Nobel Prize

Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Nobel Prize shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Nobel Prize offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Nobel Prize at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Nobel Prize? Wrong! If the Nobel Prize is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Nobel Prize then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Nobel Prize? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Nobel Prize and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Nobel Prize wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Nobel Prize then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Nobel Prize site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Nobel Prize, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Nobel Prize, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{Infobox award| name = Nobel Prize | image =| size = 200px| description = Outstanding contributions in Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Nobel Prize in Economics is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.]
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Karolinska Institutet
Norwegian Nobel Committee's will in 1895, is awarded for [Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Nobel Prize in Literature, and Nobel Peace Prize. A prize in Nobel Prize in Economics ("The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel") was instituted by Sveriges Riksbank in 1968. The five initial prizes were first awarded in 1901, while the first prize in economics was awarded in 1969. The prizes in specific fields of research are widely regarded as the most prestigious award one can receive in those fields. The Nobel Peace Prize conveys social prestige, and that award also is often politically controversial. With the exception of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel Prizes are presented in Stockholm at a formal annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death. The Nobel Peace Prize and its recipients' lectures are presented at a formal annual ceremony in Oslo, Norway, also on December 10; the lectures by the recipients of the Prizes awarded in Stockholm occur in the days prior to December 10. Nobel Peace Prize 2007, nobelprize.org, accessed October 18, 2007. "Since the Nobel Prize is regarded by far as the most prestigious prize in the world, the Award Ceremonies as well as the Banquets in Stockholm and Oslo on 10 December have been transformed from local Swedish and Norwegian arrangements into major international events that receive worldwide coverage by the print media, radio and television." "The Nobel Prize Ceremonies", nobelprize.org, accessed October 18, 2007.

Alfred Nobel's will The five initial Prizes were instituted by the final will (law) of Alfred Nobel, a Sweden chemist and industrialist, who was the inventor of the high explosive dynamite. Though Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime, the last was written a little over a year before he died, and signed at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris on November 27, 1895. Nobel's work had directly involved the creation of explosives, and he became increasingly uneasy with the military use of his inventions. It is said that this was motivated in part by his reading of a List of premature obituaries of himself, published in error by a French newspaper on the occasion of the death of Nobel's brother Ludvig, and which condemned Nobel as a "merchant of death." Golden, F.: "The Worst and the Brightest", Time (magazine), October 16, 2000, accessed October 18, 2007. Nobel bequeathed 94% of his total assets, 31 million Swedish Kroner, for the establishment of five prizes.

{{cquote], 2007.-->Although Nobel's will established the prizes, his plan was incomplete and, due to various other hurdles, it took five years before the Nobel Foundation could be established and the first prizes awarded on December 10, 1901."First Nobel Prizes: December 10, 1901", This Day in History, The History Channel, accessed July 30, 2006.

Nomination and selection Compared with some other prizes, the Prize nomination and selection process is long and rigorous. This is a key reason why the Prizes have grown in importance over the years to become the most important prizes in their field. "Nobel Prizes: Selection Process", Encyclopædia Britannica Online (2007), accessed October 18, 2007.

The Nobel Laureates are selected by their respective committees. For the Prizes in Chemistry, Physics and Economics, a committee consists of five members elected by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; for the Prize in Literature, a committee of four to five members of the Swedish Academy; for the Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the committee consists of five members selected by The Nobel Assembly, which consists of 50 members elected by Karolinska Institutet; for the Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee consists of five members elected by the Norwegian Storting (the Norwegian parliament). "The Nobel Prize in Economics", nobelprize.org, accessed March 4,2007. In its first stage, several thousand people are asked to nominate candidates. These names are scrutinized and discussed by experts in their specific disciplines until only the winners remain. This slow and thorough process, insisted upon by Alfred Nobel, is arguably what gives the prize its importance. Despite this, there have been questionable awards and questionable omissions over the prize's century-long history.

Forms, which amount to a personal and exclusive invitation, are sent to about three thousand selected individuals to invite them to submit nominations. For the peace prize, inquiries are sent to such people as governments of states, members of international courts, professors and rectors at university level, former Peace Prize laureates, current or former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, among others. The Norwegian Nobel Committee then bases its assessment on nominations sent in before 3rd of February.. The submission deadline for nominations for Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature and Economics is January 31.. Self-nominations and nominations of deceased people are disqualified.

The names of the nominees are never publicly announced, and neither are they told that they have been considered for the Prize. Nomination records are sealed for fifty years. In practice some nominees do become known. It is also common for publicists to make such a claim, founded or not.

After the deadline has passed, the nominations are screened by committee, and a list is produced of approximately two hundred preliminary candidates. This list is forwarded to selected experts in the relevant field. They remove all but approximately fifteen names. The committee submits a report with recommendations to the appropriate institution. The Assembly for the Medicine Prize, for example, has fifty members. The institution members then select prize winners by vote.

The selection process varies slightly between the different disciplines. The Literature Prize is rarely awarded to more than one person per year, whereas other Prizes now often involve collaborators of two or three.

While posthumous nominations are not permitted, awards can occur if the individual died in the months between the nomination and the decision of the prize committee. The scenario has occurred twice: The 1931 Literature Prize of Erik Axel Karlfeldt, and the 1961 Peace Prize to UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. As of 1974, laureates must be alive at the time of the October announcement. There has been one laureate—William Vickrey (1996, Economics)—who died after the prize was announced but before it could be presented.

Recognition time lag The interval between the accomplishment of the achievement being recognized and the awarding of the Nobel Prize for it varies from discipline to discipline. Prizes in Literature are typically awarded to recognize a cumulative lifetime body of work rather than a single achievement. In this case the notion of "lag" does not directly apply. Prizes in Peace, on the other hand, are often awarded within a few years of the events they recognize. For instance, Kofi Annan was awarded the 2001 Peace Prize just four years after becoming the Secretary-General of the UN.

Awards in the scientific disciplines of physics and chemistry require that the significance of achievements being recognized is "tested by time." In practice it means that the lag between the discovery and the award is typically on the order of 20 years and can be much longer. For example, 1/2 of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar for his work on stellar structure and evolution that was done during the 1930s. As a downside of this approach, not all scientists live long enough for their work to be recognized. Some important scientific discoveries are never considered for a Prize, as the discoverers may have died by the time the impact of their work is realized.

Award ceremonies The committees and institutions serving as the selection boards for the prizes typically announce the names of the laureates in October. The prizes are then awarded at formal ceremonies held annually on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. In recent years the Nobel Banquet has been held in Stockholm City Hall in connection with the Nobel Prizes in the various disciplines. In 2005 and 2006, these Prize ceremonies were held at the Stockholm Concert Hall, with the Banquet following immediately in the Blue Hall of the Stockholm City Hall. Previously, the Nobel Prizes ceremony was held in a ballroom in Stockholm's Grand Hotel.

The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony has been held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905-1946); at the Aula of the University of Oslo (1947-1990); and most recently at the Oslo City Hall.

A maximum of three laureates and two different works may be selected per award. Each award can be given to a maximum of three recipients per year. Each consists of a gold medal, a diploma, and a cash grant. The grant is currently approximately 10 million Swedish krona, slightly more than Euro1 million (United States dollar1.5 million). The original purpose of the grant was to fund laureates' further work, although nowadays many are retired at the time of award. This has led to some criticism that the prize is not in accordance with Alfred Nobel's intentions.

If there are two winners in a particular category, the award grant is divided equally amongst the recipients. If there are three, the awarding committee has the option of dividing the grant equally, or awarding one-half to one recipient, and one-quarter to each of the others. It is not uncommon for recipients to donate prize money to benefit scientific, cultural or humanitarian causes.

Since 1902, the Monarch of Sweden has, with the exception of the Peace Prize, presented all the prizes in Stockholm. At first Oscar II of Sweden did not approve of awarding grand prizes to foreigners, but is said to have changed his mind once his attention had been drawn to the publicity value of the prizes for Sweden.

Until the Norwegian Nobel Committee was established in 1904, the President of Norwegian Parliament made the formal presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Committee's five members are entrusted with researching and adjudicating the Prize as well as awarding it. Although appointed by the Storting (Stortinget), they are independent and answer to no legislative authority. Members of the Norwegian government are not permitted to sit on the Committee.

Controversies and criticisms Since the first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901, the proceedings, nominations, awardees and exclusions have generated criticism and engendered much controversy.

Overlooked achievements Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times between 1937 and 1948 but never received the prize before being assassinated on 30 January 1948, two days before the closing date for the 1948 Peace Prize nominations. The Norwegian Nobel Committee had very likely planned to give him the Peace Prize in 1948 as they considered a posthumous award, but ultimately decided against it and instead chose not to award the prize that year..

The strict rules against a prize being awarded to more than three people at once is also a cause for controversy. Where a prize is awarded to recognise an achievement by a team of more than three collaborators, inevitably one or more will miss out. For example, in 2002, a Prize was awarded to Koichi Tanaka and John B. Fenn for the development of mass spectrometry in Protein, an award that failed to recognise the achievements of Franz Hillenkamp and Michael Karas of the Institute for Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Frankfurt.Laura Spinney, "News Analysis: Nobel Prize Controversy", The Scientist 3.1 (11 Dec. 2002): 20021211-03, accessed October 28, 2006.

Similarly, the prohibition of posthumous awards fails to recognise achievements by a collaborator who happens to die before the prize is awarded. Rosalind Franklin, who was key in the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953, died of ovarian cancer in 1958, four years before Francis Crick, James D. Watson and Maurice Wilkins (one of Franklin's collaborators) were awarded the Prize for Medicine or Physiology in 1962. Franklin's significant and relevant contribution was only briefly mentioned in Crick and Watson's Nobel Prize-winning paper: "We have also been stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas of Dr. M.H.F. Wilkins, Dr. R.E. Franklin, and co-workers..."J.D. Watson and F.H.C. Crick, , Nature (magazine) 171.4356 (1953): 737-38.

In some cases, awards have arguably omitted similar discoveries made earlier. For example, the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "the discovery and development of conductive organic polymers" (1977) ignored the much earlier discovery of highly-conductive charge transfer complex polymers: the 1963 series of papers by Weiss, et al. reported even higher conductivity in similarly iodine-doped oxidized polypyrrole..J. McGinness and P. Proctor, "Amorphous semiconductor switching in melanins", Science (magazine) 183.127 (1974): 853-55. Links PMID: 4359339 (PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE), accessed October 28, 2006.

Mathematics prize There are several possible reasons why Nobel did not create a prize for mathematics. Nobel's Will (law) speaks of prizes for those inventions or discoveries of greatest practical benefit to mankind, possibly having in mind practical rather than theoretical works. Because mathematics is not considered as practical a science as the others that are recognized, this would explain the lack of a mathematics prize.

Another possible reason is that there was already a well-known Scandinavian prize for mathematicians. The existing mathematical awards at the time were mainly due to the work of Gösta Mittag-Leffler, who founded the Acta Mathematica, a century later still one of the world's leading mathematical journals. Through his influence in Stockholm he persuaded King Oscar II to endow prize competitions and honor distinguished mathematicians all over Europe, including Hermite, Joseph Louis François Bertrand, Weierstrass, and Henri Poincaré.

There is an urban legend that Nobel refused to endow a mathematics prize after his wife had an affair with the mathematician Mittag-Leffler. This story is false as Alfred Nobel never actually married.

However, some mathematicians have won the Nobel Prize in other fields: Bertrand Russell for literature (1950), Max Born and Walther Bothe for physics (1954). Still others have won the related Nobel Memorial prize in Economics: Kenneth Arrow (1972), Leonid Kantorovich (1975), John Forbes Nash (1994), Clive W. J. Granger (2003), Robert J. Aumann and Thomas C. Schelling (2005), Leonid Hurwicz (2007) "Mathematicians Who Have Won the Nobel Prize", PlanetMath, accessed October 18, 2007.

Several prizes in mathematics have similarities to the Nobel Prize. The Fields Medal is often described as the Nobel Prize of mathematics, but it differs in being awarded only once every four years to people younger than forty years old. A comparison may be made with the Crafoord Prize, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences since 1982. Other comparable prizes are the Abel Prize, awarded by the Norwegian government as of 2001; the Shaw Prize in mathematical sciences given since 2004; and the Gauss Prize, first introduced by the International Mathematical Union and the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung at the 2006 International Congress of Mathematicians for practical and applied mathematics research. The Clay Mathematics Institute has set up seven "Millennium Prize Problems", the solving of which results in a significant cash award. This prize differs from the Nobel in that it has a clear, predetermined objective for its award, and these prizes can be awarded whenever a problem is solved.

Engineering and Applied Science Some Nobel Prizes have been awarded for applied rather than basic scientific discoveries. However, some significant engineering discoveries don't really fit into the major categories in which Nobel Prizes are awarded. One of the more prominent awards given in engineering is the Draper Prize.

Uniquely distinguished laureates Multiple laureates Since the establishment of the Nobel Prize, four people have received two Nobel Prizes: Nobel Prize Facts, nobelprize.org, accessed October 18, 2007.

Marie Curie: in Physics 1903, for the discovery of radioactivity; and in Chemistry 1911, for the isolation of radium
Linus Pauling: in Chemistry 1954, for the Orbital hybridisation; and Peace 1962, for nuclear test-ban treaty activism;
John Bardeen: in Physics 1956, for the invention of the transistor; and Physics 1972, for the theory of superconductivity; and
Frederick Sanger: in Chemistry 1958, for structure of the insulin molecule; and in Chemistry 1980, for virus nucleotide sequencing.

Otto Heinrich Warburg could have been among them, but he was prevented by the Nazi government from accepting his second Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1944..

As a group, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has received the Nobel Peace Prize three times: in 1917, 1944, and 1963. The first two prizes were specifically in recognition of the group's work during the world wars. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has won the Peace Prize twice: in 1954 and 1981.

Family laureates A number of families have included multiple laureates. The Curie family claim the most Nobel Prizes, with five:

Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Physics 1903 and Chemistry 1911
Her husband Pierre Curie, Physics 1903
Their daughter Irène Joliot-Curie, Chemistry 1935
Their son in law Frederic Joliot-Curie, Chemistry 1935

Furthermore, Henry Labouisse, the husband of the Curies' second daughter Ève Curie, was the director of UNICEF when it won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965.

Age extremes William Lawrence Bragg, who was only 25 when he shared the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics with his father William Henry Bragg, is the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Prize. List of the youngest Nobel Laureates at the time of the award, "Frequently Asked Questions", nobelprize.org, accessed October 18, 2007. Doris Lessing, 87, is the oldest woman ever to win a Nobel Prize when she was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. List of the oldest Nobel Laureates at the time of the award, "Frequently Asked Questions", nobelprize.org, accessed October 18, 2007.

See also

Nobel Library
Nobel Museum
Nobel Peace Center
List of prizes, medals, and awards
List of Nobel laureates
Nobel laureates by country
Nobel laureates by university affiliation
Female Nobel Prize laureates
Nobel Prize controversies
Alternative Nobel Prize

Notes External links

"The Definitive Guide to The Nobel Prizes". The Local (Sweden). Accesssed October 18, 2007.
"Nobel Centennial: Annan, U.N. cited for peace work, win Nobel". Special report on CNN. Copyright 2003. Accessed October 18, 2007. (Concerns the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Kofi Annan and the United Nations).
The Nobel Committee of the Karolinska Institute.
The Nobel Committees of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
"Nobel Prizes", Britannica Spotlight.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee (Nobel Peace Prize official website).
The Swedish Academy (In Sweden).

Marie Curie: in Physics 1903, for the discovery of radioactivity; and in Chemistry 1911, for the isolation of radium
Linus Pauling: in Chemistry 1954, for the Orbital hybridisation; and Peace 1962, for nuclear test-ban treaty activism;
John Bardeen: in Physics 1956, for the invention of the transistor; and Physics 1972, for the theory of superconductivity; and
Frederick Sanger: in Chemistry 1958, for structure of the insulin molecule; and in Chemistry 1980, for virus nucleotide sequencing.

Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Physics 1903 and Chemistry 1911
Her husband Pierre Curie, Physics 1903
Their daughter Irène Joliot-Curie, Chemistry 1935
Their son in law Frederic Joliot-Curie, Chemistry 1935

Nobel Library
Nobel Museum
Nobel Peace Center
List of prizes, medals, and awards
List of Nobel laureates
Nobel laureates by country
Nobel laureates by university affiliation
Female Nobel Prize laureates
Nobel Prize controversies
Alternative Nobel Prize

Notes External links

"The Definitive Guide to The Nobel Prizes". The Local (Sweden). Accesssed October 18, 2007.
"Nobel Centennial: Annan, U.N. cited for peace work, win Nobel". Special report on CNN. Copyright 2003. Accessed October 18, 2007. (Concerns the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Kofi Annan and the United Nations).
The Nobel Committee of the Karolinska Institute.
The Nobel Committees of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
"Nobel Prizes", Britannica Spotlight.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee (Nobel Peace Prize official website).
The Swedish Academy (In Sweden).

The Nobel Foundation
Official web site of the Nobel Foundation. Offers a biography of Alfred Nobel, information about the organization, and details of individuals who have received a Nobel Prize.

The Nobel Prize
Nobelprize.org, Official web site of the Nobel Foundation ... The Nobel Prize. Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry ...

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Author Lessing wins Nobel honour
Doris Lessing wins the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature, widely regarded as the world's highest accolade for writers.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Gore and UN panel win Nobel prize
Al Gore and the UN's climate panel share the Nobel Peace Prize for their work warning of the risks of climate change.

Nobel Prize - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Nobel Prize (Swedish: Nobelpriset) was established in Alfred Nobel's will in 1895, and it was first awarded in Peace, Literature, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Physics ...

The Norwegian Nobel Institute
Selects winner of the Peace prize. Describes nomination and selection process, with information on past winners, fellowship programs, and library. [English/Norwegian]

The Norwegian Nobel Institute - Nobel Peace Prize 2006
THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE FOR 2007. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental ...

Al Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize - Climate Change- msnbc.com
Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday, and the former vice president used the attention to warn that global warming ...

Nobel Prize winners - About LSE - Press and Information Office - LSE
Nobel Prize winners A total of 14 LSE alumni or staff members have been awarded Nobel Prizes. Click on the names for more information: 2007: Leonid Hurwicz, Nobel Prize in Economic ...

University of Cambridge Nobel Prize winners
Nobel prizes have been awarded to members of Cambridge University for significant advances as diverse as the discovery of the structure of DNA, the development of a national income ...