Thirty Years Between Discovery and Award... Why Does the Nobel Prize Take Decades? [Capturing 125 Years of Nobel Era] ③

The Weight of Discovery, Proven Over Time

Natural Science Nobel Prizes in the 2010s Took an Average of 29 Years

L'Huillier's 1987 Discovery Was Awarded the Nobel Prize After 36 Years

Editor's Note125 years have passed since the first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901. Science has shifted from an era of discoveries made by individual geniuses to one in which thousands of people and artificial intelligence (AI) work together. The Asia Business Daily examines, over the course of seven articles, how the subjects and methods of scientific discovery have changed throughout 125 years of the Nobel Prize, and how the Prize itself is reflecting these transformations.

Professor Anne L'Huillier of Lund University in Sweden, the 2023 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, is examining laser experimental equipment in her laboratory. In 1987, L'Huillier observed high-order harmonic generation in an experiment where a strong laser passed through a gas. This research later became the foundation of science for observing electron movement at the attosecond scale (one ten-quadrillionth of a second). She received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2023, 36 years after the first observation. Provided by Jenny Leyman/Lund University

In 1987, in a laboratory in France, physicist Anne L'Huillier observed an unexpected phenomenon while shining a powerful infrared laser on an inert gas. It was "high-order harmonic generation," in which the interaction between the laser and the gas produced a series of light waves with frequencies far higher than the incident light.

No one at the time realized that this phenomenon would open up a whole new field called "attosecond physics." L'Huillier herself later recalled in an interview with the Nobel Foundation that, while she sensed the result was exciting, she could not have anticipated its full impact.

It was subsequently revealed that high-order harmonics could be used to create extremely short pulses of light, and in 2001, research teams led by Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz succeeded in generating light pulses on the attosecond scale. One attosecond is one hundred quintillionth of a second, and with this, science gained the ability to observe the motion of electrons inside atoms and molecules—something that had previously been nearly impossible.

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to L'Huillier, Agostini, and Krausz. It had been 36 years since L'Huillier first observed high-order harmonics.

A Discovery Is Not Complete at the Moment of Birth

The gap between discovery and Nobel Prize recognition has been growing wider. According to an analysis by the international journal "Nature," the time lag between a Nobel laureate’s key scientific achievement and the award in the science fields more than doubled, from an average of 14 years before 1960 to an average of 29 years in the 2010s. For instance, Donna Strickland, recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics, developed "chirped pulse amplification (CPA)" in 1985, but was honored 33 years later.

Jin Ho Jung, president of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, noted, "The full significance of a discovery is not always revealed at the moment it is made. Only after the passage of time, accumulation of subsequent research, and broadening of perspective is it possible to truly prove how much a discovery has expanded the frontiers of human knowledge."

The Time for Science to Filter Its Own Errors: 'Verification'

Another key reason for this decades-long lag is verification.

Until the early 1980s, gastritis and stomach ulcers were mainly attributed to stress or excessive stomach acid. Robin Warren of Australia observed bacteria in the stomach lining, and together with Barry Marshall, succeeded in culturing a bacterium in 1982, later named Helicobacter pylori. Yet they had to overcome skepticism from the scientific community. In 1984, Marshall went so far as to conduct a self-experiment by ingesting the bacteria, and only after years of accumulating evidence did they receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2005. It was 23 years after their first success in culturing the bacterium.

Jinhee Yoon, president of the Korean Physical Society, emphasized, "Only after experimental reproduction and verification can a finding be accepted as scientific consensus. Even when discoveries are made using advanced technologies such as AI, the process of verification to ensure their authenticity cannot be omitted."

Just as an initial claim may later be proven false, or an unusual observation may become a well-established truth through verification, the time before recognition acts as a self-correcting period for the scientific community to filter out its own errors.

Barry Marshall (left) and Robin Warren, Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine in 2005. Through collaborative research at the Royal Perth Hospital in Australia, the two discovered that Helicobacter pylori causes gastritis and peptic ulcers. The discovery, which began in 1982, was later confirmed through various studies, and the two jointly received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 23 years later, in 2005. Photo by The Nobel Prize

'Slow Nobel Prizes' and Their Message to the Korean Scientific Community

Of course, this type of 'delay' is not without drawbacks. Because the Nobel Prize is only awarded to those who are alive at the time of selection, the longer the gap, the more likely it is that even those who made crucial contributions may not be recognized during their lifetime.

Nevertheless, the slowness of the Nobel Prize is a stern reminder that a single paper cannot instantly become a great discovery. Only when a finding stands up to verification, gives rise to further research, and eventually leads to new industries and academic fields, can its true value be demonstrated.

President Jung stressed that this point is particularly significant for the Korean scientific community. He suggested that even if immediate, visible results are lacking, Korea must foster an environment that supports and patiently observes basic research and challenging projects carrying a high risk of failure over the long term.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.