Nobel Week 2019

I do love Nobel week. It's like the playoffs for nerds. Speaking of that, I missed blogging about the updated names to the periodic table. For a long time, we had cool latin U-names for 111-118, but they've been given names. See below

• Ununbium , [Uub], (112) = Coper­nicium (Cn)
• Ununhexium , [Uuh], (116) = Liver­morium (Lv) 
• Ununoctium , [Uuo], (118) = Oga­nesson (Og)
• Ununpentium , [Uup], (115) = Moscov­ium (Mc)
• Ununquadium , [Uuq], (114) = Flerov­ium (Fl)
• Ununseptium , [Uus], (117) = Tenness­ine (Ts)
• Ununtrium , [Uut], (113) = Nihon­ium (Nh) 
• Ununium , [Uuu], (111) = Roent­genium (Rg)

Liver­morium may now be the funniest name. It's named for the lab, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which in turn is named for the town of Livermore, CA which was named after some random dude Livermore.

Part of my investigation is to find out how many of the people the elements are named after are Jewish (pride can be a bad or a good thing). Einsteinium is the only one I knew about, but maybe the new ones too, mayhap perchance.

So which ones are named after people?  Looking at this list, I see they link to an awesome Wiki resource page which does much of the work for me!

Here's the people the elements are named for; almost by sociological definition, any scientist before the 20th century wasn't Jewish because we were denied access to education and major professions. Marie Curie was a Catholic agnostic, the 2 recent Russians -- Georgy Flyorov, Yuri Oganessian -- could be but are it's unlikely, while Ernest Lawrence & Glenn T. Seaborg & Neils Bohr were Scandanavian (so most likely christian), but now I see, according to Wiki, that while Neils Bohr's father was Christian Bohr, his mother (Ellen Adler) was Jewish:

Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 7 October 1885, the second of three children of Christian Bohr, a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen, and Ellen Adler Bohr, who came from a wealthy Danish Jewish family prominent in banking and parliamentary circles.

Oh, and #109 Meitnerium is another element named for a woman: Lise Meitner, who is Jewish. A Jewish woman on the periodic table! How did I miss that?!

She was born Elise Meitner on 7 November 1878 into a Jewish upper-middle-class family in Vienna, 2nd district (Leopoldstadt), the third of eight children. Her father Philipp Meitner was one of the first Jewish lawyers in Austria. ... As an adult, she converted to Christianity, following Lutheranism, and was baptized in 1908.

So, there are 3: Einstein, Bohr, and Meitner.  But Einstein is the only one who stayed Jewish.

Postscript:

For thoroughness sake, would it be terribly wrong to just cut and paste the list? I'm a bad boy.

Element				Individual(s)
Z	Name	Symbol	Discovery	Immediate namesake	Name	Specialty	Lifespan	Nationality
62	Samarium	Sm	1879	the mineral samarskite	Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets	Mining engineer	1803–1870	Russian
64	Gadolinium	Gd	1886	the mineral gadolinite	Johan Gadolin	Scientist	1760–1852	Finnish
95	Americium	Am	1944	the continents of the Americas	Amerigo Vespucci	Explorer	1454–1512	Italian
96	Curium	Cm	1944		Marie Curie Pierre Curie	Scientist Scientist	1867–1934 1859–1906	Polish-French French
97	Berkelium	Bk	1949	the city Berkeley, California	George Berkeley	Philosopher	1685–1753	Irish
99	Einsteinium	Es	1952		Albert Einstein	Scientist	1879–1955	German-Swiss
100	Fermium	Fm	1952		Enrico Fermi	Scientist	1901–1954	Italian-American
101	Mendelevium	Md	1955		Dmitri Mendeleev	Scientist	1834–1907	Russian
102	Nobelium	No	1958		Alfred Nobel	Scientist	1833–1896	Swedish
103	Lawrencium	Lr	1961		Ernest Lawrence	Scientist	1901–1958	American
104	Rutherfordium	Rf	1964		Ernest Rutherford	Scientist	1871–1937	New Zealand-British
106	Seaborgium	Sg	1974		Glenn T. Seaborg	Scientist	1912–1999	American
107	Bohrium	Bh	1981		Niels Bohr	Scientist	1885–1962	Danish
109	Meitnerium	Mt	1982		Lise Meitner	Scientist	1878–1968	Austrian-Swedish
111	Roentgenium	Rg	1994		Wilhelm Röntgen	Scientist	1845–1923	German
112	Copernicium	Cn	1996		Nicolaus Copernicus	Scientist	1473–1543	Polish-German
114	Flerovium	Fl	1998		Georgy Flyorov	Scientist	1913–1990	Russian
116	Livermorium	Lv	2000	the city Livermore, California and the Lawrence Livermore Lab[2]	Robert Livermore	Land owner	1799–1858	English-Mexican
118	Oganesson	Og	2002		Yuri Oganessian	Scientist	1933–	Russian

Holocaust Survivor Wins Physics Nobel

I do love Nobel week, and this year a few more Jews have won, but this news is very gratifying:

[François Englert of Belgium], 80, is a Sackler Professor by Special Appointment in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University, among other appointments, and is a Holocaust survivor.

Do the Chinese Understand

That this makes the Nobel people look like they made the perfect choice?: "China Urges Europeans to Snub Nobel Ceremony":

China is pressing European governments to boycott the ceremony awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, warning that the award interferes in China’s internal affairs and that Mr. Liu is a criminal

That's one reason why I'm not entirely afraid of China, because they are terrible members of the international community, and that stuff does matter. Just like in ordinary micro-economics, you may have the best product, but if people don't respect you, they will choose every excuse not to deal with you.

Nobel Update: Economics

And its a bonanza for the US with added bonuses of (probably) up to three Hebrews and one Princeton. A good day for the home teams:

Leonid Hurwicz, 90, a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota, initiated the field of mechanism design theory, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in the award citation. His work was further developed by two 56-year-old economists who are sharing the prize — Roger B. Myerson, a professor at the University of Chicago, and Eric S. Maskin, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.

Updated score

• Medicine = Mario Capecchi,
• Martin Evans, Oliver Smithies (US, UK, US/UK)
  
• Chemistry = Gerhard Ertl
  
• Physics = Albert Fert & Peter Grünberg (France & Germany)
  
• Literature = Doris Lessing (UK)
  
• Peace = Al Gore, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (US, UN)
  
• Economics = Leonid Hurwicz, Roger Myerson, Eric S. Maskin (USx3)

America = 5.5
England = 2.5
Germany = 2
France = 1
UN = 1
Jews = -1 (+ possibly 3)
Possible Nazis Because Hey You Never Know With Germans Born in 1936 = 1

More notes: This is why the Nobels are better than the Olympics. The good guys win way more often in the sciences than they do in sports.

Nobel Week, Update

Score so far:

1. Medicine = Mario Capecchi, Martin Evans, Oliver Smithies (US, UK, US/UK)
   
2. Chemistry = Gerhard Ertl
   
3. Physics = Albert Fert & Peter Grünberg (France & Germany)
   
4. Literature = Doris Lessing (UK)
   
5. Peace = Al Gore, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (US, UN)
   
6. Economics = ?
   

America = 2.5
England = 2.5
Germany = 2
France = 1
UN = 1
Jews = -1
Possible Nazis Because Hey You Never Know With Germans Born in 1936 = 1

Notes: Good year for Germany; France doesn't win often, giving the UN money is worse than actually setting it on fire and - so far - no Jews but we get a negative number because anything given to the UN automatically works against the Jews as a whole.

Al Gore, Baby

Al Gore and bunch of UN things won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

A number of thoughts:

1. It's always good when the Peace Prize goes for something that's not directly antagonistic to Israel

2. It's nice to see that the American President-Elected who got the prize isn't a schmuck.

3. It's nice to see when the Nobel Peace Prize goes for something that actually helps people (like last year's as well).

4. While one could think, "hey maybe an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize in one year is worth not being [acknowledged as] President," just recall that the past 7 years have been one of bloodshed, torture and impoverishment and that a Gore-Lieberman Administration certainly would not have jackrabbited into the Iraq War, would probably have prevented 9/11, would have had a working FEMA to help with Katrina (and probably would have shored up the levees), wouldn't have bankrupted the country with misbegotten economic plans, etc. And since Gore is a decent human being, he would have wanted to be president to prevent the horrible Bush stuff, even if he didn't get to proactively do anything good.

5. Moreover, after he stepped down in 2009, Gore would have gone on to do important work - possibly on Global Warming (if he wasn't successful in tackling it as President) - and would have won a Nobel in 2016 or so.

6. Will he run for president now? I still think not (again, his Taco Grande belly is the best barometer, as it were, than his many prizes). What he can do is tilt the balance to either Hillary or Obama.

{2009 Update: Pic from here.}

Nobel Week Continues: Chemistry

Score so far:
America = 2
England = 1
Germany (new) = 1
Jews = 0
Possible Nazis Because Hey You Never Know With Germans Born in 1936 = 1

Oh boy, Nobel Week

My family knows that I'm obsessed with Excellence Rankings (like the Nobels, Rhodes, and my coveted Wile E. MacArthur Super Genius Awards). Nobel week is usually in Tishrei and we begin with Medicine. Score so far: 2 Americans, 1 Briton and no clear Jewish names (not that it matters... sure).

Nobel Peace Odds

Tomorrow they will announce the Nobel Peace Prize, the most important - and most farcical - prize of them all. Because we live in a degenerate age, the best way to calibrate who will win is to go to a sports betting site, like this one (Centrebet). Note, Slate sent me to this link.

Personally, I think that Bill Clinton should have better odds (he's not even listed).

Ya see, Literature and Peace have by design or adaptation become purely political. Literature is basically a second peace prize (does anybody actually consider a bunch of Swedes capable of determining the quality of art? The Lit prize is a joke. Science is universal and a group of scientists in scandanavia have probably as much acumen as anywhere else as to what research deserves a prize. And in the past years there's been very little dissent over appropriateness of the receipients - if there has its over people who were overlooked). But Literature?! How much world lit is written in Swedish? Which means these bozos are reading it in translation. And its art. Ah well)

As I, and anybody with a brain, predicted, Literature went to a Muslim (Orhan Pamuk). Considering that the Muslim world has shown in the past 12 months that they are against any form of free expression no matter how benign (cartoons?!) or important (Mozart), this seemed inevitable just as last year's lit that went to an anti-war (and anti-British) activist (Pinker).

The fact that both Lit and Peace are given by the Swedes/Norse to change the world's direction, I wouldn't be surprised if the Peace Prize went to someone that repudiates the current American administration. Given that Bill Clinton has spearheaded in the past year the US relief efforts for the Tsunami, for Katrina, and his Clinton Foundation Thingie has been doing high-profile do-goody things all over... and because he is getting more popular in world opinion every living second when held in comparison to the unhinged brute malevolence of his successor.

The odds for peace this year seem to be for Martti Ahtisaari of the "Crisis Management Initiative." Now that I've seen his bio on the wiki, I'm seeing why he's a front runner. First, his group negotiated a peace treaty in Indonesia. He also was in charge of the Vienna Peace Treaty for Kosovo. Most importantly, he was the former President of Finland. That's locks it - those lapland types stick together.

Sick enough, there's decent odds on Mordechai Frickin Vanunu (the traitor who revealed Israel's Nuclear program). That should also favor heavily into the Nobelian system. What better way to send a message for world peace than to thump Israel?

J. M. Coetzee Wins Nobel Prize for Literature

The NYTimes reports that J. M. Coetzee Wins Nobel Prize for Literature.

It's not often that I've read the Nobel winner's work (it helps that this dude writes in English), but I was forced to do so in my Freshman English class (Lit-141, Vic Brombert). I'm very glad he made me read Coetzee for two reasons:

1. I was still a Freshman which meant that I was still doing the required reading
2. I can unequivocally say that the Nobel Committee has bat-poo for brains.

I have often hated the great works of literature (just as I hate many of the "great" movies). Waiting for the Barbarians (the bat-poo in question) in no manner matched the earlier books in the class (on Modernist fiction), e.g. Primo Levi, Virginia Woolf and a whole mess o'Kafka. And all of them are superlative, none of them Laureates.

Considering that there are a bare few Nobel laureates worth reading (e.g. Winston Churchill) - I don't know why we even care.

But, for those who do, the timetable for the rest is as follows:

Medicine - Monday, Oct 6 (Yom Kippur)
Physics - Teusady, Oct 7 (Isru Chag)
Chemistry - Wednesday, Oct 8 (Nothing, really)
Economics - Wednesday, Oct 8
Peace - Friday, Oct 10 (Erev Sukkot)

In the running for the peace prize: Arafat (again, the Swedes love it when your body-count hits a new order of magnitude... it's like watching the odometer roll-over).

(And if you want to see grade-school art, check out the diplomas the laureates get)