Waiting for Nobel

The Nobel science prizes will be awarded next week: Medicine on Monday, Physics on Tuesday and Chemistry and Economics on Wednesday. Nothing against the Turing Award and Fields Medal but it is the Nobel that is a household name. Given the increasing connections between computer science and the other sciences, you never know who you might know who might win.

On the Nobel home page one can find some interesting articles on life as a scientist by some Nobel Laureates. Paul Samuelson ends his story with "Always I have been overpaid to do what has been pure fun," which nails the point that the most important requirement to being a successful researcher is to have fun doing it.