Nobel Prizes normally can’t be issued posthumously. Since there is often a substantial time lapse between the discovery and the prize, it means that scientists who make prize worthy discoveries late in life may never receive the prize. This could produce a bias towards younger people receiving Nobels.
To take a recent Nobel in Chemistry, graphene, the research dates back to the ’60s or so. Don’t the big lags imply that only old people will receive Nobels? Seems so to me.
I think your wording is off. You must mean ‘a bias towards people who were younger (at the time of the discovery) receiving Nobels’.
Nobel Prizes normally can’t be issued posthumously. Since there is often a substantial time lapse between the discovery and the prize, it means that scientists who make prize worthy discoveries late in life may never receive the prize. This could produce a bias towards younger people receiving Nobels.
To take a recent Nobel in Chemistry, graphene, the research dates back to the ’60s or so. Don’t the big lags imply that only old people will receive Nobels? Seems so to me.
I think your wording is off. You must mean ‘a bias towards people who were younger (at the time of the discovery) receiving Nobels’.
Great point!