Lorenzo Beltrame

The aim of these paper is to analyze the role of Natural Sciences Nobel-prize winner in public communication of science. Using the sociological works on the position of Nobel-prize in the rewarding system of science, the image of scientists and their function in public communication of science, these paper analyses how the scientific symbolic capital of Nobel-prize winner is employed outside the scientific field, particularly, in popularization and science news. Analysing journal articles on two important newspapers («Corriere della Sera» and «The Times»), the paper shows that the role of Nobel-prize winners is that of (scientific) authority argument, which legitimize (or de-legitimize) the scientific statements expressed in the articles.