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→The Brans-Dicke Theory of Gravitation: Discuss the Nobel Prize issue.
Dicke was instrumental in proposing extremely sensitive tests of General Relativity. Modern measurements of the various tests, specifically from the Mariner 6 spacecraft in 1969 and the Cassini spacecraft in 2004, show that plain Einsteinian relativity, not the Brans-Dicke theory, agrees with observation<ref name="exper1"/> <ref name="exper2"/> <ref name="exper3"/>. Nevertheless, interest in the Brans-Dicke formulation has recently revived, in the context of dark matter / dark energy investigations.
Dicke was instrumental in proposing extremely sensitive tests of General Relativity. Modern measurements of the various tests, specifically from the Mariner 6 spacecraft in 1969 and the Cassini spacecraft in 2004, show that plain Einsteinian relativity, not the Brans-Dicke theory, agrees with observation<ref name="exper1"/> <ref name="exper2"/> <ref name="exper3"/>. Nevertheless, interest in the Brans-Dicke formulation has recently revived, in the context of dark matter / dark energy investigations.
==No Nobel Prize==
The selection of Nobel Prize winners is a complex and mysterious subject, and not without occasional controversy. There have been a number of cases of people not being awarded a Nobel in decisions that many observers strongly disagreed with. Some of the better-known examples are Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Lise Meitner, Fred Hoyle, Rosalind Franklin, and Robert Dicke. The first two of these were asserted to be plain sexism. Fred Hoyle probably lost out at least in part because of offensive public comments about the Bell Burnell case<ref>http://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/oct/03/fred-hoyle-nobel-prize</ref>. Roslind Franklin lost out because she died before she could receive the award. There is a hard-and-fast rule that the recipient must be living. (Peter Higgs waited nearly 50 years for the Higgs boson to be confirmed, finally winning his Nobel at age 84.)
Achievements for which a Nobel is awarded must also stand the test of time. The Nobel committee does not like to find that something they awarded a prize for turned out to be wrong. So there is often a long delay, as in Peter Higgs' case.
The Brans-Dicke gravitation theory turned out to be wrong, as did Fred Hoyle's "steady state creation" theory. But both men made other groundbreaking contributions. It's possible that Dicke's name was more closely associated with the Brans-Dicke theory than with his invention of the lock-in amplifier and his work devising tests of relativity (including the test that refuted Brans-Dicke.) Also Nobel prizes are not often awarded for inventions, even if they had far-reaching consequences, such as the 2014 prize for the blue light-emitting diode.
So it's really hard to say.
==Biography==
==Biography==