Robert Marc Friedman [Robert.friedman@hi.uio.no] is professor of history of science at the University of Oslo. As an undergraduate at New York University he studied drama and theatre parallel with geophysics and physics. After turning to history of science, he subsequently used his Johns Hopkins University doctoral research on Vilhelm Bjerknes and the transformation of meteorology as a basis for a screenplay for a one-hour television drama, produced and broadcast by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (1982). Under contract he wrote additional film treatments and screenplay for television drama based on history of science. His latest book, The Politics of Excellence: Behind the Nobel Prize in Science, will be published in October. He is currently using this history of awarding the Nobel Prize as a basis for dramatic works. His scholarly publications include, Appropriating the Weather: Vilhelm Bjerknes and the Construction of a Modern Meteorology (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989) and The Expeditions of Harald Ulrik Sverdrup: Contexts for Shaping an Ocean Science (La Jolla, CA: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1994).