Archive for Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel

Nature tidbits [23 October 2025]

Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Running, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 27, 2025 by xi'an

In this October issue of nature, plenty of the “usual” topics, namely AI and Trump.2.0 wrecking balls, along with two cosmology entries that related to my trip to the early universe last week, and a pros-and-cons opposition about animal testing,

a discussion on the nature of the “little red dots” that have been recently observed and whose nature remains open, the most popular explanation (I was given during lunch) being black holes surrounded by gas (even though I cannot understand why the gas is not attracted by the black hole!) [and would have produced a more exciting cover!]

a review of the recent book Discordance: The Troubled History of the Hubble Constant by Jim Baggott, entitled Why we still don’t understand the Universe — even after a century of dispute! A review that regrets that more time is spent on the Hubble “constant” (which varies with time!) rather than more controversial issues like dark matter and dark energy (And strangely bemoans that the book is focussed on scientific developments, missing sociological ones. Duh?! (Bonus for a picture of suit-and-tie Edwin Hubble sitting at the centre of a telescope),

two entries on the well-being [or lack thereof] of PhD students, with nothing particularly surprising (eg, inclusivity and respect help!), and Brazil, Australia and Italy ranking top locations but in a comparative study that does not mention France (as often in international comparisons found in Nature) despite the place being in the top 10 countries delivering PhD degrees, not that I believe PhD students are particularly well-treated in French academia!, the (unexplained) surprise being Italy ranking so high given the close resemblance between the two countries (low stipends, shortage of postdoc and permanent positions, high teaching loads for the advisor, limited travel budgets),

a conference (purposedly) made of AI-written papers reviewed by AI referees, Agents4Science 2025, how universities are rushed into adapting to AI-fluent students, whose skills are changing, and the rise in fake authors produced by paper mills, with a limited range of acceptable solutions,

why Trump 2.0‘s blackmail on pharmaceutical companies is counter-productive and likely to slow down progress, and why his massive increase of highly qualified scientists is shooting (or nuking) USelf in the foot, given the huge proportion) of im/emigrated Nobel prize winners (for physics, chemistry, and medicine), along the (post-) Nobel prize in economics is a direct or indirect reply to this regression by awarding the Prize to economists who worked on the importance of creativity and science on growth (not very surprising at first look!)

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NobAIl prAIzes

Posted in Books, pictures, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 11, 2024 by xi'an

I am quite surprised that the NobAIl committee did not select ChatGPT‘s Sam Altman for their literature prize—since he made a reality of monkeys typing at random on a typewriter, hence bound to a.s. produce past and future masterpieces—, now betting on Twitter’s Dorsey, Williams and Stone for their peace prize— for achieving worldwide harmony if within each single-minded community in only 140 characters—, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos for their Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel—for produing the ultimate monopoly of a single worldwide convenience store—, given their picks for physics—with spin glass Ising models that have always sounded to me like the worst possible illustration for MCMC techniques— and chemistry—for a deep learning predictor of protein structures, built by large teams and numerous CPU hours, achieving high success rates if not perfection, but prediction is not explanation, reminding me of Nietzsche’s “physics, too, is only an interpretation and exegesis of the world (to suit us, if I may say so!) and not a world-explanation”—… Keeping their sharp focus on AI’s, corporate funded research, and male recipients… (As coïncidences come, I am currently reading a book of the literature 2024 Nobel recipient, Han Kang, The Vegetarian, that I find stunning and immensely original!)

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Nature snapshots

Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Statistics, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 13, 2024 by xi'an

As I was waiting for my wife when visiting the Doges’ Palace in Venice last week, I read most of one of the issues of Nature I had brought with me to the Serenissima (after they arrived by bulk the week before for unclear reasons).

  • One of the editorials is about AI-assisted design of mathematical conjectures. Reminding me of grant panels I took part in where candidates in pure maths were often focussing on solving one or many conjectures, as opposed to more applied branches (like statistics).
  • Two entries about France, one about Macron’s idea of a European DARPA, unlikely to convince European partners after his calling most unnecessarily an election and bringing the extreme-right to its apex since the Vichy régime. Another one about the super mega campus Paris-Saclay unable to settle on a form of leadership and hence elect a president. Federalist versus centralised… Once again, thanks to Macron’s reckless gamble, his current Ministry for Higher Education may be in need of a position next month and could return to heading the campus.
  • Worrying coverage of bird flu in US cows (not yet pigs on the wing but worrying enough) and of zombie cells that should have died and that new treatments can fight way better.
  • A reflection on coming up with a treaty against AI weapons with autonomous kill decisions but isn’t it too late?!
  • Building design that would avoid total collapse of a failing building, as in South Florida four years ago. But solely for new ones, unfortunately.  (And the connection with lizards escapes me, except for managing to escape by loosing a tail…)
  • A biography of Daniel Kahneman, decision-theorist, 2002 Nobel economics (aka Bank of Sweden) Prize, author of Thinking, Slow and Fast, and spending the WW II in occupied France hiding from round-ups by the Vichy police.

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Nobels away

Posted in University life with tags , , , , , , , , on October 4, 2023 by xi'an


A self-administred poll in Nature about the respondents’ feeling about the prizes, with only 15% thinking it would be preferable to have none. As an absurd concept of singling out one scientist out the flock of top scientists, of comparing chalk and cheese, of idealising “great men” (since winners are predominantly men) with the ensuing hue and cry when they prove fallible, of focussing general public attention on a cartoonesque lone ranger version of scientific research, &tc. And to complete the absurdity, this meaningless statistic of a most common Nobel age!

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causal inference makes it to Stockholm

Posted in Statistics with tags , , , , , , , on October 12, 2021 by xi'an

Yesterday, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens, whose most cited paper is this JASA 1996 article with Don Rubin, were awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2021. It is one of these not-so-rare instances when econometricians get this prize, with causality the motive for their award. I presume this will not see the number of Biometrika submissions involving causal inference go down! (Imbens wrote a book on causal inference with Don Rubin, and is currently editor of Econometrica. And Angrist wrote Mostly Harmless Econometrics, with J.S. Pischke, which I have not read.)

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