Nobel Prizes

The front of a Nobel Prize medal.

The Perks and Pitfalls of Being a Nobel Laureate: Early Mornings, Performance Anxiety

On the plus side, at UC Berkeley you get free parking

Is this cat a liquid or a solid? One researcher is on a hunt for answers.

Liquid Cats, Didgeridoo Research and More From the 2017 Ig Nobel Prizes

A parody of the prestigious Nobel Prizes, the awards celebrate research that makes people laugh, then think

Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullmann reads from the words of Liu Xiaobo when he was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Xiaobo was imprisoned and unable to accept the award.

Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Winner Liu Xiaobo Dies at Age 61

The human rights activist spent his final years in Chinese custody

Bob Dylan has finally delivered his Nobel Prize lecture.

Dylan Finally Delivers on Nobel Prize Lecture

The reclusive singer-songwriter muses on literature and music in characteristic style

John Cohen photographs a young Bob Dylan playing his guitar and harmonica in New York City in 1962.

Bob Dylan Will (Finally) Collect his Nobel Prize for Literature

But the songwriter won't be delivering a Nobel Lecture at this time

Vera Rubin makes observations through the Flagstaff Telescope.

Five Things to Know About Boundary-Breaking Astronomer Vera Rubin

Her observations confirmed the theory of dark matter, and her activism helped open science to more women

Patrons of the sciences once offered cash prizes, exotic pets and even islands for world-changing discoveries. Here, Louis XIV surveys the members of the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1667.

For Your Contributions to Science, I Humbly Bequeath You This Pet Moose

A history of motivating scientific endeavor through cash prizes, islands and exotic pets

The Nobel Prize, named after the repentant creator of dynamite, has been awarded nearly every year since 1901.

What Does It Take to Win a Nobel Prize? Four Winners, in Their Own Words

Some answers: Messiness, ignorance and puzzles

Bob Dylan by John Cohen, 1962

Is Bob Dylan a Poet?

As the enigmatic singer, songwriter and troubadour takes the Nobel Prize in literature, one scholar ponders what his work is all about

John Cohen photographs a young Bob Dylan playing his guitar and harmonica in New York City in 1962.

Five Things to Know About Bob Dylan

When it comes to awards, the times are a' changin'—and now the iconic musician is a Nobel laureate

Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Colombian President Who Got Guerillas to Come to the Table

As Colombia faces an uncertain future, the Nobel Committee recognizes its president who has worked to broker peace

Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa

Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded for Big Advancements in Ultra-Tiny Machines

The winning trio created the building blocks of nanomachines that have the potential to revolutionize many fields of science and industry

Bagels always have just one hole, making them useful for illustrating one of topology's core concepts. Also, they are delicious.

Nobel Physics Prize Goes to Exploration of Exotic Matter, Explained in Bagels

Winners probed superconductors and superfluids, launching the ongoing hunt for strange phases of matter

Yoshinori Osumi, the 2016 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Japanese Scientist Wins Nobel Prize for Discovering How Cells Cannibalize Worn Out Parts

Like stripping old engine parts away

Hello, I am goat.

What Living Like Goats and Badgers Can Teach Us About Ourselves

Two Englishmen won the Ig Nobel Prize for eating grass, earthworms and worse in the name of science

How Deadly Explosives Inspired the Nobel Peace Prize

Alfred Nobel's invention of dynamite was a terrifying addition to mankind's arsenal of destruction. Ironically, it also spawned the Nobel Peace Prize

5 Things to Know About Svetlana Alexievich, Winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature

The Belarusian journalist is best known for her tragic investigations of war and disaster in eastern Europe

How Nature Inspired the Medicine Nobel Prize Winners to Fight Parasites

Their discoveries saved the lives of millions of people around the world

A relative unknown, Werner Forssmann won the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for inventing the cardiac catheter. Some of his equally qualified peers have not been as fortunate.

How Not to Win a Nobel Prize

A search through the Nobel archives shows how the history of the famous prize is filled with near misses and flukes

None

Norwegian Nobel Winners Release Their Inner Avant-Garde Musicians

Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine repurposed a Norse folk tune for a science lecture

Page 4 of 5