The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean · Sam Kean, Bleav
The Sadder Side of the Nobel Prizes
October 8, 2024·19 min·1 clip
While Prasher's coworker mistook his kiwi for moldy potatoes, scientists were winning Nobels with the DNA he mailed them.
As heard by us
A Nobel story about credit, timing, and the man whose ideas arrived before his luck did.
Douglas Prasher's story lands as a plain lesson in how science can hand out credit unevenly. The episode traces the green fluorescent protein breakthrough from his lab work to the moment he hears, by radio, that the Nobel Prize went to scientists using his ideas and the DNA he…
Why you'd press play
You want the Nobel story where the wrong person nearly vanishes.
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