By Hamish Johnston
It used to be called the Manchester Guardian, so you would think the newspaper would be keen to feature two University of Manchester physicists who have just won the Nobel prize for discovering graphene.
This morning there is a Manchester physicist on the top slot of the Guardian‘s science webpage, but it’s not laureates Andre Geim or Konstantin Novoselov.
And the Nobel news has been relegated to the third slot.
I suppose I should be heartened by the fact that the Nobel story has far more comments than the piece on particle physics – and I know that Brian Cox does a great job at communicating science to the public.
Maybe I’m asking too much for the rest of the UK to get excited about this Nobel prize. And perhaps here at physicsworld.com we give too much coverage to graphene – 82 articles and counting.
Of course it’s not the Guardian‘s job to promote UK science, but I can’t help thinking that this editorial decision is a reflection of how science is seen in the UK (and elsewhere).
We tend to be interested in a few flashy projects like the LHC and indifferent to scientists like Geim or Novoselov, who toil away in tiny labs making big discoveries with the potential of changing all our lives.
