One of the most prestigious awards for achievements in the field of culture, practical science, and the development of society is the Nobel Prize. The founder is the Swedish inventor, chemist Alfred Nobel. The scientist-engineer left the world many useful devices. But he became famous thanks to dynamite and a will, according to which people who brought "the maximum benefit to mankind" received awards every year.

Not all areas of science and culture were included in the list of nominations. Nobel clearly indicated in which areas to award awards. Until now, scientists and ordinary people are concerned about the question: why do they not give Nobel Prize mathematicians. There is no opinion confirmed by historians. Therefore, there have been many theories, from anecdotal to probable.

Who gets the Nobel Prize and why?

Alfred Nobel was considered "the creator of death" during his lifetime. Therefore, according to historians, the inventor left a fortune to talented descendants. Not just pioneers in one area or another. And those individuals who have brought practical benefits to humanity.

Let's figure out who is given and who is not given the Nobel Prize.

History of the Nobel Prize

The creator of the Nobel Prize was born into a family of engineers. The sphere of vital interests is engineering, chemistry, inventions. Nobel received a significant share of his capital from his 355 inventions (the famous one is dynamite).

The great inventor lived for 63 years. Died of a cerebral hemorrhage. A year before his death, Alfred Nobel changed his will for the "benefit of mankind." When the will of the deceased was announced, numerous relatives demanded a refutation. But the Norwegian Storting approved the document.

The executors of the will organized the Nobel Foundation to carry out instructions, manage the fortune, and present prizes. The testator's movable and immovable property was converted into liquid assets. The collected capital was placed in a bank. Annually, income from investments is distributed to those persons who in the previous year "benefited humanity."

The rules for awarding the award are governed by the Foundation's Statute. The "significance and usefulness" of inventions is determined by the Nobel Committee.

Nominations

Alfred Nobel indicated in his will that the income from his assets is divided into 5 equal parts. The last will of the great inventor also contains a list of subject areas in which it is necessary to “look for” the most useful achievements. Since then, the prestigious award has been awarded in the following categories:

• discovery or invention in the field physics;
• improvement or useful discovery in the field chemistry;
• physiological or medical opening;
• literary idealistic work;
• promotion of peace unity of nations, the abolition of slavery.

The facilitator emphasized that nationality of applicants is not taken into account. The only condition is that the achievement must benefit humanity.

Mathematics Nobel bypassed in his will. But in some sources there is information that the subject was originally indicated. Later, the inventor crossed out science.

Why mathematicians were discriminated against

Mathematicians themselves believe that one cannot do without their science anywhere. Alfred Nobel forgot to mention the subject. I decided that along with physics and chemistry, it goes without saying.

The townsfolk have a different explanation why the Nobel Prize in mathematics is not awarded. This is an abstract science that is not useful to everyone. What does humanity get from a new way of solving the most complex equation?.. Therefore, the subject was not included in the list of nominations.

In the press, jokes are “favorite” in which the decision of the founder of the Nobel Prize is explained by personal motives. Names of the proposed theories:

• Franco-American version. The Swedish mathematician Mittag-Leffler persistently courted the wife of Alfred Nobel. Moreover, the latter began to reciprocate the scientist, which offended the dignity of the inventor of dynamite. The founder of the award took revenge on his opponent by deleting “pseudo-science” from his will.
• Swedish version. There was a conflict between Nobel and Mittag-Leffler. And the reasons are not related to the betrayal of the testator's wife. The inventor understood that Leffler would get the prize in mathematics. After all, the latter is a leader in its field. Nobel did not allow this.

People also “love” the story about the theatre. A certain admirer allegedly kissed the hand of Nobel's wife Sophie so enthusiastically that he did not notice how he stepped on the unlucky spouse's foot. Later, Alfred found out that the suitor was a professor of mathematics.

Such versions in the scientific world are considered anecdotal. And there is official evidence of this. Alfred Nobel was not married. Mittag-Leffler existed. The Swedish mathematician sought to have a talented woman Sofya Kovalevskaya (in anecdotes - "wife") be admitted to Stockholm University for a professorship. And Nobel, as one of the sponsors, did not allow this.

Later, Leffler persuaded the inventor to leave part of the state to the university. The mathematician was overly persistent, which irritated Nobel. The scientist achieved nothing. It only angered the founder of the award: the latter deleted Stockholm University from his will.

Historians and scientists themselves have more plausible versions why the “Nobel for mathematicians” is not available:

• The founder of the award was engaged in life in chemistry, physics and medicine, was fond of literature. Served for the strengthening of peace. Participated in anti-slavery societies. Therefore, these five areas were included in the list of nominations.
• Nobel established a prize only for experimental sciences for those achievements that have brought real benefits to people.. Theoretical subjects were not included in the will. It is impossible to objectively evaluate their discoveries. Check the result experimentally - too.

Einstein's theory of relativity is of little use to mankind: the discovery is significant only for a certain circle of people. But his own theory of the photoelectric effect made a tangible contribution to the development of the whole society. Therefore, the scientist received a prestigious award for the latter.

How will they console themselves

Mathematicians themselves are not very offended that Nobel bypassed their science. The Nobel Prize is a socially significant award, with huge cash prizes and a magnificent ceremony. It is difficult to call it purely scientific. It is far from always that scientists who have made a tangible contribution to science rise to the podium. Their achievements are more important for society.

Mathematicians are awarded other prestigious prizes. And here the nominees are those who have made a huge contribution to mathematical science.

Fields Medal

The most prestigious award in the field of mathematics. Nominees receive a cash prize and gold medal. Founder - John Fields, President of the VII International Mathematical Congress (1924). Awarded on a permanent basis since 1936 to 2-4 scientists.

Compare with the Nobel Prize.

The Fields Medal is known as the "Nobel Prize for Mathematicians". This emphasizes its prestige and importance in the mathematical world.

Abel Prize

Formally (but not in meaning) closer to the Nobel Prize is the Abel Prize. Awarded since 2003 at the initiative of the Norwegian government. Named after Niels Henrik Abel.

The winner of the Abel award is a scientist who has made a significant contribution to the development of mathematics (without reference to age). The value of the award is comparable to the value of the "Nobel Prize" (more than 1 million US dollars). Awarded annually.

The Nobel Prize is not available to mathematicians. The real reasons are hardly related to the personal motives of its founder. Mathematical discoveries do not have practical significance. And this is one of the important conditions for obtaining a Nobel Prize.

There are many myths associated with the Nobel Prize, which we will try to debunk here. It is generally accepted that Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established this award to clear his conscience, which was heavily stained with mental turmoil about the number of people killed by the same dynamite.

It is believed that Nobel hated mathematics, and therefore the prize in mathematics was never established. He is believed to have supported the cause of peace, which is why the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded every year. And how was it really?

Where does the money for the Nobel Prize come from?

But in fact, Alfred Nobel, born in 1833, became the 4th son of Immanuel Nobel, who by the time Alfred was born was a well-known industrialist, manufacturer of explosives and gunpowder. Much less known is that Alfred Nobel's father was the inventor of such a banal thing as plywood, which brought him some of the income (IKEA appeared later, but wooden building materials have always been popular in Sweden).

In 1837, Immanuel Nobel moved to St. Petersburg, and in 1842 moved his family there. School education Alfred Nobel received together with the famous Russian chemist Nikolai Zinin, after which Alfred Nobel was sent to study in France and then to America. Meanwhile, the Nobel family business was producing weapons and ammunition for the Russian army - the Crimean War was going on. And when Russia lost Crimean War the company went bankrupt. The Nobel family returned to Stockholm, the remnants of production came under the control of the second son, Ludwig. Alfred Nobel started working for his older brother. It was for him that he invented safe methods of working with nitroglycerin, the ever-memorable dynamite, and the first versions of smokeless powder.

In 1888, the French press buried Alfred Nobel in absentia, confusing him with his older brother Ludwig. It is believed that it was then that Alfred thought about how he would be remembered after death, which eventually led to the establishment of the Nobel Prize. Alfred Nobel took over the family businesses, and in 1894 he acquired the Bofors group of companies, which brought him a fair amount of income.

In those days, Bofors was primarily a steel industry. Under the direction of Alfred Nobel, these enterprises quickly became one of the largest manufacturers of artillery in the world. Bofors anti-aircraft guns were used during the Second World War by all participating parties with constant success. Later, the company was sold, but this already happened after the establishment of the Nobel Prize. But what is curious is that Bofors is still one of the key arms manufacturers in the world.

Alfred Nobel died in 1896 in San Remo (Italy) from complications of a sore throat. A year before his death at the Norwegian-Swedish Club in Paris, Nobel wrote a will in which he ordered 94% of his capital to be used as a fund for the establishment of the prize. At that time, this was 31 million Swedish kronor, which corresponds to about 150 million euros at today's price level.

The heirs could not like such a will. Alfred Nobel's executor was Ragnar Solman, the manager of that same Bofors. Capitalism triumphed over family ties - Solman later became chairman of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce. It took Solman 6 years to create the Nobel Foundation. At the same time, the withdrawal of Alfred Nobel's funds from Azerbaijan, where they were invested by his brothers in the oil business, took a fair amount of time.

First Nobel Prize

In 1901, the first prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and literature were awarded in Stockholm. Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen won the first Nobel Prize in Physics, Jacob van't Hoff won the first Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in the field of chemical dynamics, and Emil Adolf von Behring won the first Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of blood sera.

The first Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to René François Armand Prudhomme, and the first scandal in the history of Nobel Prizes is associated with this prize. Many writers believed that the Literature Prize should have gone to Leo Tolstoy, and Prudhomme's candidacy was received extremely negatively. A group of 42 Swedish writers, including Selma Lagerlöf and August Strindberg, issued an open letter protesting the decision of the Nobel Committee. But the decision remained unchanged, and Leo Tolstoy never received the Nobel Prize.

With the Nobel Peace Prize, everything is more confusing. Unlike the other four awards of the "Nobel package", Alfred Nobel gave the right to award it not to the Swedish scientific community, but to the Norwegian parliament, more precisely, to its 5 elected members. Thus, the Nobel Peace Prize has only an indirect relation to Stockholm and Sweden, and since 1901 it has been awarded in Oslo.

The first Nobel Peace Prize winners were Jean Henri Dunant, the ideological inspirer of the creation of the International Red Cross, and Frédéric Passy, ​​founder of the International Peace League.

In 1968, the Swedish Central Bank, in honor of its 300th anniversary, gave the Nobel Committee a significant amount of money to maintain the tradition of awarding prizes. The following year, the Nobel Committee, apparently in gratitude, established the Nobel Prize in Economics. The prize in economics has nothing to do with Alfred Nobel's will, and is officially called the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize of the Swedish State Bank for Economic Sciences. Despite this, it is sometimes erroneously referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics.

So, at present, Nobel Prizes are awarded annually in Stockholm in four areas: physics, chemistry, medicine and physiology, and literature. The Swedish Central Bank Prize is not officially a Nobel Prize, but is awarded in the same place, in Stockholm, and the nominees for it are nominated according to similar rules. All 5 prizes are awarded on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death. The ceremony takes place in the Stockholm Concert Hall, and the subsequent banquet with the participation of royal family and other officials - in one of the halls of the Stockholm City Hall (from year to year the choice of the hall may change, but since 1974 the choice has invariably fallen on the Blue Hall). Until 1930, the banquet was held in the hall of the Stockholm Grand Hotel opposite

Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been awarded for the greatest Scientific research, contribution to the culture and development of society.

The rewarding of those who received this year's most famous and illustrious service to humanity award has begun. That's who was awarded the prize in the last few days.

Medicine and physiology

The prize went to Yoshinori Ohsumi, a molecular biologist from Japan who investigated the mechanism of cell autophagy. Autophagy is the mechanism by which a cell digests its own internal components. In other words, it eats itself. Mammalian cell lysosomes contain enzymes and acid, like the stomach. With the help of this "cellular stomach" digestion occurs. In yeast cells, a similar process occurs in vacuoles.

Self-eating is a natural process, so the cell is freed from unnecessary, and the body as a whole - from cells that have become obsolete.

Autophagy is especially important during the formation of the embryo, when destroyed cells must be removed in time, and new ones must be formed. If something goes wrong, the new organism does not survive.

Cells in which old, poorly functioning parts linger become a source of danger to the body. The old "stuffing" (used proteins and organelles, dead bacteria) can cause inflammatory processes. Disturbances in the normal course of such intracellular harvesting are the cause of tumors and neurodegenerative diseases.

The phenomenon has been known since the middle of the 20th century, but Yoshinori Osumi studied it with the help of experiments conducted on baker's yeast. Thanks to this, the Japanese scientist and his assistants managed to understand which genes and proteins trigger the process of “self-eating”.

Why is this needed?

By understanding the principles of autophagy, in the future we will be able to stimulate cell renewal in living organisms, stop degradation or stimulate the destruction of “bad” cells that grow where they are not supposed to.

Chemistry

Scientists from Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Bernard Feringa and Fraser Stoddart (France, USA and the Netherlands) received an award for nanotechnology - development of molecular machines.

They created the smallest machines in the world, the working parts of which are interconnected molecules. Using this principle, it was possible to design a tiny motor that drives ultraviolet radiation, a microscopic elevator and molecular "muscles".

Physics

The Nobel Prize was shared by David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and John Kosterlitz, whose research focuses on unusual states of matter - topological phases.

In general, phase changes are, for example, a change state of aggregation matter (when liquid becomes gaseous or solid becomes liquid). This year's award-winning researchers are working on phase transformations that have been little studied before, as well as on what properties matter acquires in "strange states."

They work in a field called condensed matter physics and study the behavior complex systems with a strong connection. These include ordinary liquids, and crystals, and amorphous bodies, and quantum liquids - for example, the contents neutron stars and atomic nuclei. The research of this year's laureates relates to the description of the Berezinsky-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BCT) phase transition associated with such phenomena as superconductivity, superfluidity and magnetism.

Topology studies the continuity of object states. Perhaps the most famous object of consideration in this area of ​​\u200b\u200bknowledge is the Möbius strip.

Topological or phase transition is the transformation of matter from one object to another, and it is carried out continuously or with breaks.

According to the will of Alfred Nobel, the prize is given for the most important discoveries or inventions in the field of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, as well as for an outstanding literary work and contribution to the strengthening of the commonwealth of nations. Who will receive the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Nobel Peace Prize will be known in the coming days.

You can follow the news of the award and get acquainted with the details on the official website -

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 how the world works. 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 per « theoretical discovery of a mechanism that provided insight into the origin of the masses 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 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

Laureates-2013. Chemistry Martin Karplus, Ari Warshel and Michael Levitt per “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 with the help of 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 academicians - is the huge role of diplomats and international organizations in solving important geopolitical or social issues. On the other hand, in last years prizes were rarely awarded to people who were far from politics and did 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 originated in late XIX century, 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 is barely perceptible in the list of laureates, 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.

Chemist, engineer and inventor Alfred Nobel made his fortune primarily through the invention of dynamite and other explosives. At one time, Nobel became one of the richest on the planet.

In total, Nobel owned 355 inventions.

At the same time, the fame that the scientist enjoyed cannot be called good. In 1888 his brother Ludwig died. However, by mistake, journalists wrote in the newspapers about Alfred Nobel himself. Thus one day he read his own obituary in the press, entitled "Death Dealer Is Dead." This incident made the inventor think about what kind of memory he will remain in future generations. And Alfred Nobel changed his will.

The new will of Alfred Nobel offended the relatives of the inventor, who ended up with nothing.

A new will was read out to the millionaire, in 1897.

According to this paper, all movable and immovable property of Nobel was to be turned into capital, which, in turn, should be placed in a reliable bank. The income from this capital should be divided annually into five equal parts and handed over in the form of scientists who have made the most significant discoveries in the field of physics, chemistry, medicine; writers who created literary works; and also to those who have made the most significant contribution "to the rallying of nations, the abolition of slavery or the reduction of the size of existing armies and the promotion of peace congresses" (Peace Prize).

First laureates

Traditionally, the first award is given in the field of medicine and physiology. So the very first Nobel laureate in 1901, a bacteriologist from Germany, Emil Adolf von Behring, became involved in the development of a vaccine against diphtheria.

Next, the laureate in physics receives the prize. Wilhelm Roentgen was the first to receive this award for the discovery of the rays named after him.

The first Nobel Prize winner in chemistry was Jacob van't Hoff, who investigated the laws of thermodynamics for various solutions.

The first writer to be awarded this high honor was René Sully-Prudhom.

The Peace Prize is awarded last. In 1901 it was divided between Jean Henri Dunant and Frédéric Passy. Swiss humanist Dunant is the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Frenchman Frederic Passy is the leader of the movement for peace in Europe.