There Are No Guarantees in Life, Even With a Nobel Prize

While many researchers assume having that next high impact paper will keep them, and their labs, afloat for a few more years, it seems that having a Nobel Prize isn't much of a guarantee either.

David Wineland, recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics, has been laid off and prevented from working due to the U.S. government shutdown, The Washington Post reports:

Even if Stockholm’s prize committee found Wineland’s work groundbreaking, he was deemed expendable by the government last week.

“On the organization charts I’m just another worker, another non-essential,” said Wineland, sighing, during an interview from his home in Boulder.

Wineland obviously hasn't lost his job, but to me this looks an opportunity for an enterprising institution to try and woo him away.