On Wednesday the good people in charge of handing out Nobel Prizes awarded Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien of the US and Japan‘s Osamu Shimomura the chemistry prize for research that has allowed them to exploit luminosity in sea creatures. As I read this news I wondered if it might be time to add a couple of new Nobel categories. As the TV blasted rolling news about the Japanese stock market index Nikkei being down nearly 10 per cent, I thought a Nobel award for responsible banking would be somewhat timely. As I shuffled back and forth across my hotel room from bedside to a TV tucked around the corner out of view I thought that a Nobel design prize wouldn’t be such a bad idea either. Then, while drying off post-shower, I mused about a prize that would combine a variety of disciplines to be given to the team of researchers who could crack the elements required to create a perfect day.

While my academic credentials are rather thin, I would venture the following 20 elements to at least provide a framework for the Nobel Prize for a Perfect Day. My day kicking off at Copenhagen’s Hotel Nimb made for a good start – oddly placed TV apart.