Ringside for the Nobels

STOCKHOLM, Sweden--While winning a Nobel Prize seems contingent upon the possession of an industrious and ingenious mind, a familiarity with ballroom dancing and a disposition for partying are also essential for prospective nominees, it seems.

The Nobel Selection Committee won't actually claim that these characteristics factor into the year-long selection process, but after spending a week in Sweden at the Nobel Prizes, it's tough to see how a winner could have made it through without them.

The week was an endless assemblage of concerts, receptions, dinners and lectures--all leading up to the night of the actual prize ceremony.

On that night, the prize ceremony was only the beginning of a 14-hour extravaganza, which swirled into the Nobel Dinner, the Nobel Banquet and the Nobel Nightclub, a late-night party organized by Swedish medical students.

After those 14 hours you could finally understand the essence of word "unbelievable." It seemed unbelievable that an inebriated laureate performed a rendition of a vulgar "ditty" from his youth at the Nobel Nightclub. It seemed unbelievable to have danced with that inebriated laureate. It seemed unbelievable just to have been there.

While our group of 30 participants in the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar missed out on the laureates' intimate dinner with the King of Sweden, we could be spotted at almost every other activity--equipped with cameras and with pens and paper for autographs.

Yet the wild fanaticism with which we pursued these academic giants wore off in a few days, after realizing that they were not made of kryptonite. Instead, they were real people, as awestruck and mystified as we were by the grandeur and history that constantly surrounded us.

At a reception for the laureates highlighted by culinary delights such as handmade Swedish chocolate and cheese puffs, Richard J. Roberts, the joint discoverer of "split genes" and the co-winner of the prize in medicine and physiology, said that he hadn't grasped the full extent of the honor. It was difficult for even a scientist of his magnitude to completely fathom the significance of the laurels bestowed upon him.

"Once you win a Nobel Prize your life will never be the same," explained our hostess at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, where the Physics and Chemistry winners are selected. And even attending the ceremony seems to have the same effect.

We didn't return from Sweden with a hefty monetary stipend or unparalled prestige, as did the laureates. But we did return inspired, intrigued, sleep-deprived and awakened by the humanity of even the world's greatest minds.

Lana Israel '97, a Crimson science writer, had the chance last month to spend Nobel Week in Stockholm.