Comments on: Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the Nobelest Aussie of them all?

By: Vortex

Vortex — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:35:51 +0000

“With a population of just over 21 million, Australia is one of the leading Nobel Prize–winning countries in per capita terms.” — Australian Government (according to this article.)

Fucking bullshit. Australia, at least according to Nationmaster’s statistics, Australia comes in at number 18 on a per capita basis, while Wikipedia puts it at number 25. Does anyone have any more accurate figures at our “leading” position?

Or does coming in at around twentieth position on a very long tail of the scores of countries on this planet make us leaders? If so, then I guess that Iceland should be slapping itself on the back for being an Olympic Games leader as it appears at position 23.

How can the government publish such jingoistic crap?

By: jossy

jossy — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:19:51 +0000

I’m just happy to see that all the Nobel Prize’s awarded to Australians have been real Nobel Prizes and not the bastard bought Economics one. I’d be interested to know how many of those 260 of the US are for the joke Economics prize. That would bring their per head figures down somewhat I imagine.

By: sblake

sblake — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:19:40 +0000

ElisabethBalckburn is the second female Austarlian to win the Nobel. Professor Lesley Hughes, Head of the Department of Biology at Macquarie University, was a joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, as a member of the International Panel on Climate Change.

By: David Robinson

David Robinson — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:23:10 +0000

Actually, I’d have thought 4.63% a rather generous estimate.

David Robinson

By: Richard Goodwin

Richard Goodwin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:14:58 +0000

Well done to Melanie Mahoney for a nicely written article. Clear and simple; an easy read.

By: Perry Gretton

Perry Gretton — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:14:54 +0000

For what it’s worth, Jack Szostak is British-born.