In 1956, three scientists had Bell Labs in New Jersey won a Nobel Prize for developing

the first transistor. The announcement sent ripples of joy throughout the office. A trio of Nobel

laureates. Wow. Management gathered everyone in an auditorium to gawk at the sudden celebrities, and each scientist made some remarks.

The last to go was physicist Walter Brutane. Partway through, he got choked up and nearly started crying. Very touching.

But the thing was, Bertaine was not crying in joy. He was worried.

At age 54, he still probably had a decade or two of productive research ahead.

But he admitted that he feared winning a Nobel Prize would ruin him.

Which was a strange reaction.

Winning the Nobel Prize is a good thing, right?

Yeah, mostly.

Your name will be etched into history alongside Einstein and the curies and other legends.

You get a big cash prize.

Nobel winners even live two years longer on average compared to those who are merely nominated.

But there are downsides to winning a Nobel.

And today we will examine some of the pitfalls,

including a notorious disorder, sometimes called the Nobel disease.

From the Science History Institute, this is Sam Keene and The Disappearing Spoon,

a topsy, turvy, sciencey history podcast, where footnotes become the real story.

These days, Richard Feynman is a legendary physicist, as beloved for his manic personality as for his brilliant research.

But in the late 1940s, he was not feeling very brilliant.

He had just finished working on the Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb.

And given that impressive pedigree, people were pressuring him to research big things,

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