Each of these anecdotes (except 7) is an adaptation of the denouement of the Taco Bell $2 bill story. The differing details clue, in addition to a discount, two workers from Bell Labs who won either a Nobel Prize or a Turing Prize, by:
- First name,
- What they won for (given as a cluing phrase), and
- Which they won (indicated by whether they use the Swedish or English word for “ounce”):
Story | First name | Full name | Cluing phrase | Won for | Ounce | N/T | Sr/Jr | Year | Yr Diff | Disc’t | Result | Letter |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Eric | Eric Betzig | very determinedly gives it a minute examination under the cold light | super-resolved fluorescence microscopy | uns | N | Sr | 2014 | 4 | 1 | 3 | C |
1 | Yann | Yann LeCun | Profound Discoveries | Deep Learning | ounce | T | Jr | 2018 | ||||
2 | Arthur | Arthur Ashkin | light little grippers | optical tweezers | uns | N | Sr | 2018 | 2 | 1 | 1 | A |
2 | Alfred | Alfred Aho | funny film stackers | compilers | ounce | T | Jr | 2020 | ||||
3 | Clinton | Clinton J. Davisson | shakes | waves | uns | N | Sr | 1937 | 19 | 1 | 18 | R |
3 | John | John Bardeen | little radio | transistor | uns | N | Jr | 1956 | ||||
4 | Willard | Willard S. Boyle | price-matching gizmo | charge-coupled device | uns | N | Sr | 2009 | 11 | 2 | 9 | I |
4 | Jeffrey | Jeffrey Ullman | funny film stackers | compilers | ounce | T | Jr | 2020 | ||||
5 | Robert | Robert Tarjan | bunches of instructions and facts | algorithms and data structures | ounce | T | Sr | 1986 | 12 | 0 | 12 | L |
5 | Horst | Horst Störmer | semi-lumpy stuff that comes out of the corridor | fractional quantum Hall effect | uns | N | Jr | 1998 | ||||
6 | Steven | Steven Chu | stops it cold while beaming | methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light | uns | N | Sr | 1997 | 12 | 0 | 12 | L |
6 | George | George E. Smith | price-matching gizmo | charge-coupled device | uns | N | Jr | 2009 | ||||
7 | See solution notes below | |||||||||||
8 | Richard | Richard Hamming | notices it’s askew and fixes it as per regs | error-detecting and error-correcting codes | ounce | T | Sr | 1968 | 18 | 4 | 14 | N |
8 | John | John Hopcroft | bunches of instructions and facts | algorithms and data structures | ounce | T | Jr | 1986 | ||||
9 | Ken | Ken Thompson | surgical methodicalness | operating systems | ounce | T | Sr | 1983 | 15 | 1 | 14 | N |
9 | Robert | Robert B. Laughlin | semi-lumpy stuff that comes out of the corridor | fractional quantum Hall effect | uns | N | Jr | 1998 | ||||
10 | Arno | Arno A. Penzias | spacy light coming from behind the little oven | cosmic microwave background radiation | uns | N | Sr | 1978 | 5 | 0 | 5 | E |
10 | Dennis | Dennis Ritchie | surgical methodicalness | operating systems | ounce | T | Jr | 1983 | ||||
11 | Walter | Walter H. Brattain | little radio | transistor | uns | N | Sr | 1956 | 21 | 0 | 21 | U |
11 | Philip | Philip W. Anderson | silica-and-iron Minecraft building | electronic structure of glass and magnetic materials | uns | N | Jr | 1977 | ||||
12 | William | William Shockley | little radio | transistor | uns | N | Sr | 1956 | 22 | 4 | 18 | R |
12 | Robert | Robert W. Wilson | spacy light coming from behind the little oven | cosmic microwave background radiation | uns | N | Jr | 1978 | ||||
13 | Daniel | Daniel C. Tsui | semi-lumpy stuff that comes out of the corridor | fractional quantum Hall effect | uns | N | Sr | 1998 | 20 | 1 | 19 | S |
13 | Yoshua | Yoshua Bengio | Profound Discoveries | Deep Learning | ounce | T | Jr | 2018 |
In each pair, take the difference in award year for the two employees, and subtract the discount. The resulting numbers, translated into letters, give CARILL_NNEURS. With the “free doughnut” in the 7th position, we get the answer, CARILLONNEURS.