[dorchadas]

I feel it's pretty clear he's aiming for the Nobel if it's true. It can only be split three ways, after all.

[_0ffh]

Yeah, but that is quite amateurish. Just having the paper out first does not establish priority for the Nobel. What you need is the first paper with solid proof. It has happened more than once before that the guys with the second or third paper won the Nobel because the earlier paper was too weak.

[_0ffh]

To add a concrete example: Randy Hulet at Rice claimed BEC first, then Wieman and Cornell at Colorado, then Ketterle at MIT. Wieman, Cornell and Ketterle shared the Nobel. Hulet was passed over, because his data was judged insufficient to establish his claim.