Critics say Nobel Prizes need updating to reflect how science and society work today

Only allowing three recipients causes the Nobel Prize to overlook team discoveries

While science has grown more inclusive and collaborative, the Nobel Prize system still struggles with outdated practices, such as secrecy and a rigid limit on awardees. This restriction sidelines many deserving scientists, especially in complex projects like the human genome or gravitational waves.

The Nobel Prize remains science's top honor despite limits and inequities

Each October, a few scientists gain global fame when told they’ve won a Nobel Prize—a century-old award founded by Alfred Nobel to recognize major achievements. While the prizes boost attention and prestige for winners, they exclude many deserving scientists due to rigid rules.

Nobel Prizes in science have heavily favored male, North American, and European scientists

Most science laureates come from established academic institutions, and limited outreach and nomination rules have biased against researchers from low- and middle-income countries. As of 2024, China ranks among the world’s top scientific contributors, but has only won 10 Nobel Prizes in the sciences.

Gender bias in science’s past still echoes in today’s Nobel Prize tallies

Although women make up half the global population, they’ve won only 49 out of 923 Nobel Prizes from 1901 to 2022. Nobel committee members say historical gender bias has limited female representation, but they plan to promote more diverse nominations.

The Nobel Prizes honor global achievements in science, literature, and peace efforts

Established by Alfred Nobel’s will, the Nobel Prizes have been awarded since 1901 to individuals and organizations making major contributions to humanity. Although often grouped with the five original prizes, the economics award was added later by Sweden’s central bank in 1968 and isn't technically a Nobel Prize.

As of 2025, only five people have won two Nobel Prizes

Marie Curie's awards in physics and chemistry and Linus Pauling's in chemistry and peace are the only pairs in different fields. Awards to Curie's daughter and sons-in-law have made the Curies the most awarded family in history.

Some Nobel laureates have expressed beliefs in pseudoscience after winning

Examples of the phenomenon, known as Nobelitis or Nobel disease, include promoting psychic research, harmful practices like eugenics, and seeing talking raccoons. Increased external pressures after a win and a greater spotlight may contribute to developing or exposing these beliefs.

Learn why modern scientific patterns have been described as theories rather than laws

After confirming that the accuracy of some laws of physics is limited to certain domains, science became more hesitant to categorize identified mathematical relationships, such as quantum mechanics, as unchanging laws. Instead, these recent, complex frameworks are designated as theories to acknowledge that they are conditional and may be part of a larger, more complete future framework.

The Nobel Prize committee was not enthusiastic about selecting John Steinbeck, whom they considered past his prime.

The 2018 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for creating tweezers out of light

At 96, Arthur Ashkin became the oldest person to win a Nobel Prize in Physics for demonstrating how lasers can hold and measure objects, a technique that has since been used to explore microbiological environments. The award was also given to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland for developing a method of creating optical pulses.

The 2011 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for the discovery of dark energy

Through the use of standard candles—objects whose brightness is well-known—astronomers can determine distances by recognizing that the same phenomena will dim in predictable ways with increasing distance. By observing the same type of bright stellar explosion at various locations, Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess identified that the universe's expansion was increasing.

Critics believe Grammy expert panels primarily benefit legacy artists

When the expert review panels for the Big Four awards were disbanded, it was with the hope that the decision would lead to a broader range of nominees and winners. But, in practice, it's not clear that it's playing out that way.

Sometimes, an award isn't given for a category

When the Pulitzers decided not to issue a 2021 award for Editorial Cartooning, it was surprising, but not unheard of. In fact, the same happened in 2012, when the Pulitzer board ignored the jury’s recommendations for the fiction prize.

Before Dawkins, other biologists proposed the power of mutating ideas

Nobel Prize winner Jacques Monod proposed, “Ideas have retained some of the properties of organisms. Like them, they tend to perpetuate their structure and to breed; they too can fuse, recombine, segregate their content; indeed they too can evolve, and in this evolution selection must surely play an important role.”

How a competition honoring a king's birthday uncovered history's first chaotic system

A committee established a contest for King Oscar II's 60th birthday, featuring four unsolved problems in mathematics, including one on proving the stability of a system of more than two objects held together by gravity. Focusing on three celestial objects, Henri Poincaré won the prize for his proof, which he later learned was incorrect and, upon correcting it, instead proved these systems to be unstable.

Meet the the scientists of the Manhattan Project

This resource profiles the scientists behind the Manhattan Project—from Nobel laureates like Fermi and Bethe to controversial figures like Teller and Fuchs—showing how their ideas, rivalries, and choices shaped the development of the atomic age.

According to Bill Nye, science is under threat from an erosion in critical thinking

He states that conducting research online cannot replace consulting with scientific experts who have spent their entire lives intimately studying a field. The former science education show host argues that deepening cynicism towards scientific institutions has been fueled by leaders embracing debunked and unsupported claims.

A former grant recipient and reviewer explains how the NSF decides what research to fund

Every year, approximately 50,000 research proposals are evaluated against two merit review criteria approved by the National Science Board: the quality of the project and its potential societal impact. These evaluations are conducted by experts in the fields related to each proposal, identified by NSF program officers from a list of about 50,000 volunteers.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Critics argue the Dow no longer reflects the modern economy

With only 30 companies and a price-weighted formula, skeptics say the DJIA underrepresents vast sectors of the market. They claim it is outdated, though its close correlation with the broader S&P 500 keeps it relevant.

Watson's book was described as misleading when detailing Franklin's role in DNA

Despite working together to win the Nobel Prize for their discovery of the structure of DNA, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins objected to the publication of James Watson's account of DNA's discovery. Those involved describe how he villainized Rosalind Franklin and downplayed her work.

Using scientific bets, Hawking challenged and highlighted major physics ideas

Hawking famously placed wagers on high-stakes questions in theoretical physics—such as the Higgs boson—for fun and to draw attention to science. When Hawking lost a bet about Cygnus X-1 being a black hole, he paid up with a magazine subscription.

Is conventional wisdom about amyloid plaques wrong?

Neurobiologist Karl Herrup makes the case for reevaluating current research paradigms and embracing a more comprehensive understanding of Alzheimer's disease. He highlights years of failed clinical trials of drugs reducing amyloid plaques in treating Alzheimer's, the establishment of that theory based on a single patient, and more.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

The James Beard Awards consider character as well as cuisine

In 2018, the foundation announced several changes to the nomination and judging process. One of them was the directive to consider nominees’ behavior, which came after several prominent previous winners were accused of sexual harassment.

A quote by scientist Nikola Tesla

"The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result ... His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way."

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.