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The 2008 Nobel Prizes Posted by on Oct 8, 2008 in Culture

As you’ve probably noticed, it’s the 2008 Nobel Prize (Nobelpriset) time right now. Today the prize in chemistry was announced. Yesterday it was physics, and the day before – medicine. Too bad these days each prize has to be split among three people – 10 million kronor per prize is not that much to begin with, and even less if you have to share it with other folks.

I was surprised to hear that many foreigners (and one of those foreigners was a history teacher in a certain English-speaking country, shame on you, lady!) didn’t know that the guy who started it all, Alfred Nobel, was a real person. Yep, the prize is named after a real guy. He’s long dead, of course, but before he died he wrote in his will that he wanted his wealth to be used to establish a prize honoring men and women for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and for work for peace (fysik, kemi, medicin, litteratur och fredsarbete).

Because Mr. Nobel happened to be a rich guy, a very rich guy in fact (why was he so rich? – he was smart, invented dynamite and ran and bunch of successful companies), and because he died without producing an heir (legitimate or otherwise), his nephews decided to challenge the will and grab some of his cash for themselves. Mr. Nobel didn’t exactly help either – in his will he did not specify just how this whole prize business was supposed to be set up, who was going to oversee it, and how the recipients were to be selected. So, as you can imagine, it took quite some time to sort it all out. The guy died in 1896 (he wrote his will in 1895) and the first prizes were awarded in 1901.

Then in 1968, the Swedish Central Bank (Sveriges Riksbank) established and began funding the Nobel Prize in Economics. Officially called in Swedish “Sveriges Riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne.

So, how does this prize business work? You watched “The Beautiful Mind,” you know there is a trip to Stockholm involved and a fancy banquet, right? The king shows up and the whole shindig is shown on TV, right?

That’s correct. Even though the winners are being announced now, on December 10th, which the anniversary of Mr. Nobel’s death, they will all put their fancy party dresses on, look all somber and dignified and shake hands with the king and the queen at the Stockholm Concert Hall, and then munch on some high-class chow during the Nobel Banquet held at the Stockholm City Hall. Nice! Too bad you have to be either super smart or super famous to attend. Sadly, that disqualifies me on both accounts.

Oh yes, what about the Peace Prize, you ask? Well, the Peace Prize is handled and handed out in Oslo. “Wait, a sec,” I hear you say, “isn’t that in Norway?” Yes it is. But back in the olden days of Mr. Nobel, Norway was a part of Sweden.

So, there you have it. Of course, come December 10th, I will give you a detailed report on the Nobel Ceremony telecast.

PS. And here’s a blurb from the Svenska Akademien website about this year’s literature prize:

Nobelpriset i litteratur 2008
Svenska Akademien har beslutat tillkännage namnet på årets Nobelpristagare i litteratur torsdagen den 9 oktober kl. 13.00 i Börssalen.

So, they will tell us tomorrow, Thursday at 1PM who the winner is.

Alfred Nobel image: wikipedia

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Comments:

  1. DAVID SYDNEY:

    G/day Anna Thanks for your Great Blog, The subject of Mr Alfred Bernhard Nobel(1833-1896) is a subject very close to my heart, He is one of the reason that I got intreasted in Sweden, There has been a number of Australians that have won a Noble prize, which is alway big news here, the Pomp and Grand Cermonery make the Nobels some thing special, as that sort of tradition is sadly lacking in or culture, I have worked as a shot firer (blaster) and also help teach explosive coures at evening college (TAFE in oz) for many years, Iam always haveing to defend Alfred Nobel and his peace prize, from people who laugh at how a man who invented Dynamite could run a peace prize, so I ask them what they intend to do with there explosives, funny how a lot of them get very low marks at the end of the course, before Dynamite there was only black powder which was very low power or nitroglycerine, very unstable and deadly, Dynamite created modern mining which lead to cheap steel, easy access to coal, so cheap electricity, straighter roads, long straight rail tunnels, dynamite helped devlop the modern world, and with out mining in Australia we would all be a lot poorer, Ive seen Alfreds picture up in a lot of blasters houses here in Oz, So be kind to the memory Alfred Nobel he was a great man!! and if the Swedes don’t want him, we,ll have him here in Australia, So kind regards to you Anna and best wishes to all our frends world wide who share the Swedish Passion David Sydney

  2. ceci:

    hej! so, we ll wait till tomorrow! thank you for your brief description about it!
    ceci

  3. Arsh Jami:

    Hej Anna!Thank you so much for keeping us up to date on
    Sverige current events, which these days are Noble prize announcements (and I am not talking about the global economic troubles) . By the way, do you know why there is not a Noble prize in Mathematics? Maybe Mr. Noble was not too fond of Math?!
    I have also read that in the cellar of city hall in Stockholm, you can order previous years Noble prize banquet menus. Have you or anyone you know has done that?
    With the advent of winter, the festival activity likely has subsided in Sweden. Which is the next big festival?
    In a future blog, please share with us which is/are your favorite Swedish slott/slottet, and why?
    Thank you again for your time and effort for writing these insightful blogs about the wonderful land of Sverige!

    Sincerely,
    Arsh