Physics' most prestigious accolade went in 1979 to Sheldon Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg for their work in elucidating the inter actions of elementary particles, and in particular for the development of the theory which unifies the electromagnetic and weak forces. Following his visit to Stockholm to collect the prize, Glashow came to CERN where he gave the seminar “Making do without the top quark" on Tuesday 18 December.