Curated playlist
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
- Rune SlagstadRune Slagstad, a Norwegian philosopher, played flute at a statesman's funeral.
- François-Xavier DillmannFrançois-Xavier Dillmann's French translation of Snorri Sturluson's Edda came out in 1991.
- Peter Hedström (sociologist)Sociologist Peter Hedström argues social patterns need explaining by the mechanisms underneath them.
- Odd Arne WestadOdd Arne Westad argues the Cold War was not mainly a European story. His work made "global Cold War" a standard term.
- Heinrich Jacob GoldschmidtChemist Heinrich Jacob Goldschmidt moved to Göttingen at 72 to join his son. The Nazis forced both men out.
- Claude Lévi-StraussClaude Lévi-Strauss died in 2009, and for four days the world did not know.
- Jan Terje FaarlundA Norwegian grammar expert argued in 2014 that English is really a Scandinavian language.
- Donald KnuthDonald Knuth, an American computer scientist born in 1938, pays $2.56 to anyone who finds a mistake in one of his books. The number is deliberate. As he explains it, 256 pennies make one hexadecimal dollar. A smaller reward of $0.32 goes…
- John RawlsJohn Rawls, an American philosopher, wrote a book of roughly 600 pages that protesters held up in front of government officials at Tiananmen Square in 1989. It was a dense academic treatise called A Theory of Justice. More than 300,000…
- Linus PaulingLinus Pauling left high school without a diploma. He later won two unshared Nobel Prizes, a first in history.
- Peter TrudgillLinguist Peter Trudgill found the Beatles pronounced fewer r sounds over the 1960s.