Nobel disease

English

Alternative forms

• Nobel Disease

Noun

Nobel disease (uncountable)

1. (humorous or derogatory) The tendency of some Nobel laureates to advance pseudoscientific or fringe ideas, or to claim knowledge beyond their field of expertise.
   • 2015, Jeff Wilser, The Good News About What's Bad For You..., page 53:

     According to many doctors, there was only one problem with [Linus] Pauling’s theories: they were all wrong. Pauling was afflicted with “Nobel disease,” a condition where a master in one field thinks he’s an authority in others, according to Dr. Steven Salzberg, professor of medicine and biostatistics at Johns Hopkins, and a frequent debunker of pseudoscience. “He wasn’t an expert in nutrition. He was just completely wrong about this. All the evidence says he’s wrong.”

   • 2018, Edzard Ernst, Kevin Smith, More Harm Than Good?: The Moral Maze of Complementary and Alternative Medicine‎^[1], page 163:

     Thereafter, he [Luc Montaginer] appears to have contracted the 'Nobel disease', in which success apparently goes to the head of the erstwhile respected scientist, resulting in an embarrassing public embrace of crankery.

   • 2019, David Robson, The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes, unnumbered page:

     Earned dogmatism might also further explain the bizarre claims of the scientists with "Nobel Disease" such as Kary Mullis.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Nobel disease.

Synonyms

• Nobelitis

See also

• ultracrepidarianism