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Want to win a Nobel Prize? Live long and prosper

Posted on: Monday, 10 October 2005, 01:16 CDT

By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Psst! Want to win a Nobel Prize?

Live long, don't smoke or drink too much alcohol, eat a balanced diet and take holidays, because it may take 50 years for your discovery to be recognized by the Nobel committee.

Also don't tell too many people about your idea or it may be stolen, and write good English because your discovery needs to be a memorable story if it's to be deemed worthy of a Nobel.

So says Australian Nobel prize-winning scientist Peter Doherty in his new book "The Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize."

Doherty won the 1996 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine, along with Swiss colleague Rolf Zinkernagel, for discovering the nature of cellular immune defense.

His book coincides with Australia's latest Nobel success after scientists Barry Marshall and Robin Warren won for their 1982 discovery that a bacterium, rather than stress, caused stomach ulcers and inflammation.

Doherty's autobiography is predominantly the tale of a scientist's life but its final chapter -- "How to Win a Nobel" -- sets out his ideas about the dos and don'ts of a Nobel life.

"So you want to win a Nobel Prize: to become famous, powerful and maybe even very wealthy? If that's your ambition I can't help you," he writes.

"There is no instruction manual or course that can guide you to a Nobel Prize and, numerically speaking, most of us have more chance of winning an Olympic gold medal."

However, don't despair. Doherty does have suggestions on how budding scientists can give themselves a long shot at a Nobel.

"Try to solve major problems and make really big discoveries" might sound obvious, but Doherty says people intelligent enough to identify a major problem at Nobel level are rare, to the point they are "probably alien life forms."

"Discovery is different. Nobody can decide to discover something, but there are ways of making a discovery and results," writes Doherty. "Accept nothing at face value and get in the habit of thinking unconventionally. Work hard, work smart and, with a bit of luck, serendipity will play its part."

EAT AND DRINK MODERATELY

Australians Marshall and Warren are good examples of Doherty's advice that prospective Nobel winners need to be patient and long-lived. They won their prize for medicine more than 20 years after making their discovery.

"Good habits start early: eat and drink moderately, take vacations, don't smoke or over-use recreational drugs (alcohol included), take regular exercise, avoid extreme sports, and seek professional help for suicidal thoughts," Doherty says.

And don't be a dilettante. "Bright people who hop around from one topic to another often achieve very little," he writes.

You will also need a good education. Doherty recommends growing up in an intellectual and supportive family in the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada or Australia. But he adds: "Sometimes the idiosyncratic outsider will rise to the top."

Got a mental block? The big idea just won't come? Then get a pencil and paper and doodle or get physical.

"Human beings think in both words and pictures. Illuminating ideas come at odd times, in the shower, for instance, or on the top of a mountain," writes Doherty

He cites Ilya Mechnikov, who made his 1908 Nobel Medicine Prize discovery poking starfish larvae on the beach and watching inflammatory cells congregate, and Kary Mullis, who came upon his 1993 Nobel Chemistry idea driving alone at night.

Once you've made your big discovery, guard it closely.

"An inadvertent comment in someone's e-mail could provide the necessary clue for a competitor," warns Doherty.

You'll also need to be able to write about your discovery in an entertaining manner.

"Science is about telling good, readable, memorable stories. It isn't necessary to be a Shakespeare or a Michael Ondaatje, but anyone who wants to be recognized as a top scientist must be able to write clear, concise English," Doherty says.

And finally, Doherty says: "Have fun, behave like a winner."

Source: REUTERS

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