In science, the worst Nobel Prize ever awarded must be the 1949 one in Physiology or Medicine, which went to Antonio Egas Moniz for the invention of frontal leucotomy. If you haven’t heard of leucotomy before, it’s because this procedure is better known with another name: lobotomy.

In the 1930s, Moniz had developed this surgical procedure — the removal of white matter from the patients’ frontal lobes using a fine scalpel, the leucotome — to treat severe cases of mental illness. With antipsychotics still a long way to us, Moniz’s method was hailed as a breakthrough and a godsend: psychotic patients were indeed calmer and more cooperative after a lobotomy.

This was “fools gold”, as we know today (and yes, lobotomy had its critics since its inception). Lobotomies had placated men and women not by curing their disorders, but by stripping them of their identity, personality, and humanity.

PS: Ironically, before is victory in 1949, Moniz had been nominated twice (1928, 1932) for developing a technique that we still use to this day: cerebral angiography. This technique visualises blood vessels in the brain, allowing doctors and surgeons to determine the location of brain tumours.