In yet another year of predicable winners on the horizon (not Konstantin Novoselov again, please!), white hot 'it' astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter surprised many when he took home the Nobel Prize in Physics for his understated yet deeply moving work in supernovae with the Supernova Cosmology Project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Critics have praised his performance as "electrifying," "a revelation," and "brutally honest." Perlmutter shared the major award with hotshot guy pals Brian Schmidt, an astronomer at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University, and Adam Riess, professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. more ›

Oliver Williamson, a professor at UC Berkeley, won the Nobel economics prize on today. Along with Elinor Ostrom, Williamson nabbed the award "for their analyses of economic governance - the way authority is exercised in companies and economic systems." more ›

They sure do love our fine President up in Norway! Despite having only been in office 12 days when the nomination deadline passed, the Nobel committee went ahead and awarded Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, apparently as "an encouragement" for him to act peaceably and use diplomacy in the future. Also, this was clearly a Fuck You to Dubya, as ABC 7 News points out, with the Nobel Committee handing this award to the first person who wasn't named Bush pretty much the minute he took he office. Everyone, including the White House, was taken by surprise. more ›

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, 60, a molecular biologist at the University of California at San Francisco, won the Nobel Prize for medicine today. Just what , exactly, did Blackburn do to win this this fancy award, you ask? Well, according to reports, she discovered "an enzyme that is essential to normal cell function and plays a role in cell aging and most cancers." more ›

The man accused of assaulting and kidnapping Elie Wiesel -- attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, battery, stalking, elder abuse and hate crimes, to be exact -- changed his not guilty plea to one of insanity today. Earlier this year, if you recall, Eric Hunt, 23, stalked and dragged the Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor from an elevator at the Argent Hotel (recently re-branded Westin San Francisco Market Street, even though it's totally located on... more ›

After winning the 2007 Nobel Prize for literature today, reporters asked Doris Lessing how she felt. Her response? more ›

No longer just for cute Aryan stoners, Albert Fert of the Scientific Research National Center in Paris -- who just received the Nobel Prize for physics alongside Peter Gruenberg for their massive brainpower to help shrink hard drives so that they fit into your iPods, or whatever -- is a Dell user. We'll go one step further by suggesting that Fert has dabbled in Linux use when he was young, too. more ›

Currently on sabbatical at the psychiatric unit of San Francisco County jailhouse for trying to beat the holy hell out of Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel -- and also hopped up on meds to soothe his lack of mental clarity , which supposedly triggered the violent incident -- the apologetic 23-year-old Eric Hunt will go to trial on September 4. Staring down the barrel of six felony charges -- i.e., attempted battery, stalking, kidnapping,... more ›

Emergency: are these caffeinated strips available anywhere in SF? We're dying of sluggishness without them. The black-sheep Safeway on King and Fourth Streets used to carry them, but -- poof! -- now they're gone? What the hell? Caffeine in convenient strip form is nothing short of Nobel Prize-worthy genius. more ›

The Nobel Prize that was recently stolen was found and the thief arrested. The thief was Ian Michael Sanchez, 22, a senior majoring in biology who worked at the museum the Nobel Prize was displayed it. His act of physics prize pilfering earned him charges of felony grand theft. And yes, that's his Facebook entry that a reader sent us. Unfortunately, the profile is blocked so we couldn't discover more about the dude. more ›

For all you E-Bay fanatics out there, better start checking because someone done gone stole a Nobel Prize from UC Berkeley. The prize, won by late physicist Ernest O. Lawrence in 1939 for his invention of the cyclotron, was taken last Tuesday from the locked glass case it was held in. As of right now, there are no suspects but whoever gets caught (if they get caught) will be up for grand theft charges. more ›

Nobel Prize winning author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel was assaulted in a San Francisco hotel on February 1st by a Holocaust denier. Wiesel was in town-- irony alert-- for a Peace Conference. He was staying at the Argent Hotel and was apparently being stalked. When the man got into the same elevator with Wiesel, he asked to talk to him and when Wiesel told him he'd do it in the lobby instead of the elevator, the man dragged him out of the elevator and tried to drag him into a room. When Wiesel started screaming for help, the man ran off, freeing the author. Soon after, the cops came and escorted Wiesel to the airport where he promptly got the hell out of town. more ›

Ever since the Examiner has been bought by religious arch-conservative Philip Anschutz, everyone has been waiting to see how the Examiner would fit it's publisher's political views into a free daily in the most liberal city in America. Sometimes they manage to do it (sort of) but every once in awhile, the veil is lifted as it were and the Examiner goes a little nutty. Like today. For their main editorial, they implore San Francisco to honor economist Milton Friedman. more ›

-A 51 year old Nuclear Power Plant engineer from Sacramento is in custody for sending a letter containing a powdery substance to a Country Club President Bush is scheduled to appear at today. Did Homer Simpson just threaten the President? more ›

. HA HA HA HA HA HA!" We do love some good old fashioned postmodern irony, and Mantooth fits the bill, from the evil robot named "World's Greatest Grandpa" to a plot to make zombies out of the world's Nobel Prize winners. And the annotations -- inspired, we are told, by an annotated volume of Shakespeare -- reveal both the comic's script and the author's intentions, both of which make for an illuminating read. more ›

As many legal observers expected, Gov. Schwarzenegger denied Stanley "Tookie" Williams's request for clemency, ">stating that (.pdf) there was strong evidence supporting the jury's guilty verdict, and that he doesn't really believe that Tookie has really reformed (various Nobel Prize nominations notwithstanding) because Tookie has never apologized for the killings for which he was imprisoned, and has never explicitly apologized for the murders committed in the name of the Crips. (Also, Tookie still supports George Jackson, who the governor says shows that Tookie continues to advocate for "violence and lawlessness."). Williams's attorney will file a renewed petition for clemency this afternoon, and can still appeal to the US Supreme Court. Meanwhile, his supporters are planning a 8 p.m. rally outside San Quentin. There's also a "walk for abolition," which started at 7 a.m. today at the Palace of the Legion of Honor and will end at San Quentin at 6. They should be around St. Paul's Church in San Rafael right about now if you want to meet up with 'em. We can't find any info on any pro-death penalty rallies but presumably, they'll be happening around the same time and at the same place as the anti- ones. more ›

Since there’s so many places that went to all the trouble of getting a liquor license, Barrespondent Drew feels like it’s his responsibility to try them all out. And even if he doesn’t get a Nobel Prize for it, getting drunk is an acceptable consolation. more ›

Week roundup. more ›