this year’s winners, since it was written before they were announced. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Adam Baker)
Source: neatorama