Nobel Prizes Should Reward Science, Not Scientists

The current system has a long history of sexism and racism. Reforming the prizes requires reinvention.

 Once Again, No Female Nobel Winners in Science

Only 17 women have been awarded a science Nobel Prize since its inception in 1901. That amounts to three percent of all prizewinners. Why should that be?

 The cancer-fighting research that won the Nobel Prize in medicine, explained

James Allison and Tasuku Honjo advanced immunotherapy — and gave patients with cancer new hope.

 The Path to a Nobel Prize

Winning a Nobel Prize is something that many scientists aspire to, yet only a select few make discoveries so notable that they are awarded this honor. As the Nobel Prize cannot be awarded posthumously, to be eligible, the discovery must have a significant impact on humankind during the discoverer’s lifetime, which makes winning it even more commendable.

All Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded 108 times to 214 Nobel Laureates between 1901 and 2017.

Three Things To Know About Dynamite, The Reason We Have Nobel Prizes

With all the excitement, it’s easy to forget that there’s a very serious reason we have Nobel Prizes at all — dynamite. Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel made his fortune because he invented dynamite. When he died, he left most of that fortune to establish the prizes that bear his name. So in honor of Nobel Prize week, here are three things you might not know about this infamous explosive.

Bob Dylan’s Year of Living Laureatishly

During his year as a Nobel laureate, he didn’t write a new memoir or release an album of new songs. He didn’t scream at President Trump or even save a rain forest. (Those jobs await Madonna’s Nobel.) Instead, Dylan seemed trapped beneath an avalanche of unsolicited prestige. For decades, he’d been going about his business, writing songs and playing them, and then — boom! — he’s suddenly a big Nobel literary cheese. The times, they certainly a-changed.

Dethroning the Nobel Prize

Science is collaborative and cumulative as its nature, but the Nobels by their nature honor a few isolated individuals as representative of entire fields of research.

It's Time to Rethink the Nobel Prizes

While most see the Nobel Prizes as an inspirational celebration of the human mind—the one chance for basic science to share the spotlight on a par with Hollywood celebrities, for at least a week—others feel it has some detrimental effects on the portrayal of science.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded for 3D Views of Life’s Biological Machinery

Three European-born scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for developing a new way to assemble precise three-dimensional images of biological molecules like proteins, DNA and RNA. Their work has helped scientists decipher processes within cells that were previously invisible, and has led to better understanding of viruses like Zika. In the future, their techniques could offer road maps in the development of drugs to treat diseases.

The circadian rhythm research that just won a Nobel prize in medicine, explained

The award celebrates the study of the tiny biological clocks in every living thing.

The Nobel Laureate Exclusion Act: No Future Geniuses Need Apply

The Raise Act’s draconian criteria would have kept out a quarter of America’s Nobel-winners since 2000.

The Nobel Prize in Medicine Goes to Your Body's Circadian Clock

In the end, the Nobel Prize committee recognized the less-trendy but increasingly relevant work of Hall, Rosbash, and Young for explaining something as fundamental as “how plants, animals, and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the Earth’s revolutions.”

The Real Message of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The message embedded in today’s Nobel Prize announcement couldn’t come at a better moment—or a more fraught one.

The Worst Nobel Prize

Who is the least deserving Nobel laureate of all time?

This year’s Nobel Prize winners are changing everything we know about medicine and biology

“Their discoveries explain how plants, animals and humans adapt their biological rhythm so that it is synchronized with the Earth’s revolutions,” said the Nobel jury.

Update the Nobel Prizes

Science’s reach has relentlessly expanded to include ever more facets of our world, and it has become increasingly important to our lives. But the world’s most important scientific honor society has largely ignored that evolution.