3 ms·
Clauser and Aspect did their experiments in the early 1970s and 1980s. That's a crazy long wait!
by rerx 4y ago
Clauser and Aspect did their experiments in the early 1970s and 1980s. That's a crazy long wait!
- fabatka 4y agoIn uni I remember one of my professors telling us that the time gap between the awarding of the Nobel prize and the discovery for which it is awarded keeps getting longer (he was talking specifically about physics). I remember he also lamented George Gamow never getting a Nobel prize. (edit: grammar)
- efsavage 4y agoThis is sad, IIRC the goal (and reason it only goes to living people) is to throw good money after good, in the hopes of more to come, not simply reward past advances and fund retirements.
- tokai 4y agoThe goal was to rub Nobels reputation clean with the reputations of great living scientists.
- leoc 4y agoThat's definitely the main cause, but in the case of Clauser at least there's the added wrinkle that for the first few years his work wasn't very popular with other physicists. His PhD advisor was writing recommendation letters specifically telling people not to hire Clauser for work on QM experiments: https://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0508/0508180.pdf https://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0508/0508180.pdf .
- c7b 4y agoThere's a quote, I believe by an economics Nobel (memorial) prize winner, that goes like "It's a strange feeling to be honored in your 80's for work that you've done in your 20's" - couldn't find who said it after a bit of searching