--- title: Five Best: Nobel Prizes in Science are Absurd description: Why the Nobel Prizes in science are absurd, mass shootings are a bad way to understand gun violence in America and more. canonical: https://time.com/4968794/nobel-prizes-in-science-are-absurd/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-04T16:00:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:26.127Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Nobel Prizes in Science are Absurd og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4968794/nobel-prizes-in-science-are-absurd/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nobel Prizes in Science are Absurd twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Nobel Prizes in Science are Absurd by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Oct 4, 2017 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Oct 4, 2017 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Why the Nobel Prizes in science are absurd.**](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/the-absurdity-of-the-nobel-prizes-in-science/541863/) By Ed Yong in the _Atlantic_ **2\.** [**Mass shootings are a bad way to understand gun violence in America.**](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mass-shootings-are-a-bad-way-to-understand-gun-violence/) By Maggie Koerth-Baker at _Five-Thirty-Eight_ **3\.** [**Should colleges be forced to choose between prestige and better access for minority and low-income students?**](https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-09-22-access-or-prestige-can-colleges-do-both-by-us-news) By Sydney Johnson in _EdSurge_ **4\.** [**This roadmap for finding the center in American politics could work — if we really talked about these issues.**](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2017/10/03/is-there-a-center-in-american-politics-anymore/) By Elaine Kamarck at the _Brookings Institution_ **5\.** [**Can anonymity online be used for good instead of just trolling?**](http://harvardmagazine.com/2014/09/can-pseudonyms-make-better-online-citizens) By Erin O’Donnell in _Harvard Magazine_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4968794/nobel-prizes-in-science-are-absurd/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4968794/nobel-prizes-in-science-are-absurd/"},"headline":"Nobel Prizes in Science are Absurd","datePublished":"2017-10-04T16:00:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:26.127Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4968794/nobel-prizes-in-science-are-absurd/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","Innovation","politics","Internet","Education","mass shootings","nobel prize"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4968794/nobel-prizes-in-science-are-absurd/","name":"Nobel Prizes in Science are Absurd"}}]}] ```