Martin Chalfie never envisioned celebrating his 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry by toting a giant paper mâché frog on his shoulders across the Stockholm University campus on a cold, dark December eve.
But three days after he crossed the stage of the Stockholm Concert Hall to receive his gold medal for the development of green fluorescent protein, he did—part of his induction into the Order of the Ever Smiling and Jumping Little Green Frog. It started innocently enough, with he and his fellow Laureates in chemistry, physics, and economics joining several hundred students and university members at four long wooden tables in one of Stockholm University’s halls, belting out the traditional Swedish schnapps and wine songs. (Medicine Laureates have a different celebration across town at Karolinska University.) In the hall for the festivities was the nearly 2-meter-tall paper mâché frog, the mascot of the evening. Then, each Laureate was awarded ...
