RIP Nobel Laureates

I haven’t spent too much time blogging lately. Instead, I’ve been enjoying all of what the summer has to offer here on Cape Cod. I think there’s no better way to spend a beautiful July morning than cycling along the roads of Falmouth. One of my favorite routes takes me by the spectacular scenery near Nobska Light and past the Church of the Messiah in Woods Hole.


A scientist-friend once told me that church’s cemetery is the final resting place of more Nobel Prize-winners than any other cemetery in the world. It doesn’t seem like such a far-fetched possibility, what with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Marine Biological Laboratory just a short distance from the church yard.

While I could find a few references to that claim in tourism literature, I could find no scholarly source to independently confirm it. However, while searching for confirmation I did make another find. After spending quite a bit of time on the Nobel Prize website,  I came to view it as a great repository of primary source material. In addition to statistical data about the awards, the site also provides autobiographical essays by the laureates, the full text of their Nobel lecture and photographs. The photo above of the Church of the Messiah comes from the Episcopal Church.