Tom Breton <tehom at REMOVEpanNOSPAMix.com> wrote:
>Few of them were in the sciences (11 counting Marie Curie and her
>daughter 3 times),
>>Almost all the women's science prizes were shared (always with men),
Most science prizes are shared.
>Both the unshared women's science prizes suggest lowered standards:
>"for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones.", "for
>her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important
>biochemical substances." Both seem to consist of applying existing
>techniques (radioimmunoassays, X-ray techniques) to fresh data. Good
>work, and I don't criticize it, but a man wouldn't get a Nobel for it,
>I think.
The Nobel Foundation awards exactly one prize per year. The work in question
was deemed more significant than any other among the nominees of the year; I
don't choose to second guess the committee in their evaluation of the
importance of the work. That few women have been honored shows that there is
no particular reason to believe a quota system exists. Since all of science
is built on the shoulders of others it is usually possible to claim that a
discovery is the result of applying existing X to new circumstances Y.
lojbab
