Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Part One Reference Frame Columns, Physics Today 1988–2009
- 1 What's wrong with this Lagrangean, April 1988
- 2 What's wrong with this library, August 1988
- 3 What's wrong with these prizes, January 1989
- 4 What's wrong with this pillow, April 1989
- 5 What's wrong with this prose, May 1989
- 6 What's wrong with these equations, October 1989
- 7 What's wrong with these elements of reality, June 1990
- 8 What's wrong with these reviews, August 1990
- 9 What's wrong with those epochs, November 1990
- 10 Publishing in Computopia, May 1991
- 11 What's wrong with those grants, June 1991
- 12 What's wrong in Computopia, April 1992
- 13 What's wrong with those talks, November 1992
- 14 Two lectures on the wave–particle duality, January 1993
- 15 A quarrel we can settle, December 1993
- 16 What's wrong with this temptation, June 1994
- 17 What's wrong with this sustaining myth, March 1996
- 18 The golemization of relativity, April 1996
- 19 Diary of a Nobel guest, March 1997
- 20 What's wrong with this reading, October 1997
- 21 How not to create tigers, August 1999
- 22 What's wrong with this elegance, March 2000
- 23 The contemplation of quantum computation, July 2000
- 24 What's wrong with these questions, February 2001
- 25 What's wrong with this quantum world, February 2004
- 26 Could Feynman have said this? May 2004
- 27 My life with Einstein, December 2005
- 28 What has quantum mechanics to do with factoring? April 2007
- 29 Some curious facts about quantum factoring, October 2007
- 30 What's bad about this habit, May 2009
- Part Two Shedding Bad Habits
- Part Three More from Professor Mozart
- Part Four More to be Said
- Part Five Some People I've Known
- Part Six Summing it Up
- Index
3 - What's wrong with these prizes, January 1989
from Part One - Reference Frame Columns, Physics Today 1988–2009
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2016
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Part One Reference Frame Columns, Physics Today 1988–2009
- 1 What's wrong with this Lagrangean, April 1988
- 2 What's wrong with this library, August 1988
- 3 What's wrong with these prizes, January 1989
- 4 What's wrong with this pillow, April 1989
- 5 What's wrong with this prose, May 1989
- 6 What's wrong with these equations, October 1989
- 7 What's wrong with these elements of reality, June 1990
- 8 What's wrong with these reviews, August 1990
- 9 What's wrong with those epochs, November 1990
- 10 Publishing in Computopia, May 1991
- 11 What's wrong with those grants, June 1991
- 12 What's wrong in Computopia, April 1992
- 13 What's wrong with those talks, November 1992
- 14 Two lectures on the wave–particle duality, January 1993
- 15 A quarrel we can settle, December 1993
- 16 What's wrong with this temptation, June 1994
- 17 What's wrong with this sustaining myth, March 1996
- 18 The golemization of relativity, April 1996
- 19 Diary of a Nobel guest, March 1997
- 20 What's wrong with this reading, October 1997
- 21 How not to create tigers, August 1999
- 22 What's wrong with this elegance, March 2000
- 23 The contemplation of quantum computation, July 2000
- 24 What's wrong with these questions, February 2001
- 25 What's wrong with this quantum world, February 2004
- 26 Could Feynman have said this? May 2004
- 27 My life with Einstein, December 2005
- 28 What has quantum mechanics to do with factoring? April 2007
- 29 Some curious facts about quantum factoring, October 2007
- 30 What's bad about this habit, May 2009
- Part Two Shedding Bad Habits
- Part Three More from Professor Mozart
- Part Four More to be Said
- Part Five Some People I've Known
- Part Six Summing it Up
- Index
Summary
But “glory” doesn't mean “a nice knock-down argument.”
– Alice to Humpty DumptyIt seems to me evident that the system of prizes, honors, and awards in physics has run completely amok, absorbing far too much of the time and energy of the community in proportion to the benefits conferred. Yet nobody complains. Every month Physics Today routinely announces the latest crop of winners, all the major American Physical Society meetings have sessions to bestow prizes, the APS directory continues to distinguish the asterisked from the unasterisked, and nobody ever complains. Why?
To ask the question is to answer it. Indeed, merely by publishing the above paragraph I have probably already irreparably blemished my reputation in the profession, and if Physics Today has actually printed this column I imagine it can only have been after heated and prolonged editorial debate. Much of this essay, in fact, sat aging in my computer in a directory with highly restricted access for almost two years. It was finally sprung loose by the 1988 presidential campaign, which filled me with so intense a loathing for those who hesitate to speak provocative truths that I can longer restrain myself. Here I go.
Why does nobody ever complain? Nobody complains because there are two categories of physicists: those who have won prizes and those who have not. Winners cannot criticize the system. It would be rude to the donors of their prizes. It would be offensive to the committee that selected them and the people who wrote letters on their behalf. It would be a vulgar display of bad taste. It would be unseemly to criticize a system one has benefited from before others have had their chance to win.
But neither can nonwinners criticize the system. It is not that a public attack on, for example, the absurdity of election to the National Academy of Sciences might jeopardize one's own chances for immortality, for this would be a noble sacrifice. What freezes dissent for the nonwinner is that it would be perceived as sour grapes—an unbecoming outburst of petty jealousy. The only respectable stance for the nonwinner is warmly to congratulate each new crop of winners, a kind and gentle response to be sure, but one that implicitly endorses the system itself, preposterous as it is.
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- Why Quark Rhymes with PorkAnd Other Scientific Diversions, pp. 16 - 22Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2016