Professor Makoto Kobayashi of Japan's KEK Center for High Energy Physics, one of three 2008 Nobel Laureates in Physics, is flattered by the high award and has not yet decided how he will spend the prize.
Alfred Nobel's capital is administered by the Nobel Foundation. The original size of the Nobel Fund, established in 1900, was 31 million Swedish kronor, translated into modern dollars - about 250 million, and the premiums were paid from interest on securities transactions.
At first, the rules were very strict - the fund could only invest in government-backed bonds. But in 1946, the Swedish government allowed the fund to use other financial instruments and exempted it from taxes, and in 1953 the United States also provided its benefits. The management system has also improved.
The fund's capital is currently $520 million, and in 2007, $7.5 million was spent on bonuses, or just over 1%.
Premiums are paid out of interest, mainly from securities and real estate. A tenth of the income is annually deducted to increase the main fund. The remainder is divided into five installments and made available to the awarding institutions. An amount is withheld from each part to cover the costs associated with the activities of the Nobel Foundation and Nobel Prize Committees, as well as for the financing of Nobel institutions.
The first bonuses in 1901 amounted to 150 thousand Swedish kronor, or 42 thousand dollars, then the remuneration was reduced and only in 1991 reached its original level.
The lowest amount of the Nobel Prize was in 1923 - 115 thousand Swedish kronor. In the mid-1980s, each award already exceeded 2 million crowns, or $225,000.
Since 2001, the Nobel Prize in each nomination has been 10 million Swedish kronor (total 50 million kroner). If two people win in one nomination, the monetary reward is divided between them in equal shares.
Another 10 million kroons are allocated by the Swedish Bank, which traditionally awards the Nobel Memorial Prize for contribution to the development of economic science.
In 2003, the Nobel Prize was $1.35 million, in 2004 - $1.32 million, in 2005 - $1.3 million.
In 2006 this amount was equivalent to $1.47 million, in 2007 - $1.542 million, in 2008 - $1.399 million.
Soviet writer Mikhail Sholokhov, who was awarded the Literature Prize in 1965, received $62,000.
In 2007, Doris Lessing - Nobel Prize in Literature - in addition to the gold Nobel medal, the diploma of the Royal Swedish Academy received a check for 1.542 million dollars.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
One of the key events in the social and intellectual life of Sweden is Nobel Day - the annual Nobel Prize ceremony, which takes place on December 10 in Stockholm's Studhuset (City Hall).
These awards enjoy international recognition as the most honorable civil 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 the Nobel and a diploma. Currently, the Nobel Prize is 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 Institute, and the Swedish Academy awards the literature prize. The only "non-Swedish" prize, the Peace Prize, is awarded in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
By the way, the last version of the famous will Nobel signed almost a year before his death - November 27, 1895 in Paris. It was announced in January 1897: “All my movable and immovable property must be turned into liquid values by my executors, and the capital thus collected is placed in a reliable bank. The income from investments should belong to the fund, which will distribute them annually in the form of bonuses to those who during the previous year have brought the greatest benefit to mankind ... The indicated percentages must be divided into five equal parts, which are intended: one part - to the one who makes 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 will make the most important discovery in the field of physiology or medicine; the fourth - to the one who will create the most outstanding literary work of an idealistic direction; fifth - to the one who has made the most significant contribution to the rallying of nations, the abolition of slavery or the reduction of the existing armies and the promotion of peace congresses ... My particular desire is that the nationality of candidates should not be taken into account when awarding prizes ... "
Alfred Bernhard Nobel, Swedish inventor, industrial magnate, linguist, philosopher and humanist was born in 1833 in Stockholm to 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.
Alfred Nobel in his life became the owner of 355 patents, which formed the basis of about 90 enterprises in 20 countries of the world. His brothers Robert and Ludovic, who worked in Russia and later in Baku in the oil fields, contributed to the multiplication of his fortune. Alfred Nobel bequeathed $4 million (the current equivalent of $173 million) to be used as prizes in physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine. These areas were close to him, and in them he assumed 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 all his life he was a voracious reader in every language available to him.Prizes in the field of science and literature were supposed to be awarded in Sweden, and the Peace Prize - in Norway. From this will began the history of the Nobel Prize, the fund of which amounted to 31 million crowns.
A year later, on December 10, 1896, Alfred Nobel died in Italy from a stroke. Later this date will be declared Nobel Day. After the opening of the will, it turned out that almost the entire fortune of Nobel was not available to his relatives, who were counting on this money.
Dissatisfaction was shown even by the Swedish king Oscar II, who did not want finances to leave the country, even in the form of world merit awards. There were also objective bureaucratic difficulties. The practical implementation of Nobel's will turned out to be a very difficult task, and under certain conditions the awards could not take place.
But soon all obstacles were overcome, and in June 1898 Nobel's relatives signed an agreement to renounce further claims to capital. Received the approval of the Government of Sweden and the main provisions related to the awarding of prizes. In 1900, the Charter of the Nobel Foundation and the rules governing the activities of the created Nobel structures 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 peace efforts 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 have become Nobel Prize winners during the 20th century.
Awarding of prizes is not always universally approved. 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 no award is disappointing. The famous Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren has never been nominated for the award, and the Indian Mahatma Gandhi has never won the award. 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 Dik Tho did not want to share it with Kissinger.
Nobel Prizes are unique awards and are especially 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 beginning of the awards named after him, the international nature of the awards made a special impression. Strict rules for the selection of laureates, which have been applied since the inception of the awards, have also played a role in recognizing the importance of the awards in question. As soon as the election of the current year's laureates ends in December, preparations begin for the election of the next year's laureates. Such a year-round activity, in which so many intellectuals from all over the world participate, orients scientists, writers and public figures to work for the development of society, which precedes the awarding of prizes for "contribution to human progress."
The first Nobel Banquet took place on December 10, 1901, at the same time as the first award ceremony. 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. The chefs of the Town Hall Cellar (town hall restaurant) and chefs who have ever received the title of Chef of the Year are involved 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 the Nobel table." Only dessert is always known - ice cream, but until the evening of December 10, no one, except for a narrow circle of initiates, knows what kind.
For the Nobel banquet, a service and tablecloths with a specially designed design are used. Nobel's portrait is woven on the corner of each tablecloth and napkin. Handmade dishes: along the edge of the plate there is a strip of three colors of the Swedish Empire - blue, green and gold. The leg of a crystal wine glass is decorated in the same range. The banquet service was commissioned for $1.6 million for the 90th anniversary of the Nobel Prizes in 1991. It consists of 6750 glasses, 9450 knives and forks, 9550 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 to the nearest second. For example, the ice cream ceremonial 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. Serving other dishes takes two minutes.
Exactly at 19:00 on December 210, guests of honor, led by the king and queen, descend the stairs to the Blue Hall, where all the guests are already sitting. The Swedish king leads the Nobel laureate by the arm, and if there is none, the wife of the Nobel laureate in physics. The first is a toast to His Majesty, the second - in memory of Alfred Nobel. After that, the mystery of the menu is revealed. The menu is printed in small print on the maps attached to each place, and is decorated with a gold-embossed profile of Alfred Nobel. Music plays throughout the dinner - very famous musicians are invited, including Rostropovich and Magnus Lindgren in 2003.
The banquet ends with the removal of ice cream topped like a crown with a chocolate monogram-monogram "N". At 22:15, the Swedish king gives a sign to start dancing in the Golden Hall of the Town Hall. At 1:30 the guests disperse.
Absolutely all dishes from the menu, from 1901 onwards, can be ordered at the restaurant of the town hall of Stockholm. Such a meal costs a little less than $200. Every year they are ordered by 20 thousand visitors, and traditionally the menu of the last Nobel banquet is the most popular.
The Nobel Concert is one of the three components of the Nobel Week, along with the awarding 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 TV channels on December 31 every year.Quote from Vladimir_Grinchev
Nobel Prize
What is a Nobel Prize? You can give a short answer to this question. This is a prestigious award given annually to writers, scientists and public figures. But on what basis are these outstanding personalities awarded? Who makes the final decision on awarding a prize to a particular candidate? Exhaustive answers to these questions are contained in the article. It also lists the names of historical figures and writers who were once nominated for the Nobel Prize (Russian and foreign).
Who is Nobel?
Until 1901, no one knew what the Nobel Prize was. Because it simply didn't exist. The award was organized a few years after the death of Alfred Nobel. What preceded this event?
The Swedish engineer, chemist and inventor was born in 1833, the son of an impoverished descendant of the scientist Olof Rudbek. From childhood, Alfred was interested in technology and science. Until the age of sixteen he lived with his parents in Russia. True, the future philanthropist was born in Stockholm. The Nobel father moved to St. Petersburg with his family in 1833.
great inventor
Alfred left his father's house at the age of 16. By that time, the financial situation had improved somewhat, the parents were able to give their inquisitive son a good education. In Europe, Nobel intensively studied chemistry. He was especially interested in explosives - a field of science, research in which led Nobel in 1863 to the invention of dynamite. Four years later, the scientist received a corresponding patent, which later allowed him to become one of the richest people in the world.
Without going into details of the famous Swede's professional activities, let's move on to the final part of his biography. It is she who will bring us closer to obtaining a detailed answer to the question of what the Nobel Prize is.
Death merchant
Scientists tend to be fanatical about their own work. Sometimes they commit the greatest crimes in their research without even noticing it. Nobel produced and widely advertised his product without thinking about the consequences of the development of dynamite production. For this, he was nicknamed the "Blood Millionaire". The restless researcher under the offensive nickname would have been remembered by the descendants, if not for one case.
One beautiful spring morning (although it may have happened in the winter frost or autumn bad weather), the world-famous scientist woke up in his Stockholm apartment and, as usual, fondly remembered the passion of his life - dynamite. In a good mood, Nobel went into the living room to drink a cup of espresso and think about a new plan to improve the technology for producing a mixture based on nitroglycerin. The scientist opened a fresh newspaper... and the thoughts caressing the soul dissipated like yesterday's dream. On the first page, he saw a message about his own death.
The world community would never have known what the Nobel Prize is, if not for the mistake of an absent-minded reporter who, in compiling an obituary, confused the creator of dynamite with his own brother. Nobel was not upset about the death of a relative. He wasn't too upset by his own obituary either. Nobel did not like the definition that the "scribbler" gave him for the sake of a red word - "merchant of death."
Nobel Foundation
In order to change the course of events and not remain in the memory of posterity as a Millionaire on the Blood or the Dynamite King, Alfred Nobel immediately sat down to draw up a will.
So, the document is ready. What does he say? After the death of Nobel, all his property must be sold, the proceeds are placed in an account in a reliable bank. The resulting profit goes to the newly established fund, which, in turn, annually distributes it according to a strict scheme, dividing it into five equal parts. Each of them constitutes a monetary award due to a scientist, writer or fighter for world peace. In his will, Nobel emphasized that the choice of a candidate should in no way be influenced by his nationality or citizenship.
The relatives of the millionaire were furious when they learned about the will, and for a long time they tried to challenge its authenticity. But that's a completely different story.
Candidate Selection Rules
A physicist, chemist, scientist who made a discovery in the field of medicine or physiology, the author of an outstanding literary work can become a Nobel Prize winner.
A public figure who has made a significant contribution to the abolition of slavery and the rallying of nations is entitled to the Nobel Peace Prize. The committee named after the scientist is responsible for it. Other awards are approved by the following organizations:
- Karolinska Institute (medicine or physiology award).
- Swedish Academy (Literature Prize).
- Royal Swedish Academy (prizes in chemistry and physics).
The Prize cannot be awarded posthumously. But if, of course, the applicant died after the announcement of the committee, before he lived to see the presentation ceremony, it is reserved for him. But what if there is no worthy candidate from one area or another? In this case, the award is not awarded, and the funds are kept until the next year.
The amount of the cash prize
The amount is different every year. After all, the profit from transactions, from which premiums are paid, cannot be fixed. So, in 2016, it amounted to $1.1 million. And in 2007 - 1.56 million dollars. In addition, a few years ago, the fund decided to reduce the premium to 20% in order to prevent the organization's capital from decreasing in the future.
It is worth saying that the nomination for the award is an interesting and mysterious process. It is attended not only by members of the organizations listed above, but also by more than three thousand people (usually researchers) working in certain fields, as well as former laureates. The names of the nominees are kept secret for 50 years.
The Nobel Prize is a very solemn event attended by more than a thousand people. The banquet menu and the decoration of the hall in which it is held is a separate topic that cannot be disclosed within the framework of one article. Therefore, let's move on to the most interesting part of our story, namely, the names of the laureates of the most prestigious award. Since their list is very extensive, we will name the most famous personalities, and above all our compatriots.
Nobel Prize in Literature
No matter how talented a writer may be, he will not be awarded this prize if he does not strive to convey the bright, eternal to the readers. It is received by humanists, idealists, fighters for justice and those who have made a significant contribution to the development of literature. In total, 107 prizes were awarded (by 2017). In 1904, 1917, 1966 and 1974, the members of the committee could not find a worthy candidate.
So, Ivan Bunin in 1933 was awarded the prize for the skill that contributes to the development of classical Russian prose. Boris Pasternak after a quarter of a century - for high achievements in lyric poetry and continuation of the traditions of the epic novel. It is worth saying that the title of the work was not included in the justification for the award. Nevertheless, the author of Doctor Zhivago was subjected to severe oppression in his homeland. It was considered good form to scold Pasternak's novel. At the same time, only a few of them read it. After all, the book was banned in the USSR for a long time.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was awarded the prize thanks to his high moral strength and following the traditions of the Russian epic novel. He didn't show up for the ceremony. Not because I was busy, but because they didn't let me in. Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksievich is the last Russian-speaking Nobel Prize winner. Writer Mikhail Sholokhov was also awarded.
Andrey Sakharov
What Nobel Prize was awarded to the Soviet scientist, one of the creators of the hydrogen bomb? Prizes in physics or maybe chemistry? No. Andrei Sakharov is a laureate of the Peace Prize. He received it for his human rights activities and speeches against the development of nuclear weapons.
As already mentioned, the names of the nominees become known only after 50 years. These once included Leo Tolstoy, Erich Maria Remarque, which is not surprising. Tolstoy is a great humanist. Remarque in his books actively criticized the fascist dictatorship. But some of the names of the Nobel Peace Prize nominees that have become famous are really puzzling. Hitler and Mussolini. The first was nominated in 1939, the second four years earlier. Lenin could also become a nominee for the Peace Prize. However, the First World War intervened.
The Nobel Prize is a nationwide award that has been awarded every year since 1901. It is awarded to the most outstanding chemists, physicists, writers, medical scientists and peacekeepers. The laureate is awarded a medal with a portrait of A. Nobel, a diploma and a monetary reward.
The Nobel Prize is $1.5 million and is never awarded posthumously. The founder of the award is the famous Swedish entrepreneur, chemist Alfred Nobel, who became famous all over the world for having created dynamite.
On November 27, 1895, Nobel signed a will in which he indicated that the property after his death should be converted into cash and put in a bank. All capital income will be controlled by a special fund, which divides them into 5 parts and pays a cash reward.
The first prize was awarded on December 10, 1901, and in 1969 a new nomination was established for specialists in the field of economics. The Nobel Foundation has decided that no more new nominations will be established. The awarding of the prize is carried out by Nobel committees, each of which has 5 people.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences elects committees to determine the best among physicists and economists. Royal Karolinska Institute of Medicine and Surgery in Stockholm - committees in the field of medicine. Swedish Academy - committees to determine the best writers. And the winners of the Peace Prize are chosen by the Norwegian parliament, Stroeting.
The Peace Prize has a specific position. It can be obtained not only by a person, but also by an organization, and it is precisely this that can be obtained more than once. Although, there are exceptions to every rule - the Nobel Prize was received 2 times by Sklodowska-Curie (chemistry and physics); J. Bardeen (twice became a laureate in physics); L. Pauling (Peace Prize and Chemistry).
The award ceremony is held on December 10 in Nobel's hometown - in Stockholm (the capital of Sweden) and only the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo (the capital of Norway). The King of Norway and the entire royal family are always present at the presentation of the Peace Prize. Before the ceremony, the so-called Nobel Week is held - laureate scientists give lectures that are published in a special collection of the Nobel Foundation.
But the most important events of the Nobel Week are the Nobel Concert, which takes place on December 08, and the Nobel Dinner in the Blue Hall of the City Hall. The best and most famous musicians who perform classical music take part in the concert.
The menu for the banquet is compiled back in September and it contains all the dishes that have been on the menu since the first ceremony in 1901. A mandatory condition for the banquet is a strict dress code: ladies are dressed in evening dresses, and men in tailcoats. Usually up to 1500 people attend the Nobel dinner.
The Nobel Prize is the most coveted for many scientists in the world, but some refused to receive money that was earned from human deaths and the use of dynamite.
There is also a parody of the Nobel Prize - the so-called.
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Why they give the Nobel Prize: 6 main trends
On November 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel signed the final version of his will, establishing the most prestigious prize in the world. 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. Academics choose laureates from dozens of nominations put forward by the scientific community. Each of these people has done something great or at least outstanding, but the members of the committee give awards to the works whose consequences seem to them the most promising. In other words, the Nobel Prize is given 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: puzzle completed
The Nobel prizes in physics over the past decade predict that in the coming years we are unlikely to expect discoveries that can turn our ideas about the structure of the world upside down. Several awards (for 2004, 2008 and 2012) have gone to scientists who have strengthened and expanded today's mainstream theory of why nature is the way it is.
This theory is called standard model, and while it is the most coherent and consistent build 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 take shape. After it became clear in 2013 that Large Hadron Collider caught the same boson, the position of the theory became unshakable. Proponents of alternative interpretations of reality have lost the main argument that proved the failure 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 excluded from scientific specialties - nature has many mysteries that exist, as it were, in parallel with 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 Award received Peter Higgs and François Engler behind « theoretical discovery of a mechanism that provided insight into the origin of the masses of elementary particles» . Back in the mid-1960s, Higgs and Engler 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, even exist. The most important part of the theory proposed by Higgs and Engler was 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, scientists were immediately awarded the Nobel Prize. |
Chemistry: almost biology
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Laureates-2013. Chemistry Martin Karplus, Ari Warshel and Michael Levitt behind "development of models of complex chemical systems" . Children at school write down reactions involving several small molecules. In reality, dozens and sometimes hundreds of giant molecules meet each other. It is impossible to understand offhand what will be the result of the reaction, so scientists simulate such interactions on a computer. Without the current laureates, this would not have been possible - they laid the foundations for computer simulation of chemical reactions. |
The trend of recent years in the selection of Nobel Prize winners in chemistry is, alas, unfavorable for the once powerful science.
Exactly half of the awards in this category went to scientists who are engaged in pure biology. The difficulties of the Nobel Committee 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 deepening into these issues leads scientists straight into physics. Moreover, in physics, the Nobel Prizes for which were awarded decades ago.
Surely in the future there will be "real" chemical Nobel Prizes. They will be awarded for works that explain some important processes for the industry, such as "click-chemical" reactions, which make it possible to obtain the desired substances as simply as possible and with a very high yield. The discoverer of such reactions, Russian Valery Fokin, was on the short list of candidates for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry - 2013, which is issued annually by bookmakers, and he has every chance of winning in the following years.
Biology: clones and genes
Nobel prizes of recent years in physiology and medicine promise humanity bright future. Researchers are learning more and more about how genes work and learning how 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 with molecular biologists and threatens to leave the laboratory for the clinic. RNA interference will allow, for example, to silence malfunctioning 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 went to scientists who laid the foundations cloning and reprogramming of stem cells. It is difficult to overestimate the significance of these works: even if humanity cannot overcome death, people will feel healthy until old age and change failed organs as necessary. However, in the future, organs will break down much less frequently. Two Nobel Prizes of the last decade went to scientists who figured out the reasons stomach ulcers and cervical cancer- diseases that significantly impair the quality and duration of life. As it turned out, ulcers are caused by Helicobacter pylori bacteria, and cancer is provoked by the human papillomavirus.
The world: without good people
This award, more than any other, reflects the hopes of the people. Over the past 10 years, the award has been presented 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) received the award upfront, and experts are still not sure that the winners have managed to justify the 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 the academicians are simply confused and choose the laureates, randomly “poking” at more or less suitable figures. One of the main features of the future - at least in the opinion of Swedish academics - is the huge role of diplomats and international organizations in solving important geopolitical or social issues. On the other hand, in recent years, the prize has rarely been awarded to people who are far from politics and do good deeds. Either there are none left at all, or the scale of such virtues is insufficient for the Nobel Committee, but the absence of “little people” in the list of Nobel laureates suggests that their role in the near future will be negligible.
Economy: response to the crisis
Expert - Ruben Enikolopov, Professor of Pompeu Fabra University and NES.
Unlike physics or biology, economics does not have such a clear division into areas: 90% of 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 the interaction between it and the financial markets. Actually, the catastrophe just happened at the junction of these two areas.
Previously, macroeconomics and finance lived separately from each other, but now it is clear to everyone that the question of where money comes from in the economy and how it is redistributed - through the banking system, stock markets and so on, cannot be ignored.
The Nobel Prizes of 2010, 2011 and this year were obviously a reaction to the crisis, and they are directly related to macroeconomics and finance. I think that in the future, close attention of scientists will be paid 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 on the basis of the decisions of the Nobel Committee, if only because
that the field of action of this institution is world literature, that is, the totality of very different fields, the comparison of which is extremely difficult, and sometimes simply impossible. The Nobel Prize arose at the very end of the 19th century, in absolutely eurocentric the 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 at that time was not at all obvious. If we talk about trends in prose and on a long time scale, then, in all likelihood, two can be distinguished.
The first one is larger- rise and fall post-colonial 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 Shoyinka were awarded, we can already talk about the final rejection of the former Eurocentrism. In today's Russia, it is customary to treat this with condescension - indeed, we are the people of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and you come to 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, according to the list of laureates, is still barely perceptible, is crisis of the traditional novel form. However, the fact that in 2005 the playwright Harold Pinter became the laureate, and in 2013 - Alice Munro (she writes exclusively stories), indicates that this trend did not pass by the Swedish Academy unnoticed. Some delay is explained by the fact that the Nobel Prize is a necessarily conservative institution. I believe that in the long run the number of laureates working outside the novel genre will grow.