虽然布莱恩?施密特获得了诺贝尔物理学奖，但当他试着带着24克的纯金奖牌通过内布拉斯加州法戈飞机场的安检时，却并没有得到旅游储蓄协会的特殊优待。布莱恩和其他科学家共同发现了宇宙这加速扩大的现象，这一发现改变了人们对太阳系的一贯认知，这枚由价值一万美金制成的奖牌正是对他的褒奖。布莱恩想让祖母看到这枚奖牌，但这位可敬的物理学家却被机场安检人员栏了下来并遭到盘问。

'There are a couple of bizarre things that happen,' Schmidt, 47, told an audience in New York last month.'One of the things you get when you win a Nobel Prize is, well, a Nobel Prize. 'It's about that big, that thick [he mimes a disk roughly the size of an Olympic medal], weighs a half a pound, and it's made of gold.“发生了两件奇异的事，”上周47岁的施密特对纽约观众这样说道，“一件就是获得诺贝尔奖后，哦，得了一块又大又厚的奖牌，说着还拿着一块奥运会奖牌大小的磁盘比量着，它有半磅重，还是金子做的。”

'When I won this, my grandma, who lives in Fargo, North Dakota, wanted to see it. 'I was coming around so I decided I'd bring my Nobel Prize. 'You would think that carrying around a Nobel Prize would be uneventful, and it was uneventful, until I tried to leave Fargo with it, and went through the X-ray machine. 'I could see they were puzzled. It was in my laptop bag. It's made of gold, so it absorbs all the X-rays—it's completely black. And they had never seen anything completely black.“当我获得奖牌后，住在北达科塔法戈的祖母想要看一看。因为正要顺便拜访她，所以就决定带上我的诺贝尔奖牌。也许你会认为带着诺贝尔奖牌没什么大不了的，这也的确没什么大不了的，但在法戈机场当我带着它通过X射线检测仪时，我看到安检人员一脸困惑。当时奖牌在我的电脑包里，由于是纯金做的它吸收了所有的X射线，整块奖牌变成了黑色。而此前，安检人员还没见过射线下完全变黑的东西，”施密特继续说道。

'They're like, "Sir, there's something in your bag." 'I said, "Yes, I think it's this box." 'They said, "What's in the box?" 'I said, "a large gold medal," as one does. 'So they opened it up and they said, "What's it made out of?" 'I said, "gold." 'And they're like, "Uhhhh. Who gave this to you?" '"The King of Sweden".

“它们是...，先生有东西在你的包里？”安检人员问道。我说，“是的，我想是这个盒子。”他们问道，“里面装着什么？”“一块大金牌，”我答道。“于是他们打开盒子盘问‘这是什么做的？’我回答说‘金子做的。’然后他们问‘呃...是谁给你的？’ 我告诉他们 ‘是瑞典国王’，”施密特微笑着说。

'"Why did he give this to you?"' '"Because I helped discover the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating." At which point, they were beginning to lose their sense of humor. 'I explained to them it was a Nobel Prize, and their main question was, "Why were you in Fargo?"' Schmidt, a Harvard graduate who lectures at the Australian National University, described the encounter as he joined physicians celebrating the construction of one of the largest observatories in the world, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), due to open in 2020 in Chile. He also revealed he was cooking dinner when, without warning, he received a call saying he had won the prize. 'It’s not like you get advanced warning, he said. 'They just sort of call you up, in my case, in the middle of cooking dinner. "Hello? By the way, you’ve won the Nobel Prize."'

“他为什么要给你这个？”“因为我发现了宇宙扩大速度正在加快的事实。”听到这，他们都变得严肃起来。“我向他们解释这是块诺贝尔奖牌，但他们的主要疑问是‘为什么你在法戈？’”施密特说道。施密特毕业于哈佛大学，现授课于澳大利亚国立大学。 施密特在物理学家为巨型麦哲伦望远镜的竣工欢庆会上谈及了自己的这一遭遇。巨型麦哲伦望远镜是世界上最大的天文台之一，2020年将在智利对外开放。他还透露当他毫无预警地接到电话得知自己获得了诺贝尔奖时他正在做饭。“我毫不知情，他们只给我打了通电话，而我当时正忙着做午饭。‘你好，顺便通知你一下，你获得了诺贝尔奖。’就是这样，”施密特说道。