Beautiful Minds: capture the spirit of nobel achievement
A British Library Exhibition: 7th December 2005 - 15th March 2006
"There was no importance to what I
was doing, but ultimately there was"
Richard Feynman,
Nobel Laureate Physics, 1965
The anatomy of genius - the personalities, their ideas and habits, and the creative milieux that fostered them - is examined in a new exhibition at the British Library celebrating over a century of Nobel Prize laureates. Films and newspapers, objects from the laboratory or intimate to the personality of the winner, audio and interactive displays, are used to tell the stories of how these individuals came to deliver the breakthrough which gained them the attention of the Nobel Committee.
Of the 700 people who have been honoured since the Nobel prizes were first awarded in 1901, the lives of thirty are considered in detail, including : Francis Crick and James Watson (the structure of the DNA molecule); Alexander Fleming (penicillin); Samuel Beckett (Literature, 1969); Nelson Mandela (Peace, 1993); Wilhelm Roentgen (the discovery of the X-ray); Roger Sperry (discovery of the functions of the two halves of the brain); and many more.
The exhibition also focuses on ten places that stand out in the history of the Nobel prize, 'creative milieux' which have generated a remarkably large number of Nobel Prizes in the course of the 20 th century, among them Cambridge University, Berkeley (California), Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Chicago, and Tokyo. These environments fostered creativity and enabled creative collaboration - but they were also arenas of bitter disagreement and fierce competition.
The British Library will host a series of events around the theme of Beautiful Minds, including a varied and stimulating programme of public talks. The Right Hon. Tony Benn MP will speak on 'The Creative Statesman'. A debate between Prof. George Steiner of Cambridge University and Dr Horace Engdahl of the Swedish Academy will ask 'Do we need the Nobel Prizes?'. Prof. Lisa Jardine will consider 'The Creative Scientist'.
Academics from the Nobel Institute will tackle the thorny issue of 'Why didn't they win?', about the many very eminent people, such as Gandhi, who were never awarded a Nobel prize. Dr Jim Bennett, Keeper of History of Science Museum, Oxford University, will talk on 'Einstein as Celebrity'. Richard Dawkins will explore the strangeness of science. Prof. Lord Winston will look at IVF and genetics. Carl Djerassi will probe the tricky subject of 'Nobel Science and Nobel Lust'. Anita Roddick will consider 'The Creative Entrepreneur'.
There are shades of light and dark in some of the discoveries made by the minds that were later honoured with Nobel Prizes. Indeed, the most famous invention of the Swede Alfred Nobel, inventor and idealist, was dynamite. "I should like to invent a substance or a machine of such terrible destruction that it would make war forever impossible", he once said to a friend.
With more than 300 patents to his name, Nobel's success in his commercial ventures enabled him to leave an enduring legacy to the world on his death in 1856. His will established a fund which would award prizes in 5 specified fields annually: physics and chemistry (Nobel's own areas of scientific specialisation), medicine, literature and peace. In 1969, a sixth prize was added - for economic science. Nobel's desire was to reward those who "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".
For further press information contact Anna Arthur/Krista Tuchscherer at Anna Arthur PR on: +44 (0)20 7637 2994 or email anna@aapr.co.uk or Lawrence Christensen in the British Library Press Office: +44 (0)20 7412 7115 or email: lawrence.christensen@bl.uk
Notes for editors
The exhibition was developed by the Nobel Foundation and the Nobel Museum in Stockholm . The British Library will draw on its own collections to enhance the exhibits and give Beautiful Minds a unique 'fingerprint'.
Global sponsor: Volvo. The exhibition comes to the British Library from San Francisco. After London, it will travel to India and Singapore.