Nobel revisionism?

Great Debates
1

I thought that the Nobel prizes were supposed to be awarded to those people whose (scientific) efforts have led to a great improvement in the lot of humanity (or words to that effect).

In a recent Reuters story about the physics and chemistry prizes for this year there is a sentence that reads, “This year’s awards stir up a few perennial Nobel issues, such as prizes for discoveries made partly by chance, and disproportionately many prizes for researchers at well-funded U.S. universities.”.

Is this so? Or are these merely the uninformed ramblings of a writer who’s trying to juice up his story? Is there really serious thought being given to use ‘affirmative action’ in the awarding of the Prize. (I can hear the judges saying, “Let’s see, who’s done the best for their limited funding?”)

And, are serendipitous discoveries, often the stuff of great science, not worthy?

2

The “Svenska Akademiets” homepage (www.nobel.se) only deals in absolutes, as far as I can see. And old Alfred’s wording is very clear:

(Ain’t that amazing - an important legal document that anyone can read and understand.)

Anyway, I guess it’s very clear: The prize is awarded for “conferring benefit to mankind”, no more, no less. That it should somehow be inferior to do so by accident or by putting lots of money to good use apparently wasn’t on Dr. Nobel’s mind when he made his will. Making sure that everyone had a fair shot at the prize obviously was.

Really, the “dissent” sounds awfully like anti-elitist sour grapes to me.

S. Norman

3

Just some wee corrections:

It’s "Svenska Akademien.

However, the Academy (http://www.svenskaakademien.se/ENG/index.html) has nothing to do with Nobelstiftelsen (The Nobel Foundation http://www.nobel.se/) other than it selects the recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature, just as there are other bodies chosing other awardees (you can read about it on the Foundation’s home page).

4

Floater, you’re right, I stand corrected - I must’ve gotten lost in the links.

S. Norman

5

And BTW: The “Nobel Prize” in economics is actually called the “Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel”. It was started by the Bank of Sweden for some reason and many people, myself among them, think that it should be scrapped as it has nothing whatsoever to do with the wish and will of Nobel himself.