Stanford Report, October 3, 2001
Take the 'Nobel Challenge'
BY DAWN LEVY
Which category of prize was not stipulated in Alfred Nobel's will, signed in 1895?
A. Economics
B. Peace
C. Chemistry
D. Physics
Answer:
A. The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
was established in 1968.
Which Nobel Prize nominee actually got the award?
A. Thomas Alva Edison
B. Orville Wright
C. Sigmund Freud
D. Tenzin Gyatso
Answer: D. The 14th Dalai Lama received the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.
Which category of Nobel Prize has never been awarded to a woman?
A. Physics
B. Peace
C. Chemistry
D. Economics
Answer: D. The 1995 Economics prize money was shared by a woman, however,
when winner Robert E. Lucas of the University of Chicago split the money
with his ex-wife to honor a clause in their divorce agreement. If he had
won the prize the following year, he would have been able to keep the
whole thing.
What was the invention that brought Alfred Nobel fame and fortune?
A. The automobile
B. Dynamite
C. The phonograph
D. Democracy
Answer: B. Nobel combined nitroglycerine with a form of porous siliceous
earth to form the explosive.
In 2001 the Sweden Post and the U.S. Postal Service issued stamps
to commemorate what anniversary of the Nobel Prizes?
A. 50 years
B. 75 years
C. 100 years
D. 200 years
Answer: C. The year 2001 is the centennial of the Nobel Prize.
Marie Curie won a Nobel Prize in:
A. Chemistry
B. Physics
C. Both chemistry and physics
D. Neither chemistry nor physics
Answer: C. Curie was co-recipient of the 1903 prize for physics and
sole recipient of the 1911 prize for chemistry.
How much is a 2001 Nobel Prize worth in dollars?
A. $100,000
B. $570,453
C. $933,000
D. $1,000,000
Answer: C. That's about 10 million Swedish crowns.
What person or organization never won the Nobel Peace Prize?
A. Yasser Arafat
B. United Nations Peace-Keeping Forces
C. Theodore Roosevelt
D. Mahatma Gandhi
Answer: D. Perhaps the strongest advocate of nonviolence in the 20th
century, Gandhi never received a Nobel Prize, though he was nominated
in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and, finally, a few days before he was murdered
in January 1948.
Four institutions confer the Nobel Prizes. Three are in Sweden, and
the fourth is in what country?
A. Norway
B. Finland
C. The Netherlands
D. Denmark
Answer: A. The peace prize is chosen by a five-member panel selected
by the Norwegian parliament.
The Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies and Banquets take place on Dec.
10 every year, as this date marks:
A. The anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death
B. The anniversary of Alfred Nobel's birth
C. The anniversary of Alfred Nobel's invention of dynamite
D. An arbitrary date selected by Nobel
Answer: A. Alfred Nobel died Dec. 10, 1896.
- AUDIO:
Osheroff gets his Nobel news
- VIDEO:
Stanford's Nobel laureates celebrate
- In
memory of Stanford's deceased laureates
- Other
Nobel connections to the Farm
- An
excerpt from Alfred Nobel's will
- Nobel
laureates to speak at daylong public symposium
- Play
co-authored by Carl Djerassi offers caricature of Nobel Prize selection
process
- Nobel prizes to be announced next week