Losing the Nobel Prize - A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor

In Losing the Nobel Prize, cosmologist and inventor of the BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) experiment Brian Keating tells the inside story of BICEP2's mesmerising discovery and the scientific drama that ensued. In an adventure story that spans the globe, Keating takes us on a personal journey of revelation and discovery, bringing to vivid life the highly competitive, take-no-prisoners, publish-or-perish world of modern science. Along the way, he provocatively argues that the Nobel Prize, instead of advancing scientific progress, may actually hamper it, encouraging speed and greed while punishing collaboration and bold innovation.

About the author

Brian Keating is a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego; a Fellow of the American Physical Society; a commercially rated pilot; and the director of the Simons Observatory. He received the 2007 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for his work on BICEP. He lives with his family in La Jolla, California.

Summary

The inside story of a quest to unlock one of cosmology’s biggest mysteries, derailed by the lure of the Nobel Prize.

Product details

• Authors: Brian Keating
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 04.10.2019
• EAN: 9780393357394
• ISBN: 978-0-393-35739-4
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 211 mm x 25 mm
• Weight: 289 g
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Physics, astronomy > Astronomy; Astrophysics, Memoirs, SCIENCE / Physics / Astrophysics, Cosmology & the universe, Cosmology and the universe, SCIENCE / Space Science / Cosmology, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs