Keeping Things in Perspective

Readers of this blog are likely to have a professional interest in avoiding the following thought: But, really, in the long run aren't Barry J. Marshall and Robin Warren (this year's winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for their finding that ulcers are caused not by stress but by bacteria) more likely to have an impact on the lives of Americans than John Roberts and Harriet Miers? (And even the "it's science, so somebody would have found this out eventually" point -- which is basically about the contributions people make on the margins -- is true of Roberts and Miers as well.)