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Are the Androids Dreaming Yet?

Pulitzer Medal

dynamite. This was used in the mining industry but also extensively in weaponry, so he came to be known as the Merchant of Death during his lifetime.

To be known as the merchant of death would have a profound effect on anyone. As Nobel pondered the balance of his life’s work he decided to do something positive with the huge wealth he had accumulated. On his death in 1896, he willed his entire fortune to create the awards we now call Nobel Prizes.

There were five original prizes; physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine, and literature. A newer economic science prize is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

You must be alive to receive a Nobel Prize; a few have been awarded posthumously because the laureate died after the winner was announced but before the award ceremony. The work must have been proven experimentally, and although originally it was supposed to be for discoveries in the previous year, nowadays a theory must have stood the test of time. Consequently, winners tend to be quite old. The prize must be for something with practical applicability – Einstein received his Nobel Prize for the Photo Electric Effect, rather than his more famous Theory of Relativity. The judges evidently thought particles more practical than planets! The prize is usually awarded to a maximum of three people. This has produced some controversial results but despite this the Nobel Prize is the uncontested top prize in science.

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