Sky & Telescope March 2002 [antikvár]

SpectrumEyes on the PrizeNobody goes into astronomy to get rich. Most astronomers are driven instead by intense curiosity about the universe around us. All the same, no astronomer vi'ould turn down a big check, especially one with no strings attached a Nobel Prize, for instance. Too bad there isn't a Nobel Prize in our field. True, some astronomers have won Nobels, but fortheir contributions to physics. Just imagine: the phone rings, you hear a voice with a Swedish accent on the line, and suddenly you have an extra million dollars in the bank (unless you have to share the prize with others, In which case you get "only" a few hundred thousand).Minus the Swedish accent, a scenario like this has played out for quite a few astronomers over the last 20 years, thanks to the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Whereas the Nobel Prize recognizes past achievements, the MacArthur Fellowship or "genius grant" recognizes the potential for future achievements. I was delighted, and not at all surprised, when I heard in October that David N. Spergel of Princeton University was among the newest crop of MacArthur fellows and $500,000 the richer for it. A brilliant cosmologist, he and I overlapped in graduate school at Harvard in the early 1980s. I remember being awed by the power of his intellect and amazed (but, again, not surprised) when he earned his Ph.D. in half the time it took me. Congratulations, David!Another lucrative award is the Cosmology Prize of the Virgin Islands-based Peter Gruber Foundation, now cosponsored by the International Astronomical Union. Last September this $150,000 windfall went to Sir Martin Rees, Britain's Astronomer Royal. He's a rare astronomer who, admirably, spends as much time explaining astronomy to the public as he spends in his office trying to unravel some of the most complex mysteries of modern science. Bravo, Sir Martin!The great thing about these awards is that they celebrate nothing practical or heroic, just our basic human quest for knowledge and understanding.There's one other important prize for which astronomers are eligible: the Ig Nobel. Awarded annually since 1991 by the tongue-in-cheek Annals of Improbable Research, it honors people whose achievements "cannot or should not be reproduced." The 2001 Ig Nobel Prize for astrophysics went to televangelists Jack and Rexeila Van Impe of Rochester Hills, Michigan. Last March, in a broadcast I inexplicably missed, they explained their "discovery" that black holes meet all the technical requirements of hell. Unfortunately for the Van Impes, the Ig Nobel Prize doesn't come with cash. But, given that they've opened our eyes to a previously overlooked aspect of black holes, I'm sure they can bank on the appreciation of the world's astronomers.8 March 2002 | Sky & Telescope