The Nobel Prizes for 2024 are set to be announced this week, starting with the award for medicine or physiology on Monday. These prestigious awards, also given for physics, chemistry, literature, and peace, carry a prize amount of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million). Apart from the financial reward, the recognition often boosts book sales and garners global fame for the laureates.

What is the Nobel Prize?

The Nobel Prize was established by Alfred Nobel, a wealthy Swedish inventor, who specified in his will that his estate should fund awards for those who "have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Nobel, who passed away in 1895, saw the first prizes awarded in 1901 after a legal battle over his will.

Nobel chose different institutions to handle the prize distribution: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the prizes for chemistry and physics, the Swedish Academy oversees the literature prize, the Karolinska Institute is responsible for the medicine or physiology prize, and the Norwegian parliament grants the peace prize. The reason Nobel selected Norway, which was in a union with Sweden at the time, for the peace prize remains unclear.

In 1968, Sweden's central bank established the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, which is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences under the same criteria as the other prizes.

Famous and Controversial Laureates

Notable recipients of the Nobel Prize include scientific figures like Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Marie Curie, along with literary giants Ernest Hemingway and Albert Camus. Inspirational leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Teresa are also among the honored laureates.

However, not all prizes have aged well. Egas Moniz received the 1949 prize in physiology or medicine for lobotomy, a practice that is now banned and discredited. Several peace prizes have been criticized as well, including those awarded to Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres. The omission of Mahatma Gandhi, who passed away in 1948, from receiving the peace prize is also regarded by many as an oversight.

The Nobel Festivities

The Nobel Prizes are presented on December 10, marking the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. While the peace prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway, the other prizes are presented by the Swedish king at Stockholm’s Concert Hall. Later that evening, approximately 1,300 guests attend a grand banquet at Stockholm City Hall.

Planning for the banquet begins months in advance, with chefs proposing three different menu options to the Nobel Foundation. The chosen menu remains a closely guarded secret until the event. The dishes aim to reflect Scandinavian flavors, with last year’s banquet featuring baked beetroot with seaweed cream and sturgeon caviar, cod loin stuffed with king crab, and a dessert of baked chocolate cream with lingonberry compote.

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