There was some discussion a while ago about the tendency of Nobel prizewinners to go off into crazyland (see Linus Pauling, others [1]). I recall hearing some speculation that this was (somewhat) inherent to getting a prize. I think the willful ignorance of established thought (to make the great discovery) plus the feedback loop of the prize made Nobel winners uniquely confident in their more off-the-wall theories.

[1]: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nobel_disease