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For Sale: One Nobel Prize Medal (Slightly Used, By Francis Crick)
Hugh Pickens writes "UPI reports that for the first time in the history of Nobel Prize, one of the Nobel Prize medals, along with the diploma presented by the Nobel committee, is on auction — with an opening bid of $250,000. Awarded to Francis Crick, who along with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1962 'for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material,' the medal will be auctioned off in New York City, by Heritage Auctions. The medal has been kept in a safe deposit box in California since Crick's widow passed away in 2007 and a portion of the proceeds will go to the Francis Crick Institute of disease research scheduled to open in London in 2015. '"By auctioning his Nobel it will finally be made available for public display and be well looked after. Our hope is that, by having it available for display, it can be an inspiration to the next generation of scientists," says Crick's granddaughter, Kindra Crick. "My granddad was honored to have received the Nobel Prize, but he was not the type to display his awards; his office walls contained a large chalkboard, artwork and a portrait of Charles Darwin."'"
When I see things like these, especially with grandkids as the spokespeople, it just makes me think it's a cash grab. It's not due to any "inspirational" mojo behind hanging it up somewhere. If that were the case, they should just donate it outright, and maybe have people pay a couple bucks a gander, and toss that to the Francis Crick Institute. Not "a portion" of the proceeds, which could be $10 on a potential windfall.
That was the "peace" prize. This is the science prize. Big difference
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
I'll give you $50!
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Award them to the relatives of Rosalind Franklin.
Someone should have told him to stop trying to use it in vending machines...
It would be great to buy this and donate it to the Rosalind Franklin Society ... http://www.rosalindfranklinsociety.org/
"Asleep at the switch? I wasn't asleep, I was drunk!" -- Homer
More likely, he has 12 of them in the back they just aren't selling, and $20 to have it cleaned and $20 to have it framed, $10 tops.
Are they restricting the bids to museums?
I see no where that private individual cannot buy this to add to their personal collection.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
That way, he'd be able to claim that he's a Nobel-holding doctor, rather than just a doctor!
I am officially gone from
Here is a link to the item, it is being auctioned off by Heritage Auctions: http://historical.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=6093&lotIdNo=50001
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Next time, he should check.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
This is totally not off topic, Obama's Nobel metal for not being Bush degraded the reputation of all Nobel prices.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
That's gotta be worth something
Crick may have been a brilliant microbiologist, but he certainly doesn't know shit about business.
Well, to be fair to Dr. Crick, he's been dead since 2004, so knowing much of anything is probably a pretty big challenge for him.
You're right. It's unique and pretty neat. There's a great story to it. But it's not everyday that someone comes in to the shop looking for a Nobel Prize. It's gonna take up space on a shelf for years.
sudo make me a sandwich
LOL. Maybe the crick in his neck distracted him from checking?
The typo is in TFA as well, so I'm not sure proofreading would have helped. It is, after all, quite possible her name actually is Kindra Check (it isn't, I checked).
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
I have a buddy who's an expert on Nobel Prize for Medicine medals. Let me give him a call.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Get it bronzed instead.
Once upon a time, someone *might* have argued that they both had to be earned, and not handed out lightly or for political purposes.
THL phish sticks
They're not worth even that, after Obama got his for sustaining war, torture and murdering own citizens.
Well, he got it for being elected, if they want to give him a prize for sustaining war, torture and murdering own citizens then they're going to have to give him another.
Tom Lehrer famously said that political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I think it's been more or less a joke since well before that.
Though it is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee which has different standards and values to Karolinska Institutet or Swedish Academy of Science.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
It would be worth more if it wasn't personalized.
Maybe they haven't cricked, erm CHECKED it thoroughly.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Poo on buying the medal: they should release the CAD data so we all can download and print our very own 3D copy.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
That's why I called out Hugh Pickens as well. After I double checked to make sure I was correct. This is some sloppy shiznit, because we're doing the job that the editor is supposed to be doing. Hugh may very well have made the original error, but it should have been caught by Timothy.
*shakes head*. I don't know. After more than a decade as a slashdotter, I may just have to ask to have my account disabled and move on. This is just pathetic.
Perhaps Michael Mann would be interested.
Dark Reflection
Yes, how dare he make money and provide employment. Doesn't he know that the government wants people to be slaves to the entitlement mentality and them provide them with all sorts of free stuff, penalize them for trying to break their shackles and blame the conservatives for not doing enough.
The Timothy correction bot is hard at work - two errors I have noticed in today's posts have been corrected within minutes of each other. Yet no post of thanks from Timothy for noticing the discrepancies. I'm depressed.
If he was a really brilliant microbiologist, death wouldn't have stopped him.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
If it comes with the Prize Money, I bid half a million.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Corpus has the money; it could afford it. It's historically relevant, and I could think of nothing better than to hold a raise a pint in their honour.
And then maybe chase it bitterly with a bottle of Jack Daniels, in tribute to young Miss Rosalind Franklin from whom they stole so much.
You give something to somewhat they can do what they like with it. A lot more interesting prize is loaning an award to someone for a year- like the Stanley Cup.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Did the submitter even read the article? It clearly said that Aage Bohr's medal was sold last year.
Could just be legalese to the effect that the auction house usually takes a percentage, but who really knows.
Wasn't Nobel the guy that invented TNT explosives?
Yes there are non-military uses for explosives, but still. Since the inception it seems a bit skechy to me.
Probably saved a lot of migrant worker lives who didn't have to use a glass vial of nitro for mining I am sure, but then also used to blow up people in times of war also. Could say the same about atomic research I suppose. It is all about how it is applied I suppose.
However somethings are a little more "peaceful" than others.
It's already been mentioned that Obummer's medal was for "peace". This is for science. There's a difference.
Isn't this the guy who came up with the structure for DNA while on LSD?
-Myke
Why would anyone want it? It's not like they can somehow borrow the achievement that earned it by having it on their mantelpiece. Well I guess they could try to change the name to their own and tell anyone who will listen that they received a Nobel prize. What does the prize look like anyway? Maybe the granddaughter can just write in the name of the auction winner with magic marker or something. Maybe for 300,000+ she would be willing to cross out the other names as well so that you don't have to share the prize. I can't picture the kind of person who would want someone else's Nobel prize even for free let alone for 250k. It's sort of like buying someone else's university diploma.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Naw... Zombies don't need marrow. It's when you're reanimating skeletons that you need to start thinking about that. Not that I'd know, because I don't practice the dark art of necromancy.
(Igor, do you think I got away with that, or do I now need to unleash my undead hordes on the Slashdot readership?)
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Unfortunately, microorganisms aren't exactly rocket scientists....
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
I'm amazed you know that much, and yet are apparently still so ignorant. The idea was that dynamite (NOT TNT; they aren't the same thing) and the other munitions he invented would be a terrible thing to be remembered for (an obituary accidentally published prior to his death did in fact make a great deal out of his works in the field of armaments (calling him "the merchant of death"). He established the prizes, donating the vast majority of his estate to the purpose, as a way to further the causes of progress and peace.
It's been claimed that he (as many people before and after would think, of similar inventions) actually hoped dynamite would make war *too* costly, so that nobody would dare engage in it. I haven't found proper citation for that, though. So far, the only weapon to come close to that has been atomic bombs on long-range missiles, which have deterred war only between superpowers.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Guess what. I was fully aware of that, karma whore.
Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
Well, he got it for being elected, if they want to give him a prize for sustaining war, torture and murdering own citizens then they're going to have to give him another.
I argue that NPP encouraged him to sustain and extend genocidal activity, thus making his prize "for" that activity, like a grant.
Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
Read up on the discoveries in question. You just might discover it wasn't Watson and Crick who actually made them.
Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
There are many personal pet projects in the Peace Prize committee, Obama and the EU was trumped through the group by Jagland.
(EU is at least a worthy contender, regardless of the current status, though the timing is of course right.)
The way I understand the Obama prize, Jagland interpreted the will with emphasis on the inspiration towards peace efforts, a property which Obama is ascribed in most of Europe. So when people ask what Obama did to deserve it, the answer is that he inspired the masses in a way beneficial to peace.
A pretty weak justification IMHO.
Defining Statistics and Social Research
Best comment chain here, where are all my mod points :[
Modern economics is all just made up as we go along. Ever increasing house prices? Sure, why not! High risk loans? Yeah, no problem. It we break a million almost-definite-to-default loans into a million tiny little pieces, there's absolutely no risk!
And many claim it was modern economics that sh@t all over democracy at the last UK general election. Minority government? Oh no, that would be bad for our credit rating, so the LibDems signed up to government that they (and more notably their voters) didn't believe in.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Not sure as to why you think I am ignorant. TNT and dynamite are clearly the same thing, AC/DC said so.
As for the rest of your post about creating a "peace prize" so that he wouldn't be remembered as a "Merchant of Death" only proves my point rather than refuting it.
As to how stabalized explosives makes war too costly, I am not sure how that really works. It is essentially a safer way as far as a delivery system to transport a big chemical explosion somewhere (well safer anyway but not foolproof as seen in the Halifax Explosion).
you responded to me regarding your BS answer...and who is the karma whore again???
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
No, I responded to you regarding YOUR bullshit. You.
Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.