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| Calibration Nobel |
 Title text: We would like to once again apologize to Dr. Jones for last year's mistaken announcement. We should really have double-checked the envelope for this award in particular. |
Explanation
Nobel Prizes are normally awarded for some of the most important discoveries in various scientific disciplines. This comic suggests that there's an additional award for not publishing a mistaken discovery that arose from poorly calibrated measurement equipment.
The research that produces a discovery worthy of a Nobel Prize is not normally just a single experiment, but a body of work with results that have been replicated and has had important further uses. So no one is likely to receive an actual prize for spurious results. But there have been mistaken research publications that have had significant impact, such as the study published in The Lancet in 1998 that claimed that the MMR vaccine caused autism; despite being exposed as a fraud, it has spurred anti-vaccine sentiment for many years.
The mouseover text implies that last year the prize was awarded in error to a Dr. Jones, meaning that the prize committee themselves were embarrassed by publishing incorrect results.
Dr. Adams has a history of discovering new Nobel prizes.
Transcript
- [Hairy is standing behind a lectern on a podium, holding a piece of paper and addressing the attendees in front of him. Ponytail and Cueball, identified as Dr. Adams and Dr. Smith, walk toward the podium. In the audience are Megan, another Cueball, and another Hairy.]
- Hairy: This year's Nobel Prize in "Calibrating your equipment carefully and not embarrassing yourself by publishing spurious results" goes to Dr. Adams and Dr. Smith, who did not announce the discovery of microbes on Titan.
- Cueball: Thank you, thank you.
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