4 ms·

Physicist Leon Lederman died age 96 selling his Nobel Prize to pay medical costs

55 points by lawrenceyan 8y ago

belsell 8y ago
How our society values accomplishments/fame... A symbol for a lifetime of distinguished work vs an interesting but small part of a career. This may contribute to many youths choosing fame and fortune instead of putting in the efforts to advance science and civilization. How this will play out in the long run could be worrisome. "The American scientist later auctioned off his gold medal for $765,000 (£665,000) to help pay medical bills after being diagnosed with dementia. " "The Nobel gold medal of the scientist who coined the phrase “God particle” to describe the Higgs boson – the subatomic particle that accounts for matter having mass – has been sold for $765,002 (£510,000) at auction in Los Angeles." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/leon-lederman-death-nobel-prize-sell-physicist-higgs-boson-god-particle-medical-bills-a8569761.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/leon-lederman-dea... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nobel-laureate-god-particle-physicist-leon-lederman-sells-nobel-prize-medal-for-510000-10285376.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nobel-laureate-go... "Well, Banksy’s phone booth is in the arms of the buyer who was able to pay $960,000 for it at a Phillips, De Pury & Luxembourg auction in 2014 – quite possibly after seeing it at the 2006 Barely Legal exhibition in Los Angeles – one which intended to draw attention to the legal aspects of graffiti art and was billed as a “three-day vandalized warehouse extravaganza.” https://www.widewalls.ch/10-most-expensive-banksy-artworks-at-auctions/submerged-phone-boot/ https://www.widewalls.ch/10-most-expensive-banksy-artworks-a...
- vixen99 8y ago
  'How our society values accomplishments/fame...'? It does of course. How much was Lederman's $100,000 in 1988 (360,000 shared with two collaborators) in today's money? The interesting question is how much more should society single out for further special consideration those who have accomplishment and fame over and above the great mass of folk who have neither?
ilrwbwrkhv 8y ago
lol... america should definitely get its healthcare game sorted...
- rayiner 8y ago
  Medicaid covers long term assisted care. But it requires you to spend down all your assets first, which is not unreasonable for end of life care. You can’t take them with you, and why should you get to save your assets to pass on to your kids while having taxpayers pay for your long term care?
  - infradig 8y ago
    What about passing your assets on to your wife?
    - harryh 8y ago
      Medicaid has special "spousal protections" to handle exactly this situation.
  - theonemind 8y ago
    Perhaps so. However, it does seem likely that the absurd price of health care (by almost any measure—what other countries pay, by how prices would look in a functioning efficient market, etc.) factored into this.
    - rayiner 8y ago
      Nursing home care is expensive because it’s extremely labor intensive. It’s easy to spend $30,000 a year just for someone to watch your kid 8 hours a day. Is it really that unreasonable to spend $50,000-100,000 per year for 24/7 care plus living quarters?
  - mtgx 8y ago
    Then if we are too follow your logic, wouldn't it a much bigger priority to put a huge tax (at least 75%) on all inheritance over a certain amount (let's say $10 million)?
unao 8y ago
Back in 1998, I was 13. For some longer period (at least 8 weeks) I was in a very low mood - sort of existential crisis. By self-diagnosis, I would call it a (mild?) form of depression. When in bookstore my parents asked me to choose a book for myself and ended up with Polish edition of 'God Particle'. Not sure but probably I was more interested in the _god_ aspect than _particle_. Till today I remember some parts of the book quite well. Reading the book gave me a lot of hope and - very likely - directly triggered some recovery processes, which took another 3-5 months btw. I definitely would be a totally different person if - for longer time - spiralling down the dark thoughts rabbit hole. Just now I realised, I wish Dr Lederman knew this story. Too late, unfortunately.
dogma1138 8y ago
I never understood if the people who are willing to buy those (same goes for Olympic medals) are doing it out of some sort of “dignified charity” or are they so cynical that they are willing to own a badge of merit that someone else got. I always wonder what they do with these afterwards how often are these returned to the original recipient or family? I’ve seen stories about people who found medals of honor at pawn shops and bought them to returned them. I just simply can’t fathom owning something like this as a trophy.
- drannex 8y ago
  Strategic investment, they purchase it now in the hopes that in the future someone else will purchase it for more as a historical artifact.
- SamReidHughes 8y ago
  The guy that bought Watson's returned it.

55 points by lawrenceyan 8y ago

How our society values accomplishments/fame... A symbol for a lifetime of distinguished work vs an interesting but small part of a career. This may contribute to many youths choosing fame and fortune instead of putting in the efforts to advance science and civilization. How this will play out in the long run could be worrisome. "The American scientist later auctioned off his gold medal for $765,000 (£665,000) to help pay medical bills after being diagnosed with dementia. " "The Nobel gold medal of the scientist who coined the phrase “God particle” to describe the Higgs boson – the subatomic particle that accounts for matter having mass – has been sold for $765,002 (£510,000) at auction in Los Angeles." https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/leon-lederman-death-nobel-prize-sell-physicist-higgs-boson-god-particle-medical-bills-a8569761.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/leon-lederman-dea... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nobel-laureate-god-particle-physicist-leon-lederman-sells-nobel-prize-medal-for-510000-10285376.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nobel-laureate-go... "Well, Banksy’s phone booth is in the arms of the buyer who was able to pay $960,000 for it at a Phillips, De Pury & Luxembourg auction in 2014 – quite possibly after seeing it at the 2006 Barely Legal exhibition in Los Angeles – one which intended to draw attention to the legal aspects of graffiti art and was billed as a “three-day vandalized warehouse extravaganza.” https://www.widewalls.ch/10-most-expensive-banksy-artworks-at-auctions/submerged-phone-boot/ https://www.widewalls.ch/10-most-expensive-banksy-artworks-a...

vixen99 8y ago
'How our society values accomplishments/fame...'? It does of course. How much was Lederman's $100,000 in 1988 (360,000 shared with two collaborators) in today's money? The interesting question is how much more should society single out for further special consideration those who have accomplishment and fame over and above the great mass of folk who have neither?

ilrwbwrkhv 8y ago

lol... america should definitely get its healthcare game sorted...

rayiner 8y ago
Medicaid covers long term assisted care. But it requires you to spend down all your assets first, which is not unreasonable for end of life care. You can’t take them with you, and why should you get to save your assets to pass on to your kids while having taxpayers pay for your long term care?
- infradig 8y ago
  What about passing your assets on to your wife?
  - harryh 8y ago
    Medicaid has special "spousal protections" to handle exactly this situation.
- theonemind 8y ago
  Perhaps so. However, it does seem likely that the absurd price of health care (by almost any measure—what other countries pay, by how prices would look in a functioning efficient market, etc.) factored into this.
  - rayiner 8y ago
    Nursing home care is expensive because it’s extremely labor intensive. It’s easy to spend $30,000 a year just for someone to watch your kid 8 hours a day. Is it really that unreasonable to spend $50,000-100,000 per year for 24/7 care plus living quarters?
- mtgx 8y ago
  Then if we are too follow your logic, wouldn't it a much bigger priority to put a huge tax (at least 75%) on all inheritance over a certain amount (let's say $10 million)?

unao 8y ago

Back in 1998, I was 13. For some longer period (at least 8 weeks) I was in a very low mood - sort of existential crisis. By self-diagnosis, I would call it a (mild?) form of depression. When in bookstore my parents asked me to choose a book for myself and ended up with Polish edition of 'God Particle'. Not sure but probably I was more interested in the _god_ aspect than _particle_. Till today I remember some parts of the book quite well. Reading the book gave me a lot of hope and - very likely - directly triggered some recovery processes, which took another 3-5 months btw. I definitely would be a totally different person if - for longer time - spiralling down the dark thoughts rabbit hole. Just now I realised, I wish Dr Lederman knew this story. Too late, unfortunately.

dogma1138 8y ago

I never understood if the people who are willing to buy those (same goes for Olympic medals) are doing it out of some sort of “dignified charity” or are they so cynical that they are willing to own a badge of merit that someone else got. I always wonder what they do with these afterwards how often are these returned to the original recipient or family? I’ve seen stories about people who found medals of honor at pawn shops and bought them to returned them. I just simply can’t fathom owning something like this as a trophy.

drannex 8y ago
Strategic investment, they purchase it now in the hopes that in the future someone else will purchase it for more as a historical artifact.
SamReidHughes 8y ago
The guy that bought Watson's returned it.