Discussion: Nobel prize

Seems like this year's Nobel Prize for medicine/physiology is awarded for orienteering (more or less) ... http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/06/us-nobel...

After they tackle Alzheimers I hope they'll get onto what happens just before a navigation mistake.

Interesting. Maybe they will found if there is any difference between people who have an innate sense of movement in space vs people who has a very poor ability to understand their position. I met a few people (runners, hikers, others,...) who has no interest to develop these skills later when they grow up already. They know that they are afraid to leave the path and a very strong "don't like" attitude toward navigational skills. They do not want to posses these skills and they have constant feeling that they can't master it even with regular exercise. In order to not be lost in the wild they mainly like to stay on the path and in the group to feel save. If we all have the same abilities from birth than there is a real question how those people develop this "don't like" attitude during adolescence. I assume that every human being have interest to learn these skills, to compare, to understand the structure of the neighborhood, movement around the city, understand the map of the world, etc. Every child at some stage want to go alone in the school and in the school they learn these skills but yet some have always difficulties to see a real value why it is good to have these skills and when those skills will be helpful to them. I would almost dare to say that it looks like that this function of brains get frozen over time. Like some other body functions and abilities which are reduced through the years. Maybe this function is not so important for living anymore and evolution will force us to lose it or even that it will disappear because less and less people will need to use it.

It might be :) a good solution to have a "law" that anyone who wants to use a navigational app, gadget, etc first need to have a certificate. Something which can be learn on-line (school?) to get a unique code and used as personal authentication to have the right to use the app otherwise your only chance is to click on Emergency button / leave some personal data and use it. Like when you want to drive a car you need to have a driving license.

And the physics Nobel is for night-orienteering (more or less)!

and the chemisty Nobel is for the future of orienteering map detail (more or less)!

It's also three buildings away from my office. Anyway, if you use STED instead of LIDAR, what would that imply for the map scale discussion?

Right, all we need is thumb STED microscope.

But you'll never get it approved by the MC..

internal gps plus led lighting, of course - rogaining!!!! not sure how the super resolution of biologicals ties into mapping, but better resolution for printing could be a big help to the ultra veterans.

... and the just-announced Literature prize went to a French writer, known for, among many things, his almost-topographical detailed description of the Parisian streetscape

For those of us on AP also interested in fabric (I know several clothing makers and quilters among others), check out the dress that May-Brit Moser wore to the awards ceremony (she and her husband won the prize for medicine mentioned in the first post).

Looks thornproof!

But the arms are exposed.