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NEWS FEATURE NATURE|Vol 447|24 May 2007 Signing on When you win a Nobel prize, you become much in demand. Eric Sorensen takes a look at how laureates decide which worthy causes to lend their name to. alf a century has passed since chemist Linus Pauling spearheaded one of the biggest petitions ever in Hscience. More than 11,000 scientists, including 36 of Pauling’s fellow Nobel laure- ates, signed on to call for the “ultimate effec- tive abolition of nuclear weapons”. The petition led to the first international attempt to control nuclear weapons — the Partial Test Ban Treaty. And on the same day in 1963 that the treaty went into effect, the Norwegian Nobel Com- mittee announced that Pauling would receive to Humanity on their value has the peace prize to go with his 1954 Nobel Prize the environment decreased, says in Chemistry. was signed by about Peter Agre, who won Scientific petitions graced by laureates have half of the living Nobel laure- the Nobel Prize in Chemistry become common tools of activism — clamour- ates in the sciences, for a total of roughly 1,700 in 2003 and is now vice chancellor for science SPIEGEL/CORBIS T. ing to free the unjustly imprisoned and cure a researchers. Five years later, no fewer than 110 and technology at Duke University School myriad of perceived ills, from drug laws to inad- laureates signed the group’s Call for Action on of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina. “The equate research funding to nuclear proliferation. global warming. more you sign and respond to, the less valuable Having a Nobel laureate’s name on a petition Politicians also routinely summon laureates — your service is,” he says. Since winning the prize, almost guarantees it extra attention: in a news- or at least their signatures — to their pet causes. Agre has signed petitions opposing the inclu- paper story’s first paragraph, if not its headline. During the 1996 presidential race, Bill Clinton sion of intelligent design in science curricula The past year alone has seen laureates’ sig- had seven Nobel laureates backing his budget and seeking leniency for an infectious-disease natures on petitions to make publicly funded plan; his Republican rival Bob Dole had four. specialist charged with mishandling lethal bio- academic research available for free on the In 2004, George W. Bush’s campaign mustered logical agents. He also supported the candidacy Internet; decriminalize homosexuality in India; only six Nobel laureates to deride the tax plan of of Kerry — along with 47 other laureates. raise the US minimum wage; decry the Bush Democratic nominee John Kerry, which had the administration’s alleged politicization of sci- backing of 10 Nobel economists. Great minds think alike ence; and restrict the US president’s authority And that illustrates a fundamental problem So how does a Nobelist, newly inundated with to order nuclear strikes against with the Nobels: tease out the fame and requests, sort through the competing, nations without nuclear weap- inner workings of matter, and well-meaning demands for his or her time and ons. And last week in Jordan, you become a Nobel laureate; name? For Agre, it means looking at who else about 35 laureates gathered at sign a petition, and you become is already involved; if he sees other respected the third Petra conference to a number. Roald Hoffmann of names on a petition, such as Harold Varmus discuss major world issues; it Cornell University in Ithaca, from the University of California School of concluded with the launch of New York, won the 1982 Nobel Medicine in San Francisco and winner of the a US$10-million fund to bol- Prize in Chemistry. He says that 1989 prize for medicine, then he’s in. ster scientific projects in the laureates become a sort of com- Nicholaas Bloembergen, emeritus of Harvard Middle East. modity from the moment he or University in Cambridge, an honorary professor As the high-powered scien- she is asked if their name can be at the University of Arizona and winner of the tific petition has grown, signa- used. “It’s a kind of detachment 1981 prize for physics, says that he is asked to IMAGES LIFE PICTURES/GETTY CRAVENS/TIME D. ture gathering has become its of the person from the subject,” sign petitions half a dozen times a year. He signs own industry. Leading the way he says. “Do they really want to about once a year, acting as a physicist on scien- is the watchdog group Union of know what I think? Or do they tific issues such as federal funding for research Concerned Scientists in Cam- Linus Pauling gained worldwide just want my name?” and as a well-read citizen on social issues such bridge, Massachusetts, whose support for his petition to As the number of Nobel- as overpopulation. He was, for instance, one of 1992 World Scientists’ Warning abolish nuclear weapons. signed petitions has risen, 41 laureates signing a protest against the Iraq 374 NATURE|Vol 447|24 May 2007 NEWS FEATURE war and one of 100 laureates to warn in 2001 “There is no petition stars’ and sports figures’ that world security hangs on environmental and so stupid that it cannot names on petitions,” says social reform. get at least a handful of Philip Anderson of Prin- Robert Solow, from the Massachusetts Insti- signatures from Nobel ceton University in New tute of Technology in Cambridge and winner laureates,” economist Jersey, who won the 1977 of the 1987 prize for economics, signs no more George Stigler told a Nobel Prize in Physics. “Is than half the times he is asked and he tries to group of students at the there any reason a sports stick to economics issues, recently advocating University of Chicago in figure would know more for a rise in the minimum wage. Illinois in 1970 — 12 years about famine or any other IMAGES EKSTROMER/AFP/GETTY J. before he himself won the issue?” Stairway to heaven Nobel prize. To many, the conse- Solow says that: “The big difficulty is usually Even the best-inten- quences of remaining that you’re asked to put your signature to some tioned petition can fail to silent are too great to statement that someone else has written.” If the measure up to its signato- ignore. “The majority of statement is not in line with his thinking, he ries’ hopes. For instance, Nobel prizewinners are figures he has no business signing it; if he agrees the 1992 ‘warning to willing to use the ‘power with it in broad terms but not in specifics, he humanity’ encompassed of shame’ to inform the then asks if his disagreement with the author is a wide range of environ- public about develop- minor enough. And he breaks little sweat over mental issues, including Peter Agre’s work on water channels won ments that should not “general statements about peace and things like ozone depletion, water him the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. be accepted,” says Ger- that. It’s not my specialty but I read it over and pollution, declining fish- man physicist Klaus von figure when I get to the pearly gates, St Peter eries, degraded soils, destroyed rainforests, spe- Klitzing, director of the Max Planck Institute for won’t turn me away for favouring peace”. cies extinctions, overpopulation and poverty. Its Solid State Research in Stuttgart, and winner of Aaron Ciechanover of the Ruth and Bruce release coincided with United Nations debate the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1985. Rappaport Faculty of Medicine in Haifa, Israel, over actions outlined at the Earth Summit in and winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemis- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, earlier that year. Yet few History repeats try in 2004, faces a lot of local newspapers gave it more than Dudley Herschbach of Harvard University and demands for his attention. He is “You have to do what a brief mention. “It is a very winner of the 1986 prize for chemistry, sees his often asked and signs a few peti- you can to get some powerful and beautifully writ- activism as part of a long American tradition tions — for instance, a petition ten document and it was just that stretches back to Benjamin Franklin, the calling on Israeli prime minister attention.” totally ignored,” says Cana- eighteenth-century statesman and scientist. As Ehud Olmert to open contacts — Dudley Herschbach dian biologist and broadcaster an active laureate, Herschbach sits on the board with Syria and Hamas, or a call David Suzuki. “To me that is of the Council for a Livable World in Washing- to the government in Sudan to stop the murder a stunning indictment of the kind of society ton DC. This political-action group was created in Darfur. “I do not think that as a Nobel lau- we have that scientists are marginalized by the by physicist Leó Szilárd, the person who first reate my opinion is better or carries any extra media,” he says. Gelb, for his part, thinks that the imagined a nuclear chain reaction and the leader weight than that of anybody else,” he says. “Yet laureates watered down their message by asking of the Manhattan Project petition that failed to I am guided by my principles and conscience for too many things at once. keep President Harry Truman from using the and am voicing my opinion on issues I think are Still, laureates interviewed for this story atomic bomb on Japanese civilians. Herschbach, important. At the end, it may add up.” would like to think that their support counts for his part, worries about the 1,000 tonnes or Yet for all their celebrity, Nobelists seem to be for something.