Win a Nobel Prize and Longer Life

  A new study from Warwick University shows that if you want to live longer, just win a Nobel Prize. Dr Rablen and Dr Oswald have just published a study on the university's working-paper site which concludes that Nobel science laureates live significantly longer than those of their confrères who were nominated for a prize, but failed to receive one.

  The researchers conducted the study to explore whether social status alone can affect the well-being and life span of people. Previous research has found that social status does have a positive effect on the longevity of monkeys.

  The researchers compared 524 male Nobel Prize winners (135) and nominees (389) in physics and chemistry between 1901 and 1950. The average life span of the winners was 77.2 years, compared with 75.8 years for the nominees.

  When the researchers compared winners and nominees from the same countries, they found that the longevity gap increased by an average of about two-thirds of a year.

  "Status seems to work a kind of health-giving magic. Once we do the statistical corrections, walking across that platform in Stockholm apparently adds about two years to a scientist's life span. How status does this, we just don't know," study co-author Andrew Oswald, a professor of economics at the University of Warwick, said in a prepared statement.