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Discussion Leaders:
Dates:
April 11-15, 2005
Reading Assignments: (Submit question)
Monday, April 11
Biography of Johannes Fibiger (1926 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology)
MRI's inside story (notice the quotation in the article by Vandy's own John Gore)
Be prepared to discuss the following questions:
“With hindsight, we can spot the blind alleys of yesteryear, but who can say which are the blind alleys of today?”
Should the Nobel Prize be revoked? Consider the Yasser Arafat Petition.
What would an appeals process do to the reputation of the Nobel Prize? Would it diminish the Prize’s reputation?
Wednesday, April 13
Friday, April 15
A critical history (& next 2 pages)
Why Moniz's Nobel should be taken away, with references to the account on the official Nobel site
Website with a lot of information, feel free to look around
GAME! Play for hours; feel like you've had your own lobotomy!
Be prepared to discuss the following questions:
1) If you had a loved one with a mental disease in the 1930s, would you consider giving him or her a lobotomy? Keep in mind the other treatment options at the time.
2) The only two prizes given in psychology went to Wagner-Jauregg and Moniz. After the prize was given to Fibiger in 1926, the Nobel committee did not give out another prize in cancer research for quite some time. Do you think the Nobel committee realized its mistakes and later tried to be more wary in what it might have viewed as problematic fields? Does science proceed in such a cautious manner?
3) If you were on the Nobel committee and could go back and redo one mistake (either not giving out a mistaken prize or including someone who was overlooked), what would it be?
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Last updated 4/14/05.