Free Republic

The coronavirus is a very contagious disease.  In January, information coming from the Wuhan region suggested that an infected person could infect two to three others — a frightening exponential growth rate.  That may have led to Angela Merkel announcing up to 70% of Germany's population — around 58 million people — might catch the coronavirus.  Merkel said this even though 70% of China's population — 1,006,363,300 — people did not get infected.  Had Merkel paid attention to Nobel laureate Michael Levitt, she might not have said anything so foolish and frightening. Levitt is an American-British-Israeli biophysicist and a structural biology professor at Stanford.  Although he's not a virologist...

Paul Krugman slammed President Trump for threatening 25% tariffs on European vehicles and auto parts as they posed potential risks to national security. The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist also criticized Trump's refusal to turn over to Congress a report about an investigation into the national-security risks. "Pretty sure that's just plain illegal," Krugman tweeted. "Congress ... didn't make him a dictator free to set tariffs wherever he likes without even offering an explanation."

As far as I know, the Federal Reserve — the world’s most important economic policy institution — doesn’t have an anthem. But if it were to adopt one now, the choice would be obvious: “Send In the Clowns.” You see, the Fed’s governing board currently has two vacancies, and Donald Trump has proposed filling those vacancies with ludicrous hacks. If he succeeds, one of our few remaining havens of serious, nonpartisan policymaking will be on its way toward becoming as corrupt and dysfunctional as the rest of the Trump administration. Stephen Moore and Herman Cain are, of course, completely unqualified...

There’s a lot we don’t know about the legacy Donald Trump will leave behind. And it is, of course, hugely important what happens in the 2020 election. But one thing seems sure: Even if he’s a one-term president, Trump will have caused, directly or indirectly, the premature deaths of a large number of Americans. Some of those deaths will come at the hands of right-wing, white nationalist extremists, who are a rapidly growing threat, partly because they feel empowered by a president who calls them “very fine people.” Some will come from failures of governance, like the inadequate response to...

MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) sent a letter Monday to the office of Ami Ayalon, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Haifa University, and Minister of Education Shai Piron (Yesh Atid), appealing the controversial decision not to grant an honorary doctorate to Professor Yisrael Aumann. Professor Aumann is a Nobel Laureate in Economics and a noted academic scholar, yet Haifa University chose to reject him - not based on his scholarship, but ostensibly for his political views. Ayalon and other board members decided Sunday to decline the grant of an honorary doctorate to the laureate, on the grounds that his...

Fox News reports the latest blow to the global-warming fraud: Dr. Ivar Giaever, a former professor with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the 1973 winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, abruptly announced his resignation Tuesday, Sept. 13, from the premier physics society in disgust over its officially stated policy that "global warming is occurring." The distinguished scientist has a long, slow fuse that has been burning for a while: Giaever earned his Nobel for his experimental discoveries regarding tunneling phenomena in superconductors. He has since become a vocal dissenter from the alleged “consensus” regarding man-made climate fears, Climate Depot reported,...

Dr. William Hammesfahr, nominated for a Nobel Prize for his work in Medicine, has been recognized by agents for Medicare, the federal government, and others for new approaches to helping the brain injured. Dr. Hammesfahr has been identified in helping patients with chronic brain injuries from many causes actually leave long term disability, and return to work. Dr. Hammesfahr was identified the first physician to restore deficits caused by stroke. Dr. Hammesfahr has released the following statement in response to the autopsy report on Terri Schindler Schiavo: We have seen a lot on the autopsy of Terri Schindler Schiavo in...

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's Nobel Prize-winning emigre poet, Czeslaw Milosz, died Saturday at his home in the southern Polish city of Krakow at the age of 93, Polish media reported. Long a symbol of opposition to totalitarianism, he received the 1980 Nobel Literary Prize for his lifelong poetic achievements amid the heady atmosphere of the Polish Solidarity movement's bold challenge to Soviet-style communist rule. Initially a supporter of Poland's Soviet-imposed post-war regime, he served in its diplomatic corps from 1945 to 1950 before becoming disillusioned with communism and defecting in 1951. He made his home in France before moving to...

Physics Year Nobel Laureate Country of birth 2003 Ginzburg, Vitaly L. "for pioneering contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids" Russia 2000 Alferov, Zhores I. "for basic work on information and communication technology" Russia 1997 Cohen-Tannoudji, Claude "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light" Algeria 1996 Lee, David M. "for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3" USA 1995 Perl, Martin L. "for the discovery of the tau lepton " Russia 1995 Reines, Frederick "for the detection of the neutrino" USA 1992 Charpak, Georges "for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the...