This is your host, Michael Sherman, and you're listening to Science Salon, a series of conversations

with leading scientists, scholars, and thinkers about the most important issues of our time.

Since you're a big numbers guy, I did a back of the envelope calculation.

There's been 923 people have been awarded the Nobel Prize.

Since they've been giving it out, I estimate there's been about 12.

And a half billion people have lived.

So you are one of 0.000000.000.000.

7.85% of the human population.

What's it like to win the Nobel Prize? To go there and get it and...

Well, let me describe what the first thing that happens is you're sound asleep.

And at 2.15 a.m. there's this telephone call.

And so I went semi-naked into my wife's study where the telephone is and answered it and voice on the other

end as the Secretary General of the Nobel Foundation who said it will not surprise you that we're awarding you the Nobel Prize this year.

And I responded, it doesn't surprise me at all, but I'm very disappointed because it should have gone to the entire LIGO team that discovered gravitational

waves and not to me and I would have thought that by now, after the experience of the Higgs

boson, which should have gone to the entire team that made that discovery and not to three individuals,

you would have figured out how to do this.

Right, they have a rule, it can only go to three, right?

That's right.

And no posthumous and so and so they said he said well

we've been talking about that we could change it but we have not done so and

we'll be happy to continue the discussion with you when you get to Stockholm, which we did do.

...