Nobel science laureates say that to win the prestigious prize requires creativity, humour and patience, with little aspiration to actually win.
Russian-born professor Konstantin Novoselov, who shares this year’s physics award with Andre Geim, says aspiring to win can harm a scientist’s work.
Dr. Geim, who in 2000 won the Ig Nobel prize, an award that honours research that makes people laugh but also think, for using magnets to levitate a frog, says it helps to not take oneself too seriously.
Economics laureate Dale Mortensen stresses ‘aha’ moments but cautioned that an ‘aha’ moment might turn into “an ‘aha’ decade.”
The laureates were speaking to reporters on Tuesday ahead of the December 10 Nobel awards ceremony in the Swedish capital.
