Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor

Join Professor Brian Keating for the inside story of a quest to unlock one of cosmology’s biggest mysteries, derailed by the lure of the Nobel Prize. 

 

What would it have been like to be an eyewitness to the Big Bang? In 2014, astronomers wielding BICEP2, the most powerful cosmology telescope ever made, thought they'd glimpsed the spark that ignited the Big Bang. Millions around the world tuned in to the announcement, and Nobel whispers began to spread. But had these cosmologists truly read the cosmic prologue or, driven by ambition in pursuit of Nobel gold, had they been deceived by a galactic mirage? In Losing the Nobel Prize, cosmologist Brian Keating - who first conceived of the BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) experiments - tells the inside story of BICEP2's detection and the ensuing scientific drama. Along the way, Keating provocatively argues that the Nobel Prize actually hampers scientific progress by encouraging speed and competition while punishing inclusivity, collaboration, and bold innovation. To build on BICEP2's efforts to reveal the cosmos' ultimate secrets - indeed, to advance science itself - the Nobel Prize must be radically reformed.

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Professor Brian Keating is a cosmologist at the University of California San Diego. An author of 100+ scientific publications and two U.S. Patents, Keating received his B.S. from Case Western Reserve University in 1993 and his Ph.D. from Brown University in 2000. Later, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford and Caltech, and in 2007 he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for inventing the BICEP telescope. Keating was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2016 and is Principal Investigator of the Simons Observatory collaboration in Chile. He is a commercial pilot with multi-engine, instrument ratings and is a Trustee of the San Diego Air & Space Museum.