Depression and the Nobel Prize

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 weeks 5 days (well.blogs.nytimes.com)

Anyone who has struggled with depression—either in themselves or a loved one—will be moved by the story of Douglas C. Prasher.

Dr. Prasher, who now drives a courtesy van for a car dealer, abandoned a life of scientific research years ago. Trained as a biochemist, Dr. Prasher has struggled over the years with bouts of depression.

His story wouldn’t be notable except for a startling fact: his early research led to a Nobel Prize-winning discovery about the inner workings of living cells. Dr

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Harvard celebrates the goofy side of science

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 month 1 week (www.nature.com)

The Ig Nobel prizes were given out last Thursday. Winners included the team that showed that a stripper's ovulatory cycle affected her tips (economics) and some folks who taught slime molds to solve mazes (cognitive). The archaeology prize went to a team who documented armadillos messing up their dig site. As to whether they found a way to keep the little dudes out ...not mentioned.

The evening culminated with "Win a date with Benoît Mandelbrot."

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Nobel winners say science must transcend borders

dedu submitted, created time 11 months 1 week (www.reuters.com)

Some of 2007's Nobel prize winners said on Friday that scientists must break through the boundaries between disciplines and nations to find solutions to some of the great unanswered questions.
Myerson said major policy choices such as how to address global warming should also draw on many disciplines. He said, "It's not only a problem that's important in the world, that's in the news this year with another (Nobel) prize in Oslo, but it's a good example of where physical science and social science go together, and we need to be thinking about both

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