History of the award. History of the Nobel Prizes Why the Nobel Prize was awarded

There are many myths associated with the Nobel Prize, which we will try to debunk here. It is generally accepted that Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established this prize to clear his conscience, which was heavily soiled by mental turmoil over the number of people killed by that same dynamite.

It is believed that Nobel hated mathematics, and therefore the mathematics prize was never established. He is considered to have supported the cause of peace and is why the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded every year. How was it really?

Where does the money for the Nobel Prize come from?

But in fact, Alfred Nobel, born in 1833, became the 4th son of Immanuel Nobel, who by the time Alfred was born was a famous industrialist, manufacturer of explosives and gunpowder. What is much less known is that Alfred Nobel’s father was the inventor of such a banal thing as plywood, which brought him some of his income (IKEA appeared later, but wooden building materials have always been popular in Sweden).

In 1837, Immanuel Nobel moved to St. Petersburg, and in 1842 he moved his family there. School education Alfred Nobel received it together with the famous Russian chemist Nikolai Zinin, after which Alfred Nobel was sent to study in France and then to America. Meanwhile, the Nobel family enterprise produced weapons and ammunition for the Russian army - the Crimean War was going on. And when Russia lost Crimean War, the company went bankrupt. The Nobel family returned to Stockholm, the remains of production came under the control of the second son, Ludwig. Alfred Nobel began working for his older brother. It was for him that he invented safe methods of working with nitroglycerin, the ever-memorable dynamite and the first versions of smokeless gunpowder.

In 1888, the French press buried Alfred Nobel in absentia, confusing him with his older brother Ludwig. It is believed that it was then that Alfred began to think about how he would be remembered after his death, which ultimately led to the establishment of the Nobel Prize. Alfred Nobel took over the family businesses, and in 1894 acquired the Bofors group of companies, which brought him a fair share of income.

In those days, Bofors was primarily a steel production site. Under the management of Alfred Nobel, these enterprises quickly became one of the largest artillery manufacturers in the world. Bofors anti-aircraft guns were used during World War II by all parties involved with consistent success. The company was later sold, but this already happened after the establishment of the Nobel Prize. But interestingly, Bofors is still one of the key arms manufacturers in the world.

Alfred Nobel died in 1896 in San Remo (Italy) from complications of tonsillitis. A year before his death, Nobel wrote a will at the Norwegian-Swedish Club in Paris, in which he ordered 94% of his capital to be used as a fund for the establishment of the prize. At that time this amounted to 31 million Swedish kronor, which corresponds to approximately 150 million euros at today's price levels.

The heirs could not like such a will. Ragnar Solman, the manager of that same Bofors, was appointed Alfred Nobel's executor. Capitalism triumphed over family ties - Solman later became chairman of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce. It took Solman 6 years to create the Nobel Foundation. At the same time, a fair portion of the time was taken by the withdrawal of Alfred Nobel’s funds from Azerbaijan, where they were invested by his brothers in the oil production business.

First Nobel Prize

In 1901, the first prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and literature were awarded in Stockholm. The winner of the first Nobel Prize in physics was Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, in chemistry the first Nobel Prize was awarded to Jacob van't Hoff for his work in the field of chemical dynamics, and in medicine - Emil Adolf von Behring for the discovery of blood serums.

The first Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to René François Armand Prudhomme, and the first scandal in the history of the Nobel Prizes was associated with this prize. Many writers believed that the literature prize should have gone to Leo Tolstoy, and Prudhomme’s candidacy was received extremely negatively. A group of 42 Swedish writers, including Selma Lagerlöf and August Strindberg, issued an open letter protesting the Nobel committee's decision. But the decision remained unchanged, and Leo Tolstoy never received the Nobel Prize.

The Nobel Peace Prize is getting more complicated. Unlike the other four prizes in the “Nobel package,” Alfred Nobel gave the right to award it not to the Swedish scientific community, but to the Norwegian parliament, or more precisely to 5 elected members of it. Thus, the Nobel Peace Prize has only an indirect relation to Stockholm and Sweden, and since 1901 it has been awarded in Oslo.

The first Nobel Peace Prize laureates were Jean Henry Dunant, the ideological inspirer of the creation of the International Red Cross, and Frédéric Passy, ​​the founder of the International Peace League.

In 1968, the Swedish Central Bank, in honor of its 300th anniversary, allocated a significant amount of money to the Nobel Committee to maintain the tradition of awarding prizes. The following year, the Nobel Committee, apparently as a sign of gratitude, established the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. The Prize in Economics has nothing to do with Alfred Nobel's will, and is officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Despite this, it is sometimes mistakenly called the Nobel Prize in Economics.

So, currently, Nobel Prizes are awarded annually in Stockholm in four fields: physics, chemistry, medicine and physiology, and literature. The Swedish Central Bank Prize is not officially a Nobel Prize, but is awarded there, in Stockholm, and nominees are nominated according to similar rules. All 5 prizes are awarded on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. The ceremony takes place in the Stockholm Concert Hall, and the subsequent banquet with the participation of the royal family and other officials takes place in one of the halls of the Stockholm City Hall (the choice of hall may change from year to year, but since 1974 the choice has invariably fallen on the Blue Hall). Until 1930, the banquet was held in the hall of the Stockholm Grand Hotel opposite

Why they give the Nobel Prize: 6 main trends

On November 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel signed the final version of his will, establishing the world's most prestigious prize. In addition to fame and money for the laureates, the choice of the Nobel committee can be used to judge what awaits humanity in the near future.

Scientists can predict the future. Literally. Every year, the Nobel Committee indicates how not only science, but our whole life will develop. Academicians select laureates from dozens of candidates nominated by the scientific community. Each of these people has done something great or at least outstanding, but the committee members give awards to the work whose consequences seem to them the most promising. In other words, the Nobel Prize is awarded to scientists whose research has shaped the present and creates the future. "Around the World" tells what the Earth will be like in the coming years, focusing on the Nobel Prizes of the last 10 years.

Physics: the puzzle is complete

The Nobel Prizes in Physics over the past decade predict that in the coming years we are unlikely to see discoveries that could revolutionize ideas about the structure of the world. Several awards (2004, 2008 and 2012) went to scientists who strengthened and expanded the current theory that explains why nature is the way it is.

This theory is called Standard model, and although this is the most coherent and consistent structure there is, competing models have regularly tried to replace it. The reason for the attacks was the notorious Higgs boson, or rather, its absence - without this particle, the puzzle of the Standard Model did not want to come together. After it became clear in 2013 that Large Hadron Collider caught the same boson, the position of the theory became unshakable. Supporters of alternative interpretations of reality have lost the main argument that proved the inconsistency of the Standard Model, so the chances of a radically new explanation of the structure of the world are negligible. However, this does not mean that physics can be eliminated from scientific specialties - nature still has many mysteries that exist, as it were, parallel to the Standard Model. For example, the theory noted by the Nobel Committee cannot say anything about dark energy And dark matter , namely they make up the bulk of the mass in the Universe.

Laureates 2013. Physics Received the award Peter Higgs And Francois Englert for « theoretical discovery of a mechanism that provided insight into the origin of masses elementary particles » . Higgs and Engler, back in the mid-1960s, independently came up with a theory that clarified one of the strangest features of the Universe at that time. Before the appearance of the articles of the current laureates, physicists could not explain in any way why photons - particles of light - have no mass, and why protons and neutrons, from which all atoms are built, exist at all. The most important part of the theory proposed by Higgs and Engler was precisely the famous boson - it is when interacting with it that all particles in the Universe acquire mass. As soon as the “capture” of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider was confirmed, the scientists were immediately awarded the Nobel Prize

Chemistry: almost biology

Laureates 2013. Chemistry Martin Karplus, Ari Warshel And Michael Levitt for "development of models of complex chemical systems» . Children at school write down reactions that involve several not very large molecules. In reality, tens and sometimes hundreds of giant molecules meet each other. It is impossible to understand offhand what the outcome of a reaction will be, so scientists simulate such interactions on a computer. Without the current laureates this would not have been possible - they laid the foundations for computer modeling of chemical reactions.

The trend in recent years in the selection of Nobel Prize laureates in chemistry, alas, is unfavorable for the once powerful science.

Exactly half of the awards in this category went to scientists working in pure biology. The Nobel Committee's difficulties with the choice indicate that classical chemistry has come to an end: the basic principles of the interaction of substances and their properties are known, and further delving into these issues leads scientists straight into physics. Moreover, in physics, for which Nobel Prizes were awarded decades ago.

Surely in the future there will still be “real” chemical Nobels. They will be awarded for work that explains some processes that are important for industry, for example, “click-chemical” reactions, which make it possible to obtain the necessary substances as simply as possible and with very high yields. The discoverer of such reactions, Russian Valery Fokin, was on the short list of candidates for the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which is given out annually by bookmakers, and he has every chance of winning in the coming years.

Biology: clones and genes

The Nobel Prizes of recent years in physiology and medicine promise humanity bright future. Researchers are learning more about how genes work and are learning to implement new knowledge into medical practice.

For example, in 2006, the award went to researchers who discovered an amazing mechanism of gene regulation called RNA interference. The laureates found that the cell completely “turns off” some genes using short RNA molecules; this method instantly became a hit among molecular biologists and is about to leave the laboratory for the clinic. RNA interference will allow, for example, to silence incorrectly functioning genes or disable the hereditary material of viruses embedded in DNA.

In addition, in the near future people will finally learn grow organs from your own cells- awards over the past few years have gone to scientists who laid the foundations cloning and reprogramming of stem cells. The importance of these works is difficult to overestimate: even if humanity cannot overcome death, people will feel healthy until old age and replace failed organs as needed. However, in the future organs will break down much less often. Two Nobel Prizes last decade went to scientists who found out the reasons stomach ulcers And cervical cancer- diseases that significantly worsen the quality and duration of life. As it turned out, ulcers are caused by the bacteria Helicobacter pylori, and cancer is provoked by the human papillomavirus.

World: without good people

This award reflects people's hopes more than others. Over the past 10 years, the award has been given at least three times not for what has already been done, but for likely future achievements. Barack Obama, the European Union and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were awarded the prize in advance, and experts are still not sure that the laureates managed to justify their trust. Such hope for future good deeds is a bad sign.

It means that in the present there is a noticeable lack of them. In addition, one gets the feeling that academicians are simply confused and choose laureates by randomly “poking” more or less suitable figures. One of the main features of the future - at least according to Swedish academics - is the huge role of diplomats and international organizations in resolving important geopolitical or social issues. On the other hand, in recent years The prize was rarely awarded to people who were far from politics and did good deeds. Either they are completely gone, or the scale of such virtues is insufficient for the Nobel Committee, but the absence of “little people” in the list of Nobelists suggests that their role in the near future will be negligible.

Economy: response to the crisis

Expert - Ruben Enikolopov, professor at the University of Pompeu Fabra and NES.

Unlike physics or biology, economics does not have such a clear division into areas: 90% of academic economists work in the mainstream. However, one trend has emerged: in recent years, the Nobel Committee has often awarded prizes for macroeconomics. The 2008 crisis showed how little we actually understand about the interaction between it and financial markets. Actually, the disaster occurred at the junction of these two areas.

Previously, macroeconomics and finance lived separately from each other, but now it is clear to everyone that we cannot ignore the question of where money comes from in the economy and how it is redistributed - through the banking system, stock markets, and so on.

The Nobel Prizes in 2010, 2011 and this year were obviously a response to the crisis, and they directly relate to macroeconomics and finance. I think that in the future, scientists will pay close attention to the development of these areas.

Literature: the end of the novel

Expert - Stanislav Lvovsky, poet, critic.

It is hardly possible to judge the trends in the development of literature as such based on the decisions of the Nobel Committee, if only because
that the field of action of this institution is world literature, that is, a combination of very different fields, the comparison of which is extremely difficult, and sometimes simply impossible. The Nobel Prize arose in the very late XIX centuries, absolutely Eurocentric world. Then it was hardly possible to imagine that academicians would have to deal with, say, a separate Indian or Nigerian literature, and the existence of a separate Canadian or Australian literature was not at all obvious at that time. If we talk about trends in relation to prose and on a long time scale, then, apparently, two can be distinguished.

The first one is larger- emergence and rise postcolonial literature The Nobel Committee for Literature and the Swedish Academy have been tracking this tectonic shift since about the sixties, and since the second half of the eighties, when the Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz and the Nigerian Wole Soyinka were awarded, we can already talk about the final abandonment of the previous Eurocentrism. In today's Russia, it is customary to look down on this - indeed, we are the people of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and you treat us with some incomprehensible Naipaul. This attitude is connected with the provincialization of Russia in general and the Russian reading public in particular.

Second trend, which is still barely noticeable from the list of laureates, is crisis of the traditional novel form. However, the fact that playwright Harold Pinter became the laureate in 2005, and Alice Munro in 2013 (she writes exclusively short stories), indicates that this trend has not passed unnoticed by the Swedish Academy. Some delay is explained by the fact that the Nobel Prize is a necessarily conservative institution. I believe that in the long term the number of laureates working outside the novel genre will increase.

The Nobel Prize is the most prestigious and most famous prize in the world. It has been awarded annually in Stockholm and Oslo since 1901 and has gathered many unusual facts during this time.

1. THE PRIZE WAS BORN TO DRIVE EYES AWAY FROM NOBEL’S DISCOVERIES

The creator of the prize, Alfred Nobel, was an avid pacifist, which did not stop him from amassing an impressive capital from the arms trade and the invention of dynamite. He believed that the very presence of dangerous weapons should intimidate the enemy, preventing wars, terrorist attacks and bloodshed. The epiphany was painful. When the newspapers ahead of schedule Alfred Nobel was buried, confusing him with his brother Ludwig, who died in St. Petersburg, he was greatly surprised by the morning headlines: “Death Merchant”, “Bloody Rich Man”, “Dynamite King”. In order not to go down in history as a millionaire on blood, Alfred Nobel immediately called a lawyer and rewrote his will, which stated that after death, all multimillion-dollar property should be placed in a reliable bank and entrusted to a foundation that would divide the income from investments into five equal parts and award them annually as a bonus . The idea was a success: now few people remember who invented dynamite, but even a child knows about the Nobel Prize.

2. ECONOMY WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THE LIST OF PRIZES

Initially, the prize was awarded in five categories: chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and achievements in peacekeeping. Later, in 1969, the Swedish Bank also added an economics bonus to this list. Since the field of economics was not listed in the will, it is awarded not from the Nobel fund, but from the Swedish Bank fund, but at the Nobel Prize ceremony. Nobel's descendants do not support adding an economic field to the prize. “First of all,” they say, “the whole point of the award is destroyed. If it is named after Nobel, then it should be awarded only in those areas that Nobel himself listed in his will. Secondly, Nobel simply did not like economists and it was not by chance that he ignored them in his will.”

3. PREMIUM IS DROPPING IN PRICE

In terms of current exchange rates, when converting Nobel's movable and immovable property into cash equivalent, the fund received about $250 million. Part of the capital was immediately invested in securities, and prizes were awarded to the laureates from the profits. The fund's current wealth is $3 billion. Despite the growth of the capital of the Nobel Prize fund, in 2012 it was decided to cut it by 20% (from 1.4 million to 1.1 million dollars). Such a move, according to the directors of the fund, will help create a reliable financial cushion and ensure a high monetary level of the bonus for many years.

4. UNUSUAL WINNERS AND NOMINEES

The prize was very rarely awarded to anyone a second time. In all the years of its existence, this happened only 4 times. Federic Segner received both prizes in chemistry, John Bardeen in physics, Linus Pauling in chemistry and the Peace Prize. The only woman to receive two Nobel Prizes was Marie Skłodowska-Curie.

Maria Skłodowska-Curie

Stanley Williams, leader criminal group Crips, has been nominated for the Nobel Prize 9 times: as a writer and as a humanitarian. Initially, the Crips group opposed police lawlessness on the streets of Los Angeles, but when it grew, it was responsible for several police deaths and, for some reason, a bank robbery. Stanley Williams was arrested and sentenced to death. The books that Stanley wrote while in prison became bestsellers, and he even received a US Presidential Award. This still did not pity the heart of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and in 2005 the leader of the Crips gang was executed.

5. PRIZE IN MATHEMATICS

Many people know that the Nobel Prize is not awarded in the field of mathematics. Many are also sure that the reason for this is Nobel’s beloved, who went to see the mathematician. Indeed, in the will, mathematics was initially included in the list of fields in which the prize was awarded, but was later crossed out by Nobel himself. In fact, there is no evidence of a romantic story associated with Nobel's refusal to give a prize to mathematicians. It is more likely that the main contender for the prize in mathematics before Nobel's death was Mittag-Leffler, whom the founder of the prize had long disliked for his annoying solicitation of donations for Stockholm University. Deciding to be true to himself and not give Mittag-Leffler money, Nobel crossed mathematics off the list and replaced it with the Peace Prize.

6. BANQUET AFTER THE PRIZES

The banquet is held immediately after the awards ceremony in the Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall. The chefs of the town hall restaurant and the best chefs, who were awarded the title “Cook of the Year” in the year of the award, are involved in preparing the festive dinner. Three months before the banquet, members of the Nobel Committee taste three types of menu and decide which one is worthy of being treated to guests at the banquet. Ice cream is traditionally served for dessert, but its type is kept a closely guarded secret until the evening of the ceremony.

The hall is decorated with more than 20,000 flowers from San Remo, and the movements of the waiters are rehearsed down to the second. Exactly at 7 pm, the guests of honor, led by the monarchs, descend into the Blue Hall. The Swedish king is holding a Nobel laureate on his arm, and if there is none, then the wife of a physics laureate.

The banquet service has its own unique design: it is made in three colors of the Swedish Empire: blue, green and gold and consists of 6750 glasses, 9450 knives and forks, 9550 plates and one tea cup for Princess Liliana, who did not drink coffee. After the princess's death, the cup was kept in a special mahogany box with the princess's monogram. The saucer from the cup was stolen not long ago.

7. NOBEL IN SPACE

Most often, the name of Alfred Nobel is immortalized by astronauts. In 1970, the International Astronomical Union named a crater on the Moon after Alfred Nobel, albeit on its dark side. And in 1983, asteroid number 6032 was named in his honor.

8. WHEN PRIZES ARE NOT AWARDED

If there are no worthy candidates for a prize in any field, it is simply not awarded. This happened five times with the medicine prize, four times with the physics prize, and most of all with the Peace Prize. According to the rules adopted in 1974, the prize can only be awarded during the lifetime of the laureate. The rule was broken only once, in 2011, when medical laureate Ralph Stayman died of cancer two hours before the presentation.

9. CASH EQUIVALENT OF THE PRIZE AND STRANGE WAYS TO SPEND IT

The cash equivalent of the award is variable, but usually amounts to more than a million US dollars. Not every scientist spends such a sum on the development of his scientific research. Ivan Bunin, with all the scope of his Russian soul, spent money on parties. The poet René François Armand Sully-Prudhomme organized his own prize, which was not as successful as the Nobel Prize, but existed for six years and was awarded to masters of poetry. The Hungarian writer Irme Kertész gave his prize to his wife, thus appreciating her heroic loyalty to him in difficulties and poverty. “Let her buy herself dresses and jewelry,” the writer commented on his decision, “she deserves it.”

Paul Greengard, who researched the relationship between nerve cells, which later led to the creation of antidepressants, used the award money to create his own Pearl Meister Greengard award. It is often presented as an analogue of the Nobel Prize for women, because in the scientific world, according to Greenard, there is enormous discrimination against women. The scientist dedicated the award to his mother who died during childbirth.

10. PEACE PRIZE

The most controversial and politically charged of the six areas in which the prize is awarded is the Peace Prize. At different times, such undisputed villains as Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Joseph Stalin were nominated for the award.

Last year, in 2014, Vladimir Putin was nominated for it. Seventeen-year-old Malala Yusufai from Pakistan, who took victory from Putin, became the youngest Nobel Prize winner. Her fight for girls' education in Islamic countries led to worldwide recognition and a prestigious award. Radical Islamic groups declared jihad (holy war) on the girl and immediately after the award they tried to kill her, but Malala survived and continues to fight for women’s rights to education.

Unlike all other areas, the Peace Prize is awarded not in Stockholm, but in Oslo.

One of the key events in the social and intellectual life of Sweden is Nobel Day - the annual presentation of the Nobel Prize, which takes place on December 10 in Stockholm's Studhuset (city hall).

These awards are internationally recognized as the most honorable civilian distinction. The Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Economics are presented to the laureates by His Majesty the King of Sweden at a ceremony held on the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel (December 10, 1896).

Each laureate receives a gold medal with the image of Nobel and a diploma. Currently, the Nobel Prize is worth 10 million Swedish kronor (about 1.05 million euros or $1.5 million).

The Prizes in Chemistry, Physics and Economics are awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Prizes in Medicine are awarded by the Karolinska Institutet, and the Swedish Academy awards the Prize in Literature. The only non-Swedish prize, the Peace Prize, is awarded in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

By the way, Nobel signed the last version of the famous will almost a year before his death - on November 27, 1895 in Paris. It was announced in January 1897: "Everything that is movable and real estate must be converted by my executors into liquid assets, and the capital thus collected placed in a reliable bank. The income from investments should belong to a fund, which will distribute them annually in the form of bonuses to those who, during the previous year, have brought the greatest benefit to humanity... The specified interest must be divided into five equal parts, which are intended: one part - to the one who will do the most important discovery or invention in the field of physics; the other - to the one who makes the most important discovery or improvement in the field of chemistry; the third - to the one who makes the most important discovery in the field of physiology or medicine; the fourth - to the one who creates the most outstanding literary work of an idealistic direction; fifth - to the one who has made the most significant contribution to the unity of nations, the abolition of slavery or the reduction of the size of existing armies and the promotion of peace congresses ... It is my special desire that, in awarding prizes, no consideration will be given to the nationality of the candidates ... "

Alfred Bernhard Nobel, Swedish inventor, industrial magnate, linguist, philosopher and humanist, was born in 1833 in Stockholm into a Swedish family. In 1842, his family moved to St. Petersburg, the capital of what was then Russia. Nobel received an excellent education of international class. He read, wrote, spoke and understood equally well in 5 European languages: Swedish, Russian, English, French and German. Nobel went down in history as the inventor of dynamite, a substance that played an important role in the development of world industry.

During his life, Alfred Nobel became the owner of 355 patents, which formed the basis of about 90 enterprises in 20 countries. His brothers Robert and Louis, who worked in Russia and later in Baku in the oil fields, contributed to his fortune. Alfred Nobel bequeathed $4 million (in today's equivalent of $173 million) to be used as prizes in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine. These areas were close to him, and in them he expected the greatest progress.

He did not bequeath prizes to architects, musicians and composers. Literature prizes also reflect Nobel's personal interests. In his youth he wrote poetry and poems in English and Swedish, and throughout his life he was a voracious reader in all languages ​​accessible to him.The prizes in the field of science and literature were to be awarded in Sweden, and the peace prize - in Norway. The history of the Nobel Prize, the fund of which amounted to 31 million crowns, began with this will.

A year later, on December 10, 1896, Alfred Nobel died in Italy from a stroke. Later this date will be declared Nobel Day. After opening the will, it turned out that almost all of Nobel’s fortune was inaccessible to his relatives, who were counting on this money.

Even showed dissatisfaction swedish king Oscar II, who did not want finances to leave the country, even in the form of awards for world achievements. Objective bureaucratic difficulties also arose. The practical implementation of Nobel's will turned out to be very difficult, and under certain conditions the prizes might not take place.

But soon all obstacles were overcome, and in June 1898, Nobel’s relatives signed an agreement to renounce further claims to the capital. The main provisions related to the awarding of prizes also received approval from the Swedish government. In 1900, the Charter of the Nobel Foundation and the rules regulating the activities of the Nobel structures being created were signed by the King of Sweden. The prize was first awarded in 1901.

The Nobel Prize has become the most prestigious prize in the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology, medicine, economics, literature and efforts to establish peace among nations. It is paid once a year from the funds of the fund created according to the will of Alfred Nobel. More than 600 people became Nobel Prize laureates during the 20th century.

Awarding awards does not always meet with universal approval. In 1953, Sir Winston Churchill received a literary prize, while the famous American writer Graham Greene never received it.

Each country has its own national heroes and often the award or non-award is disappointing. The famous Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren was never nominated for the prize, and the Indian Mahatma Gandhi never won the prize. But Henry Kissinger won the Peace Prize in 1973 - a year after the Vietnam War. There are known cases of refusal of the prize for reasons of principle: the Frenchman Jean Paul Sartre refused the literary prize in 1964, and the Vietnamese Le Dick Tho did not want to share it with Kissinger.

The Nobel Prizes are unique awards and are particularly prestigious. The question is often asked why these awards attract so much more attention than any other awards of the 20th century. One reason may be the fact that they were introduced in a timely manner and that they marked some fundamental historical changes in society. Alfred Nobel was a true internationalist, and from the very foundation of the prizes named after him, the international nature of the awards made a special impression. Strict rules for the selection of laureates, which began to apply since the establishment of the prizes, also played a role in recognizing the importance of the awards in question. As soon as the election for the current year's laureates ends in December, preparations begin for the election of next year's laureates. Such year-round activities, in which so many intellectuals from all over the world participate, orient scientists, writers and public figures for work in the interests of social development, which precedes the awarding of prizes for “contribution to human progress.”

The first Nobel banquet took place on December 10, 1901, simultaneously with the first presentation of the prize. Currently, the banquet is held in the Blue Hall of the City Hall. 1300-1400 people are invited to the banquet. Dress code: tailcoats and evening dresses. Chefs from the Town Hall Cellar (a restaurant at the Town Hall) and culinary specialists who have ever received the title of Chef of the Year take part in the development of the menu. In September, three menu options are tasted by members of the Nobel Committee, who decide what will be served “at Nobel’s table.” The only dessert that is always known is ice cream, but until the evening of December 10, no one except a narrow circle of initiates knows what kind.

For the Nobel banquet, specially designed dinnerware and tablecloths are used. A portrait of Nobel is woven on the corner of each tablecloth and napkin. Handmade tableware: along the edge of the plate there is a stripe of three colors of the Swedish Empire - blue, green and gold. The stem of the crystal wine glass is decorated in the same color scheme. The banquet service was commissioned for $1.6 million for the 90th anniversary of the Nobel Prizes in 1991. It consists of 6,750 glasses, 9,450 knives and forks, 9,550 plates and one tea cup. The last one is for Princess Liliana, who doesn't drink coffee. The cup is stored in a special beautiful wooden box with the princess's monogram. The saucer from the cup was stolen.

The tables in the hall are arranged with mathematical precision, and the hall is decorated with 23,000 flowers sent from San Remo. All movements of the waiters are strictly timed down to the second. For example, the ceremonial bringing in of ice cream takes exactly three minutes from the moment the first waiter appears with a tray at the door until the last of them stands at his table. Other dishes take two minutes to serve.

Exactly at 19 o'clock on December 210, the guests of honor, led by the king and queen, descend the stairs to the Blue Hall, where all the invitees are already sitting. The Swedish king is holding a Nobel laureate on his arm, and if there is not one, the wife of a Nobel laureate in physics. The first to toast is to His Majesty, the second to the memory of Alfred Nobel. After this, the secret of the menu is revealed. The menu is printed in small print on cards included with each location and features Alfred Nobel's profile in gold embossing. There is music throughout the dinner - very famous musicians are invited, including Rostropovich and Magnus Lindgren in 2003.

The banquet ends with the delivery of ice cream, crowned with a chocolate monogram “N” like a crown. At 22:15 the Swedish king gives the signal for the start of dancing in the Golden Hall of the Town Hall. At 1:30 the guests leave.

Absolutely all dishes from the menu, from 1901 onwards, can be ordered at the Stockholm Town Hall restaurant. This lunch costs a little less than $200. Every year they are ordered by 20 thousand visitors, and traditionally the most popular menu is the last Nobel banquet.

The Nobel concert is one of the three components of the Nobel week, along with the presentation of prizes and the Nobel dinner. It is considered one of the main musical events of the year in Europe and the main musical event of the year in the Scandinavian countries. The most prominent classical musicians of our time take part in it. In fact, there are two Nobel concerts: one is held on December 8 of each year in Stockholm, the second in Oslo at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. The Nobel concert is broadcast on several international television channels on December 31 of each year.Quote from the message Vladimir_Grinchuv

Nobel Prize

December 10, the day of death Alfreda Nobel, The Nobel Prize will be awarded at the Stockholm Philharmonic. Each laureate will receive King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden a gold medal with a portrait of the founder of the award and a diploma. The size of the monetary component of the award this year, as in the previous three years, reaches 8 million crowns (about 59 million rubles).

Who is up for the award this year?

Until the last moment, Nobel committees say nothing about the candidates for the prize or those who nominated them, and experts are trying to make assumptions about the names kept secret.

Every year, Thomson Reuters tries to predict who will win awards based on researchers' citation rankings.

— Physics

In the field of physics, the award may be given for the experimental detection of gravitational waves. Three physicists are named among the main contenders for the prize: Rainer Weiss, professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ronald Drever, a Scottish physicist and laser specialist, and Kippah Torna, physicist and astronomer, a world-recognized expert in the field of general relativity.

Thomson Reuters' citation count names two more teams of scientists vying for the Nobel Prize in Physics. So, professor was named as a possible candidate Marvin Cohen for studying the properties of solids, mathematical methods calculation of their properties and especially for the empirical method of pseudopotentials. Also among the possible candidates are Celso Grebogi, Edward Ott And James York for his contribution to the theory of control of chaotic systems. The OGY method they developed has found wide application in studying the behavior of chaotic systems in mechanics, laser physics, radiophysics, chemistry, biology and medicine.

Can apply for a prize in chemistry George Church And Feng Zhan, who managed to edit the genomes of mice and humans using the system responsible for the development of acquired immunity in bacteria. The system turned out to be possible to use for editing genes in animals and humans, in particular, for removing HIV from infected T-lymphocytes.

In addition to them, he can count on a reward Dennis Law who developed a method for detecting extracellular fetal DNA in maternal blood plasma, which will help diagnose some genetic diseases, their Iroshi Maeda with Yasuhiro Matsumura, who discovered the effect of increased permeability and retention for macromolecular drugs.

- Economy

Among the likely candidates for the award is: Edward Lazear for his work in the field of personnel economics, which concerns the development of new models of employee motivation, career growth and productivity, as well as Olivier Blanchard for contributions to macroeconomics and the study of the determinants of economic instability and employment.

The third candidate was named Mark Melitz for his studies of heterogeneity (heterogeneity) of firms in international trade.

— Peace Prize

May be eligible for the Peace Prize former US intelligence agent Edward Snowden and Pope Francis.

How many people have received the Nobel Prize during its existence?

Since 1901, 881 people and 23 organizations have received the award. It was not awarded during the First and Second World Wars. The United States leads in the number of laureates (359 people), Great Britain is in second place (121 people), and Germany is in third place (104 people). Russia has 27 laureates.

Voluntarily refused the French award writer Jean-Paul Sartre and Vietnamese politician Le Duc Tho. Three were forced not to receive it. Adolf Hitler banned chemist Richard Kuhn, biochemist Adolf Butenandt and bacteriologist Gerhard Domagk accept the prize, and the Soviet writer Boris Pasternak At first he agreed to accept the award, but then, under pressure from the authorities, he refused.