The Road to Stockholm: Nobel Prizes, Science, and Scientists
Author(s): István Hargittai (Author)
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication Date: 28 Mar. 2002
Language: English
Print length: 360 pages
ISBN-10: 019850912X
ISBN-13: 9780198509127
Book Description
The Nobel Prizes enjoy enormous prestige throughout the world. Every year, science is propelled into the limelight, and in October, when the prizes are announced, and December, when they are awarded at a ceremony in Stockholm, a chosen few scientists acquire celebrity status and their science receives wide coverage in the news media. First awarded in 1901, the Nobel Prize remains the only science prize widely recognized by the general public. What sort of scientists become Nobel laureates? How are they chosen? Are there features common to them, and to their prize-winning research? These sorts of questions have long intrigued István Hargittai and seeking answers, he began interviewing Nobel prize-winning scientists about their careers. Some 70 laureates, and a similar number of other distinguished scientists, have been interviewed, most of them during the late 1990s, and the result is this remarkable book. Written for a general readership, The Road to Stockholm illuminates the nature of scientific discovery, the Nobel Prize selection process, the factors common to award-winning research, and the effects of the Nobel Prize on science itself. Here are stories of scientists who overcame adversity, eventually to win the Prize; insights into the importance of the laureate’s mentor in earlier life, and into the significance of the location where prize-winning research is carried out; and a variety of responses to the question: what first turned you to science? No less fascinating are the well-publicised examples of deserving (in many eyes) scientists who were not awarded the Nobel Prize, and Professor Hargittai devotes a chapter to them. Here, then, is an absorbing account of science, scientists, and a Prize created a hundred years ago to reward those who, in the words of Alfred Nobel’s Will, ‘during the previous year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.’
Editorial Reviews
Review
According to Hargittai, “Our students, our children, the general public, all of us would benefit from knowing a little more about science and how it comes about because so much in our modern life depends on it” (p xii). We think that The Road to Stockholm goes a long way toward making this goal a reality. (The Chemical Educator)
… an absorbing chronicle. (
The Sunday Times)
The Road to Stockholm is filled with interesting comparisons between scientists who won Nobel Prizes and those who did not, and between scientists whose lives were disrupted by Nobel fame and those who tried to carry on with business as usual after standing in the international spotlight. You won’t find a universal recipe for winning science Nobel Prizes in the book, but the variety of ingredients in these success stories makes this a flavorful and interesting read. (
Chemical & Engineering News)
This volume […] is engaging, rich with anecdote, and full of detail … Although The the Road to Stockholm is factual and reliable, it has the flavour of a lengthy conversation with an intelligent and engaging friend. (
Lancet)
… an interesting and important book. (
Chemistry International Newsmagazine)
Book Description
Go behind the scene for the real story of how the nobel prizes in science are awarded. A real eye opener
About the Author
Istvá(R) Hargittai is Professor of Chemistry of the Budapest University of Technology, and Economics and Research Professor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at Eötvös University. He has done research in molecular structures, lectured in 30 countries, and authored books on structural chemistry and symmetry-related topics, including Symmetry through the Eyes of a Chemist (with Magdolna Hargittai), second edition, Plenum; Symmetry: A Unifying Concept, Shelter Publ.; In Our Own Image: Personal Symmetry in Discovery (with Magdolna Hargittai), Kluwer/Plenum; and Candid Science: Conversations with Famous Chemists and Candid Science II: Conversations with Famous Biomedical Scientists, Imperial College Press. He is Editor-in-Chief of Structural Chemistry (Kluwer, New York). He has been invited to present a lecture on the topic of The Road to Stockholm on December 12, 2001, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
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