The 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics

The Royal swedish Academy of Sciences ^ | October 5, 2004 | Press release

[Our man in washington]

I have to admit I'm disappointed. I was hoping John Wheeler would finally get honored. Wheeler is one of the giants of American Physics in the 20th century. He's also 93 years old, and rules state that the Nobel prize must be given within the recipients' lifetime. Here's a link explaining what he's done:

http://www.usd.edu/phys/courses/phys300/gallery/clark/wheeler.html

Some have suggested that Wheeler and Stephen Hawking should share the Nobel prize for their work on black holes. At the risk of being morbid, both could be near the end of their lifetimes.

[Our man in washington]

I have to admit I'm disappointed. I was hoping John Wheeler would finally get honored. Wheeler is one of the giants of American Physics in the 20th century. He's also 93 years old, and rules state that the Nobel prize must be given within the recipients' lifetime. Here's a link explaining what he's done:

http://www.usd.edu/phys/courses/phys300/gallery/clark/wheeler.html

Some have suggested that Wheeler and Stephen Hawking should share the Nobel prize for their work on black holes. At the risk of being morbid, both could be near the end of their lifetimes.

[Our man in washington]

Sorry about the double post. I guess you can see why I'm not up for a Nobel prize in anything.

[RightWingAtheist]

Wheeler has always been problematic for the Nobel comittee. Nobel laureates have traditionally been "hedgehogs" who have made one major contribution, but it is so enormous to science that it merits the prize. Wheeler, on the other hand, is a fox amongst scientists, who has made myriad contributions to various areas of physics, and although none of them have been "earth-shattering", he has prehaps the most impressive ciruculum vitae in the field, and the sum total of his contributions is great indeed.

[LibWhacker]

American researchers also took the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Looks like another American sweep is in the offing (at least for those disciplines that matter).

Yet Americans are renowned to be the most stupid people on the face of the Earth. At least that's what the media would have us think others believe about us. All the while foreigners are trying like crazy to get their stupid, racist kids into our universities.

Way to go, France, Germany, China, Arabia!!! Another year goes by and you've contributed NOTHING to humanity.

</pro-American rant>

[Truth666]

Gravitational interactions are not asymptotically free.
I'm not a physicist, but there are still countries where physicists can pose basic question wihout fearing to loose their job : http://www.turpion.org/php/paper.phtml?journal_id=pu&paper_id=46

[P.O.E.]

As a rank layman fascinated by this, all I can say is "cool".

[RadioAstronomer]

LOL! :-)

[AdmSmith]

Here is an article by David Gross that describes the history of Asymptotic Freedom (not so many equations)
http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9809060